The Waste Land Group

Question:

holtonteacher
holtonteacher
Teacher
High School - 12th Grade

Why does T. S. Eliot choose Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy for the final allusion of Section V of The Waste Land?

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Posted by holtonteacher on Wednesday February 18, 2009 at 2:21 PM and tagged with allusion, eliot, kyd, the spanish tragedy, the waste land.

Answers:


  1. kc4u Teacher
    College - Senior

    eNotes Editor

    The allusive structure, as is pretty well known, is a Modernist trope of sorts whereby the the high-culture-low culture split is exercised, realistic representation is withheld and the intertextual web generates its own poetic meaning via difference and repetition.

    The reference to Thomas Kyd's Spanish Tragedy comes right at the end of the fifth section "Waht The Thunder Said." The exact line is "Hieronymo's mad againe." This is a character-oriented reference which sets the final tone for the poem, which is pervaded with void, stupor, wrath and madness. Hieronymo who is one of the most violent figures in Kyd's Senecan tragedy, is evoked as a figure of chaos. If we interpret the divine message of the thunder as something that goes beyond human understanding, the salvation is then deferred indefinitely. The poet's desire might tend towards peace and only peace, the human condition in the waste land has prospects, otherwise.

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    Posted by kc4u on Monday November 2, 2009 at 3:18 AM