Eliot’s Use of Symbols in “the Waste Land”

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Available ONLINE www.visualsoftindia.com/vsrd/vsrdindex.html VSRD-TNTJ, Vol. 2 (7), 2011, 326-328 RESEARCH ARTICLE RESEARCH ARTICLE Eliot’s Use of Symbols in “The Waste Land” 1 Rita Singh* ABSTRACT The paper discusses the use of symbols in T.S. Eliot’s poetry with special reference to “The Waste Land”. The importance of symbolism has not been adequately emphasized in the critical work of T.S. Eliot. The roll of symbols in his poetry, even when discussed by the critics has not been described with theoretical rigueur. From the earliest times, symbols have been used by men to aid the process of thinking and to record their achievement. These symbols have been a continuous source of deeper thoughts, while creating wonder and illusion at the same time. The use of symbols is simply one aspect of language. A symbol is nothing more than a vehicle for communicating through language and imaginative experience which can not easily be conveyed directly or explained in analytical terms. Symbolism is a literary device through which comparisons are established between certain things. Symbolism is very hardly methods which enables the poet of use myths and images to bring out the resemblance between two different things. Eliot has used a lot of symbols are at once centered round the basic theme of the poem i.e. birth-death-rebirth. Most of the symbols used in the poem are drawn from ancient myths and religions from the European literary tradition and some from the Bible. Eliot has used symbols not as an ornament but employed them as the only mean available for communication for certain levels of experience which are not available to us though direct perception. Keywords : Uses of Symbols, Monumental Work. 1. INTRODUCTION It was Eliot’s discovery of French symbolists that really launched him into read Simon’s monumental work, The Symbolist Movement in Literature,
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