the wasteland (1).ppt

8/10/2019 the wasteland (1).ppt

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/the-wasteland-1ppt 1/33

“The Waste Land”

by T.S. Eliot

Adela, Erica and Hilda

http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery;jsessionid=8rg96kafu508t?method=4&dsname=Wikipedia+Images&dekey=Tseliot.jpg&gwp=8&sbid=lc05b



2

Synopsis433 lines

20th Century

Meditation on the state of Western

civilizationmixes descriptions of contemporary lifewith literary allusions and quotations,

religious symbolism, and references toancient and medieval cultures andmythologies, vegetation and fertility rites



3

Eastern religions and philosophies

emphasize themes of barrenness and

desolation and portrays a dying societythe ending suggests hope ofredemption through concepts andimages grounded on the synthesis ofChristian and Eastern(Hindu/Buddhist) spirituality

Synopsis



4

Language & Form Modernist poetry. Irregular verse, at times free,at times reminiscent of the blank verse of Eliot‟splays

The poem was reduced to half the length ofearlier drafts at Ezra Pound's suggestion

Complex scholarly annotations to explain the

many quotations and obscure allusionsFive sections and features multiple voices and adeliberate attempt at creating a sense offragmentation, discontinuity, and decay.



5

Structure

Epigraph

Five sections

The Burial of the DeadA Game of Chess

The Fire Sermon

Death by WaterWhat the Thunder Said

http://www.roman-eisele.de/info/pages/photos.html



6

"Nam Sibyllam quidem Cumis ego ipse oculis meisvidi in ampulla pendere, et cum illi pueri dicerent:

ibulla ti qeleiz

; respondebat illa:apoqanein

qelw

."

For Ezra Poundi l migl ior fabbro .

Epigraph

Quotes Petronius's Satyricon (first century C.E.)

“For once I myself saw with my own eyes theSibyl at Cumae hanging in a cage, and when theboys said to her „Sibyl, what do you want?‟ shereplied, „I want to die.‟”



I. The Burial of the Dead (1/2) Four poems

Line 1-18Marie recalls her sledding and claims that she isGerman, not Russian. The woman mixes a meditationon the seasons with remarks on the barren state of hercurrent existence.

Line 19-42A prophetic, apocalyptic invitation to journey into a

desert waste, where the speaker will show the reader“something different from either/ Your shadow atmorning striding behind you/ Or your shadow atevening rising to meet you;/ [He] will show you fearin a handful of dust.“



I. The Burial of the Dead (2/2)Four poems

Line 43-59

It describes an imaginative tarot reading, in which

some of the cards Eliot includes in the reading arenot part of an actual tarot deck.

Line 60-76

The speaker walks through a London populated by

ghosts of the dead. He confronts a figure with whomhe once fought in a battle. The speaker asks theghostly figure, Stetson , about the fate of a corpseplanted in his garden.



II. A Game of Chess This section focuses on twoopposing scenes: high society andthe lower classes.

Two poemsLine 77-138

A wealthy, highly groomed woman surrounded

by exquisite furnishings.Line 139-172

In a London barroom, where two womendiscuss a third woman.



III. The F ire Sermon (1/3)

Taken from a sermon given by Buddhain which he encourages his followers togive up earthly passion and seekfreedom from earthly things.Four poems

Line 173-206

Line 207-214Line 215-265

Line 266-311

http://world.std.com/~raparker/exploring/thewasteland/explore.html



III. The F ire Sermon (2/3)

The section opens with a desolateriverside scene: Rats and garbage

surround. The speaker, who is fishingand “musing on the king my brother'swreck.”

The speaker is then propositioned byMr. Eugenides , the one-eyed merchantof Madame Sosostris's tarot pack.



III. The F ire Sermon (3/3)The speaker then proclaims himself to beTiresias , a figure from classical mythologywho has both male and female features and isblind but can “see” into the future.

Tiresias/the speaker observes a young typist,at home for tea, who awaits her lover, a dulland slightly arrogant clerk. The woman allowsthe clerk to have his way with her, and heleaves victorious.Tiresias, who has “foresuffered all,” watchesthe whole thing. After her lover's departure,the typist thinks only that she's glad theencounter is done and over.



IV. Death by Water

The shortest section of the poem.

Describes a man, Phlebas the

Phoenician , who has died bydrowning.

In death he has forgotten his worldly

cares as the creatures of the sea havepicked his body apart.



V. What the Thunder Said (1/2)

One poem: line 322-423

Builds to an apocalyptic climax , assuffering people become "hooded hordes

swarming" and the "unreal" cities of Jerusalem, Athens, Alexandria, Vienna,and London are destroyed, rebuilt, anddestroyed again.

The scene then shifts to the Ganges , half aworld away from Europe, where thunderrumbles.



V. What the Thunder Said (2/2)

Finale: line 424-434

Ends with a series of disparate

fragments from a children's song, fromDante, and from Elizabethan drama,leading up to a final chant of “Shantih

shantih shantih.”



heme

source

http://www.tqnyc.org/NYC040522/Poetryindexbyjosefina/wastelandindex.htm





I. The Burial of the Dead

Theme

Inhabitants in the Waste Land live ahopeless life. People can usuallyobtain salvation (rebirth) from the

burial of the dead, but inhabitantsin the Waste Land are afraid ofrebirth.



18

II. A Game of Chess

Theme

The community's impotence anddegradation, sex and spirit, isconveyed.



19

III. The Fire Sermon

Theme

Eliot uses St. Augustine andBuddha‟s thoughts to teach man tokeep away from decay.



20

IV. Death by Water

Theme

There will be no revival or

resurrection after the Phoenician‟sdeath. Misunderstanding of greedand values have buried human

beings deeper as a whole into thewhirlpool.



21

V. What the Thunder Said

Theme

The thunder said human beingscould be saved through threeverbs--give, sympathize, and

control.



22

Analysis (1/2)Eliot uses

A modern myth that world moving towardcrisis and chaos

Multiple narrators: to see from differentangles

Dramatic monologue: to convey thecharacters‟ stream of unconsciousness and

psychological condition.Fragmentation: fragmentation of modern life,lack of integration in the modern experience



23

Allusion to plays, and myths:To compare and contrast the present and thepast

To produce the dramatic irony(Myths exists in fertility rites and auniversal subconscious. Eliot uses mythsto produce sympathy. )

Biblical references:

severed from the system of belief that gavethem coherence and meaning.

Analysis (2/2)



24

Techniques in TextDramatic monologue (L8—18, L25—30)

Allusions to the Bible (L20), plays (The Tempest, The Devil’s Law Case) , and myths (The Fisher King, Inferno)

Fragmentary forms—Ex. broken image (L22)(L428-30)

Symbols of water, hyacinth, the Tarot pack of cards, thedrowned Phoenician Sailor, the Hanged God.

Compare and Contrast---Mylae War is compared to the World War I.

Quotations— Paradise Lost9 (IV, 140), The Devil’s LawCase (III,ii,162), The White Devil (V,6, 203-205),Confession…

pun— jug (L103)



25

Epigraph

to express the subject

Sibyl in the Satyricon (myth) , a

woman with prophetic power and longlife, grows old, but cannot die. She isyearning to die.

The Sibyl's condition suggests Eliotlives in a culture that has decayed andwithered but will not end.



26

Quotation And Interpretation

L1-7

APRIL is the cruelest month,breeding …Winter kept us warm, covering …

(The Waste Land opens with a compare toChaucer's Canterbury Tales. April is not thepainful month for pilgrimages and storytelling.)

L30

I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

(How dry and fearful the Waste Land it is. )



27


L55

The Hanged Man. Fear death by water.

(The death and rebirth of a god –Rebirth comes after the death. Andwater suggests spiritual renewal.)



28

L99-103

The change of Philomel, by the barbarousking…'Jug Jug' to dirty ears.

(People only can hear the sex and violence in themyth but not appreciate a myth.)

L126

'Are you alive, or not? Is there nothing in your

head?' (Inhabitants in the Waste Land are withoutthoughts—spiritual dryness.)




29

L48

Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!

L257„This music crept by me upon the waters‟

(Quoted from Shakespeare’s The Tempest —

sea-change is the symbol of refreshmentand purification. And the Waste Land is aplace that is lack of water.)




30

L329 We who were living are now dying

(People have no belief. Religion doesn't exist for them.)

L423-25 I sat upon the shore …Shall I at leastset my lands in order?

(In the myth of the Fisher King, the king is

impotent and the land is barren; society waits forsalvation in the person of a knight (looking forthe Holy Grail) who will come and ask the rightquestion and bring the much-needed rain.)




31

Study Questions1. What is the function of the epigraph

in the beginning to the poem?

2. Is the downward motion significantin the first section?

3. What does the thunder say? What ishappening to the waste land?

4. What is the "Waste Land" Eliotdescribes?



32

5. Why T.S. Eliot chose the “A Game ofChess” as the title of the second part

of the work? What‟s the connectionof this section with previous one?

6. What the representative meaning of

“water” in the fourth part of thework?

Study Questions

R f



References“Dr. Fidel Fajardo- Acosta's World Literature Website.” 1 Dec. 2005

<http://fajardo-acosta.com/worldlit/eliot/waste_land.htm>.

Eliot, Thomas Stearns. "The Waste Land." The Norton Anthologyof English Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams. 7th ed. Vol. 2. NewYork: Norton, 2000. 2368-83.

Modernist Poetry in English. 4 Dec. 2005<http://www.answers.com/topic/modernist-poetry-in-english>.

Parker, Rickard A. Explor ing The Waste Land . 29 Sep. 2002. 5Dec. 2005 <http://world.std.com/~raparker/exploring/thewasteland/explore.html>.

SparkNotes: Eliot’s Poetry. 1 Dec. 2005<http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/eliot/index.html>.

“The Waste Land.” 1 Dec. 2005 <http://www.geocities.com/ Athens/Olympus/5599/literature/wasteland.html>.

“The Waste Land Interpretation.” 5 Dec. 2005<http://www.tqnyc.org/NYC040522/Poetryindexbyjosefina/was

telandindex.htm>.

Documents

the wasteland (1).ppt