'The Westland' by T.S. Eliot

Hy readers! This blog is a part of a thinking activity assigned by Dilip Barad Sir from The English Department, MKBU, Bhavnagar. I am going to write about 'The Westland' written by T.S. Eliot in this blog. Indian ideology and the contrast between Eliot and Freud these points are also discussed in this blog.

Born- 26 September 1888

Died- 4 January 1965 

Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in St. Louis and lived there during the first eighteen years of his life. He attended Harvard University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in three years and contributed several poems to the Harvard Advocate. After graduating, he moved back to Europe and settled in England in 1914. The following year, he married Vivienne Haigh-Wood and began working in London, first as a teacher, and later for Lloyd’s Bank. After a notoriously unhappy first marriage, Eliot separated from his first wife in 1933 and married Valerie Fletcher in 1956. In 1927, Eliot was baptized into the Church of England. In 1928, he took British citizenship, and announced himself in the preface to his prose collection for Lancelot Andrewes as a ‘classicist in literature, royalist in politics, and anglo-catholic in religion’. In 1948 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. T. S. Eliot died in London on January 4, 1965. 

'The Westland':

'The Waste Land', a long poem by the American writer T S Eliot, is one of the most famous works of literary modernism. It is Published in 1922. Poem written in 434 lines. Eliot's poem combines the legend of the Holy Grail and the Fisher King with vignettes of contemporary British society. The poem is divided into five sections. 

1. 'The Burial of the Dead'  
2. 'A Game of Chess'
3. 'The Fire Sermon'  
4. 'Death by Water'
5. 'What the Thunder Said'

In 1914, Eliot also met the American expatriate poet Ezra Pound, whose influence on Eliot would be profound. It's believed the first draft of the poem was written over several preceding years, but Eliot first showed a draft to Pound in 1921. Pound made several cuts and suggestions that formed the final version published in 1922. Eliot's work included other masterpieces such as 'The Four Quartets' and 'The Love Song' of Alfred J. Prufrock."

1) Prior to the speech, Gustaf Hellström of the Swedish Academy made these remarks:

T.S. Eliot and Sigmund Freud 

What are your views regarding these comments? Is it true that giving free vent to the repressed 'primitive instinct' lead us to happy and satisfied life? or do you agree with Eliot's view that 'salvation of man lies in the preservation of the cultural tradition.

The 1948 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to British-American poet Thomas Stearns Eliot for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry." Eliot is the fourth British recipient of the prize after John Galsworthy in 1932. Prior to the speech, Gustaf Hellström of the Swedish Academy made these remarks: 

"Humility is also the characteristic which you, Mr. Eliot, have come to regard as man’s virtue. ‹The only wisdom we can hope to acquire is the wisdom of humility".

In ‘The Waste Land’ the greatest poem of the twentieth century, Eliot blames sex, or rather its degradation and commercialization, as both the cause and the symptom of the decay of Western civilization. The poem is at once profoundly moving and equally distressing. In a word, T.S. Eliot had tried to paint the sterility and the disturbance of the modern world after the First World War. At one time sex was considered sacramental, a consummation of conjugal love and means of human development. But unfortunately in modern time, sex has become an animal urge with no moral or social commitment. It is perverted and is utilized for erotic pleasure and monetary benefits. It has also led to the erosion of moral values and has turned to be a hurdle in man’s spiritual progress. 

In the first section of the poem, ‘The Burial of the Dead' Eliot gives two examples of guilty love and the pain of satisfied love outside the marriage.The poet refers to the story of Tristan and Isolde. He also gives another example of guilty love, the story of the hyacinth girl.

Freud's idea is also true that giving free vent to the repressed “primitive instinct” can lead us to happy and satisfied life, but only individually. But yeah it depends on a person's individual thoughts.The things and happiness which is satisfying us can harm others and which gives pleasure to others can harm us. Human beings follow cultural tradition and believe in such lifestyle and moralities, a network of understanding can be created and we live peacefully. 

2) Write about allusions to the Indian thoughts in 'The Waste Land'. (Where, How and Why are the Indian thoughts referred?)

Thunder pops up mostly in the fifth and final section of the poem, titled "What the Thunder Said." It takes its meaning from the fact that thunder usually symbolizes the coming of rain, but it also draws on Hinduism.

Damyata, datta, dayadhvam

1) Datta: to give: not only charity but giving oneself for some noble cause – passionate participation, not mere mechanical – devote oneself for noble deeds.

 2) Dayadhvam: sympathize – empathize yourself with the sorrows and suffering of others.

3) Damyata: Self Control, control over one’s passions and desires.

This very thing the heavenly voice of thunder repeats da, da, da, that is, control yourselves, give, be compassionate.In the ancient Hindu text Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Prajapati or the creator is asked by his three-fold progeny – gods, men and demons for advice, and he utters the syllable da three times. Self-control, giving and compassion, he says, should be the three guiding principles of all creatures. Eliot feels that if we can learn these three things, we'll at least be much better off than we've been for the last while. It's while talking about "What the Thunder Said'' that Eliot most directly tells us to get over ourselves and start thinking about others. He ends the poem with a chanting of "shanti," often recited at the end of Hindu prayer in The Upanishads. The word ‘Shanti' is used for peaceful life in most of the chants of Indian Vedas and Upanishads and Eliot has also used it to end his poem and to give the message of peace. 

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