the wasteland (2).ppt

8/10/2019 the wasteland (2).ppt

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Thomas Stearns Eliot

(1885-1965)


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T. S. Eliot

(1885-1965)He was a quite important figure in the

Western literature.

He once has been the leading figure at thebeginning of the last century in poetry and

also in literary criticism (New Criticism).


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New Criticism

New Criticism emphasizes explication, or "closereading," of "the work itself." It rejects oldhistoricism's attention to biographical andsociological matters. Instead, the objective

determination as to "how a piece works" can befound through close focus and analysis, rather thanthrough extraneous and erudite special knowledge.

It is a type of formalist current of literary theory

that dominated Anglo-American literary criticismin the middle decades of the 20th century. Itemphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, todiscover how a work of literature functioned as aself-contained, self-referential aesthetic object.


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A Brief Biography

T.S. Eliot was born in 1888 in St. Louis. He was one

of the son of a prominent industrialist who came

from a well- connected Boston family. Eliot always

felt the loss of his familys New England roots andseemed to be somewhat ashamed of his fathers

business success; throughout his life he continually

sought to return to Anglo- Saxon culture, first by

attending Harvard and then by emigrating toEngland, where he lived from 1914 until his death.


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A brief biography (continued)

Eliot began graduate study in philosophy at

Harvard and completed his dissertation.

However, he didnt received the degree for

the outbreak of W W

. Eliot met EzraPound in 1914 who became his main

mentor and editor lately as well as edited

and published Eliots The Waste Land.From then on Eliot began to write criticism,

partly in an effort to explain his own

methods.


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A brief biography

In 1925, Eliot went to work for the publishing

house Faber & Faber. In the later 1920s Eliot

became interested in religion and eventuallyconverted to Anglicanism. Eliot died in 1965

in London.


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Summary of His Biography

(1)born in St. Louis in Missouri

(2)cultured parents and wealthy family;

good education

(3)graduated from Harvard; M. A. degree

(4)came to Europe for research; stayed in

England because of WWI

(5)first worked as a bank clerk and thenan editor

(6)in 1927, became an English citizen; won

Nobel Prize in 1948


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Eliots Poems

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

(1915)

The Waste Land (1922)The Hollow Man (1925)

Ash- Wednesday (1930)

Four Quartets (1935-1942)


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The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Prufrock is a representative character who cannot reconcile histhoughts and understanding with his feelings and will.

The poem displays several levels of irony, the most important of whichgrows out of the vain, weak man's insights into his sterile life and his

lack of will to change that life. The poem is full of images of enervation and paralysis, such as the

evening described as "etherized," immobile. Prufrock understands thathe and his associates lack authenticity. One part of himself would liketo startle them out of their meaningless lives, but to accomplish this hewould have to risk disturbing his "universe," being rejected.

The latter part of the poem captures his sense defeat for failing to actcourageously.

Eliot helped to set the modernist fashion for blending references to theclassics with the most sordid type of realism, then expressing the blendin majestic language which seems to mock the subject.


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The beginning epigraph

S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse

A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,

Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.

Ma percioche giammai di questo fondo

Non torno vivo alcun, s'i'odo il vero, Senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.

Meaning


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The epigraph comes from the Infernoof Dante'sDivine Comedy(XXVII, 61-66). Count Guido daMontefeltro, embodied in a flame, replies to

Dante's question about his identity as onecondemned for giving lying advice: "If I believedthat my answer would be to someone who wouldever return to earth, this flame would move nomore, but because no one has ever returned alivefrom this gulf, if what I hear is true, I can reply withno fear of infamy."


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Explanation of the Title

T. S. Stearns Eliot (1888-1965) originally entitled this poem"Prufrock Among the Women." He changed the title to "TheLove Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" before publishing thepoem in Poetrymagazine in 1915.

The words "Love Song" seem apt, for one of the definitionsof love songis narrative poem. And, of course, "The LoveSong of J. Alfred Prufrock" is a narrative, presenting amoment in the life of the title character. It is also a poem. Inaddition, the work has characteristics of most love songs,

such as repetition (or refrain), rhyme, and rhythm. It alsofocuses on the womanly love that eludes Prufrock.


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Type of Work:

Dramatic Monologue A modernisticpoem in the form of a dramatic monologue.

A dramatic monologue presents a moment in which anarrator/speaker discusses a topic and, in so doing,

reveals his personal feelings to a listener. Only the narrator,talkshence the term monologue, meaning "single (mono)discourse (logue)." During his discourse, the speakerintentionally and unintentionally reveals information abouthimself. The main focus of a dramatic monologue is this

personal information, not the speaker's topic. Therefore, adramatic monologue is a type of character study.
http://www.english.uga.edu/~232/voc/modernism.voc.htmlhttp://www.english.uga.edu/~232/voc/modernism.voc.html


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Setting

The action takes place in the evening in a

bleak section of a smoky city. This city is

probably St. Louis, where Eliot (1888-1965)grew up. But it could also be London, to

which Eliot moved in 1914. However, Eliot

probably intended the setting to be any cityanywhere.


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Characters J. Alfred Prufrock: The speaker/narrator, a timid, overcautious middle-

aged man. He escorts his silent listener through streets in a shabbypart of a city, past cheap hotels and restaurants, to a social gatheringwhere women he would like to meet are conversing. However, he ishesitant to take part in the activity for fear of making a fool of himself.

The Listener: An unidentified companion of Prufrock. The listener

could also be Prufrock's inner self, one that prods him but fails to movehim to action.

The Women: Women at a social gathering. Prufrock would like to meetone of them but worries that she will look down on him.

The Lonely Men in Shirtsleeves: Leaning out of their windows, theysmoke pipes. They are like Prufrock in that they look upon a scene but

do not become part of it. The smoke from their pipes helps form thehaze over the city, the haze that serves as a metaphor for a timid catwhich is Prufrock.
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Themes

Loneliness and Alienation: Prufrock is a pathetic manwhose anxieties and obsessions have isolated him.

Indecision: Prufrock resists making decisions for fear that

their outcomes will turn out wrong. Inadequacy: Prufrock continually worries that he will make

a fool of himself and that people will ridicule him for hisclothes, his bald spot, and his overall physicalappearance.

Pessimism: Prufrock sees only the negative side of his ownlife and the lives of others.


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Interpretation of this Poem

Let us go then, you and I,When the evening is spread out againstthe skyLike a patient etherised upon a table;Let us go, through certain half-desertedstreets,

The muttering retreats 5Of restless nights in one-night cheaphotels

And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:Streets that follow like a tediousargumentOf insidious intent

To lead you to an overwhelmingquestion 10Oh, do not ask, What is it?Let us go and make our visit.

The speaker invites the listener to walk withhim into the streets on an evening thatresembles a patient, anesthetized with ether(physicians used ether to render patientsunconscious before an operation), lying onthe table of a hospital operating room. Theimagery suggests that the evening is lifeless

and listless. The speaker and the listener willwalk through lonely streetsthe businessday has endedpast cheap hotels andrestaurants with sawdust on the floors.(Sawdust was used to absorb spilledbeverages and food, making it easy tosweep up at the end of the day.) The shabbyestablishments will remind the speaker of his

own shortcomings, their images remaining inhis mind as he walks on. They will then prodthe listener to ask the speaker a questionabout the speaker's lifeperhaps why hevisits these seedy haunts, which aresymbols of his life, and why he has not actedto better himself or to take a wife.


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In the room the womencome and goTalking of Michelangelo.

At a social gathering in aroom, women discuss thegreat Renaissance artist

Michelangelo. Prufrockmay wonder how theycould possibly beinterested in him whenthey are discussing

someone as illustrious asMichelango.


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The yellow fog that rubs its back uponthe window-panes, 15The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzleon the window-panesLicked its tongue into the corners of theevening,

Lingered upon the pools that stand indrains,Let fall upon its back the soot that fallsfrom chimneys,Slipped by the terrace, made a suddenleap, 20

And seeing that it was a soft Octobernight,

Curled once about the house, and fellasleep.

Smoky haze spreads across the city.The haze is like a quiet, timid catpadding to and fro, rubbing its head onobjects, licking its tongue, and curling upto sleep after allowing soot to fall upon it.The speaker resembles the cat as he

looks into windows or into "the room,"trying to decide whether to enter andbecome part of the activity. Eventually,he curls up in the safety and security ofhis own soft armsalone, separate.What this stanza means is that Prufrockfeels inferior and is unable to actdecisively. He consigns himself to

corners, as a timid person might at adance; stands idly by doing nothing, asdoes a stagnant pool; and becomes thebrunt of ridicule or condescension (thesoot that falls on him).


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And indeed there will be timeFor the yellow smoke that slides alongthe street,Rubbing its back upon the window-panes; 25There will be time, there will be time

To prepare aface to meet the faces thatyou meet;There will be time to murder and create,

And time for all the works and days ofhandsThat lift and drop a question on yourplate; 30Time for you and time for me,

And time yet for a hundred indecisions,And for a hundred visions andrevisions,Before the taking of a toast and tea.

There's no hurry, though,the speaker tells himself.There will be time todecide and then to act

time to put on the rightface and demeanor tomeet people. There will betime to kill and time to act;in fact, there will be time todo many things. There will

even be time to think aboutdoing thingstime todream and then revisethose dreamsbeforesitting down with a woman

to take toast and tea.


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In the room the women

come and go 35

Talking ofMichelangelo.

The women are still

coming and going, still

talking of Michelangelo,suggesting that life is

repetitive and dull.


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And indeed there will be timeTo wonder, Do I dare? and, Do I dare?Time to turn back and descend the stair,With a bald spot in the middle of my hair 40[They will say: How his hair is growing thin!]My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly tothe chin,My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by asimple pin[They will say: But how his arms and legs arethin!]Do I dare 45Disturb the universe?In a minute there is timeFor decisions and revisions which a minute

will reverse.

Prufrock says there will be timeto wonder whether he dares toapproach a woman. He feelslike turning back. After all, hehas a bald spot, thinning hair,and thin arms and legs.Moreover, he has doubts aboutthe acceptability of his clothing.What will people think of him?Does he dare to approach awoman? He will think about it

and make a decision, thenreverse the decision.


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For I have known them allalready, known them all:Have known the evenings,mornings, afternoons, 50

I have measured out my life withcoffee spoons;I know the voices dying with adying fallBeneath the music from afarther room.

So how should I presume?

Prufrock realizes that the peoplehere are the same as the peoplehe has met many times beforethe same, uninteresting people

in the same uninteresting world.They all even sound the same.So why should he do anything?


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And I have known the eyesalready, known them all 55The eyes that fix you in a

formulated phrase,And when I am formulated,sprawling on a pin,When I am pinned and wrigglingon the wall,Then how should I begin

To spit out all the butt-ends ofmy days and ways? 60And how should I presume?

He has seen their gazes before,many timesgazes that form anopinion of him, treating him likea butterfly or another insect

pinned into place in a display.How will he be able to explainhimself to themtheordinariness, the mediocrity, ofhis life?


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And I have known the armsalready, known them all

Arms that are braceleted andwhite and bare

[But in the lamplight, downedwith light brown hair!]It is perfume from adress 65That makes me so digress?

Arms that lie along a table, or

wrap about a shawl.And should I then presume?And how should I begin?

Yes, he has known women likethese before, wearing jewelrybut really bare, lackingsubstance. Why is he thinking

about them? Perhaps it is thesmell of a woman's perfume.


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Shall I say, I have gone atdusk through narrowstreets 70

And watched the smokethat rises from the pipesOf lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out ofwindows?I should have been a pair

of ragged clawsScuttling across the floorsof silent seas.

Will he tell a woman thathe came through narrowstreets, where lonely men(like Prufrock) lean out ofwindows watching life goby but not taking part in it?He should have beennothing more than crabclaws in the depths of the

silent ocean.


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And the afternoon, theevening, sleeps sopeacefully! 75Smoothed by long fingers,Asleep tired or it malingers,Stretched on the floor, here beside you andme.Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,

Have the strength to force the moment to itscrisis? 80But though I have wept and fasted, wept andprayed,Though I have seen my head brought in upona platter,I am no prophetand heres no great matter;I have seen the moment of my greatnessflicker,

And I have seen the eternal Footman hold mycoat, and snicker, 85And in short, I was afraid.

The time passes peacefully. It is asif the afternoon/evening is sleepingor simply wasting time, stretchedout on the floor. Should the speakersit down with someone and have

dessertshould he take a chance,make an acquaintance, live? Oh, hehas suffered; he has even imaginedhis head being brought in on aplatter, like the head of John theBaptist. Of course, unlike John, heis no prophet. He has seen his

opportunities pass and even seendeath up close, holding his coat,snickering. He has been afraid.


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And would it have been worth it, afterall,

After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,Among the porcelain, among some talkof you and me,Would it have been worth while, 90

To have bitten off the matter with asmile,To have squeezed the universe into aballTo roll it toward some overwhelmingquestion,To say: I am Lazarus, come from thedead,

Come back to tell you all, I shall tell youall 95If one, settling a pillow by her head,

Should say: That is not what I meantat all.

That is not it, at all.

Would it have been worthit for the speaker whiledrinking tea to try to makea connection with one ofthe women? Would it havebeen worth it to arise fromhis lifeless life and dare toengage in conversationwith a woman, only to

have her criticize him orreject him.


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And would it have been worth it, afterall,Would it have been worthwhile, 100

After the sunsets and the dooryards andthe sprinkled streets,

After the novels, after the teacups, afterthe skirts that trail along the floor

And this, and so much more?It is impossible to say just what I mean!But as if a magic lantern threw thenerves in patterns on ascreen: 105Would it have been worth while

If one, settling a pillow or throwing off ashawl,And turning toward the window, shouldsay:

That is not it at all,That is not what I meant, at all.

Would it have been worth it,considering all the times he wouldbe with the woman at sunset or withher in a dooryard? Would it havebeen worth it after all the mornings

or evenings when workmensprinkled the streets (see sprinkledstreets, below), after all the novelshe would discuss with her over tea,after all the times he heard the dragof her skirt along the floor, after somany other occasions? Would it

have been worth it if, after plumpinga pillow or throwing off her shawl,she turned casually toward awindow and told him that he wasmistaken about her intentionstoward him?


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No! I am not Prince Hamlet, norwas meant to be;Am anattendant lord, one that willdoTo swell a progress, start a scene

or two,Advise the prince; no doubt, aneasy tool,Deferential, glad to be ofuse, 115Politic, cautious, and meticulous;Full of high sentence, but a bit

obtuse;At times, indeed, almostridiculousAlmost, at times, the Fool.

Prufrock and Hamlet (theprotagonist ofShakespeare's Hamlet,Prince of Denmark) are

both indecisive. ButPrufrock lacks the majestyand charisma of Hamlet.Therefore, he fancieshimself as Polonius, the

busybody lord chamberlainin Shakespeare's play.
http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/xHamlet.htmlhttp://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/xHamlet.htmlhttp://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/xHamlet.htmlhttp://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/xHamlet.html


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I grow old I grow old 120I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.16Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat apeach?I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walkupon the beach.

I have heard the mermaids singing, each toeach.17I do not think that they will sing tome. 12518I have seen them riding seaward on thewavesCombing the white hair of the waves blown

backWhen the wind blows the water white andblack.19We have lingered in the chambers of the seaBy sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red andbrown 130Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

The speaker realizes thattime is passing and that heis growing old. However,like other men going

through a middle-age crisis,he considers changing hishairstyle and clothes. LikeOdysseus in the Odyssey,he has heard the song of

the sirens. However, theyare not singing to him.
http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Odyssey.htmlhttp://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Odyssey.html


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The Waste Land

Section : The Burial of the Dead

Section : A Game of Chess

Section

: The Fire SermonSection: Death by Water

Section

: What the Thunder Said


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The Burial of the Dead

It is made up of four vignettes, each seemingly fromthe perspective of a different speaker.

The first is an autobiographical snippet from the

childhood of an aristocratic woman. The second is a prophetic, apocalyptic( ) invitation to journey into a desert waste.

The third describes an imaginative reading.

The fourth is the most surreal in which the speakerasks a ghostly figure about the fate of a corpse plantedin his garden.


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Formof Burial of the Dead

This section can be seen as a modified dramatic

monologue. The four speakers in this section are

frantic in their need to speak, to find an audience, but

they find themselves surrounded by dead people and

thwarted by outside circumstances, like wars.

Because the sections are so short and the situations so

confusing, the effect is not one of an overwhelmingimpression of a single character; instead, the reader is

left with the feeling of being trapped in a crowd,

unable to find a familiar face.


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Commentary (continued)

Eliot provides copious footnotes

that is an excellent source for

tracking down the origins of areference. Many of the

references are from the Bible.


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Memory in the first episode creates aconfrontation of the past with the present, a

juxtaposition that points out just how badly

things have decayed. The second contains a

troubled religious proposition. The speaker

describes a true wasteland of stony rubbish.

The third explores Eliots fascination with

transformation. The final allows Eliot finallyto establish the true wasteland of the poem,

the modern city.


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A Game of chess

SummaryThis section focuses on two opposing scenes,

one of high society and one of the lower

classes. The first half of the section portrays

a wealthy, highly groomed woman

surrounded by exquisite furnishings. The

second part shifts to a London barroom,

where two women discuss a third woman.


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A Game of chessForm

The first part is largely in unrhymed iambic

pentameter lines, or blank verse. As the section

proceeds, the lines become increasingly irregular

in length and meter, giving the feeling ofdisintegration, of things falling apart. The second

part is a dialogue interrupted by the barmans

refrain, which constitutes a loose series of phrases

connected by I said (s) and she said (s).


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Commentary

The two women of this section of the poem

represent the two sides of modern

sexuality: while one side of this sexuality is

a dry, barren interchange inseparablefrom neurosis and self- destruction, the

other side of this sexuality is a rampant

fecundity associated with a lack of cultureand rapid aging. Neither womans form of

sexuality is regenerative.


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The Fire SermonSummaryThis title is taken from a sermon given

by Buddhain which he encourages his

followers to give up earthly passion(symbolized by fire) and seek freedom

from earthly things.


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The Fire SermonForm

This section is notable for its inclusion of

popular poetic forms, particularly musical

pieces, including Spensers wedding song(which becomes the song of the Thames-

daughters), a soldiers ballad, a nightingales

chirps, a song from Oliver Goldsmiths The

Vicar of Wakefield, and a mandolin tune(which has no words but is echoed in a clatter

and a chatter from within).


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CommentaryThe opening two stanzas of this sectiondescribe the ultimate Waste Land as Eliot

sees it. The wasteland is cold, dry and

barren, covered in garbage. Unlike thedesert, which at least burns with heat, this

place is static, save for a few scurrying rats.

Even the river, normally a symbol of

renewal, has been reduced to a dull canal.

The ugliness stands in implicit contrast to

the Sweet Thames of Spensers time.


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The most significant image in these

lines is the rat. This section ends

with only the single word burning,

isolated on the page, reveals the

futility of all of mans struggles.


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Death by waterSummary

The shortest section of the poem describes

a man, Phlebas the Phoenician, who has

died, apparently by drowning. In death hehas forgotten his worldly cares as the

creatures of the sea have picked his body

apart. The narrator asks his reader toconsider Phlebas and recall his or her own

mortality.


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Death by waterFormIt is one of the most formally organized

sections of the poem. The alliteration and

the deliberately archaic language (Oyou, a fortnight dead) also contribute

to the serious, didactic feel of this section.


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Commentary

The major point of this short section is

to rebut ideas of renewal and

regeneration.


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What the Thunder saidSummary

This sectionis dramatic in both its imagery

and its events. Eliot draws on the traditional

interpretation of what the thunder says, astaken from the Upanishads (Hindu fables).

According to these fables, the thunder gives,

sympathizes, and controls through itsspeech. Eliot launches into a meditation on

each of these aspects of the thunders power.


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What the Thunder saidFormThe final section moves away from more typical

poetic forms to experiment with structures

normally associated with religion and philosophy.Both formally and thematically , this part follows

a pattern of obsession and resignation. Its

patterning reflects the speakers offer at the end

to fit you, to transform experience into poetry.


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CommentaryThe last words of the poem are in a non-Western language that invoke an

alternative set of paradigms to those of

the Western world and offer a glimpseinto a culture and a value system new to

us and offer some hope for an alternative

to our own dead world.


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The End

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the wasteland (2).ppt