Catharsis in 'The Waste Land' Poem Essay

It is possible to think of 'the wasteland' poem as achieving a catharsis of emotions as suggested by Aristotle especially about the fifth section 'what the thunder' said.' The poem juxtaposes the lost memories of the past and the present to let the reader understand and almost feel the terrible situation of how things were. The persona speaks of a desolate city that is mostly inhabited by ghosts, which he confronts one of them he recognizes as a fallen comrade in the First World War. Any reader of the poem would pity the persona for not getting answers to any of his questions from the ghost.

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'What the thunder said' section of the poem talks of a stony landscape that has not had water for some time. Two people walking in the area notice that there is a fading figure of a person who seems to be following them, and when they take a close look at the imaginary figure, it disappears. In the confusion and fear of the strange figure, thunder cracks furiously, and with it, three words come out 'give, control and sympathise'. The Thunder again fades away slowly in a thunderous utter of the words 'the peace that surpasses all understanding.' The translated words of thunderclaps' interpretation is a sign of hope shortly for the distressed speakers.

TS Elliot in his poem makes a reader emotionally connected when reading the poem. The timing and setting of the poem, just after the First World War brought out an image of a land filled with dead bodies and losses the remaining people counted. A reader gets purged into the poet's work when he imagines the hopelessness of the remaining people, especially with nothing to hold on to in the aftermath of a long war. People were so desperate to find an iota of hope, and they seem to find it through interpreting the thunderclaps.

'What the thunder says' appeals to the readers in all aspects when they compare with the real desperation today that people wish to find anything that they can hold on. They say people should not lose hope even in the loss and destruction of everything one has. It is cathartic to imagine the destituteness of the two speakers who try to listen to the thunder as a sound from high up in heaven, for maybe carrying God's word. Thunder was scary and terrifying, but what mattered most for the two speakers was getting words they could understand from the thunderclap.

The desire in which people longed for rains and peace to try and move on after the war is cathartic. Elliot describes the land as bare and disgusting just like the wasteland, and maybe the rain would bring with it showers of blessings to wash away the waste. Thunder rumbles without any dark clouds, which is a strange occurrence. Dryness of land associated with bad luck, despair, destruction and hopelessness, which is why the two speakers in the fifth part of the poem yearn to get the message carried by thunderclaps.

Elliot's poems exhumes emotional response to readers even in the face of horror and massive destruction of people and property. When someone reads the poem, he gets the feelings of confusion, prophecy and ellipsis among others depending on the reader's attachment and appreciation of the poem. Furthermore, Elliot uses ample tone and mood elements in purging readers to his literary work. The poem has aspects of modernism, and that makes it profoundly cathartic since most of the readers can relate to the subject matter of the poem. Readers can relate to war and destructions it brings, genocide and lethal weapons of war and mass destruction and the military forces.

The events become real to the reader either through personal experience or from watching a movie. The fifth part of the poem feels like a severe form of hallucination or a terrible nightmare where the living seems to be haunted by 'walking dead' even in daytime. Readers fear death, and the fear portrayed in the poem elucidating mixed feelings upon the readers. The most exciting part of catharsis in verse is that in as much it may appear scary, the poet keeps the reader motivated to go on reading the poem to the very end since the reader also needs that glimpse of hope and reassurance that the future can be bright again.

Elliot in the 'what the thunder says' section implies to the reader that death is a constant companion, yet we should keep hope alive despite everything. It is a pity to imagine one of the speakers in this part trying to have a conversation with a ghost in futility. The speaker is so dissolution in the war aftermath that he does not seem to understand the difference between the dead and the living, or if he is alive or dead like the ghost he sees. The speaker goes ahead to ask the imaginary figure how life after death is so that he can prepare for when his time of death approaches.

Elliot purges his readers with his poem by skillfully fracturing and fragmenting his poem with strange noises from the haunting and marauding ghosts dressed in brown hooded mantles stumbling in cracked earth. One of the ghosts is known to the speaker as a former military man who led empty and disconnected life. The body in the backyard of the speaker, not buried properly make the speaker think that it also has a connection with the ghost and he asks the ghosts to pick it up so that they can be united in the world of the dead.

Elliot's 'The Waste Land' poem portends a horrific pleasure to its readers in every aspect, especially since it relates to the real world today. The readers can relate to their own fractured lives using the poem as a lens to see through modern-day forms of violence and bloodshed caused by sadistic terrorist groups like Al Shabab and Al Queda. Readers also relate the poem's themes with depression and victimization both victims and prisoners of wars undergo, fear and loneliness as a result of losses during war and destruction.

'What the thunder says' is a whole package of a roller-coaster of emotions for any reader with a literary appreciation eye. The section of the poem brings out an eerily prophecy in the midst of distressful existence of the speakers. The thunderclaps carry a strong message of hope, and a foreshadow of things to come in future. The reader can connect the thunder prophecy with the chaotic experiences of today where some people do not value the sanctity of life. The image of falling towers and people running for their lives from the poem's description of the prophecy is cathartic in about religious beliefs of the signs of eschatology.

As an excellent poet that Elliot is, he sums up his poem in the 'what the thunder says' in a positive note as translated from the words of thunder. He concludes the poem with reiterating the words of the thunder promising the speakers of experiencing the peace that surpasses all understanding. The stylistic use of personification in this part has catharsis effects on the reader as their horrific emotions, and tensions get a final relief, allowing them to travel back from the artistic world to real world.

The last line of Elliot's poem sends the reader pondering on how the world can achieve eternal peace when it is more divided and violent now than before during the setting of the poem. The line portends both hope and a moral question to the reader after reading the poem. The line also serves as a standard measure of the achievement of peace that surpasses all human understanding.