Symbolism in The Waste Land

Here i have given my views on the symbolism in The Waste Land.

1. Symbolism in The Waste Land Name : Ravi Rajyaguru Roll No : 26 M.A : Sem -3 Paper : ( 9 ) The Modernst Literature. Enrolment No : PG15101032 Email id.: [email protected] Submitted To : Department of English Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

2. Symbolism is a literary element used in literature to help readers understand a literary work.  Symbolism is a figure of speech that is used when an author wants to create a certain mood or emotion in a work of literature.

3. Symbols can be….. An object Picture Written word Sound Language

4. Symbols in The Waste land The Fisher King River Buddhism Water Season Religion Human Characters City Drought

5. The Fisher King From ‘ Ritual to Romance ’ The book is seen for the connection between ancient fertility rights and Christianity. It includes the evolution of the Fisher King into early representation of Jesus Christ as a fish. Eliot shows the Fisher King as symbolic of humanity robbed of its sexuality potency in the modern world and connected to the meaninglessness of urban existence.

6. Water

7. Although water has regenerating possibility of restoring life and fertility, it can also lead to drawing and death, as in the case of Phlebas the sailor from the Waste Land. Traditionally water can be baptism, Christianity and the figure of Jesus Christ. “ Ganga was sunken, and the limp leaves waited for rain, While the black clouds gathered far distant, over Himavant .”

8. Religion I.A.Richards and Cleanth Brooks believe the poem to be religious. Eliot presents alternative religious possibilities, including Hindu chants, Buddhist speeches, and pagan ceremonies. Later poems take their images almost exclusively from Christianity, such as the echoes of the Lord’s Prayer in “The Hollow Men” and the retelling of the story of the wise men in “Journey of the Magi” (1927).

9. The poem ends with “ Datta . Dayadhvam . Damyata . Shantih Shantih Shanti ” Vedic recitation ends with Universal theme of nonviolence and peace.

10. Human Characters The characters in the poem are not the only devices used to invoke symbolism. The tarot card characters Phoenician sailor, the hanged man, the repeated biblical references and other literary references all serve to touch upon symbolic value and also function as objective correlatives The Sibyl, Ezra Pound, Madame Sosostris …..  Males and females of the Waste Land have no virtues. They are living but seems dead. King Fisher, Tiresias , girls singing in boat, prostitutes are some such human character.

11. City Cities are destroyed, rebuilt and destroyed mirroring the cyclical downfall of cultures.

12. River Eliot opens "The Fire Sermon" by painting a pretty dismal picture of London's Thames River. In line 176, he quotes the great English poet Edmund Spenser, a man who once wrote love songs about how beautiful and inspiring the "Sweet Thames" was. In modern days, though, Eliot only finds "empty bottles, sandwich papers, / Silk handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette ends.” The river symbolizes the flow continuity of life.

13. Drought “Here is no water, but only rock Rock and no water and the sandy road There is not even silence in the mountains But dry sterile thunder without rain”  

14. Season Summer refers to joy, Winter refers to grimness and death. It refers to barrenness.

15. Buddhism ‘The Fire Sermon’ is the title taken from a sermon given by Buddha. Buddha encourages his followers to give up earthly passion. Buddha preached nonviolence and wanted followers to rise spiritually. He symbolizes universal Non violence and peace.

16. References : http:// www.sparknotes.com/poetry/eliot/themes.html http :// www.shmoop.com/the-waste-land/thames-river-symbol.html http://patelkinjal1315.blogspot.in/2014/10/show-eliots-use-of-symbolism-in-waste.html  

17. Thank you