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Myth in Wasteland
Myth in Wasteland
Myth in Wasteland
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Introduction
Modern period is the time of suffering, revolt, wandering, and escape. That is why great poets like W. B. Yeats, and T. S. Eliot discuss myth in their poetry. In other words, their poetry and mythological consideration is a kind of escape from, and revolt against the chaotic, and catastrophic circumstance of the contemporary society. T. S. Eliot, for example, is like a quest in the history of mankind in the search of a pattern in order to solve such a riddle. Both of the East and West are the borders of his search; moreover, metaphysical meditations and speculations. The concern of this study is to analyze his poem The Waste Land based on the Jungian theory of Collective Unconscious. To do it, at first, the researchers discuss the relationship between the archetype and myth, second, myth and neurosis, finally, the analysis of the poem as neurosis of the time.
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the psychic dissociation did not occur. In the past, human was linked to his ancestors by myths. These patients (neurotic men) are people who cannot endure the lack of myth.11 According to Jung and other scholars and mythologist like Joseph Campble (1961) this problem is because of rationalism and its view toward myth. Based on rationalism, someone who pays attention to manifestation of his archetypal tendencies (origin of myth) is supposed as a superstitious and fool person. Therefore; modern time lakes mythology and it is the fall of myth. Donna Rosenberg explains the interpretation of myths (symbol of internal environment ) in twentieth century by Jung and his followers who view them as expression of universal, collective unconscious and innate psychological characteristics, common to all human being, determines how people throughout the world and throughout history experience and respond to the process of living. In other words, as Rosenberg adds; a particular individual's life experiences determine in what particular shape and form the archetypal images will be expressed.12 Rosenberg means that myths are expression of archetypal images as a process of living or particular experiences. In other words, living as a process or particular experience is the way that archetypal images will be expressed. It means that human being has passed and experienced a balanced and harmonious life if he has respected and practiced his archetypal images and permitted their expression. Jung, as the leader of this mythological analysis, explains the view of modern man towards myths and archetypes and believes modern men maintain that such symbols belong to the people of antiquity or to the "back word" modern tribes are therefore; irrelevant to the complexity of modern life. Jung adds, in London and New York we may dismiss the fertility rites of Neolithic man as archaic superstition. If anyone claims to have seen a vision or heard voices, he is not treated as a saint or as an oracle. It is said he is mentally disturbed. We read the myths of the ancient Greeks or the folk stories of American Indians, but we fail to see any connection between them and our attitudes to the "heroes" or dramatic events of today. Jung believes, these symbols are so ancient and unfamiliar to modern man who cannot directly understand or assimilate them.13 Analysis of the Waste Land Analysis of The Waste Land is the final concern of this study. To do this we should analyze the poem which is the juxtaposition of the past (myths of taboo violation) and present (sex perversion as taboo violation) in a contrast way in the stream of consciousness of Tiresias, the real personage of the poem. Sex violation, waste land, and rebirth are recurrent plots and motif in literature that affect everybody as a human being, because it awakens the archetypal tendency of this knowledge which exists in the collective unconscious of all human being. An anthropologist like Jessie L. Weston (1920) has traced the sex violation of Fisher King and his soldiers that has been resulted in a waste land. Furthermore, Levi Strauss (1950s), another anthropologist, has traced the sex violation in the history of mankind and he defines mythem as a kind of incest or kinship sex which is a universal taboo. Eventually, S. J. Frazer, the great anthropologist in modern time, has classified the universal taboos and referred to the sex-violation as a serious problem in any time. Eliot's The Waste Land consists of some codes which are other faces of this motif (sexviolation). In other words, The Waste Land, is based on structuralism, is a collection of encoded myths (more fertility myth) and critic's task is to decode them. These myths are Fisher King, Oedipus in Thebes, Philomela, Evil Land of Emmaus, and Indian Waste Land. At first, we try to deliver a short plot of these myths and their relation with modern society as their symbolic significance. Fisher King as a myth which influenced T. S. Eliot to write his poem, The Waste Land, is noteworthy of consideration as the first one. Miss Jessie L. Weston (1920) has traced this myth which is the story of a king whose sex violation is resulted in a psychic and social Waste Land. After his sex violation, Fisher King had become a physical wreck, maimed and impotent. Gradually it was whispered and the sin committed by his soldiers in outraging the chastity of a group of nuns attached to the Grail Chapel. The impotency of the fisher king was reflected sympathetically in the land of which he was the head and ruler. It becomes dry and barren. The king, however, was waiting with hope,
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despite of his illness, that one day the Knight of the pure soul would visit his stare crossed kingdom, march of Chapel Perilous, answer questions and solve the riddles. This would be followed by a ritual washing of his King Fisher's sinful body, which would purge it and renew its health and energy. It was also hoped that this rebirth of the King would be followed by the life-giving rains to the parched land and the thirsty kingdom, which would once more enjoy its earlier fertility. As a result, fisher king achieves his rebirth through suffering and questing compensation of his sin, consequently; he guarantees the rebirth of his society. Eliot's The Waste Land refers to the Fisher King myth: ...I sat upon the shore/ Fishing with the arid plain behind me / Shall I at least set my land in order (L.424). According to Eliot's notes, these lines are allusions to V. Weston: From Ritual to Romance; Chapter on the Fisher King. Furthermore, the inclusive "I", as Eliot explains; who sits in the symbolic act of fishing (seeking salvation, resurrection, eternity) with the Waste Land behind him, wonders how far he can order his affairs. There is a note of subdued hope or at least determination in these lines. The "at least" suggests a reasonable minimum of achievement.14 What is the symbolic significance of the Fisher King Myth? From the viewpoint of symbolism, Fisher King symbolizes contemporary decay and spiritual sterility. The sick king is the symbol of the humanity whose sickness causes in the case of Fisher King, from its sexual sins. The difference between Fisher King and modern man is that Fisher King is remorseful and in questing achieves the rebirth of his land and of his own, but modern man does not believe this archetypal tendency of rebirth, and he is not remorseful; therefore, he will meet a dissociated psyche i.e. neurosis. This problem has been depicted through juxtaposition of lines 424-6 (fisher king who is sitting in the shore and thinking how to set his land in order) and next line: "London Bridge is falling down falling down falling down (The Waste Land L. 427). In this line "bridge" is symbol of link and association whose fall is sign of dissociation and collapsed London as a part of modern society. Other encoded myth in the Eliot's The Waste Land is King Oedipus and his Waste Land. As a universal plot that embodied in Greek literature and mythology in the best way, Oedipus is someone who unwittingly and unknowingly kills his father and marries his own mother and thus he is cursed by the gods and his country is covered by virulent plague, epidemic and destructive, which neither King nor Commoner fails to regard as a punishment for some dark and hidden crime. Tiresias, the blind prophet is summoned and when compelled by the King tells the shocking truth that he, the King himself, is the plague-spot. In such a circumstance, the King is slowly, but irresistibly, driven to the realization of this horrible truth. Nothing remains for the king but duty of expiation, self-mitigation, self-exile, self-abasement and prolonged penance which eventually result in aspiration calm and inner illumination as a real rebirth of himself and his kingdom. Like the Fisher King, Oedipus' destiny is a kind of sex violation and emergence of a Waste Land in which the spiritual and vegetation decay has covered the society. Tiresias, according to Eliot's notes is the central figure in the poem, "an interested spectator of the modern waste land ", what Tiresias sees is the substance of the whole poem.15 The significance of Tiresias is complex. Actually, he is the best element in Eliot's poem that connects it with the story of King Oedipus of Thebes. As he says in the poem (1922): I Tiresias an old man with wrinkled dugs / Perceived the scene, and foretold the rest /And I Tiresias have foresuffered all / I who have sat by Thebes below the wall (Ls.228-246). Tiresias is an immortal prophet who witnessed Oedipus' sex violation and his waste land. Now, he is the central personage and the poem is his stream of consciousness. In above quotation, he observes sex violation of modern man and complains it as repetition of what he has observed in Thebes. Symbolic significance of this myth is the importance of Tiresias as a symbol of the past still surviving at present, the old man with wrinkled female breast. Tiresias has suffered all that is performed on the ugly stage of the contemporary world. In other words, Tiresias' presence is something that connects the deviation of present modern man to the past as repetition of sex violation and foretelling the future as what he sees as a foreteller. The reason for Tiresias' pessimism is that he
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knows modern man who does not believe in archetypal tendency of rebirth through repentance and suffering what saved and redeemed Oedipus and his kingdom. Raped Philomelia by the Barbarous King by V. Ovid (430 B.C-17A.D.) is another encoded myth in the poem. The poem refers to it: "the changed Philomela by the barbarous king" in line 99. According to Eliot's notes this part is an allusion to Ovid's version of the Greek myth of the rape of Philomela by barbarous king "Tereus" husband of her sister Procne. Philomela was transformed into a nightingale so that she could sing her misery for ever as her purification.16 In other words, in order to achieve her rebirth; Philomela was transformed into a nightingale and "still she cried. Pursues" (The Waste Land L. 102). Her rebirth and song is eternal, and still cries refers to the past, and pursues refers to the present. It indicates that what happened to Philomela still happens to helpless maidens. The only difference is that while Philomela could be transformed into the bird of golden song, but such transformation, the result of suffering, is not possible in the present degenerated world. It is clear that in the next lines "Jug Jug to dirty ears" (The Waste Land L.103) means to the waste landers the song of the nightingale has not any spiritual significance. It does not tell the story of transformation through suffering. It is mere a bird-song, meaningless and without significance, because modern man (waste landers) does not believe such symbols of archetypal tendencies.
Conclusion
Archetype is a kind of innate tendency which exists in the collective unconscious of all human being both primitive (unconscious) and modern (conscious). Such tendencies act unconsciously. In other words, they answer to particular stimuli in the same way while transcending the time and space. Moreover, archetypal tendencies can be perceived and applied consciously in the form of mythology. On the other hand, mythology means; conscious re-experience of archetypal tendencies by proper use of symbols. This kind of relationship between the conscious and unconscious is resulted in the psychic unification and balance. According to Jung, if we do not pay attention to these tendencies in the form of mythology, we will meet a psychic dissociation i.e. neurosis. Eliots The Waste Land is juxtaposition of the past and present. The past consists of taboo violation which resulted in a psychic and natural waste land. In such a circumstance the waste landers have paid attention to the archetypal tendency of rebirth in the form of mythology and heroism and finally they attained the rebirth of their own and of their land. The present consists of, in the same way, sex perversion of modern man and emergence of a psychic waste land, but they lack any redemption, because they do not believe such deeds.
References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] Jung, C. G. Man and his Symbols, London: Adus, 1968. P.67. Ibid. P. 81. Ibid. P.81. Jung, C. G. The Archetype and the Collective Unconscious. Trans: R.F.C. Hull. Princeton University Press, 1969. P. 6. Rosenberg, Donna. World Mythology, NTC Publishing Group, Lincolnwood, Illinois, USA 1986. P.XVI. Jung, C. G. Jung's Seminar on Nietzsche's ZARATHUSTRA. Princeton University Press, 1988. P. 21. Jung, C. G. Psychology of the Uncoscious. Trans: Beatrice M.Hinkle. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1949. P. 19. Ibid. P. 130. Jung, C. G. Answer to Job. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1958. P. 148.
Myth and Neurosis in T.S. Eliots The Waste Land [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]
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Jung, C. G. Psychology of the Unconscious. Trans: Beatrice M.Hinkle. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1949. P. 129. Ibid. P. 170. Rosenberg, Donna. World Mythology, NTC Publishing Group, Lincolnwood, Illinois, USA 1986. P. XX. Jung, C. G. Man and his Symbols, London: Adus, 1968. P.105. Abrams, M. H. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. W.W. Norton and Company. New York. London. 1987. P. 2525. Ibid. P. 2519. Ibid. P.2518.