The Analysis of The Waste Land from the Modern Perspective

葛瑞應

Published in 1922，The Waste Land describes to us a doomsday scene under modernization.Eliot lived in the middle of the 20th century when industrial civilization was extremely criticized.The despair，suggested in The Waste Land，of the serious conflict between social reality，and traditional culture and the British Empire，was largely influenced by the widespread critical thoughts of industrial civilization.Even so，we can still strongly feel the endangered relationship between men and women in the era of drastic changes in his poems.

First of all，proceeding from a description of the details of the time，we can see modern people have special experience with time.The followings are a few examples in the poem.The time expression “a year ago”is noteworthy.The wasteland people especially refers to the men who are full of expectation of falling in love with the “hyacinth girl” but lost their nice feelings just in one year；“HURRY UP PLEASE TIS TIME”appears five times in the second chapter，“A GAME OF CHESS”，which exposes readers to the urgency of time；“The hot water at ten.And if it rains，a closed car at four” Modern people are restricted by precise time but have to rely on it to confirm their own existence.In front of the Londoners who had just entered industrial civilization，an active consciousness against being alienated in the tide of industrialization arose in his heart.

Time plays an important role in confirming peoples existence，but the tide of industrialization greatly increases their dependence on time.When describing the changing London，Engels felt anxious about this city where Eliot lived in：to create a superficially prosperous city，people were valued based on their economic contributions，at the expense of the good qualities of human nature.Thousands of people swarmed into the city，passing by each other without even an eye contact.The only tacit agreement was to walk on the right side so as to avoid interfering with the oncoming people.

Businessmen are another priority whom characterized with prominent features of capitalism by the flourishing state of industrialization.The poem describes a businessmen series：

The one-eyed merchant，Mr.Eugenides，an unshaven businessman from Smyrna，invited the other to rally with a mouthful of demotic French；As for another businessman，Stetson，known as a hat manufacturer among Londoners，the question for him is whether the corpses he planted last year have sprouted and bloomed；a small house agent's clerk ended his tryst and left in the darkness as if he only had relationship in body rather than soul with his lover.These evil businessmen are struggling in dire straits without realizing it.Other typical male images，such as the image of Albert built in the conversation between Lil and her girlfriend.Lil had no choice but to pander to the man with gender privilege.Therefore，whether Lil could live a peaceful life depended on whether Albert was able to restrain his momentary desires； the medicine store owner sold aborticide to Lil，whose body had been seriously harmed several times，for his own interests without regarding the irreparable influence of drug abusing.

Notably，it seems that on the surface，the looming male roles in the The Waste Land cannot cause sufficient attention compared with the female images which account for a big part of the poem.However，almost all thoughts and behaviors of women are dominated by one or several authoritative men behind them.The looming male images，to some extent，may have something to do with Eliots silence on his unfortunate marriage，which was relatively common in the modernized London described by Engels where citizens had already been strongly impacted by modernization.However，Eliot views that a poet should be actively involved in the society，and he did it himself and published a series of poetry review in 1933.The author still gave a remedy behind which is the mythological framework of the Fisher King and the legend of the Holy Grail.Furthermore，the male images，which regard the Fisher King as their commanding heights of spirit，show a modern phenomenon of separating the body and soul.According to Eliot who gives us the prescription of both Christianity and Buddhism，there is no doubt that male，the“sword”，is the undertaker of the final mission.

Reference：

[1]Helen Vendler，ed.The Waste Land and other poems[M].New York：Signet Classics，1998.

[2]Benjamin Walter.Charles Baudelaire：A lyric poet in the era of High Capitalism[M].Verso Books，1977.