8. The Golden Bough attempts to define the shared elements
of religious belief. Its thesis is that old religions were Weston's book is an academic examination of the
fertility cults that revolved around the worship of, and roots of the King Arthur legends and seeks to
periodic sacrifice of, a sacred king. This king was the make connections between the early pagan
incarnation of a dying and reviving god, a solar deity who elements and the later Christian influences. The
underwent a mystic marriage to a goddess of the Earth, book's main focus is on the Holy Grail tradition
who died at the harvest, and was reincarnated in the spring. and its influence, particularly the Wasteland
Frazer claims that this legend is central to almost all of the motif. The origins of Weston's book are in James
world's mythologies. The Judgment of Paris an Etruscan George Frazer's seminal work on folklore, magic
bronzehandled mirror of the fourth or third century BC and religion, The Golden Bough.
that relates the often misunderstood myth as interpreted by
Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_ritual_to_romance
Frazer, showing the three goddesses giving their apple or
pomegranate to the new king who must kill the old king.
Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Bough
apr 620.07
8
11. The Burial of the Dead Memory and desire
Reference to the book of Common prayers Anglican burial Service
Character Setting Content Themes Form
Marie Russian Emotional Autobiographical Fertility rites Modified dramatic
exiled aristocrat wastland fragments from the Death and Rebirth monologue
nature childhood of an Damaged human
aristocratic woman with psyche partial rhyme schemes
meditations on the Ineffectual sexuality
seasons and her present Painful memory an life short bursts of
state. cycle structure
Man speaker Mythical Speaker's invitation to a Religious experience
Hyacinth Girl
inclusion of fragments
religious desert journey plus Fragmentation in foreign languages
wasteland childhood memories Aridity
desert about a hyacinth girl. Ineffectual sexuality Frequent use of
Nothingness allitteration and
Madame assonance
Mysthic Madame Sosostris Blurred distinction
Sosostris prophetic famous clairvoyante between high and low
Famous
clayrvoyante the wastland reads her tarots. culture
wisest woman parlour Transformation
in Europe
Wandering man Modern city Speaker's walk through Alienation
speaker/former real wasteland a London populated by End of a civilisation
soldier
Stestson London living dead. Devastating
Unreal City consequences of war
Death and Rebirth
Tristan and Isolde
apr 68.55
11
12. The Burial of the Dead Memory and desire
Vignette 1 Vignette 2 Vignette 3 Vignette 4
Plants lilacs dull roots hyacinths dead trees dead trees planted dead
(desire, dry tubers (growth and body
romantic fertility
promise, resurrection )
rejuvenation )
Animals cricket dog
Seasons Spring Winter Spring Winter? Winter Spring
Winter Summer (bad cold)
Winter
Weather Rain Rain sun beats gentle rain fog sudden frost
Snow Snow dry
Places Dad land Starnberger desert hyacinth garden parlour London Bridge garden
see sea King Wiliam
Hofgarten street
mauntain St Mary
slope Woolnoth
Time April an hour talk morning late afternoon? dawn
night evening the final stroke
of nine
People we Marie speaker speaker Madam phoenician sailor speaker Stetson
her male son of man Tristan Sosostris belladonna countless crowd hypocrite
friend you hyacinth girl unknown oneeyed man lecteur
archduke consultant man with 3 staves
Mrs Equitone men wlking in a
ring
apr 621.15
12
13. Section I
Vignette 1 Vignette 2 Vignette 3 Vignette 4
Myth fertility rites arthurian cycle death and rebirth death and rebirth
Osiris
Religion Easter Jesus in the sorry state of faith death and
Desert and belief in the resurrection
modern world
Inconclusive men are not men are not Ineffective men Men dead or
Sex there, there, Dead or otherwise otherwise busy
if they are to no if they are to busy
avail no avail
Literature Canerbury tales Bible Tarots Fleur du Mal
Wagner's Shakespeare The Inferno Canto III
Tristan an Tempest Inferno Canto V
Isolde Fleur du Mal
opening sonnet
Social status Exiled unspecified lower class communting lower
aristocrat fortuneteller middle class
high class clients clerks
History Belle Epoque Unspecified unspecified raging twenties
Soviet world war 1
Revolution Battle of Milae
apr 621.26
13
14. A Game of Chess stages of seduction or the two sides of
human sexuality no regeneration through sex
Character Content Themes Setting Form
vignette 1 Detailed Philomela's myth luxury private unrhymed iambic
description of violent sex boudoir pentameter lines, or
room luxury horrible revenge blank verse
furnishing
Nuerotic Too little or no sex lines increasingly
questions/speech available irregular in length and
Plan for an Impossibility to meter, giving the feeling
excursion and communicate of disintegration, of
game of chess Too few words things falling apart.
vignette 3 Lil's friend and her Too much or no sex London pub Dialogue interrupted by
friend wanted at closing the barman’s refrain
Lil and Alberrt Too many words time Loose series of phrases
Bartender Rampant fecundity connected by “I said”/
Pub goers associated plus lack “she said”
of culture and rapid
aging
apr 68.55
14
18. Links
The Waste Land: Burial of the Dead (T.S. Eliot)
Annotated text
The Burial of dead Fiona Shaw ‐ T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land
The Waste Land (TS Eliot) ‐ Desert Experience
A game of chess
F. Moretti: From the Wasteland to artificial paradise
The fire sermon
Death by water ‐ What the thunder said
apr 67.58
18