Analysis of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land

As the old Norton Anthology of English Literature stated, The Waste Land appears to be about spiritual dryness, about the inability of individuals and nations to hold on to beliefs that provide meaning for their lives and vitality for growth and creativity. It seems to reflect the ultimate boredom of meaninglessness. This analysis explores the theme of boredom in The Waste Land.

This poem was written during the postWorld War I period and before the preparations for World War II began in earnest. It represents the reactive mode of people who participated in a war that was widely seen as calling for the meaningless sacrifice of millions of men. Men entered the battle with great enthusiasm, only to spend months fighting back and forth over small areas of muddy ground. This is the war of trench warfare, mud, Flanders Field, and the death of idealism.

What, then, were people left with in terms of belief systems? According to Eliot's poem, there is very little that is left to them. The land is dry and desolate, unlikely to give forth much life. It needs to be regenerated.

It is also important to recognize that this poem is not read in its initial form. Eliot started with a much longer work, which was edited by Ezra Pound to its present size. Eliot indicated that Pound's editing was helpful to him at that time, and that he cut whole sections from the poem, including a long section about a shipwreck and section that imitated the R

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ng is that Eliot did note that by the end of the poem he did not care about understanding what he was trying to say. Further, as John Updike (1991) noted, he was primarily an auditory poet anyway, interested in voices and repetitions, rather than visual images and meanings. Still, the text is the major document that we have to work with. William Pritchard (1993) actually recommended that people approach the text without reading all the notes that have been attached to it in books like The Norton Anthology, and even without Eliot's notes. Pritchard indicated that the poem has gathered so many critical accretions that it is lost under the weight of notes and interpretations, almost unapproachable by the average reader. I. The Burial of the Dead In this first section, the narrator sets the tone for the poem, noting that April is the cruelest month because it presents us with the picture of hope and regeneration, but we are unable to respond to it. The narrator deals with memories, instead, rather than with new life. The language in this first section is instructive. We have "dull roots" (4), "A little life with dried tubers" (7), "A heap of broken images" (22), "the dead tree" (23), "the dry stone" (24) and many other images

Category: Literature - A