The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot: A Modernist Poem of Desolation and the Quest for New Life, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot: A Modernist Poem of Desolation and the Quest for New Life e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! T.S.ELIOT AND THE WASTE LAND He was born in St Louis, Missouri, but is not considered an American writer because his background is english. He considered himself a british poet. He is a symbolist poet, this means he makes large use of symbols that are very difficult to catch. Each symbol alone does not have a real meaning but all together they form a message. It’s a typical process carried out also by Dante; we have a series of symbols that put together they create a message, an allegory. T.S Eliot was familiar with Dante because he was a literary critic, so he knew different literature. He uses his knowledge of all the literature he was familiar with in order to create a synthesis for his masterpiece, the Waste Land. In Europe he came into contact with the new ideas in particular Berson, Froyd and the french symbolist Boudleair. World War One shocked him deeply and he realized that after the war the western society was desolate and destroyed. So he started to describe this fall of values. Society was falling because they had no new values. As a modernist poet he was convinced that the old values were unfit for that society but there were no new one to replace them. In the Waste Land he researches a new culture. His task is to find,create something new. His idea is that we can not forget the tradition but we should mix it to something new in order to have a new culture. The Waste Land is a quest, a research; the quest was a traditional literary layout for the medieval story. The most important quest in the medieval story was the Holy Grail; so in the Waste Land the Holy Grail is the symbol for the new culture, we need to find it to find the new culture. The Waste Land is a metaphor to describe the spiritual condition of contemporary man whose life looks like a waste land: empty, arid, sterile, meaningless, alienating. After World War I Eliot realized that the Western culture was in crisis, it had lost traditional values, now unfit for the changed society, and at the same time they had no new ones to replace it. In the essay “Tradition and the Individual Talent” Eliot pointed out the great importance of tradition in order to create something new, so you cannot forget the past. The present and the past exist simultaneously. The poem is full of quotations from a lot of different work and literature, this is the foundation of our culture. The Waste Land does not propose a new style, it’s simply a mixture of different one. T.S. Eliot non dice io sono il nuovo ma usa gli stili diversi e vecchi che sono gli stili che sono alla base della letteratura tradizione occidentale, fa rivivere quelle vecchie, le usa perché non ci sono quelle nuove. The Waste Land is a desolate land; - physical desolate because the War as destroyed the land (Europe) - socially desolate because people do not communicate anymore, absence of love - spiritually desolate because people have lost all their spiritual values, is a materialistic culture 3 levels of desolation in a World of sterility It is a modernism poem because it’s influenced by all the most important theories of the time. - There are a lot of Boudlaire, indeed we find a lot of his quotations in the poem. Boudlaire is the forerunner of symbolism, a literary movement in which we have a series of images, symbols apparently disconnected that represent something beyond literal meaning and that the reader has to understand. The Waste Land is full of symbols, each symbol is very difficult to understand but if the reader puts together all of them he will obtain the global vision of the problem. - Another aspect that made it a modern poem is fragmentation, a typical feature of modernism works. It’s a fragmented work because of the mixture of different poetic styles. Eliot uses symbols, quotations, allusions to myths, legends, religions. it’s also made of a series of episodes, images, symbols apparently disconnected. All fragmented parts of the poem are connected by the main theme of the contrast between the fertility of the past and the sterility of the modern world. The fragmentation reflects the instability of modern society, whose traditional order was broken by the war - Bergson idea of time. Eliot does not make references to chronological time but he uses the emotional time, so the time changes every time. The effect is that the present and past have no importance, they coexist, they are present at the same time. We don’t have a timeline, we jump from ancient Rome to world war one. - The idea of psychoanalysis is presented by the idea of the objective correlative that is a particular literary device, a process through which we associate an emotion to an everyday image. The object is a common one and creates an emotion. The objective correlative makes reference to our unconscious part. The reaction is very often an unconscious reaction coming from our irrational part of mind, our unconscious fears and desires. So the reader has an active role, the poet stimulates an emotional reaction in him. The poet does not say everything clearly and directly, he suggests, alludes and the reader connects and catches the emotions. There are references to the myth (use of myth is a modernist idea) because in western society as lost it. has the role of il mito si svuota e se lo tolgo alla sua società ne tolgo le radici quindi c’è una crisis of values. T.S.Eliot says that there is a materialistic society, science has passed the myth. Waste Land is the symbol of chaos, the chaotic situation of modern western society which has been depride on myth, the myth is empty so there is no idea of order, so we need to create new myths. - anthropology is an important influence in the poem because what cannot be found in our society can be found in others, we can find the answers there. Anthropology shows that the other cultures have an importance and dignity. The final part of the poem refers to te eastern culture, to the Hindu culture. Upanishad sono i testi sacri indu da cui prende ispirazione, prende anche ispirazioni da altri miti religiosi orientali come “gli dei, gli uomini, i demoni” al cui di sopra c’è il creatore. There is the creator, the voice of thunder, that is the creator of gods, humans and devils. Indeed, according to the testi sacri, he will say a word for the god, the human and the devils, The cycle of life is interrupted due to this lack of communication, love, spirituality. Everything has been lost, especially in the trenches, how could a good god permit this? loss of spirituality. Crisis of values breaks the cycle that is based on these values. LAST STANZA [v.8] “Unreal city” is a quotation that Eliot takes from a poem of Baudelaire about a city without real life. This city is unreal because it represents the emptiness of our culture and of people that don’t live but just survive. They live all together but as single individuals, so it’s not a real city. They are dead inside, they do not communicate or believe anymore.People are empty, they are like machines who live without a real meaning. [v.9] The emptiness of the city is hidden by the fog. It’s a brown dirty fog, the industrial fog of a winter day. [v.10-11] Now we are in London, and people are walking on the london bridge. Eliot takes a quotation of Dante. Like Dante was amazed by the quantity of people that died in history and were in hell, Eliot in the same way is amazed by the quantity of people who are alive in London but dead inside. While the people in hell are physically dead, in London these people are alive physically but not spiritually, they do not communicate, so they are dead inside. The poet wonders how many dead people there are. [v.12] Eliot uses another quotation of Dante. There is a parallel between the dead people in hell, that exhale and suffer because they can’t see God, so they aspire to something that they will never have, and the people in London, who are suffering because they can not have what they desire, their new lives. They would like to have a new spiritual life but they can not so they suffer. [v.13]This is a clear image of the lack of communication, people do not look at others eyes, they look at their feet, so this means they didn't communicate. [v.14-16] They are in a crowd but still, they are alone. They walk up the hill and down King William Street. At the end of King William Street, there is the Church Saint Mary Woolnoth. Here the clock bells at nine o’clock. Usually the bells of churches call people to the service but in this case the bells are not calling people to the religious service but to work. This is the symbol of the lack of spirituality [v.17-18] First moment in which past and present mix. The poet is walking and he meets a person who knows. Quotation of Dante: la vidi uno che conoscevo. Dante usually meets people he knew in hell. Here the poet is travelling among the dead people and he recognises a person. This person, like the Divine Comedy, is a death person, but in this case he is dead inside. He reminds the poet that they were fighting together at the battle of Mylae. This is a clear example of how Eliot mixes past and present, so the person he meets was with him in a battle fought a thousand years before. This is very similar to what Dante does in the Divine Comedy, indeed he recognises the soul of a person who died long before but with this expression Eliot points out that people have always fought, war is a constant in human history. It’s a parallel between the first conflict, the Great War and the wars of the past. This creates the link between a war of the past and a war of the present. Berson idea del tempo relativo, le due guerre si sovrappongono (guerra mondiale appena passata e guerra punica). Non ha importanza per Eliot ne per Bergson. It’s important that people don’t stop fighting [v.19-20] Returns the theme of regeneration and fertility of the land, the cycle of death and rebirth. The poet asks him if the body he has planted in the garden will bloom this year. This is a prediction about a possible rebirth of nature. You put the death body into the earth and new life comes out. The poet is not sure it will happen so he asks; what do you think? You planted the corps, will it be useful? [v.21] The frost is the symbol for spiritual death, so this frost has ruined the plates that have to grow, also this dead body has been spoiled by it. So he will not bloom [v.22-23] Quotation from an Elizabethan playwright, “the white devil”. This is a quotation from western culture, in this play the son of the protagonist has been killed in a fight but could not have a proper tumb, grave, cristian funeral. This is the connection between the body in the garden that if the dog digs the body out, that body will not be able to give new life to nature. Even though the dog is a friend to man his actions will prevent new life. Even if the dog is good and he’s a friend he can create damage. Il cane non lo fa apposta, ma scavando fuori il cadavere dal giardino gli impedisce la sua funzione di rinascita e quindi anche il genere umano si trova in questa situazione. Anche senza volerlo possiamo bloccare questo ciclo, l’uomo non si trova volutamente in questa situazione, ci si trova pensando di fare una cosa buona. L’uomo non realizza quello che sta facendo, non realizza che si trova in questa situazione di distruzione dei valori tradizionali. Parallel between the non-christian funeral and the dog taking the body out. The idea in the Waste Land is that if the dog takes out the body, the body will be unable to promote the rebirth of nature so the right will be spoiled. This is also the symbol of our decline, of our moral and cultural decline, we do not come to life because we have lost all the values, the dog is the best friend so we have lost our best part. [v.24] Eliot uses another quotation of Baudelaire. For Baudelaire this means that only the reader is into this sin but for Eliot both the reader and writer are both in this situation of death. They are both dead, both locked in this circle, they can not break this circle and they can not have new life. We are all in the same situation. He says “hypocrite” because the poet knows the situation while the reader pretends not to know it. The reader pretends that everything is okay and perfect, that everything is in order. The poet does not justify the reader's ignorance. SECTION FIVE - WHAT THE THUNDER SAYS Final section of the poem, the section where we should find a possible solution. The title is revealing because it’s a quotation from the Upanishad, the Holy Hindu books where the lord of creation uses the thunder as a voice, so he speaks through the thunder. This lord of creation is not to be identify with the cristian idea of god but is even aboves gods; according to the Hindu culture the lord of creation created everything: the god, the devil and men. He speaks for all creatures, for gods, devils and mens. He gives all the creatures the solutions, the way to reach interior peace and balance, this is typical of Hindu cultures. They want to reach full harmony with the universe, and it is a spiritual but also physical harmony. That’s why we have the sanskrit word for peace beyond comprehension, it’s not a physical peace but a harmony with the universe. This is what people are expected to reach and the thunder, so the creator tells them how to reach this balance, harmony. The main focus of the stanzas is water, is the key element in this section, differently from section 4 in which water gives death, here water saves, it's water that gives life. At the beginning of the section the absence of water is the problem, there’s no water, so we have a lot of images of dryness, desert, sterility. The absence of water is dominant in this part of the section. There are different settings in the section, we have a certain number of short stanzas and each stanza deals with a different situation, like a series of paintings in which we have an image, a reference, a foundation, some symbols and different settings. FIRST STANZA: nine lines. [v.1-2] The setting is biblical, we have a clear reference to the Passion of Christ Eliot represents the scene in the garden of Gethsemane where Jesus is arrested at night by a crowd holding sweaty torches. so we have this idea of flame, the color is red because it is the color of the flames. Sweaty because the torches are held near their face and they are hot. In opposition to the flames there is the frosty silence of the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus is meditating while his disciples are sleeping. Eliot refers to an episode of the Bible in which Jesus calls 3 times his disciples because they are sleeping. Twice he wakes them up but at the third time he gives up and lets them sleep. This situation is a symbol of the lack of spirituality, society has lost their spirituality and faith in God, just like Jesus is left alone by his followers. frosty because it is the cold of loneliness. [v.3] This line indicates the place where Jesus was crucified, the Litostroto, a rocky place. [v.4] This is the desperation for the execution of Jesus. (Image of Mary, Jesus mother, by the cross crying) [v.5-6] Jesus is taken to prison, tortured and then brought to the palace of the Roman governor, Ponzio Pilato, who sentenced him to death. While Jesus is dying we can hear thunder and an earthquake. The thunder is a symbol of his death but also the symbol of the rain. Indeed the death of Jesus, even if it is a tragic moment, will bring salvation. [v.7-9] This is the moment in which we are lost, our soul is lost, This is also the reversal of the Biblical quotation said by an angel over the Jesus tomb “why are you looking for a living person among the dead?”. Eliot points out the negative vision of Jesus' death because people are without salvation. They are dying inside because they are without values, myth and there is a loss of communication and love. Society and culture is dying slowly and gradually. SECOND STANZA: Second setting, now we are in the mountains, we have a mountain road going up and the setting is a desolate land, a rocky desert, there are rocks and no water. [v.10-13] In these lines the repetition of “no water but rock” gives a sense of anxiety, desperation and desolation. The poet underlines that there is only sand and rock and no water, the idea of sterility is transmitted by this repetition, a sense of anxiety increasing the idea of this lack of water. The road that is winding above the mountain leads to the place where the Grail is kept, the Chapel perilous. It’s not a straight road, it’s a difficult road because the road to the grail is not for everyone because it’s a test. [v. 65-68] At the end of the mountain road there is the Chapel Perilous where the Holy Grail is kept. But the Chapel is empty. The Grail that was supposed to be the solution to sterility, that was supposed to cure the Fisher King is not there. There is only the wind and the dry bones of those who came before. [v.69-70] There are no windows and the wind is blowing through the hall, the door is broken and it swings the bones of the people here for nothing ?? [v.71-74] On the roof there is an iron cock, which spins on itself thanks to the wind. The wind signals the arrival of rain. The cock also symbolizes the treason of spirituality referring to the episode of the betrayal of Jesus by Saint Peter. Jesus told Peter before be sentenced to death that he would have betrayed him before the cock sang three times. And then a sudden flash of lightning and the damp wind brings the rain as a new hope in this hopeless wasteland. Spiritualità rinnegata SIXTH STANZA: we have a new setting, the river ganga, that is the Holy Indu river. We made a new culture, the Hindu one. [v.75-80] The storm is coming and the clouds are collecting over the Hymauant, the holy mountain of the Hindu culture, that is the home of God. There is a sense of tension. Everything is waiting for the rain which gives life. The jungle is in silence waiting for the storm. Then the thunder spoke, the voice of the creator. According to the Upanishad the lord of the creation speaks to man, gods and devils to tell them how to obtain the internal peace, the harmony with the universe. He says 3 words in Sanskrit, that is the most ancient language. Says three words in Sanskrit each starting with DA: Datta to men, Dayadhvam to devils, Damyata to gods. Datta means to give. The narrator asks what we have given. It is a rhetorical question suggesting that men are not generous but selfish. We have surrendered to selfishness, and not even our past of spirituality can bring us back. We have lived only by selfishness and they will not write that in our obituaries. The spider weaves its web over our grave porta all’oblio. Quote from Webster. Dayadhvam means sympathize, be in harmony with others. This word refers to the Devil anf to the interior solitude. Men have lost the capacity to communicate and interact. We have built prisons di orgoglio e non comunicano for ourselves, each person is locked in his prison of ego, trying to find the way out. The key would only turn then we have sympathy and compassion for others. Only when the night falls, we realize our true self, as happened with Coriolanus. The mention of Coriolanus comes from a play of Shakespeare’s, where Coriolanus was banished because of his inappropriate behavior towards other people. He betrayed Rome out of pride because she was not grateful enough for his services. So the poet wishes that the reader would behave with sympathy and shows compassion and love to people. Damyata means self-control. Gods don’t have to control men e il potere, but they should desire harmony with men. Bisogna anche controllare le proprie emozioni che hanno portato alla guerra. La barca risponde tranquillamente alla mano che sa condurre, il controllo porta la barca a navigare correttamente, così il cuore deve battere obbediente alle leggi divine del creatore. Se noi obbediamo a queste leggi avremo il controllo e non creerà problemi. Barca simbolo evangelico. In this stanza, the poet gives an example of an expert, sailing a boat. The poet says that the boat would respond properly to an expert sails-man hand. The sea would be calm. In the same way, if our mind is calm and controlled, then our heart, our emotions, would follow our command smoothly and happily. Thus, a person should control his mind, heart, and desire to live in peace and harmony. The boat in an evangelical symbol. In the last stanza of the series, Eliot brings the character of Fisher King from Jessie Weston’s “From Ritual to Romance”. The Fisher King is sitting on the shore. He is fishing with the barren plain behind him. He wonders if the solution is near così da mettere a posto le sue terre, la guarigione del re è la guarigione della terra ‘should I at least restore order to my kingdom?’. The next line is borrowed from a nursery rhyme. “London Bridge is falling down falling down falling down”. This indicates that even if a solution is near it will not be easy, or that the solution will pass through destruction and it is necessary to reconstruct. The next line is borrowed from the poem, “Purgatorio, Canto 26” by Dante. Arnaut Daniel che prega Dante e Virgilio che quando saranno saliti al paradiso di pregare per lui perché le preghiere accorciano i tempi della permanenza in purgatorio e torna nel suo fuoco, In Purgatory fire is purifying, fuoco diventa positivo. Citazione di un poema in cui la protagonista diventa una rondine e si chiede quando sarà una rondine e quando sarà primavera When shall I be like the swallow? —Oh, swallow, swallow. The Prince of Aquitaine refers to the destruction of the towers, it is an image taken from tarot cards, but it has a positive meaning in tarot cards in quanto c’è la rinascita attraverso la distruzione. But it is also a phallic symbol representing the impotence of the Fisher King. The poet says that he put together all these fragments of Western culture and put them together to create something new. “Hieronymo’s mad againe” is a quotation from “Spanish Tragedy” by Thomas Kyd, Hieronymo lost his child and to organise the revenge he pretends to be crazy. La follia è saggezza, non agisce d’impulso ma a pianificare. Then the instruction from thunder comes again, Give, Sympathize and Control. And at last, the poet ends his series “The Waste Land” with “Shantih shantih shantih” which means “Peace, peace, peace”. The world is destroying, and people are living a meaningless life, but Eliot leaves us with a path of peace and kindness that still can be found. Thus, the poet ends the poem with a positive note of hope. Lines 80-113 Then spoke the thunder” is the allusion to Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. The fable says through thunder, God spoke to men, Gods, and Devils to guide them the way to approach the internal peace. He used “DA” to respond but men, Gods, and Devils interpreted it differently. Firstly, men interpreted it as “Datta”. “Datta” means “to give” in Sanskrit, which is the oldest and holy language of humankind. Human asked himself or herself “what have we given?” Men imply that they gave up the time of prudence to God. That was time when men showed their intelligence and possession, but lack of unity. Later, men regretted for giving up their rights because that old period was their most prominent time. In addition, “Or in memories draped by the beneficent spider” is an allusion to The White Devil, Act 5, Scene 6. It represents the betrayal Vittoria to her brother, Flamineo. In conclusion, men were responding to God that they gave up their most intelligent time when they thought that they controlled everything over God’s power. However, they regretted because during that moment, they can live forever, not getting betrayed, and live under concrete rules that they set up themselves. Those rules were not “broken by the lean solicitor”. Secondly, the Devils interpreted “DA” as “Dayadhavam”, which means “sympathize”. “I have heard the key” is the allusion of Dante’s Inferno, Canto XXXIII. In addition, to express sympathy you must unlock the prison of personal identity. The key in this part will help you open the door of that prison and to be sympathized as God. However, Devils said if your eyes are blind, then you might open the wrong room. If you cannot release the selfishness of men then it is impossible to be sympathized for other people. Eliot referred Coriolanus as an allusion figure of pride when he helped Rome to win many important wars. However, he later was betrayed by his own system. In conclusion, everybody has his own pride that is trapped in his own prison. If you can unlock that prison, you will stop consider yourself upon others. You can start to think for others more. Just like Coriolanus, his prison was unlocked after Rome had banished him. In this part, Gods interpreted “DA” as “Damyata”, which means “control”. Control here implies practicing to control your desire and submit to God’s wills. “The sea was calm; your heart would have responded” is the allusion of Coriolanus who was mentioned as above. He won many wars for Rome but later got banished. This is what he told his friends and family afterward "That common chances common men could bear; that when the sea was calm all boats alike show'd mastership in floating". In conclusion, the message is when everything is calm and in control, you should learn to solve problems and control the situation by yourself. Don’t be dependent and trust other people because they will betray you one day. Even though you are capable of controlling the situations but there is one God who is always above you and control you as well as the situation. Submission to God’s wills is the way that guides you to reach a controllable situation. The fisherman’s sitting on an arid plain behind him refers to the Fisher King who has gone to the other side of the waste land. “Shall I at least set my lands in order?” is the allusion of The Book of Isaiah, Chapter 38. "Thus, saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live". From this we know that the fisherman is responsible for arranging and building the new land for people who will die and not live. This implies death but at the beginning of the poem, we already analysed that death is the sign of rebirth. Therefore, the fisherman will purify the new land with new people and new life, even if he will meet a lot of obstacles that were alluded in “London Bridge is falling down”. This phrase was found in a children song, London Bridge Is Falling Down. In this song, even though you have tried all materials but the bridge still fall down. There is nothing that you can do about it. This refers to the truth that in the new land, human might still repeat his mistakes even though God has helped them to purify the world. “Poi s'ascose nel foco che gli affina” is the allusion in Dante Alighieri’s poem, Purgatorio Canto XXVI. The quote means: 'And so I pray you, by that virtue / which guides you to the top of the stair, / be reminded in time of my pain.' /Then he leapt back into the fire which refines him (Ara vos prec / Par aquella valor que vos guida al som de l’escalina/ sovegna vos a temps de ma dolor) Is what the quote means. The original manuscript included the quote, 'sovegna vos a temps de ma dolor'. Which means what you are referring to - but it was cut to emphasize that man must attempt to live a virtuous life on Earth because they will not be spared punishment in purgatory even if they believe in