From the Writer

In writing my research paper on Eliots The Waste Land, I knew that I

wanted to focus primarily on the poems third section, which I believed to be
its turning point. Eliots image of the human engine particularly stood out
to me, and I knew that I wanted to incorporate it into my paper. In doing preliminary research, I stumbled upon Surezs article, and his thesis gave me the
idea of exploring the role of technology in The Waste Land. Given the volume of
published criticism of The Waste Land, I found that my biggest difficulty was in
finding original lines of argument and analysis, rather than simply summarizing
the existing scholarship. I was able to overcome this by returning to the primary
text, quoting and interpreting it directly without the aid of secondary sources.
Additionally, my revision process helped me to further unify and develop my own
ideas in the paper.
Perry Schein

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The Human Engine Waits: The Role of

Technology in T.S. Eliots The Waste Land

First published in 1922, T.S. Eliots poem The Waste Land is a major
work of modernist literature. Written in the aftermath of the First World
War, Eliots poem describes the disorganization and collapse of society.
In recounting this, the poet covers a wide variety of topics, incorporates
many different images, and encompasses manifold languages and cultures.
One major theme that Eliot treats in detail is the role of technology and
industrialization in the downfall of Western civilization. Unlike earlier
modern poets such as Walt Whitman, Eliot uses The Waste Land to draw
connections between the mechanization and technological advancement
in everyday life and the degradation of human dignity. In this way, Eliots
poem can be read as a criticism of the Industrial Revolution and its effects
on society. As Eliot radically juxtaposes these images of modern industrial
society against allusions to mythology, he uses the disjointed and chaotic
structure of The Waste Land to demonstrate the difficulty of finding meaning in the modern world.
The basic structure of the poem exemplifies this notion that technology has contributed to this fragmentation of society. Critic Juan A. Surez
argues that Eliot tries to mimic a sound recorder in his writing style in
The Waste Land. Connecting Eliots poem to sound montages created by
experimental artists in which various sounds from radio broadcasts and
recordings were spliced together, Surez writes that Eliots poem itself
is based on zapping through a sort of prerecorded literary archive which
seems to be kept on the air at different frequencies (757). The Waste
Lands structure is rooted in machines. The technology subverts the established social order; the frequencies of the high and the low are recorded
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side by side without any clear differentiation. As Surez notes, Once the
channels are open they carry any and all sounds [] (764). The voices
of kings are equated with those of the working class; modern technology
has broken down the traditional customs and social barriers. Through this,
Eliot links the structure of the poem to its content. The lack of an apparent
pattern in the images Eliot incorporates mirrors the lack of a pattern that
he sees in his society.
Eliots views of the contrast between conventional and modern life
can be observed through the contrast between the images presented in the
first and subsequent sections of the poem. In The Burial of the Dead,
Eliot includes images of life prior to the war. He writes of the prewar
upper class, who spend time at the archdukes, [m]y cousins [] and
have ordered lives in which they read, much of the night, and go south in
the winter (Eliot 286). They find meaning in Madame Sosostris cards and
in the mythology of the classical world. Eliot contrasts their lives against
the lives of those in the modernized and mechanized world. These include
the women at the pub in A Game of Chess, and the typist in The Fire
Sermon. Compared to the leisure class who enjoy their vacations in the
mountains, the typist is named metonymically for the machine she tends,
so merged with it, in fact, that she is called the typist even at home
(North 98). As her mechanical work consumes her identity, the typist represents a figure who has been degraded by mechanization. The monotony
of her existence furthers Eliots commentary on the extent to which the
Industrial Revolution has eroded the sense of purpose in human life. The
other mechanical images in The Fire Sermon further develop this point.

Indeed, The Fire Sermon is the section where Eliot makes the
degrading effects of mechanization most apparent. The most striking
example of this occurs in the lines preceding the introduction of Tiresias:
At the violet hour, when the eyes and back / Turn upward from the desk,
when the human engine waits / Like a taxi throbbing waiting, (Eliot 293).
Here, Eliot is directly connecting the modern laborer to a machine. The
human becomes the mechanized human engine, reduced to the point
where she is compared to a throbbing taxi. The continuously repeated
tasks carried out by industrial laborers and office workers rob them of their
individuality and, as Eliot argues, their humanity. North writes that the
figure of metonymy is used polemically to depict a metonymized society
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in which individuals are both dismembered and standardized (98). In
this way, Eliot characterizes the automatism and machine conditioning
(Surez 749) of modern life as a contributing factor to the downfall of
the modern human. As Tiresias is introduced in the next set of lines, this
pessimistic view of modern society is further developed through his observations.

Eliots notes identify Tiresias as the most important figure in The

Waste Land, and indeed he plays a key role in the poem as an objective observer. Eliot introduces Tiresias using the first person: I Tiresias,
though blind, throbbing between two lives [] (294). The repetition
of the word throbbing links Tiresias to the human engine; just as his
mythological transgender state allows him to relate to both sexes, Eliot
shows that he is also able to bridge both the classical and modern worlds.
As Reeves notes, the first [throbbing] stresses the mechanicalness of the
alienated human engine which exists in terms of its parts [] while the
second reinvents the human engine with throbbing humanity (69). In
this way, Tiresias is connected to the modern human condition. North
agrees with this analysis, writing that Eliot suggests a link between the
reduced conditions of the modern worker and the mythical hermaphrodite
who includes all experience (99). The significance of this is that it brings
the degradation of the worker to epic proportions; Eliot is showing that
this reduction is of great importance in the poem. The transgendered role
of Tiresias also serves to reinforce the theme of emasculation present
throughout The Waste Land. As Tiresias is emasculated, and he is unified
with the modern worker, then the modern worker is also subject to this
emasculation. In this way, Eliot shows that the human engine has tarnished and emasculated the modern man.
Tiresias also serves an important function as the lens through which
the reader observes the typist. The typist, and the automatic and mechanical way that she goes about life, serves as the most notable example in
the poem of the loss of meaning in modern life. The unnamed typist is
an archetype; Eliot uses her to represent all women in the industrialized society. As North notes, The typist is horrifying both because she
is reduced by the conditions of labor to a mere part and because she is
infinitely multiple (98). In this way, by providing as few details regarding
the typist as possible, Eliot generalizes her to show the degradation of all
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women. Eliot further emphasizes the differences between the typists life
and the traditional way of living by noting that she lays out food in tins
(294). As the clerk arrives, exemplifying the modern working class man in
much the same way that the typist exemplifies the modern working class
woman, Eliot identifies him as one of the low (294). Later, Eliot has
Tiresias mention how he has walked among the lowest of the dead (295).
North uses this association to establish Tiresias relationship to the clerk,
but the connection goes both ways; the clerk is also linked to the lowest
of the dead, further reinforcing the notion that modernity has reduced the
condition of humanity. The typists indifferent attitude towards sex further
emphasizes the lack of purpose that Eliot sees in modern life. As Smith
notes, The typist is automatic in her job and in her love-making, (114)
further highlighting the idea that modern humans have been reduced to
living machines. By generalizing the characters, Eliot is demonstrating
that the scene between the typist and the clerk is not a unique one; these
incidents occur every day in the modern city.
What distinguishes this particular scene from the multitude of similar occurrences in the aftermath of the First World War is the presence of
Tiresias. The blind prophet, a character from classic Greek literature and
mythology, serves as a major unifying figure in the poem. Having lived as
both a man and a woman, Tiresias is able to relate to both the clerk and
the typist in this scene. This scene is not, as Surez summarizes it, one
more vignette of present-day decadence (749). Tiresias puts this encounter in context; Tiresias who has sat by Thebes below the wall (Eliot 294)
links the modern and classical worlds. This build[ing of ] a timeless myth
in a modern setting (Smith 110) gives meaning to this encounter. By linking the chaotic present with the traditions of the past, a pattern emerges
from the disorder of the poem. The mythological context establishes that
The Waste Land is not a perpetual state; it has not always existed, and will
not always exist. Here, Eliot gives the first indication that it may be possible to find meaning in contemporary life.
While on the surface this glimmer of meaning in the chaos of The
Waste Land seems contradictory, the poem contains several examples of
finding a position in between the extremes. The simplest example of this is
Tiresias position between the male and female genders. Eliot also places
several key passages of the poem in the space between night and day. The
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typists scene occurs at the violet hour (Eliot 294). Eliot uses the time
of day to link this scene to the fall of the unreal city. The image of the
unreal city is repeated throughout the poem, and by calling the modern
city unreal, (288, 293, 299) Eliot is differentiating between the modern,
degraded human condition, and the true experience of human existence.
The final mention of the unreal city notes that it is falling, Elliot writes:
Cracks and reforms and bursts in the violet air / Falling towers / Jerusalem Athens Alexandria / Vienna London / Unreal (299). The violet air
and the violet light (Eliot 299) place this scene at the junction of night
and day, and link it to the arrival of Tiresias earlier in the poem. In this
way, Eliot shows the startling images of human squalor in The Fire Sermon to be the turning point in the poem. Surez notes that the gramophones sound closes the poems bleak, nechromantic first half. Shortly
afterward begin the intimations of rebirth and redemption (750). If the
images of The Fire Sermon show a pessimistic view of the modern world,
Eliot does offer hints that the situation can improve, and that meaning can
be found. Through this, Eliot bridges the gap between a pessimistic view of
the present and an optimistic view of the future.
While Eliot paints a bleak picture of human life in the modern
world, he indicates that meaning can be found in life through the context
of mythology. Indeed, the mythological framework gives a great deal of
meaning to the poems most striking example of the purposelessness of
modern life. In addition to perspective provided by Tiresias, the typists
sexual encounter with the clerk is foreshadowed by the rape of Philomel
alluded to in A Game of Chess. The repeated image of the Fisher King
also provides a mythological context to the poem. Near the end of the
poem, the Fisher King asks, Shall I at last set my lands in order? (Eliot
301). Maintaining his position between a bleak and desolate view of the
present, and hope for a rebirth of civilization, Eliot leaves the answer to
this question ambiguous. Just as the Fisher King may one day reclaim his
lands, Eliot offers signs that humanity may recover from The Waste Land.

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Work Cited
Eliot, T.S. The Waste Land. Anthology of Modern American Poetry. Ed. Cary Nelson. NY:

Oxford University Press, 2000.

North, Michael. The Political Aesthetic of Yeats, Eliot, and Pound. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 1991.
Reeves, Gareth. T.S. Eliots The Waste Land. NY: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1994.
Smith, Grover. The Waste Land. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1983.

Surez, Juan A. T.S. Eliots The Waste Land, the Gramophone, and the Modernist

Discourse Network. New Literary History 32 (2001): 747768.

PERRY SCHEIN is a member of the College of Engineerings Class of 2012. As a

mechanical engineering major, he is an active member of Boston Universitys chapter
of Engineers Without Borders. Perry graduated from South Side High School in 2008,
where his favorite subjects were English and Physics. This essay was written for Anthony
Wallaces WR150: Walt Whitman and American Modernism.

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