Wednesday, May 6, 2020

T.S. Eliots The Wasteland Essay - 3278 Words

T.S. Eliots The Wasteland In T.S. Eliot’s most famous poem The Wasteland, a bleak picture of post-war London civilization is illuminated. The inhabitants of Eliot’s wasteland are living in a morally bankrupt and spiritually lost society. Through fragmented narration, Eliot recalls tales of lost love, misplaced lust, forgone spirituality, fruitless pilgrimages, and the â€Å"living dead†- those who shuffle through life without a care. These tales are the personal attempts of each person to fulfill the desires which plague them, though none ever stop to consider that what they want may not be what they need, nor do they consider why it is they feel they must do these things. Through studies in Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic perspective†¦show more content†¦It is not, however, a reasonable excuse for their actions. As Jean-Paul Sartre states in his essay â€Å"The Humanism of Existentialism,† â€Å"Man is nothing, but what he makes of himself† (36). Under such a view the inhabitants, and humanity in general, are completely responsible for the choices they make and the state of affairs they find themselves in. It is not enough for them to just do whatever they feel like doing. Humanity must go further and we must know that we are making an active choice and will be forced to live with the consequences of such a decision. There is, yet, one more way to look at the actions and decisions of humanity. In The Ethics of Sex, Mark Jordan states, â€Å"[One] require[s] rather a persuasion to change his actions† (55). What this means is that, in order to make a big change to the corrupt way we are living, humanity must see the consequences of our actions. Right now we have not see enough reaction or negative consequences and without that, humans will continue to go for the easiest search and not work toward something we actually need. However, Jordan believes that this change will come by something God does, but this is not the w ay that people will find change. Instead, we must look within ourselves, not at outside forces, such as God, to find a reason to change. Otherwise humanity will continue the mistaken searches and never find the fulfillment needed. One of the most obvious ways that theShow MoreRelated T.S. Eliots The Wasteland Essay1285 Words   |  6 PagesT.S. Eliots The Wasteland Traditionally, authors begin their compositions at the beginning and then proceed to an end, creating a logical flow of information towards a conclusion. T.S. Eliot threw most traditional form out the window as he composed The Waste Land. The voice changes, the structure varies, his allusions are elusive, and the first section of the poem is entitled â€Å"The Burial of The Dead.† This of course does not speak to a beginning, but to the conclusion of what could be oneRead More T.S. Eliots The Wasteland Essay1303 Words   |  6 PagesT.S. Eliots The Wasteland Cooperation is the key to human survival, and over time humans have been known to group together to survive. This strategy has allowed humans to develop massive cities and countries of immense power. Without the natural instinct to cling to one another, humans would not be as advanced as they are today, and may not have even made it out of the caves. Many authors display our natural instinct to cooperate in their works, allowing the characters to become more real toRead MoreMadame Sosostris in T.S. Eliots The Wasteland1428 Words   |  6 PagesMadame Sosostris Lines 43-59 of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land present Madame Sosostris as the Tarot card-reading psychic who bears bad news. While this stanza has been interpreted in a myriad of ways, two important features are commonly regarded as Eliot’s intent. (1) The clairvoyant is considered â€Å"the wisest woman in Europe† because the world is a tattered wasteland where everyone is in search of answers – a fortuneteller provides false security with her seemingly absolute understanding of destinyRead MoreThe Influence of T.S Eliot Through his Poetry Essay743 Words   |  3 PagesT.S. Eliot was a modern poet that was globally renowned for his contributions to poetry and the way that he envisioned society and managed to communicate those opinions through language. He had influenced many post modernists as well as fellow poets because of his indifference in the way that poetry had been set to be. He used language to develop patters in order to show how they can make se nse as a whole once laid out instead of using the diction of the poetry to state ideas. T.S. Eliot had developedRead MoreThe Wasteland, by T.S. Eliot857 Words   |  4 Pages In the twentieth century, T.S. Eliot transformed the traditional poetry form into a more modern style. Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri on September 26, 1888. At the age of 25, Eliot moved to England where he began his career as a poet. Eliot greatly attracted the modernist movement, which was poetry written in the reaction of Victorian poetry. His first poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, was known as one of the most famous pieces of the Modernist movement. In his poetry, Eliot combinesRead MoreT.S. Eliots Writing Style and Use of Symbolism790 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go,† T.S. Eliot is basically trying to say that only people who push their limit can actually see how much they can really accomplish. T.S. Eliot made poetry that showed his negative views on life, people, and world. T.S. Eliot took poetry to another level by the way he writes and uses symbolism. Thomas Stearns was born on September 26, 1888. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri. His father was Henry ware Eliot who was theRead MoreCan we conclude that T.S.Eliots ideas about culture are elitist and leave it at that?1759 Words   |  8 Pages(1948) The Class and The Elite: Notes towards the Definition Of Culture. London: Faber Faber Ltd.) This seems to demonstrate that Eliots ideas about culture are basically elitist, however, although Eliot recognised the division in culture, he did not disregard the masses, indeed he said I ... should like an audience which could neither read nor write.(Eliot T.S. The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism.) This remark could hardly be farther from a desire for a limited and highly literate audienceRead MoreEven Among The Giants Of Literature, Such As Arnold, Wordsworth,1181 Words   |  5 Pagespoem which describes men stranded in a desert watching their only hope begin to fade away. Canto III of â€Å"The Hollow Men† best represents the essence of T.S. Eliot’s writings because it depicts the technique and ideas common throughout his work. Eliot’s primary technique is the use of imagery, which is integral to his work as an artist. All of Eliot’s poems make use of vivid and shocking imagery and intense descriptions. In this portion of the poem, the reader is met with descriptions of deserts, stoneRead MoreT.S. Eliot the Wasteland Essay1371 Words   |  6 Pagesthis year? Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed? Oh keep the Dog far hence, that’s friend to men, Or with his nails hell dig it up again! You! Hypocrite lecteur! – mon semblable, - mon frà ¨re! T.S. Eliot, â€Å"The Burial of the Dead†, The Waste Land, lines 60-76. T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land is a Modernist piece of literature. Combining â€Å"traditional content† and radical style, Eliot has captured the tension between past and present. For him, the past is at once nostalgic, yet responsibleRead MoreNew Historicism: The Wasteland1519 Words   |  7 PagesNew Historicism: T.S. Eliot’s â€Å"The Wasteland† T.S. Eliot’s highly influential 433-line modernist poem is perhaps the most famous and most written-about long poem of the twentieth-century. Eliot’s composition brings forth a reader to understand the work through its historical context and to understand cultural and intellectual history through this piece of literature, which documents the new discipline of the history of ideas. In other words, The Waste Land is subject to New Historicism to further

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.