Essay #2: IMAGERY
The Wasteland is presumably the most scholarly rich work of T S Eliot; it teems with literary references, symbolism, and imagery, and it has enormously impacted the English poetry of its time as well. Wasteland is the manifestation and interpretation of the disenchantment the writer encountered about the modern world after the World War I. Eliot communicated his sentiments about the debasement of human qualities and disgraceful state of the civilized world in the post-World War I period. Characteristically, the tone and the subject of the Wasteland are filled with desolate and frightful imagery. Eliot has utilized the literary tool of imagery and symbolism to express his idea of the wasteland in a very exquisite and masterly fashion. The following analysis will describe how the imagery of the Wasteland goes a long way in depicting the cardinal themes of the poem.
Elliot’s depiction of the mighty Thames is exactly like the central theme of the poem. Like every other thing, The River Thames also presents a portrayal of the wasteland. Eliot opens the third portion of his masterpiece namely, "The Fire Sermon" by sketch a really horrid picture of London's mighty Thames. Thames has always been a central symbol of the glory of London. In the English literature, the river has attained almost a magical and mythical place. Eliot cites the English artist Edmund Spenser’s wording, "Sweet Thames" which depicts how the former writers have attached magnificence with The Thames. In wasteland, however, Eliot just discovers "vacant containers, sandwich papers, / Silk hankies, cardboard boxes, cigarette closes." Perhaps the most discouraging picture of this lost enchantment comes in Eliot's line where he declares with gloom that the fairies have left the mythical river. This line recommends not just that the Thames has lost its previous magnificence, but also that the river has lost a feeling of fanciful marvelousness that it would never get back. . The deplorable condition of the river has a very strong symbolism in it. The Thames is representing the moral and spiritual state of the society. The dirtying of a once-majestic river is associated with the ethical contamination that has influenced a once-rousing human advancement. The central idea of the wasteland and the sense of waste have been very strongly described in the imagery of the mighty Thames. Eliot takes assistance from the position the Thames hold in English literature and in the eyes of the English people to further his notion of the wasteland. The lamentable state of the once enchanting river speaks a lot about the wasteland and its themes.
Likewise, regardless of the popularity of the modern music, Eliot utilizes it as a case of how crummy Western society has gotten. Pop music symbolizes how mass society has a tendency to take objects of paramount social worth and completely demolish their historic and artistic value. Eliot sternly criticizes the particular notion of art whose prime objective is to acquire attention of the maximum numbers. To him the magnanimity of a piece of art is not dependent on its popularity, in fact, more often than not, the large part of the society don't have the sense to admire the work of a true master. The focus on the derogatory condition of art and, especially, on music depicts once again the core theme of the poem, the sense of derogation and waste. The despicable state of the modern society even manifests itself into something as pure as music. The purpose of Eliot is to describe the emptiness of the civilized man in the modern era. To make his argument, Eliot alludes to a couple of examples in which the great works of art have been stripped of their artistic and original value and transformed into mere hollow objects of popularity and entertainment. In his poem, to make his point, Eliot quotes lines from a prominent melody called "The Shakespearean rag." Elliot, sarcastically, points out that the modern society has taken something that had real artistic worth –Shakespeare-- and transformed it into a tune that inebriated ones like to sing. He quotes another example from the opera of the great composer Wagner, and puts his own particular verses into it to demonstrate how the incredible achievements of the past are pulled down into the mud and foulness of the advanced world, which is characterized for the most part by careless ordinariness. Once again, the modern art and the way this modern society has treated the great works of art and music presents the strong sense of wasteland. Here as well, the central theme of the poem has been very exquisitely expressed by Elliot.
Moreover, Elliot’s depictions of present day individuals going about the drudgery of everyday life, doubtlessly, arises the aroma of wasteland. It is worthy of note, he depicts the people in his poem mostly by drawing from the famous Inferno, the ballad whose core is the portrayal of the internal workings of hellfire and limbo. The repeated references to "the inferno" by Dante Alighieri in the wasteland are very significant with regards to the imagery of the poem. All through the wasteland, Elliot allusion to the inferno manifests the terrible and the despairing sense he is attempting to pass on to his readers. This kind of undead life speaks about the spiritual and moral hollowness of the modern man, who "are presently passing on/ With a little persistence."
All things considered, this masterpiece of Eliot sounds like what it is: an advanced contemplation on present day society and its deplorable state, especially in the background of WWI, composed by a man of letters. The overall structure of the whole poem and the myriads of references to other masterly works without any particular arrangement give the aura of a literary junkyard. Even the way in which the poem has been constructed presents the feel of a wasteland. As the reader goes on, he can get a feeling of the social and moral ground this poem is attempting to cover. By and large, the sound of the diverse dialects has the unmistakable flair of the wasteland, continually helping the reader to remember the hollow and detached nature of present day society.
Work Cited
Chancellor, Paul. "The Music of "The Waste Land"." Comparative Literature Studies (1969): 21-32. Print.
Eliot, T.S. "The Waste Land." 1922. Bartleby Website. Web. 16 Dec 2014.
Kennedy, X. J. and Gioia Dana. An Introduction to Poetry. Longman, 2009. Print.
"The Waste Land Symbolism, Imagery, & Allegory." n.d. shmoop.com. Web. 16 Dec 2014.
