Notes about The Waste Land: What the Thunder Said (11/4/12)

The last part of T.S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land is titled What the Thunder Said. The speaking thunder is taken from the holy Hindu book Upanishad. In the Hindu fable God speaks through the thunder to men.
Mr Eliot explains there are three main themes juxtaposed in this last part of the poem: Christ's journey to Emmaus, the approach to the Chapel Perilous in the Holy Grail legend and the present decay of Eastern Europe.
In the first scene Mr Eliot presents images of sufference. He presents Christ's death and resurrection.
In the second scene the poet presents the effort of ones who are approaching to the Chapel. The key words of this part are "water" and rock": water symbolizes life and regeneration, while the rock is the inability to communicate, to put in common something.
Harsh sounds recall immediately to reader's mind thirsty and the effort: it is the correlative objective technique.
In this scene there is the semantic field of deprivation and of effort. Moreover there is a mixing of the senses, because the poet presents the situation throughout all the senses (sight, hearing ...).
At line 39 there is "a third" that walks near two people: Mr Eliot associates it to disciples' journey to Emmaus, when they see a shadow that follows them. The theme of the impossibility to recognize the others is presented here.
At line 53 there are "the falling towers", that represent the falling of culture. All the cultures are crumbling down. The world is not united.
Grail Chapel is the only hope of regeneration but it is empty, so regeneration and purification are denied. Furthermore there is not stability (represented by the word "swing") and the cock is another symbol taken from the Bible.
Nature is waiting for the rain to survive.
At the end of the poem there is a message and the poet gives it in Sanskrit, the most ancient language of the world. Thunder in Hindu fable speaks to gods, men and demons: it is a symbolic language and everyone has to interpretate it.
The world "Da" refers to give to the others to have regeneration. "Dayadhvam" refers to suffer with the others and to have compassion. "Damyata" represents the practice of selfcontrol. Mr Eliot refers in the last scene to 20ieth century man, who is only interested to himself and to lose nothing. It is presented man's opportunism: people is trapped.
The writer refers at line 87 to Shakespeare's Coriolanus, who acted out only of pride: man is egoist, but thinking only of himself he does not obtain redemption.
At line 95 the poet refers to the Fisher King: fishing is the search for regeneration. The swallows represent a non-existant beauty.
At line 100 there is a reference to G. de Nerval's work: the Prince of Aquitaine in the ruined tower represent the oppression, the captivity and the egoism. The Christian sense of life is lost.
The word "Shanti" represents the reaching of peace beyond rationality, beyond logocentrism of Western world (Bible begins with a sentence that underlines that the word was at the very beginning of Universe).