The Wasteland Essay Research Paper TS Eliot — страница 3

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come and set him free from his pain. It is also a reminder that death awaits everyone on earth. The depression that is felt in this section is echoed in the depression of society. Death is slowly approaching and society doesn t have a values or purpose to face death with. The fifth section, What the Thunder Said, is taken from the second Brahman passage of the three cardinal virtues. These three virtues are self-restraint, giving and compassion. In this section Eliot places the reader after the death in the fertility myths, waiting for the rebirth. The first few lines are Jerusalem just after the death of Christ and before his resurrection. The emptiness before the rebirth is echoed in the other patterns of the poems symbols. The symbols are waiting for rain, the disciples

walking to Emmaus, and approaching the Grail castle. Eliot then explains his purpose in the structure of the The Waste Land when he wrote, Why then Ile fit you. This line is a fragmented quote from Kyd s Spanish Tragedy. In Kyd s play, it was spoken by Hieronymo; after his son was killed, he feigned madness to the murderer. He said this when they ask him to perform a play for them. When he performs the play, he kills the murderers and then himself. Eliot is saying that he is not mad and the poem is a product of Eliot s experience. The Waste Land ends with the three commands of the thunder: give, sympathize, and control. The state that comes from following these commands Eliot explains as The peace that passeth understanding. Eliot writes that we have not followed any of these

commands that will lead to redemption and fulfillment for our society. This is the approach we should take to find the redemption of society. This approach is just as elusive as approaching the Grail castle in the Arthurian myth. In the myth the castle is never found easily and help is needed to find it. The path to the chapel must be pointed out to those seeking it. Once it is found it first appears empty and deserted. The path given by the thunder is so elusive because we don t take the advice and follow the thunder s path. Society is searching so hard for an answer or solution that it does not follow the path that is pointed out. The Fisher King himself is not introduced until line 51 of The Waste Land; however, in reflecting on the poem s content before and after this point,

it is the Fisher King that is the dominant character in The Waste Land. The wasteland itself is the post-World War I society and identical to the Fisher King. In many myths the king is coupled with the land, here represented as society, and its fate is intertwined with his. According to Eliot s notes, the man with three staves in the tarot deck arbitrarily represents the Fisher King; the only time he is mentioned directly. In this section the Fisher King is coupled with the lost father of Prince Ferdinand in Shakespeare s The Tempest. The lost father figure corresponds to the loss of fertility and health of the Fisher King. In the third section The Fire Sermon we see the same merger of the Fisher King and The Tempest in lines 188 through 192. The two are representative of the

lost morals and emptiness of society after the First World War. In the Thames song (ll. 266-291) we see reference to Wagner s opera the Rhine-daughters. The nymphs mourn because the gold that they guarded was stolen and as a result their river has lost its beauty. The nymphs ask the help of a great hero to retrieve their gold and restore the river. In much the same way the hero must complete the tasks so that the Fisher King can be returned to glory and fertility. Eliot does not include this restoration and healing of society in the waste land. One of the most important parallels of the Fisher King myths in The Waste Land is the story of Christ s death and resurrection. Through Christ s sacrifice the world is returned to spiritual richness. After the world witnessed the

atrocities and horror of war, society needed reassurance that God was still there. This longing for spiritual healing in society was not answered as Eliot shows us in The Waste Land. Eliot uses these heroic and legendary tales to suggest a mythical journey that takes us to the kingdom of the Fisher King. All these stories connect back to the Fisher King s suffering and the resulting decay of the land. These variations and parallels to the Fisher King myth create Eliot s overall message in The Waste Land. Eliot uses these myths and stories to paint a picture of loss of social purpose, direction, and value and the resulting impending death and decay in society. The society after the First World War was grim and desolate. The intelligentsia of Eliot s time had no hope of redemption