subject: RESEARCH PAPER: The Theme of 'The Burial of the Dead' in T.S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land'By Dr. RAKESH RAVI [print this page] RESEARCH PAPER: The Theme of 'The Burial of the Dead' in T.S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land'By Dr. RAKESH RAVI
The Theme of 'The Burial of the Dead' in T.S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land'
IntroductionT.S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land' deals with modern Waste Land created by domination of sin, sex, lust and lack of faith and devotion. It was printed for the first time in 'The Dial' and won the magazine's award for poetry for the year in 1922. The same year it was published in book form and earned a wide popularity. It is true the first response of critics was not good to the poem. It was claimed that it was a series of separate poems. But now, it is regarded as one of the best poetic compositions of the modern age. It is a long philosophic poem divided into five parts(i)'The Burial of the Dead', (ii)'A Game of Chess', (iii)'The Fire Sermon', (iv)'Death by Water' and (v)'What the Thunder Said'. 'The Burial of the Dead' opens the poem and points out the miserable condition of the modern world.
The Great Significance of the Title'The Burial of the Dead' is a highly suggestive title for it refers to the burial of the dead fertility as well as the burial of the Christian church. The sense of rebirth is implied in the both. Certainly, in the Waste Land, citizens lack in spiritual faith. In other words, they are spiritually dead. They act like machines and remain devoid of human feelings. They have no faith in traditional moral values. What was regarded as immoral has become an ideal of morality for them. Traditionally, April is symbol of spring and rebirth while winter stands for decay and death as is expressed in Shelly's immortal lines:
O Wind!
If winter comes, can spring be far behind?
But the modern man welcome winter as a period of enjoyment and dislike April that reminds of their spiritual decay.
A Satire on Modern People: Materialism and SensualityThe poet studies the wide spread evils in the modern Western world. He observes that materialism is the root cause of it. Under its effect, the society is dominated by sensualism, unholy love, fraud and misery. Those people are regarded as the dead who are devoid of spirituality and have no faith in God. The citizens of the Waste Land are materialist and sensualist. They are dead. They do not welcome spiritual regeneration. It is therefore, April becomes the cruellest month for the citizens of the Waste Land. Tiresias is the central character in the poem. He is the poet's spokesman. He entered a coffee house and took interest in a girl sitting with a man. The girl liked winter for it kept them warm. She was German by birth. Her name was Marie. Her faith in materialism disappoints Tiresias.
A Satire on Modern People: SuperstitionIt is a great irony that modern people claim to be highly scientific in their outlook, but try to know their future through superstitious means. When Tireseas moved onward, he met a man who acted as an agent to Madame Sosostris. She was a Clairvoyante, a psychic fortune teller. With a view to make Tiresias her client, he took him to her. She showed a pack of cards bearing different images. She showed a card with the claim that it was Tiresias' fate. It bore the image of the drowned Phoenician sailor. It referred to a Phoenician god named Adonis who was drowned every year in the spring to mark the death of winter and rebirth of hope with the spring. Then, she showed another card bearing the image of a woman who referred to Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks (dances) and the Lady of Situations (difficulties).At last, she showed four cards bearing the images of the man with three slavesthe wheel, the one-eyed merchant and a blank card. This card carried something on his back, but she claimed that she was forbidden to see that. Among all these cards, she did not find the image of the hanged man. It suggested that Tiresias would face his death by water. Hearing some noise outside, she concluded that there was a crowd of people walking round in a ring. She thanked him for visit and requested if he came to see dear Mrs. Equitone, he should tell her to bring the horoscope herself.
A Satire on Modern People: Living in an Unreal CityAccording to T.S. Eliot, London is an unreal city. Moving onward, Tiresias walked under the brown fog of a winter dawn and passed through a crowd flowed over London Bridge. Tiresias had never thought that want of spiritual faith had undone so heavily that so many people were lost in wasting their lives in worldly activities of getting and spending. He marked that all of them sighed when they passed by him. Each of them had fixed his eyes before his feet. They were flowing up the hill and down King William Street to where the clock of Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours with a dead sound on the final stroke of nine. It is made at 3 p.m. with the belief that Christ died at this time.
A Satire on the Representative of the Waste Land: StetsonDown King William Street, near the clock of Saint Mary Woolnoth, Tiresias saw one man whom he knew and stopped him crying his name Stetson. Stetson may be regarded as a representative of the Waste Land. Tiresias reminded him that he was with him in the ships at Mylae. He had buried the corpse of disbelief last year in the garden of his heart. He asked if it had begun to sprout and bloom that year or the sudden frost had disturbed its roots. Tiresias instructed him to keep the dog of humanitarianism far away from that garden or with his nails the dog would dig it up again and spread scepticism. Stetson did not respond and it provoked Tiresias to call him a hypocrite and vain reader, his fellow man and brother.
