Wasteland by TS Eliot :: essays papers

bumbleland by T.S. EliotThe driving force of all sustenance history is procreation and re-birth. For bitkind,vegetation, the animal kingdom, the survival of the species is thedominant factor and only the fittest survive. For millennia, diametricalraces have believed that the profuseness of the land depended on thesexual intensity level of their regulation or favour of their gods. Pagan, Roman,Greek and other gods have been invented who were believed to controlthe fertility of the land, such as Ceres, the Roman goddess ofagriculture, on which the survival of their populations has beenbelieved to have depended. miscellaneous superstitions and religions havefurther developed and become significant factors in the lives ofbillions of the worlds population. The Waste Land takes these themesand portrays a dead land that lacks the fertility and sexual potency compulsory to sustain and progress life. A land void of what is needed forre-birth. The 4 life-giving elements Earth, Air, Fire, Water. Earth issterile Air is turned to brownness fog Fire burns Water drowns. Thesexual imageries are sleeveless sex is present as a lustfulfunctional turn of purgets but lacking of the necessary fertility. Superstitionsare turned to by the social club in search of the answer in the form ofTarot card game and religion is a constant thread as evidenced by therecurring Biblical references and themes.In The Burial of the Dead we see that he gives us an image ofthe Earth as sterile, instead of being the installation ofvegetation. It is only a repository for the dead. Earth is the1st. of the 4 natural elements. These 4 opening descents echo theApril, root, Lilac/flower, and rain/ exhibitioner imagery ofthe 4 opening lines of The General Prologue of ChaucersCanterbury Tales. These lines are reflecting the image of lifeand death. Rain usually nurtures and strengthens plants and sustainsthem, but here we see that life even with water is slowly dying andwasting away. He lat er goes on to say that the trees will give noshelter and the crickets, no relief. This line comes from Ecclesiastes125-7 Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, andfears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and thegrasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail because man goethto his long home, and the mourners go about the streets. Or ever thesilver heap be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the agglomerate bebroken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.