Year 12 IB Extended Essays 2018

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The Waste Land: 1922 The Waste Land is T.S Eliot’s preeminent work, representing the culmination of his career as a modernist writer whilst exemplifying his philosophies that cement his position as a traditionalist. A first reading of The Waste Land will evoke a response of confusion from readers, with Eliot acknowledging its multifaceted, complex nature, by later releasing accompanying notes to adequately rationalise the work. During the time he wrote The Waste Land , Eliot was experiencing severe personal troubles; he was unhappily married, and suffered a mental breakdown, meaning he wrote much of The Waste Land in a Swiss sanatorium. He described The Waste Land as “ the relief of a personal and wholly insignificant grouse against life…just a piece of rhythmical grumbling.” (Lewis, 2007) However, it can be seen that The Waste Land represents more than Eliot’s personal crises. It provides an insight to the experiences of many in Western Civilisation following the First World War, with lines like ‘the dead trees that give no shelter’ encapsulating this sense of loss and desolation. The radical structure of The Waste Land emphasises a narrative that expresses Eliot’s concerns about the changes brought about by modernity and his disillusionment with the emerging landscape following the war. Throughout, Eliot makes comment that a loss of feeling which leads to liberation should be achieved by abandoning the five senses; a Buddhist teaching known as the ‘Fire Sermon’. Overall, Eliot suggests that the new Western Civilisation existed in a world void of authority and belief that was previously enforced by traditional structures, and what remained following the First World War was a world unable to advance.