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English 303
T.S. Eliot—“The Wasteland” Questions
Directions: Answer the following questions in complete sentences.
I. The Burial of the Dead.
1. What elements of the first section set up the problems that the poem as a whole explores: the
loss of a unifying mythic consciousness and loss of individual and cultural vitality?
2. To what end does the first section of the poem incorporate historical references, people, and
settings?
3. Is there a single narrative voice behind the various utterances made in the poem? To what
extent do the biblical references help you construct a narrator or to what extent do they
encompass the poem's meaning?
4. What seems to be the value of Madame Sosostris' the clairvoyant's from 42 through 59? Does
she have anything to offer us?
5. From lines 60 through 76, who is the "Stetson" addressed by the narrative voice? What sense
of London emerges from this stanza?
II. A Game of Chess.
6. How does this section represent sexuality or sexual reproduction?
7. How do you interpret the references to Elizabethan and Jacobean drama in this section? Is the
poem making a statement about the relationship between the present and literary tradition?
III. The Fire Sermon.
8. To what extent does this section purge our vision of the scenes in the previous section?
Explain.
9. This section seems to continue the scenes of sexual frustration and apathy from the previous
section. But does Tiresias offer a way around these problems? How might Tiresias be considered
a purgative or purifying force?
10. Why is the mention of Edmund Spenser's River Thames a possible turning point in the
poem? Explain.
IV. Death by Water.
11. What happens to Phlebas the Phoenician? Does this section advance the plot? If so, how?
V. What the Thunder Said.
16. In the course of this section, what is discovered, and what does the discovery make possible?
For whom?
17. What strategies for survival or at least for understanding do the poem's final three stanzas
involve?