Critique on Wasteland.

Assignment-   EC- 301:  The Modernist Literature.

Topic-   Critique on Wasteland.

Name- Vadher Ankita.

Roll No- 18.

Sem-   1

Batch-   2011-12.

Submitted To,

Dr. Dilip Barad,

Bhavnagar University,

Bhavnagar.

   

                                                          

1.     BURIAL ON THE DEAD

 The month of April mixes up both memories and desires in their consciousness and April the month of spring is the cruelest month for the waste Landers. Their dull souls are stirred up as the Roast of trees and plants are stirred up into activity by spring rain. The modern waste land is entirely desolate and the people are a spiritually dead and sterile. It is like a rocky barren land in which no trees can grow. there are only stones and rubbish man does not know meaning of spiritual bertilling.in this waste land the waste Landers can protect themselves from the heat of the sun only by taking shelter in the shadow of the red rock the shadow of there’d rock is different from the shadow and it behind them in the morning and which rises to meet them in the evening of life. Man is mortal and he lives in constant fear of death. Then follow two extracts from a German opera off Wagner entitled “Tristan and Isalde”and they enclosed with episode of guilty. Love the brats’ four lines in German mean that brush blows the wind and the ocean is calm but his beloved has not come. The other extract of one line means “empty and desolate the sea “the lover is hopeless. He is ill and will die soon guilty love results. In spiritual deadness. This is also illustrated by the episode of the hyacinth girl. There is spiritual degeneration all around in the modern waste land. Even the function of the tarot pack of cards has degenerated. It is used for fortune telling and cheating the credulous people .Madame sorosttises the famous fortune teller is sick and suffers from cold. But she is considered to be the wisest. Woman diets stand around them and she shows them one by one, the cards which foretell their respective futures differed not cards given a different meaning and symbols. the poet next addresses the ‘unreal city ‘which may by any city in the modern waste land-London ,Paris or any other for there is the same spiritual desolation everywhere. The poet observe it from a distance covered with the brown beg of the winter morning. He sees a crowd of people flowing over the London Bridge and he had never imagined that there were so many dead people as if there were in great suffering. The passage conclude with the words “you hypocrite you are like me, you are my brother. “In other words, all are equally dead spiritual ally in the modern waste land.

2 A GAME OF CHESS  

The poet begins by describing the two opposing scenes, one of high so duty and one of the lower classes and also describing the bedroom and dressing table of a rich and fashionable lady. She sat in a chair which shone brightly like a throne student with jewels. Her looking glass and glowing table reflected back the bright light falling on them from a branched candle stand hounding seven candles and in this way the brightness of the light was doubles. They were full of artificial scents purchased from foreign unknown countries. As the bottles were opened rich perfumes spreads and the fresh air loaded with their perfumes reached and ceiling and betted the light of the candles of the room. In the fire place acquired a greenish orange colored because the fire place was blamed by colored stones. The scene depicted the story off Philomela. Who was raped by the barbarous king tarsus, her own brother in low but was later on transformed in to a nightingale, the bird with a golem throat. Maidens are still raped as Philomela was raped, but while in the past as a result of suffering. She was transformed in to the bird with golden throat. Some other bingers were also carved on the mantel piece which seemed to learn our as if trying it listen to some sound in that closed and silent room. Soon there was heard the suffering sound of the root steps of someone climbing up the stairs. The lady knew that it was her lover and was emotionally exited. Her excitement was great that her hair .which she was camping and was spread out in the dazzling light of the room seemed like to have “beery points “and they would speak out but they remained still in a sinister, savage manner. after sometime the lady said to her lover that why did he never speak to her and she wanted him to stay with her next she asked him what he was thinking of when the lover still remained silent and she repeated her question. The lover replied that he was thinking that they lived in a lane inflected with rats; so many that they could eat away. At this point there is some sound or noise and the nervous brightened. The raise was heard again and the lady asked as to what the wind was doings there. The lover merely replied that it was nothing that it meant nothing she did not know what they would ever do the lover simply

                               Next the poet narrates another episode this time from middle classes life the poet shelter to a London barroom the speaker is a friend of all and where she is taking to some friends seated in a restaurant .when after the war ill husband has just been discharge from the army and she chided her friends at this time the bartender’s repeated calls of  “HURRY UP PLEASEIT’S TIME “meant the bar is closing for the might she has chided ill over her allure to get herself some false teeth telling her that her husband will seek out the company of other women if she doesn’t improve her appearance.lil calms that the cause of her revenge looks is the medication .she took to induce an abortion having nearly died giving birth to her birth child ,she had refused to have another but her husband won’t leave her alone  “the woman leave the bar to a chorus of “good night”.

3.     THE FIRE SERMON 

                      The title of this the longest section of the waste land is taken from a seaman given by Buddha in which he encourages his followers to give up. earthly passion and seek freedom from earthly things also the section begins with the poet pointing out that the tent formed over the river Thames by the trees on the opposite bank meeting at the top in the spring season is now broken because with the coming of autumn the trees have shed their leaves. The wind is blowing over the land covered with brown leaves :and the wind is blowing over the land covered with brown leaves the river banks are desolate for the ladies who had thronged them in the spring are no longer there. They have departed. The river Thames no longer carries on its bank in the summer season. The ladies have all departed and so also have departed their friends and lovers. Concerns in the city of London.

              Once long ago on a cold winter evening, Tarsiers the all knowing ,was finishing in the dull canal behind the gashouse and he heard the sounds of a rat’s creeping softly through the vegetation it dragged its dirty, slime covered belly with great difficulty .along the banks of the river. As he sat fishing, he threw of this brother king fisher, who had become a cripple and also of the death of his father before him. The moon shone brightly on mrs.porter and her daughter who wash their feet in soda water to make them look.farier still and so attract more customers. The next passage of four lines refers to the rape of Philomela and her transformation in to nightingale, the bird with the golden throats and she was rudely raped by her brother in law and suffering transformed her into nightingale. But her sons are mere meaningless “Twit, twit, twit” or “Jung, Jung” for the modern waste lenders. Next Tires as narrates an episode from lower middle class life. She is compared to a human engine, throbbing and waiting like a taxi. Says Tires as that now he may have grown old and blind but in his life he has seen and experienced all. The time of dusk is the time when all return to their homes it is the time even even the sailors. Return home from the sea. At this time the typist also return home. He sees her in their home first she removes the breakfast plates then she takes out her clothes spread out on the winders so that they may be dried up by  sun n and heaps them up on the divan which is also her bed for the night. The guest soon arrived. He was a gunman with a red face. He tried to engage her in love making, she did not rebuke him but remained indifferent to his love making and indicating that she did not desire it. She was hardly conscious of the fact that her lover had gone away. Thames there he has sometimes heard in lower street the pleasant but plaintive music of a amandine coming out of a bar mixed with the sound of clatter of vessel, the chatter of fishermen dinning and resting there at noon. The speaker the first of the three girls who lives near the second Thames daughter says that she was ruined in Moorgate locating in the eastern part of London, where poor people live. The third the same daughter says that she was ruined on Margate stands picric spot on the Thames. She does not remember anything. They are entirely helpless and expect nothing. The poet is reminded of the words of st.Augustine in his confessions.”To cartage them I came, where in his confessions “The entire modern waste land is burning in the fire of lust. They are all burning.   

4. DEATH BY WATER

            Plebes were a Phoenician sailor who was famous in ancient times, for their skill in negative. Now he has been dead for a fortnight. Now he no longer remembers the cry of gulls which he used to hear during, his voyage. Now he has also forgotten all about the rise and fall of the waves of the deep sea. His pursilaiat of wealth has also come to an end .his bones were caught by a current of water under the sea and were carried away with a slow ,whispering sound as his body and fell with the current, he passed the various stages of a man’s life from youth to old age. At last his body was caught in a whir pled and was seen no more. Thus ended his earthly existence. We should learn a lesson from his tragic death we should not seek to control our destiny and drive ourselves the boat of our life. If we do so we shall meet the tragic fate faith of plebes we should have faith in god and leave our destiny in his hands. As his body rose and fell with the current, he passed the various stages of a man’s life. From youth to old age. At last his body. Was caught in a whirled and was seen no more. Thus ended his earthly existence. We should not seek to control our destiny and drive ourselves the boat of our life. It we do so we shall meet the tragic fate of plebes we should have faith in god and leave our destiny in his hands.

5.     WHAT THE THUNDER SAID   

The section begins with an account of the arrest of Christ at the hand of his enemies. Their faces were dirty with sweat and red with anger. He was arrested in a garden and there was frosty silence after his arrest prison and palaces resounded with their shots. Then at last Christ was crucified. The poet adds that Christ did not die when he was Crisfield. He lived on in the   hearts of the devout but now he is dead because we the modern waste lenders. We are passive and inactive. The second passage refers to the journey of the question in search of the Holy Grail. They reach the kingdom of king fisher and the mountain on the top of which it was belied the holy Grail was kept in a chapped called the chapped perilous. There were only rocks all around them. They were also Rocky Mountains without any water. The caves of the mountains were hurries’ like wiled open mouths full of rotten teeth. The question could find no comfort in this mountain they could neither stand, nor sit, lie down to rest. They had gone on climbing constantly and could hear the sounds of thunder at a distance, but it was a thunder without any rain. They were not alone there but were surrounded by red angry faces that seemed to sneer and snare at them. The third passage describes the journey of two of the disciples of Christ who are going to the biblical waste land of Emmaus one of them asks his companions as to who was the third person walking by his side . This figure was well wrapped in a brown clock and had a hood over its head, so that he could not say whether it was amen or a woman The fourth passage describes the aimless journey of the modern waste Landers uprooted from their hearths and homes The earth is cracked at places and they stumbles and fall. The towers of churches or other big buildings of that city seem to be falling down. All are equally unreal and equally in rained far as religion and spiritual value as are concerned. These uprooted people of the modern waste land suffer from nervous and hysteria. There is spiritual sterility all around. The thunder spoke to the people a word “DA” that is to say that if they wanted his blesses they should give themselves over to some noble cause but the modern waste Landers are not devoted to any noble cause and hence their spiritual degeneration repeated the word “DA”. it means sympathies, god commanded them to came out of the prison of self and entire imaginatively in  to the sorrow and suffering of others such sympathy is essential for spiritual regeneration the same word “DA” was repeated third time also. The “DA” spoken now means Demayata that is to say self control, control over one’s own passion and desire. Such self control is essential for a successful and happy life. The story also implies that spiritual regeneration can take place only through suffering. The lines from a French sonnet “THE PRINCE OF AQUITACE” of the ruined tower also convey the same lesson. Such are the lesson which the poet has learned for his own salivation, to repair his own spiritual ruin if they remember the suffering alone leads to a spiritual salavation, they would quire spiritual calm and tranquility. Then there would be nothing but “SHANTIH, SHANTIH, and SHANTIH “in their lives.