Waste Land Essay: Spiritual Decay -- T.S. Eliot Waste Land Essays

Spiritual Decay in The Waste Land In The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot develops his theme of sterility and decay in the post-World War I man by focusing on the aspect of religious shortage or superficiality reflected in despintualized love (Pinion). For Eliot, mans inability to find authentic love or to move beyond superficial sexual gratification is congruous to the spiritual decay of his soul. In the first part of the poem, The interment of the Dead Eliots allusions to two love stories amidst a backdrop of stony rubbish and low images illustrates his view of love as something that has lost its ability to blossom in the infertility of modem society (20,22). Eliot alludes to the story of Tristan, a young sailor, who leaves his lover, Isolde, behind when he sails for home. As he lies dying, he waits for the arrival of her ship, but the sea that is to select her remains empty and desolate. This shows how human longing in love is fr... ...erating his look forward to for the regenera tion or rebirth of the human spirit (424-425). Works Cited and Consulted Pinion, F.B., A T.S. Eliot Companion Life and Works, The Macmillan Press (1986) Southam, B.C., A Guide to the Selected Poems of T.S. Eliot, Harcourt Brace & caller-up Shashane, VA Reflections on the Waste Land, Studies on IS Eliot Ed. A.N. Dwivedi US Bahri Publishers (1989) Raffel, Burton IS Eliot Frederick Ungar Publising Co., Inc. (1982)