Throughout The Waste Land we are presented with many different talkers that each reflect on their memories and experiences, which finally makes this poem a signifier of dramatic soliloquy. What differentiates this from other dramatic soliloquies nevertheless is the impression that the talker tend to switch between assorted civilizations and personalities. Alasdair D.F. Macrae references that “ many readers have been impressed with Eliot ‘s versatility in utilizing different poetry signifiers and in changing the tone ”[ three ]( p50 ) This arguably gives the verse form a slightly birds-eye position whilst at the same clip it comes across as instead fragmented. In add-on to this, it seems as though Eliot uses enjambement to portray his thoughts sing modernness. It can be argued as to whether Eliot does this deliberately in order to convey a sense of what it is like to populate in the twentieth century, as he basically believes that this century provided an overall sense of desperation and nonsense.
In looking at the subjects that are expressed within the verse form, the construct of memory and the yesteryear is an of import 1. Throughout the verse form, we are met with many personal memories of Eliot ‘s. However, it can be argued that this is non the chief focal point, for he is basically seeking to continue the thought of cultural memory in that it could be suggested that he feels the diminution of society is due to the fact that people do non to the full understand their cultural history. This thought is reinforced in the really first transition when it is said “ April is the cruellest month, engendering / Lilacs out of the dead land, blending / Memory and desire, stirring / Dull roots with spring rain ” ( 1-4 ) . Here, Eliot is doing the connexion between the thought of a memory being held to a feeling of nostalgia that can non be fulfilled, and the construct of being unable to return to the yesteryear. This would finally propose that memory can merely link us to a yesteryear that is gone everlastingly, and therefore it is powerful plenty to basically do us experience numb.
In respects to the thought of isolation, The Waste Land presents us with a sense of desperation, which is suggested to come from a deep solitariness instead than a signifier of nonsense. Eliot believes that we create our ain solitariness in that we tend to prosecute slightly selfish involvements. Isolation and solitariness are present all around us and Eliot topographic points emphases on modern being in that modern people do non look to gain they are responsible for their ain isolation. When Eliot says “ Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled, / and each adult male fixed his eyes before his pess ” ( 64-65 ) . From this, it can be suggested that the image of gazing at the land is a perfect symbol for how our day-to-day modus operandis dull our attending whereby we become emotionally asleep. For Eliot, this numbness is something that he feels society demands to get the better of in order to acquire out of the waste land. This thought is reinforced in B.C. Southam ‘s Guide to the Selected Poems of T.S. Eliot[ four ]whereby it is suggested that “ Eliot ‘s immediate Waste Land is the universe, as he saw it, after the First World War. The ‘waste ‘ is non, nevertheless, that of war ‘s desolation and bloodshed, but the emotional and religious asepsis of Western adult male, the ‘waste ‘ of our civilisation aˆ¦ the verse form is organized to show an inclusive, comparative vision ; a position of history in which aˆ¦ twentieth-century signifiers of belief and incredulity, of civilization and of life, are kept in a uninterrupted and critical relationship with those of the yesteryear. ” ( p.126 )
Symbolism that seems to happen within The Waste Land includes that of H2O, music and the Fisher King. The construct of the Fisher King is a well of import one in that it can be argued that Eliot used this in order to portray the thought of humanity being slightly connected to the meaningless of being. Further, the Fisher King is basically a symbol of faith. The talker of “ What the Boom Said ” is shown to angle from the Bankss of the Thames toward the terminal of the verse form as the boom sounds Hindi chants into the air, “ Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata / Shantih shantih shantih ” ( 433-434 ) . Eliot ‘s scene arguably echoes the scene in the Bible whereby Christ performs one of his celebrated miracles: the ability to feed his many followings with merely a little sum of fish. Southam indicates that “ Eliot made peculiar usage of her [ Miss Weston ] history of the Fisher King aˆ¦ and whose narrative is one of obvious relevancy to this verse form. ” ( p.127 ) In respects to the construct of H2O, we are presented with a land that is deceasing through deficiency of H2O. Water chiefly becomes of import during the latter of the verse form, whereby Eliot tend to concentrate on the sterility of the land, where there “ is no H2O but merely stone / Rock and no H2O and the flaxen route ” ( 331-332 ) . Here, the H2O arguably becomes a symbol of birthrate that no longer exists within the waste land. Therefore, Eliot suggests, that without birthrate there is finally no hope for anything new to turn.
