ANALYSIS OF THE BURAL OF THE DEAD

The burial of the dead is the first section of The Waste Land, that is published in 1922. The Waste Land is a complex poem and it consists of five sections. In the poem there are some references to Holy Grail, ressurection of Christ and a lots of mythological and religious figures.

The extract begin with a strange affirmation: “April is the cruellest month”. Generally April is linked with Spring, flowers, sun and it is the season of ri-birth. When English people read it they were surprise. In the second line Lilacs are flowers that are generally used during cerimonies and funerals, so they are linked with a word of the title: “dead”.  But how can Lilacs be born in a land which is dead?

This is a dramatic monologue where there is a speaking voice. It consists of a lots of scenes, and in the first scene, where there is the description of April, with its flowers and its rain, T. S. Eliot speaks about ressurection in the religious code and the scene is set in a desolate atmosphere. Besides in the first scene there is the description of Spring and the modernist data convertion of barbarians’ act of vegetating.  The speaking voice talks about three seasons: Spring, that is rapresented by April, Summer and Winter. Summer and Spring are linked with a meteorological event, that is rain. Rain is important because water is generally a symbol of life.

In the second scene, who begins with “And went on in sunlight…” the speaking voice talks about a memory and it is set in Austria, near Munich.

After this introduction, that has no sense, Eliot speaks about the most important theme. Literature is about life and is a discipline, a way to know the world and needs: logic, intuition and profession.

But it i salso important the battle of Mylae, that is linked with the myth. This battle was fighted between Romans and Chartaginians and Romans won. Why did they win? Because they accepted also the others cultures and they used them.

Eliot didn’t want to use the narrative method, he decided to use the mythic method and he used a strange technique because he links the scenes, that haven’t got analogies, but they have the same atmosphere.