The document provides a summary and analysis of T.S. Eliot's modernist poem "The Waste Land". It notes that the poem is divided into five sections that address themes of disillusionment and despair in the modern world. The first two sections are analyzed in detail, with the first section introducing the protagonist Tiresias and his encounters representing the barren spiritual conditions of modern civilization. The second section employs vignettes of characters to further explore these themes of love degraded into guilt and lust in the waste land.

1. T.S.ELIOT’S
THE WASTE LAND
NAME:Hake Shranti Sitaram
Roll NO:3013
Class:M.A-1ST
Semester-2ND
Paper:2.2
Sub:English Literature From 1798-
2000
Email-shranti.hake.sh@gmail.com

2. • THOMAS STEARNS
ELIOT: Born on 26
September 1888 &
died on 4 January
1965, usually known
as T. S. Eliot
ABOUT POET

3. • He was an essayist, publisher, playwright,
literary and social critic, and "one of the
twentieth century's major poets".
• Eliot employs many literary and cultural
allusions from the Western canon,
Buddhism and the Hindu Upanishads.
• Because of this, critics and scholars
regard the poem as obscure.

4. • The Waste Land, by T.S. Eliot, is widely
regarded as "one of the most important
poems of the 20th century" and a central
text in Modernist poetry
• Eliot's poem loosely follows the legend of
the Holy Grail and the Fisher
King combined with vignettes of
contemporary British society.
• The poem's structure is divided into five
sections.
THE WASTE LAND

5. • Prescribed sections are: The Burial of
Dead &The Game of Chess
• The first section, The Burial of the Dead,
introduces the diverse themes of
disillusionment and despair.
• The second, A Game of Chess, employs
vignettes of several characters—
alternating narrations—that address those
themes experientially.

6. THE BURIAL OF DEAD
• Title refers to the burial service in the
Church of England & dead fertility gods
mentioned in Frazer’s book The Golden
Bow
• The theme of this section is that life is
contemporary world is a life in death
• It tells us that man has lost faith n spiritual
values & love has degenerated into lust

7. • TIRESIAS, The protagonist of the poem
represents modern man & remembers his
chat with an inhabitant of modern waste
land who is Marie the German Princess.
• She has entirely forgotten religious &
moral values.
• She lives purely on physical plane as
modern people do.

8. • Tiresias then surveys the condition of
modern civilization & finds it barren & dead
• The poet then introduces us with two
episodes of guilty love
• One of them is Tristan& other is German
Princess
• The both love is guilty & brings a sense of
boredom & futility the episodes reveal that
there is perversion of love & sex in the
modern waste land
•

9. • Then we are taken to
metropolitan city like London or
Paris & introduced to Madam
Sosostris with wicked pack of
wicked cards
• She is a fortune-teller & fears of
arrested by Police
• The cards bears various
personages like blank card
stands for loss of religion &
picture of people ‘walking in
ring’ stands for crowd in London

10. • The protagonist then
surveys the unreal city,
London & the crowd
moving over London
bridge are spiritually
dead citizens of waste
land going on their dull
routines

11. • Tiresias the protagonist, then meets one of
his acquaintances, Stetson .He had mrt
him first ay Mylae.He symbolises
humanity.
• Thus the section states the general theme
of THE WASTE LAND.
• It is degradation of life in modern world.
The poem is full of allusions.

12. THANK YOU…