Many critics view Eliot's "Wasteland" as a form of social criticism, exposing the alternation of boredom and terror inherent in modern life. Although these themes recur throughout the poem, a greater subtlety of meaning emerges with Eliot's juxtaposition of classical religious texts with the modern landscape. Eliot's characters can, in some cases, be considered failed heroes, aspiring to an asceticism that their society no longer validates. Although detachment from the physical world would have been idealized in the past, today it is degraded in a society where such detachment is associated with machines. Through the exploration of the female typist character in The Wasteland's "Fire Sermon", the desire for and debasement of the ascetic ideal becomes evident. Borrowings from Augustine's Confessions and the Buddhist text of the Fire Sermon reveal that the typist is not a boring form of mechanized living, but rather a kind of ascetic "disciple" whose progress is thwarted at every turn. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Although it's not a simple project to find this kind of transcendence in modern life, the typist seems to be trying. She comes home at a time described as "purple hour"; significantly, it is also when "eyes and backs / turn upward from the desk, when the human engine waits / Like a taxi". This passage is often read as an indictment against the mechanization of man; it can also be seen as a plea for the divine. The disembodied features turn “upwards,” as if hoping to find some sort of transcendence in the empty ceiling, awaiting the arrival of a passenger from above. When the typist comes home, she "puts away her breakfast, lights her stove, and puts out the food in cans". Again, there seem to be two valid readings of this passage: first, she continues the rote behavior she started at work but also prepares, in a veiled way, to make a sacrifice. The lit stove, in this context, can be seen as a kind of small altar, the. food being an offering to one or more gods, far from being a boring routine, his actions have become ritualized, a kind of performance in themselves. Even his clothes come into play in this sense, like a person who prays. touched by the last rays of the sun”. On the Augustinian model, sacrifice is a means of asceticism: “But if they make this sacrifice to you, O God, you are the devouring fire which can consume their love for these things” (Confessions 93 Interpreted thus: the woman's behavior can be seen as the expression of a desire to believe: in a divine being, perhaps, or perhaps simply a measure of transcendence that life does not give her). not currently offering. This seems, in some sense, a modern prayer: in fact, the lifting up of "eyes and backs" recalls a passage from Augustine's Confessions that Eliot later quotes: "I lift up my invisible eyes to you, so that you will” snatch my feet from the net. You continually tear them out, for they are easily ensnared” (Augustine, Ch. VIII). The fact that, in the same section of the "Fire Sermon", Eliot appropriates the expression "O Lord, thou snatchest me away" (l. 309) suggests that the author's mind was indeed turned towards this model of asceticism. sexuality is downplayed. Her couch, for example, is “at night her bed” (226) on which “are piled.../ Stockings, slippers, camisoles and stays” (226-7). This suggests that there is not much separation between itsday and night actions. However, this continuity is disrupted by the moment of the sexual encounter in the poem: the “expected guest” (230), a young man, arrives. Here, Eliot gives perhaps his most scathing indictment yet of a character: the man is "charcoal", or acne-ridden, with "a bold look", "one of the weak on whom confidence rests/ like a silk hat on a Bradford millionaire. " (231-4). Even though he is only a small, acne-ridden clerk, he is sure of himself and egocentric. This seems to be the opposite of the pious and ascetic ideal: one who feels that he he does not need God because he is good enough, for whom the modern era means the very loss of the impulse towards spirituality The scene between him and the young woman dramatizes this conflict of beliefs: The time is now. auspicious, as he guesses, The meal is over, she is bored and tired, Strives to give him caresses which are still not disapproved, even unwanted, he immediately attacks The exploring hands; meet no defense; Her vanity demands no response, And welcomes indifference (236-42)The young man considers the indifferent typist to be "bored and tired", confusing her desire for religiosity with boredom in the end. of a long day Significantly, he believes that the moment is “propitious”, as if interpreting a sign from above. But because he has no connection with the divine, his signs come from simple bodily desire. His interpretation of the situation turns out to be completely wrong. Even if her seduction is “undesired”, it is at least “not reprobated”, the woman, engaged in a completely different sphere of thought, does not want to take the time even to discourage her suitor. Man, however, is so absorbed in his intentions that the mere absence of discouragement is enough. To assert that “his vanity demands no response,/and welcomes indifference” is to show how far the situation has fallen. While the woman desires transcendence, or at least a response from the divine, the male does not even desire a response from his human counterpart. He is already indifferent to the spiritual aspects of modern life, and now reveals himself to be indifferent to the emotional aspects as well. Because he has no understanding of spirituality, he cannot understand the ideals of women, mistaking the absence of "defense" for real desire. With this reading, Eliot's line "To Carthage then I came" (306), recalling Augustine's words "I went to Carthage, where I found myself in the middle of a hissing cauldron of lust" ( Confessions 95), can be seen as revealing the situation of women. If, like Augustine, she is looking for a way out of degraded sensuality, then her meeting with the young man is an obstacle, a “cauldron of lust”. His ideal of ascetic life and spirituality in general is totally contrary to the young man's objectives. Eliot's representation of woman then reinforces the idea of ​​her ideals and her fall. She has “stooped to madness” (253), indulging in a relationship she does not desire. Significantly, it seems that she is trying to regain the detachment she felt before: she turns and looks in the mirror for a moment, barely aware of her missing lover; His brain lets out a half-formed thought: Well, now it's done: and I'm glad it's over. (249-52) Although she allows herself “a moment” of introspection, she tries to convince herself that nothing has happened, “barely aware” that something has changed. She tries to forget the incident, her only "half-formed thought" being only relief that the situation is over. Instead of rejoicing in past sensuality or feeling sorrow over the event, the typist »..