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Use of mythical
technique in the waste land
Prepared by- Divya Choudhary
Course- M.A.
Semester- 3
Paper no. - 9
Paper name- Modern Literature
Enrolment no - PG15101007
Batch- 2015-17
Email id- choudharydivya400@gmail.com
Submitted to- Smt. S. B.
Gardi Department of English
Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji
Bhavnagar University
Use
of Mythical technique in the Waste Land
Introduction:
T.S.Eliot was born in 1888, in St. Louis, Missouri. His first work was “The
love song of J.Alfred Prufrock” in 1915. He wrote the poem “The Waste Land”
while recovering from the exhaustion. From 1911 to 1914 he returned back to
Harvard where he expanded his knowledge by reading Indian philosophy and
studying Sanskrit. In 1919, Eliot published poems which contained “Gerontion”.In
1922 his poetic work comes out in shape of “The Waste Land” a complex
examination of disillusionment. This work was immediately spread like a virus
in all literary corners and it is frequently considered as the most influential
work in 20th century. He founded what would become an influential
literary journal called ‘Criterion’ (1922-1939).His major works are “Ash
Wednesday” (1930), “Four Quartets”(1943),”Use of Criticism”(1933), “After
strange Gods”(1934) and received Nobel Prize in literature in 1948. (Wikipedia)
T.S.Eliot
‘The Waste Land’ is an important achievement in the history of English poetry
and one of the most talked poems of the 20th century by Thomas Stern
Eliot. This poem is very long one including four hundred forty lines which is
divided into five parts. They are given below:
(1)
The Burial of the Dead
(2)
A Game of chess
(3)
The fire sermon
(4)
Death by water
(5)
What the Thunder said
What
is a Myth?
“A
traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or
explaining a natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural
beings or events” (oxford dictionaries)
An exaggerated
or idealized conception of a person or thing: ‘the book is a scholarly study of
the Churchill myth’.
A
fictitious or imaginary person or thing: ‘nobody had ever heard of Simon’s
mysterious friend – Anna said he was a myth’. (oxford dictionaries)
There
are many myths which can be observed in this poem. T.S Eliot’s The waste land
is an important land mark in the history of English poetry and one of the most
talked poems of the same Age. Here T.S Eliot described the mythical background
in his poem. This mythical technique can be elaborated as given below.
·
The
Grail Legend
·
The
King Fisher
·
Myth of
Tiresias
The
grail Legend:
The
Myth about this vessel was that at have acquired medicinal and miraculous
properties so the result is that it became an object for purity or one kind of
devotion and worship. The lance used to pierce the sides of Christ and kept
with it. But a time the original Grail was mysteriously disappeared and many of
the bold Knights staked their lives and them searching for this vessel. It was
generally believed that the grail was sometimes could be found in the sky as
the floating saucer but it could only see by those, Knights who were virginal
beauty. (Bhammar)
Picture of the Grail Legend
Myth of
Tiresias:
Here in
this poem this myth often comes up to the end of this poem. Tiresias is
represented as a bi-sexual in The Waste Land as he was blind but he has the
gift of prophecy and immortality. Many stories are same like Tiresias story.
According to one story this wise Theban soothsayer in his youth once saw the
goddess Athena naked in a pond and goddess struck him blind but his mother was
a friend of hers so she bestowed upon him. According to Eliot, Tiresias comes
out as the central figure through this poem, what Tiresias sees is the
substance of the whole poem. The importance of Tiresias is complex and varied
but it is connected with history with the story of King Oedipus, Thebes the
classical legend of a waste land. Let’s see the story of King Oedipus in the
context of Tiresias and see how it is connected with waste and as a myth. (Bhammar)
Picture of Tiresias
King
Fisher:
According
to this myth King Fisher was the prince named King Fisher. It was one of the
regions where Grail worship had been anciently vogue, and a temple Known as
Chapel Perilous, still stood there, broken and dilapidated, as a mournful
memorial of what once was, but later had ceased to be. It was said that the
lost Grail was hidden in this chapel. At that time the king himself had become
a physical wreck, maimed and impotent, as a result. It was whispered, of a sin
committed by his soldiery in outraging the chastity of a group of nuns attached
to the Grail chapel. The impotency of the Fisher King was reflected
sympathetically in the land of which he was the head and ruler. It had become
dry and barren, the haunt and home of want and famine. The King, however, was
waiting with hope, despite his illness, that one day the Knight of the pure
soul would visit his star-crossed kingdom, march to the Chapel Perilous, answer
questions and solve riddles. (Rabhadiya)
So,
here 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.
There
are other symbols like:
Ø Drought
Ø Animals
Ø Landscape
Ø Thunder
Ø Religion etc.
So,
here this poem The Waste Land is symbolically very rich poem. We rarely find
such a variety of symbols except in T.S.Eliot’s Wasteland. Living beings,
animal or insect have been the important symbol.
King
Oedipus and his Waste land:
Tiresias
serves, in the first place to complicate the mythical frame of the poem and in
the second place to universalize. Oedipus unwittingly kills his father and
marries with his mother and thus call down upon his supposedly innocent head
the curse of the gods in form of virulent plague, epidemic an destructive which
neither king nor commoners fails to regard as a punishment for some dark and
hidden crime. Tiresias, the blind prophet is summoned and when compelled by the
king tells the shocking truth that he, the king himself, is the plague
spot. Such is the conspiracy of
circumstances that the king is slowly but irresistibly, driven to the
realization of this horrible truth. Nothing remains for the king but the duty
of expiation, self mutilation, self-exile, self-abasement and a prolonged
penance which eventually result in spiritual calm and inner illumination. (Rabhadiya)
Tiresias
is represented as a bi-sexual in The Waste Land as he was blind but he has the
gift of prophecy and immortality. Many stories are same like Tiresias story.
According to one story this wise Theban soothsayer in his youth once saw the
goddess Athena naked in a pond and goddess struck him blind but his mother was
a friend of hers so she bestowed upon him. According to another story, Tiresias
saw two snakes copulating them with his stick and the snakes in wrath
transformed him into women. Later on, he was questioned by love and juno as to
whether Man is more passionate or woman. He declared that woman is more
passionate. At this Juno was angry and stuck him blind but Zesus or Love
compensated him by conferring upon the twin gifts of prophecy and immortality.
Please post your comments and suggestions in the comment section.
Thank You....
Works Cited
Please post your comments and suggestions in the comment section.
Thank You....
Bhammar, Bharat. Blog. n.d. 2014.
<http://bharatbhammar051314.blogspot.in/2014/10/critical-evaluation-of-waste-land.html>.
oxford dictionaries. n.d. <https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/myth>.
Rabhadiya, Vinod. Blog. 14 october 2014.
<http://vjrabhadiya.blogspot.in/2014/10/myths-in-waste-land-introduction-t.html>.
Wikipedia.
n.d.
