A Summary of The Waste Land by T.S Eliot

Dr Oliver Tearle, an English lecturer at Loughborough University, discusses the key themes within The Waste Land, the most prominent of which is the breakdown - the breakdown of marriages and relationships, psychological breakdowns, the breakdown of poetry and language, and even the breakdown of an entire world.
Essentially, the poem looks at the affect which the First World War has had on civilisation - the only escape of which, is death. It’s a sobering concept, and one which T.S. Eliot addresses by drawing upon lots of cultural references and shifting abruptly between speakers, locations and times - all of which work to create a unique and obscure poem.
Unsurprisingly, The Waste Land is considered by many to be the most influential poetical work of the Twentieth Century.
For more information on The Waste Land, take a look at our useful study guide here;
www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ae...
Or take a look at our playlist for more videos:
• A Summary of The Waste...
Video transcript:
The Waste Land is a poem of breakdown - psychological breakdowns, a breakdown of marriages and relationships, of poetry and language, the breakdown even of an entire world. The carnage of the First World War had laid waste to Europe and made a mockery of the idea of civilization. After the war, Eliot's poem seems to ask, how can poetry respond to the mess the world has become? First published in 1922 The Waste Land is full of people sleepwalking through their daily lives the commuters travelling to work over London Bridge put the poem's speaker in mind of the swarms of tormented souls in hell.
Once the young typist has finished her unsatisfactory encounter with her acne face lover she simply smooths hair back and puts a record on - nothing to see here nothing gained, nothing. Life has become mechanical emptied of meaning, the epigraph from the Roman satirist Petronius which opens the poem tells of the Sybil from ancient Greek mythology who was doomed to eternal life but not eternal youth - trapped in her cage she prefigures all of the metaphorical prisoners of Eliot's poem when asked what she wants, the Sybil replies I want to die.
Elliot's poem is full of cultural references to other now long dead civilizations and their works of literature there are nods to ancient Greek myth to the age of Shakespeare in amongst the depictions of the modern world. At one point we found ourselves in London's East End in a pub where a woman is talking to a friend about a marriage and then suddenly we're back to Shakespeare again as a women are leaving the pub their speech merges with the words of Ophelia, that doomed Shakespearean heroin who went mad and drowned herself perhaps Elliot's poem seems to be saying death is the only real escape from the Waste Land.
The Waste Land presents a highly eloquent account of despair, its powerful vision of urban alienation spoke to a generation of young post-war readers and in doing so, it changed poetry forever. Eliot found a whole new language of poetry in the everyday world of motorcars and tinned food, jazz records, pub conversations, he complained that one of the first reviewers of the poem had over understood it, but really we're still seeking to understand it, we probably always will be. But then that's often the mark of a great work of literature like the characters in Eliot's poem, we can never truly leave the waste land behind.

[@kfctwigs136]

this was more suspenseful and dramatic than any Christopher Nolan films

[@kirstendanae4917]

After reading the first part of Eliot's poem, I found myself completely lost. This video was incredibly helpful, and presented in a very engaging and artful way. Thank you for this.

[@snehalk1564]

Thanks for this crucial summary and even the Fragmented way of presenting it.

[@jarturorod]

Excellent summary. Very well put together -- loved it!

[@fabricio_santana]

This video is gold.

[@abira2.0]

this is so helpful and very creative , thank you very much for this video !!

[@Adrianacalaimpirotta]

at the end of the video I turned my head back, on one hand to see the wasteland behind me, on the other hand to escape from his "I know your dead inside too" look. Anyway very useful video!

[@narimene6587]

eloquently inspiring , it helped me a lot thanks

[@vanessapopescu8886]

Very helpful and well put together- thanks!

[@rorysexton3917]

ok this was actually really cool im kinda intimidated

[@yourfavoriteweapon92]

LOVED THIS

[@Ellaembarks796]

Brilliantly done 👏 👏.. Love it

[@williamseymourjones9430]

Great video Dr. Tearle. Thanks for the upload. Very informative and interesting!

[@deeaurelius6541]

This is very helpful!

[@Pain420]

I'm more confused after watching this video than before watching.

[@anupamm1986]

Very helpful. Thank you very much

[@veraintuizione6497]

Thanks. Very precise very effective.

[@oussamasenfour4219]

Brilliant and helpful ❤

[@alexanderlightfoot571]

THIS WAS AWESOME

[@valmarsiglia]

Wow. The wasteland of KZbin actually has stuff for grownups, sometimes I forget.

[@SmileArtGallery]

It's great video, Thank you.

[@JackyKLai]

The cinematography in this!!!

[@alialkaabi5938]

Can anyone answer me! What is the exact number of languages that Eliot used in the " wasteland ". Does it two, four, six or eight?

[@unique_newyork]

Perfect employment of a slow motion camera gaze ------> 3:25

[@PurbasaandPriyanka]

its helpful.. but wanted to listen to it more..:)

[@ishmaelsix7581]

Thanks for this brief and lucid summary. Have always liked Eliot, but have a slight problem with his often highbrow tone - the "erudition", which always seems to me to exclude the wider reading public with no degree in English under its belt. This has helped me, cheers :-) - especially so after just reading Vera Brittain's "Testament of Youth", which really brings home the effect WW1 had on society in general. By the way, have you made a similar video summarizing "Four Quartets"? I'd welcome that, on the strength of this video.

[@chanm01]

Okay... But what about the "roaring 20s"? What about HG Wells' quixotic and obviously false idea, which nonetheless gained some popularity around 1914, that the "Great War" was _literally_ the "war to end wars", and that in exchange for tuition paid in the form of a great many lives, mankind had learned to transcend its baser tendency towards barbarism? That "good had finally triumphed over evil", and that civilization was at the brink of a millenarian age? Can't it be said that the theme of transformation and rebirth in the poem (and particularly the allusions in the final part) reflect these more life-affirming ideas? Or would it be more accurate to say that by the time TWL was finished in 1922, that when such ideas were discussed in literature it was primarily with a hint of sour irony?

[@jigjug3850]

please sir Upload more videos

[@EndoftheTownProductions]

In Hamlet, it is uncertain whether Ophelia intentionally commits suicide. There is ambiguity surrounding her death.

[@katssketches1118]

I have never heard of this man or this poem, but last night I dreamt I was walking across a rocky landscape, it looked like the site of a meteor crash or a crater that was slowly getting bigger, as I walked through the rocks and rubble I found a very old worn out key, and on the key was Inscribed 'TS ELIOT'. In my dream I knew it was a precious key and would help me.

[@aidanrabinowitz6555]

It probably unlocks something

[@theroyalkhati1960]

Love that beer 🍻

[@JoachimderZweite]

I like the imagery most of all. I also love alienation - the shallow pointless life which so reminds me of the UK with its grey skies, rain, grotty little streets and grubby women. This poem would never work in Provence, Tuscany or Catalonia. It is fixed in place if not in time. Eliot was an American who wrote a superb British winge.

[@MrWorld-hc5rs]

elon musk.