The Wasteland: The Broken Cycle

The Waste Land:
The Broken Cycle “The Waste Land” portrays a land in which all are decaying, barren, soulless and broken. The normal balance and cycle of life is disrupted and it is that disruption of order that Eliot feels has changed the land into a wasteland. Part I begins a quotation from Satyricon. It tells of Sybil who was granted immortality but not eternal youth. When asked what she wanted, she replied that she wanted to die. This perfectly demonstrates the disrupted cycle that is central to “The Waste Land.” The natural cycle of life and death has been disrupted for the Sybil. She is a miserable husk of a human, like the inhabitants of Eliot’s wasteland. Eliot says “April is the cruelest month” and for the Wasteland, it is. April should be a time of renewal and rebirth, but for the inhabitants of the Wasteland it is simply a reminder of what they are missing. The winter had given them a chance to forget about the state of their world. The snow covered a multitude of sins but the snow has melted, April has come and the painful barrenness of the Wasteland is evident. The inhabitants cannot feel the joy of spring’s renewal and therefore feel that April is the cruelest month. The hopeful possibilities of spring are absent because the Wasteland is a decayed, barren, broken land. The Fisher King is impotent and therefore the land is dying. Put thesis here…….. For Eliot, the cycle of death and rebirth or renewal is very important. The changing of the seasons mirror the cycle of life, the cycle that for the Sybil, has been disrupted as well as for the inhabitants of the Wasteland. The section is titled “The Burial of the Dead” but rather than describing the time of year associated with death, winter, Eliot describes spring, the time of year that should be associated with life. It is essential to understand that the cycle of death and renewal is broken and that broken cycle is the cause of the Wasteland. The cycle was broken when the Fisher King became