Throughout The Waste Land we are presented with many different speakers that each reflect on their memories and experiences, which ultimately makes this poem a form of dramatic monologue. What differentiates this from other dramatic monologues however is the notion that the speaker tend to shift between various cultures and personalities. Alasdair D.F. Macrae mentions that "many readers have been impressed with Eliot's versatility in using different verse forms and in varying the tone" [iii] (p50) This arguably gives the poem a somewhat birds-eye view whilst at the same time it comes across as rather fragmented. In addition to this, it seems as though Eliot uses enjambment to portray his ideas regarding modernity. It can be argued as to whether Eliot does this intentionally in order to convey a sense of what it is like to live in the 20th century, as he essentially believes that this century provided an overall sense of despair and meaninglessness.
In looking at the themes that are expressed within the poem, the concept of memory and the past is an important one. Throughout the poem, we are met with many personal memories of Eliot's. However, it can be argued that this is not the main focus, for he is essentially trying to preserve the idea of cultural memory in that it could be suggested that he feels the decline of society is due to the fact that people do not fully understand their cultural history. This idea is reinforced in the very first passage when it is said "April is the cruellest month, breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing / Memory and desire, stirring / Dull roots with spring rain" (1-4). Here, Eliot is making the connection between the idea of a memory being held to a feeling of nostalgia that cannot be fulfilled, and the concept of being unable to return to the past. This would ultimately suggest that memory can only connect us to a past that is gone forever, and therefore it is powerful enough to essentially make us feel numb.
In regards to the idea of isolation, The Waste Land presents us with a sense of despair, which is suggested to come from a deep loneliness rather than a form of meaninglessness. Eliot believes that we create our own loneliness in that we tend to pursue somewhat selfish interests. Isolation and loneliness are present all around us and Eliot places emphases on modern existence in that modern people do not seem to realise they are responsible for their own isolation. When Eliot says "Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled, / and each man fixed his eyes before his feet" (64-65). From this, it can be suggested that the image of staring at the ground is a perfect symbol for how our daily routines dull our attention whereby we become emotionally numb. For Eliot, this numbness is something that he feels society needs to overcome in order to get out of the waste land. This idea is reinforced in B.C. Southam's Guide to the Selected Poems of T.S. Eliot [iv] whereby it is suggested that "Eliot's immediate Waste Land is the world, as he saw it, after the First World War. The 'waste' is not, however, that of war's devastation and bloodshed, but the emotional and spiritual sterility of Western man, the 'waste' of our civilization … the poem is organized to present an inclusive, comparative vision; a perspective of history in which … twentieth-century forms of belief and disbelief, of culture and of life, are kept in a continuous and critical relationship with those of the past." (p.126)
Symbolism that seems to occur within The Waste Land includes that of water, music and the Fisher King. The concept of the Fisher King is a considerably important one in that it can be argued that Eliot used this in order to portray the idea of humanity being somewhat connected to the meaningless of existence. Further, the Fisher King is essentially a symbol of religion. The speaker of "What the Thunder Said" is shown to fish from the banks of the Thames toward the end of the poem as the thunder sounds Hindu chants into the air, "Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata / Shantih shantih shantih" (433-434). Eliot's scene arguably echoes the scene in the Bible whereby Christ performs one of his famous miracles: the ability to feed his many followers with just a small amount of fish. Southam indicates that "Eliot made particular use of her [Miss Weston] account of the Fisher King … and whose story is one of obvious relevance to this poem." (p.127) In regards to the concept of water, we are presented with a land that is dying through lack of water. Water mainly becomes important during the latter of the poem, whereby Eliot tend to focus on the infertility of the land, where there "is no water but only rock / Rock and no water and the sandy road" (331-332). Here, the water arguably becomes a symbol of fertility that no longer exists within the waste land. Therefore, Eliot suggests, that without fertility there is ultimately no hope for anything new to grow.
