The Waste Land
It is also important to consider to what degree Eliot’s allusions are to be taken seriousl y. I argued at the beginning of the essay that modernism involved perversions of history, and whilst Eliot seems to be ambivalent, often vying carefully towards reverence, he also engages the reader in subtle mockery. This is perhaps most evident in the ep igraph to the poem. Eliot, in the original Latin, calls to the reader’s mind an ancient sibyl awaiting death. From one reading, this provides an apt opening to the poem, depicting the suffering of a weary prophetess and her fall from power, drawing from the main images that make up the rest of the poem. However, it could also be read satirically, given that it was written by Petronius for his work The Satyricon , which, as implied by its name, is a work of satire. Thus, it could be argued that the epigraph is functions also as a form of satire, which features more prominently in Eliot’s drafts of the poem, as ‘ a way of managing the excesses of literary history ’ . 11 However, contrary to Lehman, I do not think that Eliot removes satire from the final version, rather, it has been subdued into a more subtle mockery of the attitudes that criticism takes towards the tradition and myth, or even, perhaps, to undermine what might appear to be his own overt sincerity. In conclusion, The Waste Land draws its force and meaning from the tradition, ranging from the classical clairvoyants (the Cumaean Sibyl and Tiresias) to the malaise of the Fisher King, as well as the tragic suffering depicted in Shakespeare. These poetic voices are co-opted into a modernist criticism of modern London, the moral and sexual degeneration reflected in the powerlessness of the figures Eliot uses. Thus, it functions, as Paris argues, as a ‘ reproductive ideology ’ that stems from a patriarchal structure which Eliot’s Christian perspective, whil e not Anglican yet, is strongly influenced by.
Bibliography
Bonevac, D (2013) Lecture 10: T. S. Eliot, lecture notes, Ideas of the Twentieth Century, University of Texas, delivered 24/09/13 Eliot, T. S. (1920) 'Tradition and the Individual Talent', Sacred Wood . London Eliot, T. S. (1923) ‘Ulysses, Order and Myth’, The Dial LXXV : 480-83 Gay, P. (2007) Modernism: The Lure of Heresy. New York. Gooderham, T. (1991) ‘Shakespeare and 'Tragedy' in ‘The Waste Land’’, Critical Survey 3: 178 – 185. www.jstor.org/stable/41555579. Consulted 17 Aug. 2021 Lehman, R.S. (2009) Eliot's Last Laugh: The Dissolution of Satire in ‘The Waste Land’ Journal of Modern Literature Vol. 32, No. 2: 65. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25511804 Consulted 19/08/21 McAbee, K. (1998) Myth and Violence in T.S. Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’ https://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/english/mwollaeger/KMcabee2paper.html Consulted: 13/08/21 Paris, V. (2016) Beginning Again with Modernist Epic . https://modernismmodernity.org/forums/posts/beginning- again-modernist-epic Consulted: 09/08/21 Sickner, P. (1984) ‘The Belladonna: Eliot's Female Archetype in The Waste Land’, TCL 30: 420-431 Schein, P. (2009) ‘The Human Engine Waits’: The Role of Technology in T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land https://www.bu.edu/writingprogram/journal/past-issues/issue-1/schein/ Consulted: 10/08/21 Ward, D.C. (2014) ‘How Did the Cruellest Month Come to Be the Perfect 30 Days to Celebrate Poetry?’ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/how-did-cruellest-month-come-be- perfect-30-days-celebrate-poetry-180950386/ Consulted: 17/08/21
11 Lehman 2009.
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