Running head: THE WASTE LAND 1

Post-War Europe:

The Waste Land as a Metaphor

Semy Rhee

A Senior Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for graduation
in the Honors Program
Liberty University
Spring 2012
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Acceptance of Senior Honors Thesis

This Senior Honors Thesis is accepted in partial

fulfillment of the requirements for graduation from the
Honors Program of Liberty University.

______________________________
Karen Swallow Prior, Ph.D.
Thesis Chair

______________________________
Thomas Provenzola, Ph.D.
Committee Member

______________________________
Carolyn Towles, M.Ed.
Committee Member

______________________________
Brenda Ayres, Ph.D.
Honors Director

______________________________
Date
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Abstract

This thesis analyzes the mindset of twentieth-century Europe through the perspective of a

modern individual that T. S. Eliot creates in his poem The Waste Land. Although The

Waste Land is the greatest modernist poem, it is often criticized for its esoteric nature. A

thorough examination of the poem is useful in understanding and appreciating Eliot’s

masterful demonstration of the modernist philosophy. This study analyzes the poem in

light of the definition of modernism and the poem’s metaphorical nature. It also aims to

reconcile the two most confusing elements of the poem—its allusive content and

fragmented structure—to the design and purpose of the work as a literary masterpiece

with meaning. Although they may seem disjointed, all elements of the poem rather

coherently communicate what modern society ultimately believes. The observable

results of modernist beliefs are manifested in the modern individual’s view of

relationships.
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Fragmentation and Hopelessness:

Portrayal of Modernity in The Waste Land

Introduction

The modern era was an influential period that shaped the development of western

civilization throughout the twentieth century. A thorough analysis of modern philosophy,

culture, and art reveals the mindset of modernity and how the historical events of the era

influenced life during the early 1900s. T. S. Eliot’s poem, The Waste Land, depicts an

image of the modern world through the perspective of a man finding himself hopeless

and confused about the condition of the society. When the poem was published in 1922,

many readers and critics responded with mixed attitudes. While some regarded Eliot’s

poem as a masterpiece in high modernist poetry, many criticized the obscure and

complicated nature of the poem. However, upon thorough analysis of the poem and its

context, the poem proves itself to be a great modernist poem that demonstrates the

prevalent philosophies of its era. It is through its apparent confusion and chaos that the

poem paints a picture of the disjointed and barren world. Through its fragmented and

allusive nature, The Waste Land illustrates the contemporary waste land as a metaphor of

modern Europe.

Modernism

Overview

The term “modern” is generally understood as an adjective expressing the state of

being contemporary or possessing the qualities of current style. In art and culture,

however, the terms modern and modernism pertain to the beliefs and philosophy of the

society during the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. Because the concept has
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two different accepted meanings, the characteristics that constitute modernism and the

modern world need to be defined to understand The Waste Land as a modernist poem.

Impact on Society

Modernism was a social and artistic movement that influenced the western society

during the years surrounding World War I. According to the overview of the modernist

movement in Encyclopedia Britannica Online, a break from the previous era and a focus

on experimentation characterize the period. Europeans and other western societies found

themselves disillusioned and confused after World War I, when the Victorian values of

industrialization, social progress, and scientific advancement seemed to falter

(“Modernism” n. pag.). The effects of the war had “undermined humankind’s faith in the

foundations of Western society and culture, and postwar modernist literature reflected a

sense of disillusionment and fragmentation” (n. pag.). Thus, rejecting the previously

accepted notions of order and security, the philosophers and writers during the modern

era attempted to formulate a new perspective of and a solution to the disillusionment

caused by World War I. More specifically in art and culture, artists “responded by trying

to find new ways of seeing, new models of knowing . . . abandoning rules of perspective,

and in literature, abandoning a fixed point of view” (Bentley and Brooker 17). The

modern period and the modernist movement had significant and lasting effects on culture,

art, literature, and philosophy of the society.

T. S. Eliot in the Modern Era

Eliot, as a witness of the social turmoil and transformation surrounding the First

World War, was heavily influenced by the modernist movement, and his works became

the greatest expression of the perspective of the modern mind. According to Jewel Spears
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Brooker’s description of Eliot’s style, his poems are “strikingly modern, avant-garde,

[and] fragmented” (“Dialectic” 130). Most of his early poems, such as Four Quartets,

The Hollow Men, and Gerontion, express the despondency and the confusion of the post-

war era. The Waste Land, Eliot’s most renowned poem, depicts this “search for

redemption and renewal in a sterile and spiritually empty landscape” (“Modernism” n.

pag.). Because of its complex structure and obscure allusions, the poem is criticized for

its confusing and esoteric qualities. However, its uniquely disjointed and

incomprehensible content and form make the poem the best depiction of the condition of

the modern society.

Post-War Europe: The Real Waste Land

The most important aspect of the poem that illumines its meaning and

significance in spite of its obscurity and ambiguity is its metaphorical nature. Jean-

Michel Rabate argues that “The Waste Land is fundamentally a poem about Europe”

(221). The connection between the poem and the historical context of the modern era

reveals that the poem metaphorically illustrates the actual condition of modern Europe;

the barren and lifeless waste land is a metaphor of Europe after World War I. Eliot uses

this “dialectic of analogies” (Kenner 433) to metaphorically depict the condition of post-

war European society, demonstrating the “disillusionment of a generation” (421).

Understanding this metaphorical nature of the poem is essential in studying the poem, in

all of its confusing and chaotic elements, within its proper context. Harold Bloom, among

many other critics who share the same opinion about the poem, argues that The Waste

Land can be read as a “testament to the disillusionment of a generation, an exposition on

the manifest despair and spiritual bankruptcy of the years after World War I”—a dead
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land of spiritual famine and drought (Bloom 40). In his interpretation of the poem,

Andrew Ross describes The Waste Land as a metaphor expressing the “cultural infirmity

of Europe after the Great War . . . [as] a sign of [the] post-War times” (134). This

argument for the metaphorical nature of the poem is valid; the text repeatedly refers to

the decay of western civilization after World War I. The speaker observes the “Unreal

City,” London, after the War—“under the brown fog of a winter dawn / A crowd

[flowing] over London Bridge” (lines 60-62). He is disillusioned and confused at the

scene; he “had not thought death had undone so many” (63). This surreal and foggy

image of London—its streets filled with “sighs, short and infrequent,” and “each man

fixed his eyes before his feet” (64-65)—accurately and poignantly demonstrates the

despair and grim reality of modern Europe.

Rather than discussing the condition of modern Europe in factual terms, Eliot uses

the poetic, the allusive, and the obscure to depict an image of the physical desolation of

the war-torn society and also communicate a sense of spiritual disillusionment and

despair. According to Eric Svarny, the dry, barren, lifeless images in the poem and the

undeniable sense of futility form an “evocation of post-war London” (160). Svarny notes

that the image of London in the poem is characterized by “guilt, shock, [and]

incomprehension of traumatized society manifested . . . through historical, cultural,

psychic dislocations” (163). For example, In the first section “The Burial of the Dead,”

the speaker observes and describes London after the Great War as a broken, dry, and

lifeless place full of dead bodies. London, a city once characterized by progress and

abundance, has become nothing more than an “Unreal City” (60); it has lost its cultural

and social vitality and has been reduced to a heap of fragments. Svarny further describes
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this era for European society as a time during which “all idea of progress or development

is reversed after World War I” (163). During the Modern age, including the Victorian era,

people believed in the idea of progress and prosperity. However, they realized that their

optimism and belief in security and peace did not protect them from the horrifying events

of the war. Because they have been disappointed by the futility and impotence of the

worldview and attitudes that their society relied on, people in modern Europe were

disillusioned and confused in shock at the aftermath of the catastrophic war. This sense of

disorientation and disorder is intensified by the obscure and allusive nature of the text.

Studying The Waste Land in light of its specific historical context demonstrates

how the poem reflects the social conditions of the era and the qualities of high modernist

literature. Kristian Smidt’s thematic analysis of the poem’s commentary on modern

Europe thoroughly explains the correlation between the poem and the society

surrounding the poem. As a modernist poem, The Waste Land turns away from the norm

and tradition both in its ideas and style. Just as the modern man has found it “impossible

to hold beliefs of bygone days” (121), Eliot reflects this modernist perspective in his

experimental and unique style, defying ordinary and traditional form, aesthetics, logic,

and thought. This is largely an attempt to find “new order through contemplation and

exhibition of disorder” (121). The disjointedness that initially does not make sense in the

poem is not a result of Eliot’s failed attempt to communicate meaning in an

unconventional manner, but it is a rather an artful yet realistic expression of the modern

age’s attempt to construct a different paradigm and a solution that will explain reality and

restore the sense of security of the past that has been lost after the War. The Waste Land,

furthermore, is not only a reflection on European society but also “a comment on the
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universe” (122). The modern man’s beliefs are not only a description of the post-war

society but also an expression of the modernist worldview and attitude toward reality.

Smidt uses dramatic terms to describe the tone of the poem; the modern man “expresses

disgust with modern civilization and post-war society” (122). The speaker’s listless

attitude in contrast to his eager search for meaning in the waste land communicates a

sense of tiredness, demonstrating that although the modern man wants redemption, he

does not genuinely hope to find satisfaction and relief from the society he lives in. This

attitude explains why the speaker continually alludes to other cultures and texts; the

abundant references to the past and exotic phrases in the poem reflect the modern man’s

resistance to the contemporary and the increasing tendency to look to other societies and

time periods.

In commenting on the condition of Europe, Eliot demonstrates that he is primarily

interested in and concerned with the society around him. Brooker examines The Waste

Land as a metaphorical poem that creates “a portrait of the mind of Europe”

(“Transcendence” 54). Brooker analyzes the poem with a psychological approach in

understanding the modernist mindset. Eliot viewed the overall condition of Europe in

terms of its mental condition; he examined the mindset and ideology of people and

crafted his poem into an introspective work that demonstrates the modernist philosophy.

The crisis of Europe during the modern era was the breakdown of its mindset. Eliot

creates a connection between the mind of the poet and the mind of the society; what he

communicates through the modern individual’s perspective in the poem reflects how he

perceives the condition of European society as a whole. According to Eliot’s depiction in

the poem, the mind of modern Europe can be characterized by distress, agony, and
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restlessness (“Transcendence” 64). Eliot’s view of the relationship between the poet and

the society reveals his consciousness of the state of his country. He believed that the

“poet should never forget the mind of Europe—the mind of his own country—a mind

which he learns in time to be much more important than his own private mind”

(“Transcendence” 64). Various references to Europe and England reflect this deep

contemplation of the condition of Europe. For example, Madame Sosostris, to whom the

speaker refers to in “The Burial of the Dead,” is described as the “wisest woman in

Europe” (45). The poem also mentions various places in England, such as the Thames

River (183-184), Queen Victoria Street (258), and Lower Thames Street (260). The

recurrent references to Europe demonstrate that Eliot is chiefly discussing the condition

of his country and western society. Thus, in The Waste Land, confusion about the chaos

within the society and concern for the nation in such a state coexist and form a story of a

broken society ravaged by war told and lamented by a poet who is deeply concerned for

his country in the midst of his personal confusion and disillusionment.

Although he laments the hopelessness and despair in modern Europe, Eliot does

not leave his commentary on European society as a criticism or lamentation but instead

attempts to provide, or suggest, a solution for the predicament of Europe. He equated the

condition of Europe to “schizophrenia” (“Transcendence” 65). The lack of coherence and

logical pattern characteristic of such mental state is reflected in the image of “crowds of

people, walking round in a ring” (56) in the midst of the “heap of broken images” (22).

This portrayal suggests a sense of not only intellectual absurdity but also circularity; the

mindset of the people lack coherence and a sense of progress. European philosophy and

worldview during the modern era was something that had been developing over several
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centuries. Brooker notes that the incoherence and dichotomy within the mind of Europe

began in the seventeenth century. Swinging from the focus on the intellect in the

Enlightenment era and the emotion in the Romantic era, European philosophy and

mindset eventually resulted in an extreme disillusionment in the modern era. Eliot

recognized a need for a cure for this breakdown to restore the condition of Europe, and

the remedy for this crisis he subtly suggests in the poem is returning to the past. This

remedy explains the function of the seemingly chaotic and absurd aspects of the poem

including the numerous allusions. Eliot believed that the solution for this problem is to

return to the European mindset before the modern era—to return to the greatest and most

developed form of European mind shown in pre-modern philosophy and art

(“Transcendence” 65). According to Eliot, as quoted by Brooker, “what analytic

psychology attempts to do for the individual mind, the study of history . . . does for the

collective mind” (“Transcendence” 66). Thus Eliot offers returning to the past as a cure

to the modern individual’s disillusionment and frustration with the contemporary world

he is living in.

Allusions

One of the prominent elements in The Waste Land that makes the poem difficult

to understand is the historical references and allusions to other literary works. The poem

is laden with references to ancient, classic, and religious texts. Understanding the poem

and its seemingly scattered and confusing references to historical literature as part of

Eliot’s strategy of restoring the mind of Europe reveals meaning and design even in the

poem’s most obscure aspects. Eliot in fact believed that “people should bring special

knowledge to the reading of texts. In order to collaborate with the poet in the making of a
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poem, readers must be willing to close the book and dwell awhile with Ezekiel and

Dante” (Mastery 191). Eliot purposely used the extremely abundant allusions that require

specific literary knowledge and annotations. Their purpose seems obscure, appearing to

be a distraction to a thorough and easy reading and understanding of the poem. However,

these allusions have a significant function in contributing to the theme of the poem. Even

the most confusing allusions that seemingly obscure and distract the communication of

meaning are “giving a shape and a significance to the immense panorama of futility and

anarchy which is contemporary history” (Brooker “Transcendence” 59). According to

Robert S. Lehman’s analysis of the poem, because Eliot “spent his life entranced by the

objects of literary history—he alludes to Dante, Shakespeare, and Lancelot Andrewes”

(67). The abundance of allusions not only demonstrates Eliot’s literary knowledge but

also contributes to the poem’s metaphor by revealing a prevailing philosophy in modern

Europe.

Because of the abundance of allusions and their varying meanings and effects in

the poem, a brief summary of the most prominent allusive parts in the text is essential in

understanding the highly allusive nature of the text. Based on Eliot’s notes on The Waste

Land, many editors produce annotated versions of the poem to explain the seemingly

obscure expressions. Lawrence S. Rainey’s The Annotated Waste Land with Eliot’s

Contemporary Prose thoroughly examines the various allusions and historical references

in the text. Some of the major genres of allusions are ancient, classical, and religious

literature. The opening epigraph, although initially cryptic, is a reference to the Cumaean

Sibyl’s words in a work by an ancient Roman writer Petronius in first century A.D.,

Virgil’s Aeneid, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses (75). The Sibyl’s words, “I want to die,”
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communicates a sense of despair and hopelessness, foreshadowing the tone of the

remainder of the poem. Eliot also alludes to works of classical authors—he cites Dante’s

Inferno and Purgatorio and Milton’s Paradise Lost in his notes. Rainey notes that even in

the dedication of the poem, he alludes to Dante’s tribute to the poet Arnaut Daniel in

Purgatorio (76). Various lines in the poem allude to more recent writers to the modern

era such as Chaucer and Shakespeare. The first line of the poem, “April is the cruelest

month,” is often compared to the description of April in the General Prologue of

Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, “which adopts a more conventional and cheerful

treatment of spring” (76). Eliot’s depiction of the barren and lifeless land in contrast to

Chaucer’s beautiful and fruitful image of spring emphasizes the distorted vision of spring

and the unnatural and unfortunate condition of the barren land. Eliot also quotes Richard

Wagner’s opera Tristan and Isolde. The poem does not only allude to literary works of

the past, but it also refers to religious texts and religious tradition such as the Bible, St.

Augustine’s Confessions, Buddhist literature, and quotes from Anglican Church rituals.

In his notes on the poem, Eliot cites various verses from the Bible—references to

Christianity and its tradition form the biggest part of religious allusions. For example, the

image of the barren land in “The Burial of the Dead” is an allusion to Ecclesiastes 12.

The poem’s description of “the dead tree [giving] no shelter, the cricket no relief” (23)

echoes the description of the “evil days” when “the sun and the light and the moon and

the stars are darkened” and “the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper is a burden, and

desire fails” (Ecclesiastes 12:1, 5). The correlation between the poem and Ecclesiastes

demonstrates and emphasizes the barrenness, meaninglessness, and the dismal vision

characteristic of modernity. In “The Fire Sermon,” contrastingly, the poem quotes

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Buddha’s Fire Sermon. Eliot explains that the Fire Sermon corresponds in importance to

the Sermon on the Mount. The Waste Land combines contrasting religious references that

create a sense of multiplicity, ambivalence, and confusion. Likewise, the diverse and

seemingly random allusions in the poem reflect the skepticism and uncertainty of the

modernist mindset.

Although the allusions in the poem bear intrinsic significance and meaning, they

have purposes that are deeper than demonstrating Eliot’s literary knowledge and poetic

genius. One effect of these allusions on the poem as a whole is the recurrent interruption

in the flow of the reading and understanding of the poem. The references that require

knowledge of a literary work in understanding the purpose of an allusive phrase cause a

disconnection in the continuous and unified study of the poem. These breaks in the flow

of the poem create the fragmented structure and content. These interruptions diminish the

unity of the poem by producing a sense of disjointedness. Because the allusions appear to

be a mixture of unrelated ideas, or “a heap of broken images” (22), the disconnection

among them inevitably results in causing confusion and a sense of chaos. The

construction of The Waste Land, according to Eric Svarny’s study, “makes history seem

an accumulation of debris, a centrifugal and unintelligible process” (195). The poem’s

apparent reduction of history into a fragmented and incoherent mess reflects the

modernist’s disillusionment and despair toward the hopelessness of the past and present

condition of the world. The effect of the allusiveness on the structure of the poem

corresponds to the theme of fragmentation, an important concept that demonstrates the

condition of the society and its mindset during the modern era.

Another more significant and less obvious purpose of the allusions is expressing a
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desire to return to the past. What the allusions really signify is the nostalgia for the

culture and values of the past when life seemed to make sense. Although modernists have

a reputation of rejecting the values of the past and embracing experimentation, Eliot,

“after the collapse of normative concepts such as tradition and nature, reinvented the

notion of tradition in a highly modern and self-reflexive way, distancing it from history

without eliminating history altogether” (Cianci and Harding 17). In her analysis of Eliot’s

philosophy and logic in The Waste Land, Brooker explains how Eliot’s view of the past is

demonstrated in the poem. According to Brooker, “the tendency to move forward by

spiraling back and refiguring the past” is a significant characteristic of modernist

literature, and Eliot’s works most prominently embody this characteristic among other

modernist works (“Transcendence” 54). The poem’s allusions to other literary texts in the

poem are all references to classic or ancient literature. This focus on the literature of the

past signifies the idea of the “retrieval of antiquity” (54) that modernists were obsessed

with. Brooker also notes that in The Waste Land, “the primitive mind and the modern

mind are at once included and transcended in a greater mind - the mind of Europe”

(“Dialectic” 139). The past and the present coexist in the poem and illustrate the mindset

of Europe. To the modernists who were disillusioned with the present reality, “going

forward involves going back . . . [and] securing the future means redeeming the past”

(Brooker “Transcendence” 54). According to William Spanos, Eliot’s focus on the past

demonstrates the “modern poet’s intense consciousness of crisis . . . a consciousness of

the breakdown of notions of historical continuity and the emergence of temporal flux, of

absurd time . . . and thus in his impulse to neutralize the terror of radical historicity by

annihilating or transcending temporality itself” (226). Spanos describes the allusiveness

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of the poem as “efforts of the modern literary imagination to mythologize the experience

of contemporary life” (227). Regardless of whether he is successful or not in searching

for a solution in the values of the past, the modern man creates a dismal image of modern

Europe through subtly yet desperately expressing his desire for a cure for his

disillusionment by continually returning to the past. Knowledge of this modernist

reasoning is essential in understanding the principle, logic, or philosophy that is

underlying The Waste Land—the foundational force that binds the fragmented elements

of the poem and gives them meaning is, as Brooker argues, Eliot’s and thus the

modernist’s unique style and perspective in understanding the world. Although the poem

recurrently alludes to literature, it does not explicitly state the reason or purpose behind

these references. The poem’s continuous yet subtle focus on the past reflects the

modernist viewpoint; people during the modern period had a tendency to look back into

the past to make sense of reality rather than looking forward into the future. Because they

are disillusioned with the condition of their society, modernists do not believe that the

currently existing ideas of their society will restore happiness and security in the future.

Thus the modernist both subconsciously and intentionally holds on to the past as the cure

for the desolation of Europe, attempting to get glimpses of the past times of security and

prosperity.

In light of the modern perspective, The Waste Land uses its various allusions to

remain consistent with the modernist reasoning and thought and thus demonstrate a

realistic concept of the modernist mindset. One aspect of modernist thought that is

evident in the poem is the rejection and disdain of the period preceding the modern era.

Brooker notes that “the celebration of the human by Michelangelo and Shakespeare at the
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dawn of the modern age had ushered in a period of humanism that had led in the

nineteenth century to an easy and ungrounded belief in innate goodness and unending

progress” (“Transcendence” 57). As this observation demonstrates, the modern man

desires the optimism and security of the previous era and thus expresses this desire by

referring to the literature and ideas of the past. Brooker argues that at the turn of the

century, people were “sick of the idea that human beings are intrinsically good and

capable of infinite progress” (58). Confidence in human ability to make progress and find

satisfaction did not make sense to the modernists who were disillusioned about reality.

The rejection of the worldview of the previous era and the embrace of a rather pessimistic

and dark view of mankind corresponds to the modernist emphasis on the past, since the

lamentation of the brokenness of man and the world is a concept of the past that can be

found in the writings of classical authors such as Dante, whom Eliot alludes to

significantly in the poem. In society’s thought and literature, the view of mankind and

reality underwent a transformation. Brooker observes that “Eliot’s early writings . . . are

grounded in a dark view of human nature,” which can be explained in light of his study of

Fyodor Dostoevsky and Joseph Conrad’s works (58). The modern man’s worldview in

The Waste Land reflects Eliot’s vision of humanity—Eliot, like his contemporaries,

disdained the optimistic view of mankind and instead lamented man’s lack of future and

hope.

Fragmentation

The single most prominent aspect of both the form and content of The Waste Land

is fragmentation. The Waste Land does not progress in a linear direction as most other

poems do. There is no evident subject or element that flows throughout and gives unity to
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the poem. The only binding force of the seemingly unrelated and chaotic lines is the very

notion of fragmentation itself; disorder and incoherence flow throughout the entire poem.

This pattern is easily observable in every part of the poem. Not only is the poem

composed of four contrasting sections but it also consists of elements that repeatedly

disturb its flow and unity. An example of this disturbance is the unintelligible phrases or

expressions that are scattered throughout the work. In “The Fire Sermon,” incomplete and

choppy phrases are followed by an obscure expression: “Weialala leia / Wallala leialala”

(277-79). Clare R. Kinney also gives an example of deliberate fragmentation in the poem

demonstrated in the structure of “The Fire Sermon.” The stanza that begins in line 300

says, “On Margate Sands. / I can connect / Nothing with nothing. / The broken fingernails

of dirty hands. / My people humble people who expect / Nothing.” Kinney suggests that

“this can be rewritten as follows: On Margate Sands / I can connect nothing with nothing.

/ The broken fingernails of dirty hands. / My people humble people who expect nothing”

(276). The alternative that Kinney posits demonstrates that instead of writing in a unified

and coherent style, Eliot intentionally creates line breaks to emphasize the speaker’s

disjointed and incoherent state of mind.

The fragmented nature of The Waste land is not merely a stylistic element or an

effect that a reader perceives from the poem but most importantly a principal concept of

modernism. Eliot himself shows that this is a significant concept in the poem; the

speaker’s recurring implying or mentioning the idea proves that fragmentation is an

essential aspect of the picture of modernity that is presented in the poem. In the first part,

“The Burial of the Dead,” the speaker describes the scene that he sees as “a heap of

broken images” (22). Similarly, at the end of the poem, the speaker says, “These
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fragments I have shored against my ruins” (431). Thus, from the beginning to the end of

his reflections, the speaker of the poem is aware of the fragmented images that he sees in

the land. To the modernist, the world is a fragmented place and reality is too disjointed

and confusing to understand; he continually tries to “[grapple] with disjointed elements

[as] a defense method of sustaining things that are being lost or destroyed” in modernity

(40). Thus, the disconnected images and ideas in the poem demonstrate that the modern

world is fragmented and also that the modern desires to escape from the despairing

condition of his society.

Clare R. Kinney presents this notion of deliberate and purposeful disorder in

terms of the progression of plot in The Waste Land. Understanding the role of the

narrative in the poem is important because “difficulties with maintaining ‘connections’

within the narrative process . . . reflects the stylistic, syntactical and semantic dislocation”

(277) that is characteristic of modernist literature and thus modernist philosophy.

According to Kinney’s study of the narrative form within The Waste Land, the poem

“offers the reader fragmentary, half-buried glimpses of a goal-directed plot” (275). While

the lack of coherence in the poem obscures the meaning, The Waste Land simultaneously

“seduces the reader into a search for the linear progression of conventional plot” that it

lacks (273). The fragmentation within the poem is not merely intended to create chaos

and confusion; it emphasizes and intensifies the struggle and agony of the speaker by

communicating a sense of desire for linearity and structure in his perspective. This

intentionality underlying the scattered form of the poem also explains the seemingly

unrelated and fractured images, metaphors, and allusions throughout the poem. The

implicit and subtle yet desperate desire for coherence and progression causes the speaker
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to “constantly [entertain] different methods of ordering and containing its language”

(278), hence using a plethora of varying sentence structures, rhythms, and allusions all

within one poem. Even in the seemingly chaotic and nonsensical composition of the

poem, Eliot had a strategy and purpose in communicating and implying the desperation

and agony of the modern man.

Ultimately, however, despite the speaker’s desire for order and pattern, searching

for meaning in the modernist world, the poem shows, proves to be futile. The

disjointedness in the poem “exhibits not formlessness but a passion for form, largely

unfulfilled” (Kinney 278). Although the speaker attempts to give meaning and structure

to the incoherent and absurd reality of his time, he is still disillusioned and confused

throughout his reflections. His efforts to create coherence and consistency by desperately

grasping on various literary techniques and conventions “repeatedly and paradoxically

[turn out] to represent not so much a narrative progression as a restatement of dearth,

unhappy stasis, or absence” (278). What he is ultimately left with is absurdity and

confusion instead of a logical and orderly plot. As the title of Kinney’s essay,

“Fragmentary Excess, Copious Dearth: The Waste Land as Anti-Narrative,” suggests, the

relationship between the form and content of the poem can be summarized as the

paradoxical coexistence of “dearth and excess” (279). While the poem is characterized by

a sense of lacking—“missing parts, missing links, missing climaxes—[it is also]

characterized by copious augmentation and restatements” (279). Despite the speaker’s

attempt to construct order and meaning with an abundance of fragmented ideas and

phrases—despite the excess—he is nonetheless left with a sense of absence, lacking, or,

according to Kinney’s terms, dearth. The closing lines of the poem demonstrate this
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unfulfilled and futile effort. The relationship between the final lines and the rest of the

poem is analyzed in Mary McGann’s study of the poem; the fragmented yet “brief

moments of illumination lead into the final epiphany, which reflects the method of the

entire poem” (20). At the end of his reflections, the speaker attempts to find a sense of

resolution and order. However, despite this attempt, his thoughts are still fragmented and

his words still obscure and ambiguous. He quotes the nursery rhyme: “London bridge is

falling down falling down falling down,” (426) communicating a sense of decline of a

prominent modern city in Europe. Even after his search for structure, reason, and

meaning, the modern man does not see the rebuilding of the “Unreal City” (60) but sees

its decline and decay. The speaker’s last vision in the poem is that of the fragments of the

city that has fallen down. Thus, as McGann argues, the poem traces the disordered and

chaotic image of the world through the speaker’s fragmented thoughts and ends with a

vision of fragmentation and the realization that the world remains disjointed and chaotic.

The final two lines of the poem also appear obscure and cryptic. The closing line,

“Shantih shantih shantih,” (434) which means “the peace which passeth understanding”

reflects the fact that the speaker does not find security and meaning in the Unreal City but

in another ancient religious text Upanishad. Eliot, in his notes on the poem, remarked that

“What the Thunder Said” contains the theme of “the present decay of eastern Europe”

(“Notes” 52). Because of this decline and decay, the speaker does not find resolution

within the city, or the development of western civilization, but he turns to an ancient

eastern religious text. Instead of quoting the almost identical expression from the Bible in

Philippians 4:7, “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,” Eliot deliberately

includes this line from the Upanishad, a Hindu text. This turning away from the religion
THE WASTE LAND 22

and mindset that gave security to the western world to an ancient eastern religion

emphasizes the futility and failure of Western society in providing security and a

resolution for the modern man’s confusion and doubt. At the end of his search through

the fragments of modern thought and society, the modern man finds his efforts and the

society around him to be ultimately futile and meaningless.

Impenetrability

The idea that the poem is communicating through the fragmentation of the text

and the speaker’s failure to find meaning despite the disjointedness is that truth and

reality are uncertain and ultimately unknowable. The poem uses the themes of

fragmentation and incoherence to purport an epistemological idea—the obscure nature of

the text created by allusiveness and incoherence communicates, according to Eric Svarny,

the notion that the text is ultimately impenetrable. Even with a thorough understanding of

the allusions and themes in the poem, the intentional obscurity and confusion within the

text do not change. The poem seems to “[promise], for a moment, to achieve a unity of

vision, with all of its voices . . . but the moment rapidly expires and the gesture proves

futile” (Habib 241). The prevailing message of this purposeful and artful absurdity is that

the text is impenetrable, just as truth and meaning are obscure and impenetrable in the

modern world. Many scholars have been attempting to give clarity and meaning to the

poem, but identifying a single and definite meaning remains a difficult task. Likewise,

finding meaning and coherence is ultimately futile and unsuccessful at the end of the

poem; the difficulty in interpretation demonstrates the futility of attempting to connect

the fragments and dichotomies into a whole and to make sense out of the despair and

barrenness in the modern world. This focus on impenetrability is a distinctly modern

THE WASTE LAND 23

characteristic that Eliot demonstrates through his poem. Svarny notes that unlike neo-

classical poetry, which is characterized by clarity and explanation, modernist poetry is

characterized by obscurity, ambiguity, and experiment (161). Reflecting the qualities of

its time period, The Waste Land is laden with fragments and obscure literary elements

that “no knowledge of literary antecedents can clarify an effect” and the disjointedness of

the text “[stirs] echoes rather than providing meanings” (163). Furthermore, the

impenetrability of the text and thus truth and meaning results in the realization of the

“chronic ‘impossibility’ of articulating history itself” (Ross 134). The speaker attempts to

make sense of reality and reflects on the images of the post-war society. However, the

impenetrability and the despair of the modern society make his attempt futile and

unfruitful. Ross argues that “despite our time-honored acceptance of The Waste Land

metaphor, it remains to be shown how the insolvency of post-War history is, in fact,

effectively written into Eliot’s poem” (135). The metaphor and the allusions are

explained, but the Great War is still a problem that confuses and disillusions Europe and

shatters the sense of security and meaning that people of the previous era relied on.

Meaninglessness of Relationship

In a modernist society that lacks hope and a sense of significance, many aspects

of life lose their meaning and are reduced to trivial things. One aspect of life during the

modern era that is emphasized in the poem is human relationships. In The Waste Land,

relationships between people in the modern society are reduced to something that is

sterile, lifeless, and dry. The various characters that appear in the poem are unable to

carry a logical and coherent dialogue. As a part of the already fragmented whole, any

attempt for conversations between people reflects the fragmented and incoherent
THE WASTE LAND 24

structure and content of the poem. This impossibility of meaningful communication

corresponds to the dismal and hopeless reality of the modern society and also intensifies

and dramatizes the speaker’s anguish and frustration at the isolation and loneliness in the

modern world. For example, the speaker’s attempt to have a conversation in the second

part, “A Game of Chess,” demonstrates the impossibility of communication and thus

relationship: “Speak to me. Why do you never speak. Speak. / what are you thinking of?

What thinking? What? / I never know what you are thinking. Think” (112-114). The

speaker of these lines is unable to communicate with the person he is speaking to; this

failure in communication reflects the isolation and lack of connection that characterize

relationships within the disillusioned and dismal modern society. The speaker again

questions, “What is that noise now? What is the wind doing? / Nothing again nothing. /

Do / You know nothing? Do you see nothing? Do you / remember / Nothing?” (119-124).

These lines suggest a sense of chaos and obscure the meaning of potentially unequivocal

expressions; the speaker is unable to communicate anything articulate and meaningful.

Through this depiction of relationships and communication, Eliot demonstrates that one

of the social effects of the War is the lack of harmony and community and the ultimate

isolation of the individual resulting from the sense of despair and meaninglessness in the

midst of the desolation of modern Europe.

One aspect of human relationships that is often trivialized in the poem is that of

romantic love and thus the significance and meaning of love and relationships. In “A

Game of Chess,” relationships and love are reduced to something that one seeks for self-

centered pleasure. The discussion of the relationship between Albert and his wife

suggests a sense of a lack of satisfaction and meaning; the characters “live sterile lives
THE WASTE LAND 25

with synthetic comforts and sex that substitutes for love” (McGann 18). Eugenia Gunner

notes that “sexual love in The Waste Land is a failure of spirit and loss of passion in the

world” (24). This idea of sterility and infertility pervades the image of the barren

landscape and the description of human relationships throughout the poem. In her

analysis of the theme of relationships in The Waste Land, Cyrena Pondrom notes that the

poem is “about failure to achieve union—with an Absolute, an Other, the Self, an object

for knowledge, and with culture and tradition—and fragmentation is its ultimate

condition” (427). The idea of fragmentation not only characterizes the form of the poem

but also describes the modern individual’s relationship to all things—to life, truth,

knowledge, society, and others. The failure in communication and the trivialization of

relationships demonstrate the “breakdown of a wide variety of kinds of human

relationships, and a failure of love” (427). This lack of fulfillment and meaning in

relationships and love is one of the greatest tragedies of the modern society. It is a

“profound challenge to a stable order in social experience, an order which human cultures

have sought to achieve through centuries of essential constructions of the self” (439). In a

society in which relationships lack meaning and fulfillment, the modern individual

becomes disillusioned at the lack of security and certainty that results from the failure of

relationships.

Conclusion

The Waste Land, because of its complexity and depth, is a difficult poem to

understand and analyze. The most notable aspects of the poem that have been discussed

in this analysis illumine some, though not all, characteristics of modernity that are

depicted in the poem. According to Eliot’s image of the modern world in The Waste
THE WASTE LAND 26

Land, the modern society is surrounded by obscurity, chaos, disillusionment, and a desire

to return to the ancient times of security and order. In a world void of meaning and

fulfillment, the modern man is in despair at the futility of life and relationships. Because

of its accurate depiction of modernity through the seemingly absurd yet realistic and

intentional design, The Waste Land remains the greatest metaphor for the mindset and

condition of modern Europe.

THE WASTE LAND 27

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