An Analysis Of Death Complex In The Waste Land From The Perspective Of Psychoanalysis

The Waste Land (1922) has generally been accepted as Thomas Stearns Eliot’s mostimportant poem. It has been hailed as a landmark and a model of the20thcenturyBritish and American poetry. However, at first, the poem got different response,praise and abuse. Critics interpret the poem from different angles and come up withdifferent viewpoints. The author of the thesis takes great interest in The Waste Landbecause of the controversies on this poem. The fact that the waste land people arewaiting for death, indulged in sexual desire and lost their religion interests the authorof the thesis greatly. Many critics have made their studies on the death theme of TheWaste Land. But there have not been many articles analyzing the poem from thepsychoanalytic perspective.The waste land people seem to be crazy about death in the poem. However,objective or obscure reappearance of death-like picture, or disclosure of theexperience of death are not the ultimate purpose of writing. The rebirth and hope arethe poet’s fundamental point. Until now, most critics have analyzed this poem fromthe aspect of symbolism, archetypal analysis and allusions. The author of this thesistries to analyze the death complex from the psychoanalytic perspective, to probe intothe hidden causes of their spiritual waste land: lost love, lost religion and wardestruction, and to explore the inner world and emotional life of Eliot himself whichalso have deep influence on The Waste Land. So the purpose of this paper is toanalyze the poem from a new angle so that the phenomena of chasing death can beexplained in a new way.