The document summarizes T.S. Eliot's modernist poem "The Waste Land". It provides biographical information about Eliot, an overview of the poem's structure in 5 parts, and analyzes major themes in the poem such as death, renewal, the seasons, love, water, history, and sterility in the post-World War 1 era. The presentation discusses how Eliot engages with these themes to portray the disillusionment of the modern generation.

1. yt
The Waste Land
-T.S.Eliot

2. Smt.S.B.Gardi Department of English
Name :- Riddhi H. Rathod
Presentation Topic :- Themes in “The Waste Land”
Paper No. :- 106 -20th century literature -1
M.A. Sem. :- 2
Enrollment No. :- 4069206420220025
Roll No. :- 18

3. Points to be ponder:-
•About the Author
•About the Poem
•Theme of the poem

4. About the author:
Born: 26 September,1888
St.Louis, Missouri, United
States
Died: 4 January,1965
London, United Kingdom
Thomas Stearns Eliot
 Poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and
editor
 One of the 20th century’s major poets, he is a central
figure in English-language Modernist poetry.
 Notable works:- The Love Song of J. Alfred
Prufrock(1915), The Waste Land(1922), Middlemarch,
Four Quartets, The Hallow Men, Tradition and the
Individual Talent, Preludes etc.
 On November 4, 1948, T.S.Eliot wins the Noble Prize
in Literature, for his profound effects on the direction of
modern poetry.
PowerPoint

5. The first, “The Burial of the
Dead”, introduces the
diverse themes of
disillusionment and
despair.
The second, “A Game of
Chess”, employs
alternating narrations, in
which vignettes of several
characters address those
themes experientially.
In the third section, its title
reference to the Buddhist
Fire Sermon, which
encourage the individual
to liberate himself from
suffering through
detachment from the five
sense and the conscious
mind.
About the poem:-
The Waste Land, long poem by T.S.Eliot, published in 1922. The 433 line, five-part
poem was dedicated to fellow poet Ezra Pound. It was one of the most influential
works of the 20th century.
1 2 3

6. Conti…
The shortest section of the
poem, “Death by Water”
describes a man, Phlebas
and Phoenician, who has
died, apparently by
drowning.
The final section of The Waste Land is dramatic in
both its imagery and its events. The first half of the
section builds to an apocalyptic climax, as suffering
people become “hooded hordes swarming” and the
“unreal” cities of Jerusalem, Athens, Alexandria,
Vienna, and London are destroyed, rebuilt, and
destroyed again.
4 5

7. Death:-
The Wasteland embraces death by
engaging the reader in desolation, which is
something that is often tied into death itself.
Death brings with it the desolation of
loneliness. He uses death to allude to the
death and rebirth of Christ, using the death
of Christ as a symbol of the death of religion
in the modern world.

8. .
Renewal/Rebirth:
The theme of renewal and rebirth is reoccurring throughout "The
Wasteland". There are several major concepts of the poem that
contribute to this idea of renewal. The poem begins in the month of
April, the beginning of spring, which is a symbol of renewal and
growth after the harsh winter months.

9. The Seasons:-
The basic theme of The Waste Land is the
disillusionment of the post-war generation and
sterility of the modern man. The critics have
commented on the theme in different words:
“vision of desolation and spiritual drought”
(F.R.Leavis)
“the plight of the whole
generation”.(I.A.Richardson)

10. Love:-
The references to Tristan und Isolde in “The Burial of the
Dead,” to Cleopatra in “A Game of Chess,” and to the
story of Tereus and Philomela suggest that love, in "The
Waste Land," is often destructive. Tristan and Cleopatra
die, while Tereus rapes Philomela, and even the love for
the hyacinth girl leads the poet to see and know
“nothing."

11. Water:-
Water is symbolic for cleansing and rebirth, as well as
death and destruction. In Part 3: The Fire Sermon, the
main setting of the poem is the Thanes River in London,
England. Before any other major themes are introduced,
the river is explained as being peaceful and abandoned.

12. History:-
The Waste Land can be viewed as
a poem about brokenness and
loss, and Eliot’s numerous
allusion to the First World War
suggest that the war played a
significant part in bringing about
this social, psychological, and
emotional collapse.

13. Thank you!

14. CICIATATION:-
Sultan, Hadi S., and A. Rai'a. "Intertextuality: The Themes of Death,
Sterility and Aridity in Eliot's The Waste Land as a Case Study." Buhuth
Mustaqbaliya Scientific Periodical Journal 4.1 (2007): 7-32.
Dalli, Elise. "The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot". Poem Analysis,
https://poemanalysis.com/t-s-eliot/the-waste-land/. Accessed 6 March
2023.