Eliot Wasteland - Burial of the Dead

Question 1

Burial of the dead - Religious context

Answer 1

• Eliot was a christian, converting to anglicanism in 1927
• When writing the ‘Wasteland’, Eliot was somewhat skeptical of religion, represented by the shards of different faiths found in the poem
• However, he later found great faith stating ‘If you will not have God, you will have Hitler or Stalin’
• The Wasteland mirrors the problem of evil, CS Lewis in ‘The screwtape letters’ mentioned how quickly war creates an atheist from a god fearing man

Question 2

Burial of the dead - Philosophical existentialism

Answer 2

• Nihilism was a popular theory of the 20th century, beginning with Nietzsche, who declared ‘God is dead’ in his 1884 work ‘The Gay Science’
• The war accelerated Nihilist thinking, particularly Camus, who said the ‘there is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide’ in his first line of ‘Sisyphus.
• Whilst Eliot read Nietzsche in 1915, his religious convictions prevented him from agreeing with him
• So, whilst Eliot’s wasteland may seem like a nihilist wasteland, it is done so to critique Nihilsim, arguing that the disregard of religion and meaning causes suffering