Name: Ahmed Sher

Roll No: 342295/1616

Class: BS English Literature
Semester: 5th
Submit to: Sir Saleem Sahib
Course Title: Modern Poetry
Topic: Characteristics of 20th Century in
”The Waste Land”

Characteristic of 20th century in “The

Waste Land”

Introduction of T. S. Eliot:
Born – 26th September, 1888
Died- 4th January,1965
T. S. Eliot is one of the major poets of the Modern age in English literature. He
has written greatest poems in the twentieth century. His influence has been very
great on English poetry. He uses the different language like effectively to
communicate the predicament of modern world and modern man. The waste
land is considered one of the most important poetic documents of the age. It
expresses poignantly a desperate sense of the poet, and the age’s lack of positive
spiritual thinking.

Introduction:

The Waste Land

In this poem there are five parts of this poem
1. The Burial of the dead
2. A Game of Chess
3. The Fire sermon
4. Death by Water
5. What the Thunder said
The Waste land is one of the modern poems of the English literature. It is
widely regarded as “One of the most important poems of the 20 th century” and a
central text in Modernist poetry. The waste land published in 1992, poem first
appeared in the United Kingdom in the October issue of the “The Criterion” and in
the United States in the November issue of “The Dial”.
T. S. Eliot’s poem follows the legend of the Holy Grail and the Fisher King
combined with vignettes of contemporary British society. Eliot employs many
literary and cultural allusions from the Western canon, Buddhism and the Hindu
Upanishads. The poem shifts between voices of satire and prophecy featuring
abrupt and unannounced changes of speaker, location and time and conjuring of
a vast and dissonant range of cultures and literatures.

Introduction:
The Modern Age
The modern age is very different from the other ages in English
Literature. The modern age is known as “Modernist Movement” in English
Literature. The period of modern age is 1915 to 1945 and this age is totally
different from the Victorian age.
The people of modern age reject old forms and trying to do a new
technique and new style. Even in literature also many of the poet and writer
wants to do different and bring something new in their writing.
The term “Modern” is generally known 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 19th to the early 20th century. Because
the concept has two different accepted meaning.

“The Waste Land as a modernist poem”

“The Modern Age a period of sudden and unexpected breaks with traditional
ways of viewing and interacting with the world. Experimentation and
individualism became virtue, where in the past they were often heartly
discouraged”
The waste land considered as a modern epic of the English literature. The
best example of modernist literature is T. S. Eliot’s “The waste land”. Throughout
this poem Eliot shows us the real image of culture and society after the World
War 1 and 2.
This poem depicts an image of the modern world through the
perspective of a man finding himself hopeless and confused about the condition
of the society.
“The waste land illustrates the contemporary waste land as a metaphor of
modern Europe.”
Eliot’s the waste land is very hard to describe and analysis because this
poem mainly deals with the idea of modern age and its new technique. In this
poem the waste land there are so many features and influence of the modern
age, and we can apply some of the characteristics of the modern age in this poem
the waste land.

Characteristics of the modernist literature:

 • The impact of the two world wars
• O Anxiety and Interrogation
• Art for life’s sake
• O Using disjoined structure to reflects the disfunction of western society
• Breakdown the tradition or breakdown of established values
• O Realism
• Urbanization
• O Psychology and literature
• Bad treatment of love and sex
• O The influence of Radio and Cinema
The modern age is the most complex, complicated and revolutionary age in
the history of the world. The people of this age challenges everything like,

The Modern Age

T. S. Eliot said that modernist literature is….
“…. A way of controlling, of ordering, of giving a shape and
significance to the immense panorama of futility and anarchy
which is contemporary history….instead of narrative method,
we may now use the mythical method. It is, I seriously believe,
a step toward making the modern world possible for art”
Characteristics of the modernist literature in the waste land:
• The waste land made a tremendous impact on the post
war generation, and is considered one of the most
important documents of the modern age.
• O The poem is difficult to understand in detail, but its
general aim is clear. Based on the legend of the Fisher King
in the Arthurian cycle, it presents modern London as an
arid, waste land.
 • poem is built round the symbols of drought and flood,
representing death and rebirth, and this fundamental idea
is referred to throughout. Other symbol in the poem are,
however, not capable of precise explanation.
• O In a series of disconcertingly vivid impression, the poem
progress by rather abrupt transition through five
movements:

The Burial of the Dead

This first section deals mainly with issues of death and
introduces the diverse themes of disillusionment and despair.
In this section the opening lines begins with the protagonist
musing on spring:
“April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering 5
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.”
This passage is an indication of the extent of the
degradation of man. He sunken son low into depravity that he
has prefers to live a life of ignorance and to disregard the fact
that he is living a half life. April, the month in which spring
begins, is no longer a joyous time in which new life is
celebrated, but a cruel time of rebirth that reminds man that
his own life is terribly empty.
The burial of the dead can also possibly refers to the
agricultural practice of planting the dried or dead seed just
before spring, so that the seed may germinate and sprout in
summer. The title also recalls the Christian burial service in the
Church of England’s “The Book of Common Prayer and hence
suggests death”
These starting lines of the poem strike an ironic contrast
between the modern waste land and that in remote and
primitive civilizations. Ancient societies celebrated the return of
spring through the practices of their vegetation cults with their
fertility rites and sympathetic magic. These rituals demonstrate
the unique harmony that then existed between human cultures
and the natural environment.
In the starting lines of the poem we can define that
there is vast difference between ancient societies and modern
waste land. And is not kindest but “the cruellest month”. So in
these lines of the poem poet has reflects the characteristic of
“variety of technical experiment” that Eliot has use differences
of ages and time and also use of new technique to describe
natural environment and also experiment on nature. This lines
often compared to the description of April in the general
prologue of Chaucer’s “The Canter bury Tales” which adopts a more
“conventional and cheerful treatment of spring”.
“And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.
Bin gar keine Russin, stamm’ aus Litauen, echt
Deutsch.
And when we were children, staying at the archduke’s”
In these lines speakers seems to have changed and we, apparently, here the
narration of Countess Marie Larisch about her childhood memories and present
life. This passage of her reminiscences, her wanderings through Europe as a
political refugee from her native resulting from her life as an ex-royal exile.
This section creates a picture of an emotional waste land in the lives of
aristocratic women like Countess Marie who suffered great physical hardships
and psychological dislocations as a result of the political turmoil soon after World
War 1. In these lines poet reflects the characteristic like “Psychology and
literature” that Eliot uses the character Marie and he tells about her state of mind
and psychology.
“What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man, 20
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no
Relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water.”
In this part of the section we can hear again the voice of Tiresias, who
depicts a sort of spiritual waste land. The tone here is Rimini scent of old Biblical
littering their somber prophecies. The speaker describes a true waste land of
“strong rubbish” in it he says, man can recognize only “A heap of broken image”
yet the scene seems to offer salvation shade and a vision of something new and
different. The vision consists only of nothingness. In this episode again memory
serves to contrast the past with the present. In the episode from the past, the
“nothingness” is more clearly a sexual failure, a moment of importance. In these
lines of the poem poet has reflects the characteristic like, “Emptiness and
Nothingness” and “Anxiety and Interrogation” and also “Pessimism” because he
talks more about Spirituality and Religion.
In this poem poet uses the mythical stories to describe modern society.
Eliot picks up on the figure of the Fisher King legend’s waste land as an
appropriate description of the state of modern society. The importance
difference, of course, is that in Eliot’s world there is no way to heal the Fisher King
perhaps there is no Fisher King at all. The legends imperfect integration the lack of
a unifying narrative in the modern world.
In this use of mythical story Eliot present the modern society in which he
reflects the characteristic like “using disjointed structure to reflects the
disfunction of western society”
“Unreal City,
Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
I had not thought death had undone so many.”

In this lines of the poem Eliot describe the London Bridge. The speaker
observes the “Unreal city”, London, after the war. It presented the surreal and
foggy image of London. The final episode of the first section allows Eliot finally to
establish the true wasteland of the poem, the modern city. Eliot’s London
references Baudelaire’s Paris, Dickens’s London and Dante’s Hell. Eliot uses the
poetic an image of the physical desolation of the war-torn society and also
communicates 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 from an “evocation of post war London”.
Svarny notes that the image of London in the poem characterized by “guilt,
shock, and incomprehension of traumatized society manifested… through
historical, cultural, psychic dislocation”.
In these lines of “Unreal city” Eliot shows us the image of London city
after world war and how it impacts to the society of the western culture. In these
lines poet has reflected the characteristic “The Resurgence of poetry” and “The
impact of Two world wars” throughout his poem we can understand the
situation after the world wars to the western countries.

A Game of Chess
This second part of the poem deals mainly with issues of sex and employs
vignettes of several characters alternating narration that address those themes
experientlly.
In this part the two women of this section of the poem represents the
two sides of modern sexuality while one side of this sexuality is a dry, barren
interchange inseparable from neurosis and self destruction, the other side of this
sexuality is a rampant fecundity associated with a lack of culture and rapid aging.
The second scene in this section further diminishes the possibility that sex
can bring regeneration either cultural or personal. The comparison between the
two is not meant to suggest equality between them or to propose that the first
women’s exaggerated sense of high culture is in any women’s form of sexuality is
regenerative.
In this section poet has reflects characteristic like “bad treatment of love
and sex”. In this part poet has used one line repeatedly “HURRY UP PLEASE IT’S
TIME” it shows one of the characteristic of modern age like “The speed of life”
may be poet has uses it to the importance of time throughout this section.

Meaninglessness of relationships:
In a modernist literature society that lacks hope and a sense of
significance; many aspects of life lose their meaning and are reduced to trivial
things. 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.
 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 world. For example, in “A
Game of Chess”, demonstrate the impossibility of communication and thus
relationships:
“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.”
The speaker of these lines is unable to communicate with the person he
is speaking to, thus failure in communication reflects the isolation and lack of
connection that characterize relationships with in disillusioned and dismal
modern society.
“What is that noise?”
The wind under the door.
“What is that noise now? What is the wind doing?”
Nothing again nothing. 120
“Do
You know nothing? Do you see nothing? Do you
Remember
“Nothing?”
This 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 demonstrate 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 midest of the
desolation of modern Europe.
The Fire Sermon
In this third section its deals with sexual issues and offers
a philosophical meditation in relation to the imagery of death
and views of self-denial in juxtaposition influences by Augustine
of Hippo and Eastern religion. In “The Fire Sermon” the
depravity of man is further illustrated. A woman is shown in her
apartment eating dinner with her lover. Their encounter after
dinner is described thusly:
“The time is now propitious, as he guesses,
The meal is ended; she is bored and tired,
Endeavours to engage her in caresses
Which still are unreproved, if undesired.
Flushed and decided, he assaults at once;
Exploring hands encounter no defence;
His vanity requires no response,
And makes a welcome of indifference”.
This attitude of indifference can be seen as even more
depraved than lust and expresses the apathetic attitude of
many after the war.
Fragmentation:
The single most prominent aspect of the from and
content of the waste land is fragmentation. The waste land
does not progress in a linear direction as most other poems do.
In “The Fire Sermon” incomplete and choppy phrases are
followed by an obscure expression:
“Weialala leia
Wallala leialala”
Clare R. Kinney also gives an example of deliberate
fragmentation in the poem demonstrated in the structure of
“The Fire Sermon”.
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 significant concept in the poem,
the speaker’s recurring implying or mentioning is an essential
aspect of the picture of modernity that is presented in the
poem.
Death by Water
This section is deals with issues of death and includes
a brief lyrical petition. This is one of the shortest sections of the
poem. In “Death by Water” the way of escape from the
degradation of society is revealed. The protagonists tells us of
Phlebas the Phoenician, who experienced death by water,
which can be seen as a representation of baptism, the shedding
of the sinful nature, and the acceptance of the “living water” of
Christ. Phleb as is now dead to the world. He has forgotten,
“The cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell and the profit and the
loss”
 He is no longer affected by the sin of modern society
but lives separate from it. The narrator then addresses the
reader:
“Gentile or Jew
O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall
As you.”
With this address, the narrator reminds us that we
are as mortal as Phlebas, and we also require this “living
water”. This passage is a direct contrast to “The Fire Sermon”
quenching the fires of lust with the “living water” that provides
spiritual cleansing.

What the Thunder said

This is the fifth and final part of the poem. It is mainly about
resurrection or restoration, which may or may not be attainable. This part
concludes with an image of judgment. The protagonist concludes by explaining his
own realization that, like “Jerusalem Athens Alexandria” modern society is
deteriorating: “London Bridge is falling down”. At this time he has a decision to
make: “Shall I at least set my lands in order?” will he avoid the decay of society
and abandon his meaningless life for one with significance? His decision is evident
in the stanza of the poem. Amid the madness of the ruin of society.
The protagonist finds, “Shantih Shantih Shantih” – peace that passes
understanding like Phlebas, he has chosen to bid farewell to his dishonest, worldly
self and surrender to the living water that has the power to quench the fire of
corruption.
It is through this passage that Eliot suggests his own discovery and his
decision to experience the peace that passes understanding by surrounding the
corrupt part of himself. The poem composed of seemingly fragmented ideas and
stream of consciousness thoughts, end on a note of peace, a peace that Eliot has
attained and wishes modern man to experience.
In this final part of the poem poet again uses the Bridge of London which
is falling down which shows that the culture of London is also falling down.
Throughout this section poet has uses the Hindu Upanishads which is the voice of
God repeats, the thunder, when it rolls “Da Da Da”, that is “Damyata, Datta and
Dayadhvem”. Therefore these three must be learned, self-control, giving,
compassion.
In this part there are some reflection of the 20th century’s characteristic
they are: “The breakdown of established value”, “The impact of two world
wars” and “The resurgence of poetry” in that Eliot has uses new kind of
technique and method to give his ideas toward modern age.
Eliot’s “The Waste Land” is characterized by fragmentation,
discontinuity, and disjunction- quality descriptive of modern society. In this
entire poem we can see all the characteristics which are given above and describe
as a very difficult and modern epic.

Conclusion
The waste land, because of its complexity and depth, is a difficult poem
to understand and analyses. 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 land, the
modern society is surrounded by obscurity, chaos, disillusionment, and a desire
to return to the ancient times of security and order. The waste land is one of the
best examples to the modern age and it also reflects the characteristic in “The
Waste Land”.