COMPREHENSION

1.Focus on the three themes of the section, as explained in the introduction. Find references to them in the text.

The three themes are: the journey of Christ’s disciples to Emmaus after the Resurrection, the approach to the Chapel Perlous to the Holy Grail legend and the present decay of Eastern Europe.

The first section recalls Gesus Christ’s death and in particular line 7 deals with people who lost their certainties and who are unable to cope with reality: it hints at the third theme. The second section recalls the second theme: the lines are conveying the impossibility of water, of regeneration and so of life and hope. It gives a sense of privation that causes pain to the human being. Such privation reduces life to the minimum. The approach to the Chapel Perlous is hard as well as life without water, in a rocky landscape. The necessity of water becomes an obsession just like the Holy Grail.

The third section recalls the first theme. The figure of the “wrapped in a brown mantle” hints at the image of Christ that followed the disciples during the journey. They didn’t recognize him just like the human being is unable to look at the important aspects of his life. In this line Eliot recalls the third theme too. He points out the inability of man to recognize God who is a metaphor for the most important thing or culture.

INTERPRETATION

1.What is the thunder advice?

The thunder is a symbolic figure for water. It provokes rain which is what the human beings need.

2. What do you think “these fragments” are?

These fragments might refer to his work he has been doing to find a solution to the human beings’ problem. It might be a metaphor for the text itself which makes the reader feel the real problem of humanity. It makes the reader reflect and make him/her willing to find out a solution to the ruins.

3. The journey has come to an end. What final message is conveyed in the concluding lines? Why do you think the last words are written in Sanskrit?

The journey deals with the necessity of human beings to look at regeneration. Only after their successful efforts they will find peace which passes understanding. The final words hints at a new way of living life. In my opinion Sanskrit was the perfect language because it recalls the eastern society which more than ever needs a regeneration.

4. What is your reaction to Eliot’s experimental poetry and mass of notes you need (or don’t need) in order to understand it?

Eliot’s style is quite unusual and difficult to understand due to his high-leveled-technique of the juxtaposition of scenes. I needed a great amount of notes to deeply understand his works’ message. Every word is not casual, every syllable hints at a particular sound and meaning that the reader must take into consideration.  His culture is indeed great and the reader must have read most of the previous writers’ works in order to truly understand Eliot’s intertextuality.

5. What causes obscurity in Eliot’s poetry?

The use of the juxtaposition of scenes, the intertextuality and the lack of narrative explicative parts cause obscurity in Eliot’s poetry.