What does T.S. Eliot want us, the reader, to feel when he writes The Waste Land? Is it the feeling of dread as we trudge through paragraphs of apocalyptic imagery? Does he want his audience to reflect upon the dehumanizing nature of industrial societies? Or perhaps, is it the guilt of realizing that we humans have caused the canals to run dry and the land to die? To Eliot, The Waste Land is his way of forcing the reader to think about the story he writes reflects reality.
This then begs the ultimate question: What do we do after we, as a species, begin to understand our wrongdoings? Thus, after examining how Eliot critiques modernism in different sections throughout his passages, we will focus on the theme of “what comes next,” Eliot’s oasis in the desert.
Before we begin, it is crucial to think about what Eliot sees in his mind’s eye. He takes us on a journey through a wasteland that he believes exists in both our physical and metaphorical reality. And so, we are dropped into the first section, The Burial of the Dead, where Eliot gives us a taste of the decay he wants to depict. April is no longer what we know it to be: the month of life and nature. Instead, our reality contains dead vegetation and dry land. Like Marie, we can only reminisce about what we had. Further, we arrive at the Unreal City, otherwise known as London’s financial district. Having worked in the area, Eliot shows us firsthand what it means to work in the heart of an industrializing society. He writes, “I had not thought death had undone so many.” This refers to Dante’s Inferno’s Limbo level, where souls are neither damned nor liberated. Eliot compares the financial district to this layer of Hell. Workers and employees commute from one building to another aimlessly and drained. He wants us to know that this is what modern societies have come to. The idea of work has become so ingrained into our daily nine-to-five that we don’t even notice when our air has turned brown from the industrial fog.
After we have a brief look at what Eliot thinks the world has materially become, Eliot begins laying the groundwork to outline the superficial nature we have acquired. We read about a woman sitting on a gorgeous throne surrounded by precious jewelry and fancy decor, enough to rival Cleopatra. As she desperately wishes for her lover to remain by her side, she begins to rave, jumping at even the wind that brushes at her house’s walls, begging for her lover to share their thoughts, but to no avail. Eliot compares her to Philomel – a beautiful woman living in privilege, but that is all there is to her character. The woman, like Philomel, is unable to obtain what they truly desire. For the woman, her lover’s devotion. For Philomel, her freedom. Soon, we readers realize that Eliot wants us to understand that modern society’s attachment to beauty and riches means nothing in the end.
Together, us travelers walking through Eliot’s imagination begin to comprehend just how severe Eliot thinks our moral standards are – but there is more up ahead. We enter the Fire Sermon with a desolate description of the River Thames. Nymphs, mythical creatures that signify nature and life, have left. The river is polluted with garbage, and the water is no longer clear. Eliot signifies that life and rebirth have been devastated in the wake of World War One. Common signs of renewal like nymphs and water are no longer what they used to be and are replaced by disgusting rats and lonely fishermen. Eliot then furthers the lack of life and rebirth narrative by bringing us again to the Unreal City. Here, we meet Tiresias, a prophet who tells us the story of a young typist who goes about her day waiting for her lover to arrive. Described as bold and brash, he initiates sexual advances toward the typist, who doesn’t resist, yet doesn’t return the love. After the encounter, we’re shown that she’s just “glad it’s over” and continues her work. The casual nature of sex is something Eliot critiques. He wants to tell us that our values have decayed so much so that sex, the act of bringing another life into this world, is no longer a sacred act. It’s something people now do to pass the time.
Before we reach our last passage, we stop at a transition-like section where Eliot feels the need to drive his point home a final time. We see a handsome Phoenician man named Phlebas. Then, as soon as we register who Phlebas is, we are told he’s dead and drowned, and the passage ends. The shortness of the chapter serves as a physical reminder of the abruptness of death. It can happen anywhere, to anyone, at any time. There is no sugarcoating or heavy references to biblical or cultural works, just a retelling of Phlebas’s death.
Now, we have reached our final destination; it has been quite the odyssey, but perhaps it was meant to be agonizing like Eliot wants us to know his pain before he gives us a glimpse of hope. We continue with imagery of decay and bleakness and are told of cities such as Athens, Jerusalem, and London becoming unreal or commodified as they are cyclically destroyed and rebuilt. However, suddenly, we are given a moment of reprieve as lightning strikes, and a wet gust of air foretells the arrival of rain. For the first time, we are given a moment’s rest from the wasteland. This shock gives us a bit of time to recollect and gather ourselves. And in this time, we can finally ponder our next step forward. Writer Kristin Ruby puts it very well: “Society in The Waste Land and in Eliot’s time may have appeared beyond repair, but there are always glimpses of hope if we look carefully.” Referencing the tiny hints of life embedded into the seemingly pessimistic storytelling, Ruby’s analysis encapsulates humanity’s ability to adapt and persevere.
Hindsight is 20-20, and when we turn around, we can see Eliot nudge at the concept of hope even in the earlier sections. In The Burial of the Dead, the speaker asks Stetson, “That corpse you planted last year in your garden, has it begun to sprout?” Implying that even after death, life will continue to occur. Moreover, in The Fire Sermon, the references to fire are symbolic of Buddha’s teachings. Fire, to Buddhists, didn’t just represent destruction but an element that is used to reforge oneself. Eliot intended for us to understand that we needed to cast some earthly desires into the fire before we could emerge again as a changed species.
In other words, there is no such thing as reincarnation and rebirth. After death, nothing remains but our decaying corpse. But, that is not a reason to despair. We as humans must make do with what we have and shouldn’t simply submit to our circumstances. To do so, Paul Virilio and Sylvère Lotringer (former fighters and survivors of World War 2) outline a unique method of action imagined only by individuals who have experienced what Eliot had. They write, “We must politicize speed, whether it be metabolic speed…or technological speed. We must politicize both because we are both” (43). As long as human society progresses, dromology, the study of speed, becomes increasingly relevant. This is because every society and development that we’ve made is founded upon a relation to speed. “For there to be knowledge, there has to be pro-motion, for knowledge is inquiry” (69). As an example, because monks knew about religion, the Crusades were set into motion, and civilizations were compelled to act. Similarly, the nuke is held in high regard, not because of its power, but how fast it’s able to destroy. Thus, there is a purpose in engaging in speed as a concept because it is so central to not only our everyday life but in every future action we take.
At last, Eliot’s thoughts have come to an end, and we readers are left with just our thoughts. We can conclude that Eliot uses The Waste Land as a medium to illustrate the current state of post-World War One society. We are presented with a world devoid of natural life and morals by using imagery, metaphors, and allusions to old cultural works. But, Eliot doesn’t want us to lose heart. In this decimated landscape, hidden seeds of determination can be found; one just has to look. Eliot’s call to action is answered by Virilio and Lotringer, who give us the means of resistance through an analysis of speed. We almost have a responsibility to understand speed because it’s a notion that seems to structure our existence. If we were to determine both the risks and benefits of speed, humankind could even prevent another world war from happening. So, as we walk through the wasteland, there is no reason why we should wait for death when there exists a different approach to discovering what our society lacks
Bibliography
Ruby, Kristin. “Social Criticism and Personal Responsibility in ‘The Waste Land.’” Medium, Medium, 7 Mar. 2019, https://medium.com/@kristin.hays/social-criticism-and-personal-responsibility-in-the-waste-land-9eba5096d637.
Virilio, Paul, and Lotringer, Sylvère. Pure War. Semiotext(e), 2008.
