STATUS OF RELIGION IN THE WASTE LAND BY

T.S ELIOT

GROUP MEMBERS:

ARUSA KASHIF (142)

HINA FATYMA (151)

SUMAIRA MALIK (153)

ANSA NISAR (157)

SUBMITTED TO:

MAM. RABIA FAIZ

SUBMISSION DEADLINE:

14.10.2016

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, UNIVERSITY OF SARGODHA

 Abstract

Literature works as a mirror. It portrays all the flaws of mankind and society and indirectly
provides us solution. Written text is able to portray all the trends of era in which it is written by
someone. T.S Eliot selects genre of poetry to show moral degradation of Europe after First
World War. The poem The Waste Land is a microcosm of deterioration of spirituality and
decay of faith in modern man. Religion means faith in somebody who runs the wheel of
fate(God).T.S Eliot shows distance from religion destroys beauty of relationships, leads to
depression and materialism which never ends.

Keywords: first World War, sexual violation, boredom, thoughtlessness

Introduction
To define the word religion is not easy. Too much attempts have been made. Many people focus to
define the religion but their definition matches their own religion.

In Tom Jones a novel by Henry Fielding, he defined religion in a humorous way as:

By religion I mean Christianity, by Christianity I mean Protestantism , by Protestantism

means the Church Of England as established by law.

But in general a religion can be defined as a faith in worship of a spiritual controlling power, mainly a
personal God or gods.

The Religious Development Of T.S Eliot

In the Preface to For Lancelot Andrews (1928) a T.S Eliots essay he announced his faith to the
world in his famous acclamation in which he announced himself to be classicist(traditionalist) in
literature, royalist(reactionary) in politics, and anglo-catholic in religion. Before arriving at his
anglo - catholic faith, he had passed through the phase of Indian thought and the philosophy of
the English metaphysicians and F.H Bradley. But it was his anglo-catholic faith in which he was
preserved till the end of his life.

Interest of Eliot in Indian thought came mostly through the influence of his teachers at Harvard.
A reading of poetry of Eliot reveal the benefaction and effect of the ideas and wisdom or
sagacity of ancient India. In The Waste Land there are two examples of Hindu influence both
exist at the end of the poem in the section entitled What the Thunder Said At the very end of
this poem we found the triple use of the word Shantih.
Moreover there is the use of DA DA DA words in The Waste Land. These three words stands for
Datta, Dhayadhvam, Damyata respectively means To Give, To Sympathize, To Control. In
other words, in his poem The Waste Land he deals with universal appeal and he expresses his
concern for world peace.

Now a question comes in our minds, after integrated into the Indian thought why did he give up
his search of Indian thought and philosophy? Two answers of this question are possible. One, as
he said in his lecture to the University Of Virgina, he was not ready to give up his American
and European identity for practical and emotional reasons. Second or most importantly, in June
1913 Eliot bought a copy of F.H Bradleys Appearance and Reality and from that time he was
thoroughly absorbed and integrated in the study of Bardleys philosophy.

In last, Eliots intellectual and religious journey took him down through various paths, most
notably and importantly his integration in Indian thought, in the philosophy of F.H Bradley and
finally into Christianity. Eliot was truly a modern man in the quest for meaning, a complex man
who skilled the reality of traditional faith and who demonstrate that faith in words, symbols and
images in his poetry.

The theme of The Waste Land is the disappointment of generation after First World War. War
leads to mechanical life, loss of faith, loss of blood relationships and mental tension. But the
basic idea is that re-birth is possible only through prayer and suffering.

Lack of spirituality

'The Burial Of The Dead' of ''The Waste Land'' by T.S. Eliot refers to the modern man that
modern man is spiritual waste land. Modern man lacks spirituality. In this vary passage there is a
change in the voice as someone is yelling, as somebody is lamenting to see the waste land. Eliot
says that nothing can grow out of this stony waste land. No roots or trees can sprout because of
the barren land. The Stones, dead trees, and sun are symbols of spiritual barrenness that shows
lack of spirituality. Son of man refers to Jesus Christ and all the human beings. That man can
only find the broken images which outlines the loss of spiritual values in the modern world. It
also foresight the theme of nothingness and despair. Eliot also presents another scene of modern
man that modern man have forgot the old civilization and adopt the new one which is of no
value. The old civilization is dead and gone leaving only a heap of broken images. Modern man
is dry and hopeless. The red rock is the only protection for humanity and that is the Christian
Church.
A handful of dust means a man who is afraid of both death and anger of God. Dust symbolizes
mortality of man. Christ regenerates man in past and can also do with the present man. Man
becomes immortal if he follows the rules and regulation of Christianity. When the things die they
are burried in the ground hence land can be viewed as dead. Modern man is always in the fear of
death. Tiresias asks the man Stetson about the corpse, which is planted in his garden, is bloomed
or not. The corpse means the spiritual failure and the dog symbolizes voice of conscience,
rationalism or scientific mentality to awake the spiritually dead mankind but mankind prevents
the dog to bring re-birth, fertility and hope.

Mental disturbance

Modernism leads to mental tension. Majority of people are abnormal. They are facing many
challenges of life like boredom, anxiety and neurosis. He chooses two females to cover whole
society one is aristocratic lady and other is poor but same in fate. Lady Belladoma is waiting for
her lover. Her lover replies in all the questions of Belladoma as nothing. This shows mental
vacuum in relationship. Modern men are victims of boredom and thoughtlessness.

I think we are in rats alley

Where the dead men lost their bones (l-115-116)

This shows that modern man is spending aimless life. They follow their routine lives. We keep
running behind our materialistic goals and forgetting about real purpose of life. We rats in our
holes. The poor lady is Lil. She is physically and spiritually dead. Marriage is designed by
religion to control sexual instincts not to exploit others. People do not know to kill time. The
poor people have no excitement and recreation in life and the only thing left in their lives is sex.
It leads to meaningless and dull routine.

Suffering leads to salvation

Burning Burning Burning Burning line shows says fire of sexuality is burning the whole
Europe. It refers to Buddha's fire sermon where he states that the world is burning in the fire of
lust and hatred. Modern man is after lust and hatred, he is characterized by loneliness. O Lord
Thou...pluckest refers to St. Augustine prayer to God to take him away from the fire of lust.
Eventually St. Augustine was saved by the grace of God. So this passage shows the difference
between the attitude of Buddha and attitude of St. Augustine. Buddha and his followers did not
believe in God they believe that individual moral discipline and self -control helps the men to
overcome the fire of lust. In order to salvation man has to pass through the fire. Passing through
the fire is like fighting against desires and as an outcome of this our soul is purified.

Religion as a visionary power

Who is the third who always walks beside you?

But who is that on the other side of you? (Line 359-365)

Eliot describes two apostles of Christ who no longer recognize him. Both are doubtful about the
resurrection of Christ. One of the follower feels that there is third person walking with them
covering his head with the hood after verifying they reveal that it is the Christ himself who
accompanied them. Eliot says that without religion and Christ people are visionless.

Materialism

Death by water tells us the story of Phlebas, who was a rich merchant. He only cares about
profit and loss of business. It shows man cannot escape death. Phlebas is handsome and rich but
he is not able to turn wheel of fate. He is drowned in water. This part has lesson for modern man
that material love never ends. Money cannot buy salvation for you. The salvation depends on
your efforts to purify the soul. You should be spiritually awake before death approaches you.
Ignorance leads you nowhere.

Spiritual salvation

These are the three panaceas for the spiritual salvation of mankind ''give'', ''sympathize'', and
''control''. There is a time of spiritual crisis in every civilization. T.S Eliot gives reference of river
Ganges of India. The river had a low water level which shows spiritual death of people. The land
was dry and plants were dying. Men,, gods and demons prayed to creator and He replied in the
form of divine thunder. Thunder said thrice Da, Da and Da. Men interpret Da as Datta means
'giving' oneself completely for some good cause. It means surrender to the will of god and
reform his body and mind. Great men sacrifice their lives and struggle to attain will of god.
What modern man gave to the world? Modern man has given one thing to the world and that is
the sexual thing. Only one angle is left in our instinct to fulfill in which man is using his full
energies. Actually man has to give only one thing to the world that is exalt in the name of sex.

Demons interpret Da as Dayadham means to 'sympathize' modern man lacks the emotion of
sympathy. There is no solace, no pity in the modern man and no emotional bond between the
individuals. Man only think of himself, he's so self-centered. Modern man has lost everything
he's under the clutches of selfishness. Today man is highly selfish and egoistic. For the
betterment of world men should have the spirit of brotherhood and fellow-feeling between one
another.

Gods interpret Da as Damyata means 'to control'. There should be some guiding force for men.
The voice of conscience to control the feelings and actions of the individual. A modern man
needs an expert controlling hand in life to take right path to become happy.

Remedies for salvation

He wishes to find out remedy for the reform of spiritually dead mankind. He suggests three
remedies

1:Please remember my pains. (line 427).It has reference to Dantes line in the Purgatory. It
means that re-generation and self -purification is possible only through suffering.

2: When I shall like the swallow that I may be seized to be voiceless.(line 428).It has
reference to the story of Philomela and her sister Procane. Swallow is transformed kind of
Procane. It means spiritual rebirth comes through suffering.

3: The Prince of Aquitaine, of the ruined tower. (429)A line which is taken from Italian
poem. It means complete detachment from world is essential for spiritual re-birth.

The last line of poem Shantih Shantih Shantih... Peace,Peace, and Peace. Eliot ends this
section with pessimistic approach he hopes for peace that peace will come into this world.

Universal appeal in wasteland regarding religion

In wasteland T.S Eliot have chosen many references from different religions. He puts references
from Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism and Islam. He wants to evoke emotions of all humanity
regarding religion and spiritual barrenness. This is the universal appeal of the poem The Waste
Land. A man can bring peace to his world by his self-correction. All religions are worthy of
respect.

T.S Eliot is not talking about the peace and hollowness of the west and east. He wants to cure the
whole world from this hollowness thats why he uses different chunks or tints from different
religions.

He wanted to cure not the particular ones but the whole world his appeal is universal or for all
not particular. He is a modern man and feels a need of religion in practical life. He is a man of
tradition. He values the importance of religion and considers it a panacea for modernity.

As he recollected different chunks from different ages ancient times, summer winter childhood in
this way he also have recollected different religions in order to make them as a whole and want
to tell that if we choose different teachings from different religions and recollect them then they
are very much useful to cure humanity from these diseases of modernity.

Conclusion

T.S Eliot has given the scenario of spiritual chaos of European society after the First World War.
He shows the relationship between past and present through the decay of civilization. Death of a
seed gives rise to a new plant similarly old civilization decay leads to new standard values. Death
does not mean end but beginning of new life. The deterioration of present civilization is part of
past historical and universal dilemma and it leads to survival of new form. He uses past examples
of Europe and India and says present can be saved by the same method and the method is re-birth
through suffering.
References:

Magedanz, S. (2006). Allusions as Form: The Waste Land and Moulin Rouge! CSUSB Scholar
Works, Library Faculty Publications. P. 14.

Cuddon, J.A. (2000). A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. Allusion. (pp. 27).
Penguin Books

Sen, S. (2nd Ed.). (2014). The Waste Land and Other Poems. Lahore: Famous Publishers.