1

How T.S Eliot creates a nexus between ancient and modern world through
“The Waste Land’

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work would not have been possible to prepare this research paper without the support of
our honorable course teacher Ms.Sharifa Akter of Eng-409(20th century Poetry and Drama). I am
especially indebted to her, because of her relentless motivation and counseling .I am also grateful
to my classmates, who have been supportive of my research paper and who worked actively to
provide me with the protected academic time to pursue those goals.

AIM
This paper is an attempt to trace the use of mytology as a Metaphor in T.S.Eliot’s The Waste
Land. The Waste Land demonstrate how the society is crammed with emptiness and is in a state
of decaying T.S.Eliot’s The Waste Land is not only understood to be a metaphor of the cultural
pessimism and sterility but also tries to depict a nexus between ancient and materialistic modern
world. It is clearly evident in his poem that the legend of the Fisher King is entangled with other
myths and legends of injury, barrenness, and rebirth. Eliot's vividness is to present this situation
as a landscape, a landscape of drought and ruin, a mountain of stones.

ABSTRACT
Nobel laureate penman, T.S Eliot was a prodigious connoisseur, who was an eminent patronize
of traditional and individual talent. Eliot was highly self-conscious about his relationship to
literary tradition. In a well-known essay, “Tradition and the Individual Talent” (1919), Eliot
described how the modern poet, when truly original, enters into a dialogue with tradition. He
claimed that a great poem makes it necessary to understand all earlier poetry of the same
tradition in a new light. He was not at all eager to pursue his literary ancestors blindly, albeit he
has acclimated his individual talent with traditional mythology and biblical references. In this
paper, I will deal with one of Eliot’s unprecedented masterpiece of poetic art ‘The West Land”.
In the poem “The Waste Land”, he has used Holy Grail myth, Vegetation and Fertility myth etc.
Hindu myth and Biblical interpretations have also been manifested in the poem. He has
renovated the latent mythologies in such a way that those stories have rejuvenated from its relics
state. Because of its elevated diction, stunning images, prolonged verses, comprehensive use of
mythological allusions, diversified use of language, it is often considered as the luminous piece
of literary art among the 20th century literature. In this poem, we can find Eliot’s whole life
experience as an adroit critic.
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INTRODUCTION

T.S Eliot was one of the most eminent figures in the history of literature. His ‘The Waste Land’
is a crucial milestone in the 20th century literature. He applies both traditional as well as
individual symbols in his poetry. He is a prudent symbolist; it would be difficult for an ordinary
reciter to understand his symbols. As for as allusions in his poetry are concerned, he uses
Shakespearean and Miltonic as well as Dante's and Lord Buddha's references in his aesthetic art.
He also uses some specific Christian myths, along with this he introduces us Greek mythology.
The Wasteland was published in 1922; written in 433 lines. The poem consists of five section
"The Burial of the Dead", this section deals with spiritual decadence and death of waste-landers,
"A Game of Chess", the game is played to hide the seduction of a young girl by a noble man,
"The Fire Sermon", a reference to Buddha's famous sermon, which suggests that the whole world
is on fire of hatred, lamentation.

The age in which Eliot was born was crisis ridden period in the history of the world. England
during time was undergoing a tremendous cultural upheaval; the accepted forms of religion,
literature, art and music had undergone a radical change.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.

This poem is the perfect paradigm of Eliot’s keen psychological introspection, where he tries to
show a comparative analysis between the ancient world and the modern cruel society through the
light of myths. Along with the mythological allusions and symbolisms the author delineates his
philosophical standpoint about the socio-cultural reality of his surroundings, above all he was a
true realist poet, not an escapist. As he ironically delineates the month of April as the cruelest
month –

‘April is the cruelest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land.’

He depicts the city of London as an unreal one, where the flow of crowd is only allured by their
materialistic drive –

‘A crowd flowed over London bridge’

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LITERATURE REVIEW

Versatile penman Eliot was very much optimistic about his masterpiece poesy ‘The West Land
‘as he says about The west land ‘I think it is the best I have ever done, and Pound (to whom this
poem was dedicated) thinks so too, So far as I know there are no literary sources whatever for
Sosostris or Phlebas or Mrs Equitone. To the best of my knowledge both names and persons
were pure inventions’(MasuruOtaké 1934)

The use of already existing literary text in new created literary text is known as allusion,
sometimes we call it reference or an obscure mentioning.

Helen Gardner in his Book "The Art of T.S Eliot" Says: “Although the Waste Land may
begin with the dilemma of the modern mind, it discovers that the modern dilemma is the historic
dilemma.” (Gardner 88)

Williamson Remarks: “The people of the Waste Land are not made happy by the return of
spring, of fruitfulness to the soil: they prefer the barrenness of winter or the dead season.”
(Williamson125).

Cleanthes Brooks Remarks: “The comment on dayadhvam (sympathize) is obviously

connected with the foregoing passage. The surrender to something outside the self is an attempt
(Whether on the sexual level or some other) to transcend one’s essential isolation. The passage
gathers up the symbols previously developed in the poem 209 just as the fore-going passage
reflects, though with a different implication.”( C.B. 153).

Stephen Spender Writes: “The poem ends not with an affirmation of faith so much as with
gestures of resignation which fall back on Buddhism: the oriental religion of the acceptance of
the world as suffering the world in which every-thing is consumed by fire. Christianity- St.
Augustine- and the Buddha are brought together only as the teaching of asceticism.” (Spender,
114).

Harriet Davidson Says: "The voices range from vivid characters such as Marie, the hyacinth
girl, Stetson’s friend, Madame Sosostris, the nervous woman, the pub woman, Tiresias, and the
Thames daughters, to the non-human voices of the nightingale, the cock, and the thunder, and the
voices from literature in the many allusions in the poem. The many abrupt changes and
mutations in the voices of the poem often blur the proper boundaries between identities, further
increasing the reader’s confusion about who is speaking." (Davidson, 121-31).

Saavedra Says: “Various ways of approaching the text are enticements to the multiple readings
that make a full appreciation of the poem possible”(John)
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THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

All the techniques associated with Modernist literature, most distinguishably its forms and rules,
expressed a rebellion against traditional literature, especially after World War I, literature shifted
from a romantic, idealized entity to a radical and experimental mode.

The Waste Land embodies other common themes of the modern literary tradition, such as the
disjoint nature of time, the role of culture versus nationality, and the desire to find universality in
a period of political unrest. The poem also has a number of recurring themes, most of which are
pairs of binary oppositions such as sight/blindness, resurrection/death, fertility/ impotency,
civilization/decline, voice/silence. Thus the poem is a glimpse of the collective psyche following
the World War I and an aesthetic experience exemplary of the Modernist literary tradition. IA
Richards influentially praised Eliot for describing the shared post-war “sense of desolation, of
uncertainty, of futility, of the groundlessness of aspirations, of the vanity of endeavor, and a
thirst for a life-giving water which seems suddenly to have failed.”

The time period that The Waste Land was written, the world was undergoing a subconscious
revolution. Sigmund Freud’s theories on psychology and sexuality were garnering worldwide
attention, and this made many people uncomfortable. The idea that your brain is operating and
influencing our actions at a level that we cannot access was a terrifying revelation to many. Eliot
himself was undergoing psychoanalysis during the two or three years leading up to the
publication of The Waste Land. Harry Trosman, professor of Psychology at the University of
Chicago, writes that

“The Waste Land was…the product of a period of severe psychological distress in the life of
[T.S. Eliot]. The poem was mostly written in 1921…During the previous two or three years,
Eliot had been exhausted, frustrated, anxious, hypochondriacal and he dreaded a psychotic
disintegration,was unable to continue to work. He obtained a three-month leave of absence…to
enter psychiatric treatment…” (Trosman 1974)

It is clear, then, that Freud’s theories have directly affected the composition of The Waste Land.
An exploration of the events leading up to his illness, the psychological reactions which ensued,
and the nature of the psychotherapy will reveal the probable effects of these factors on the
composition of The Waste Land. (Harry295-304).

DISCUSSION

T. S. Eliot is one of the major contributor to Anglo-American Modernism, the turn-of-the-

century eclectic movement that revolutionized literature and the arts. Eliot's poetry strives to
observe the Modernist dictum of "Make it new" by creating texts that are less emotional than
Romantic poems and whose images are more concrete and less vague. In his essay on "The
Metaphysical Poets", Eliot writes that poetry should respond to the complexity of modern life so
"the poet must become more and more comprehensive, more allusive, more indirect, in order to
force, to dislocate if necessary, language into his meaning."
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These are all features that we can observe in The Waste Land. The complexity and the
fragmentation of modern life is reflected in the fragmented style of the poem and the
juxtaposition of different images (a visual parallel could be drawn with certain paintings by
Picasso and Braque). Each section of the poem is formed by several fragments put together
whose narrative continuum is achieved through consistent tone and atmosphere. These
emphasize the sterility of the present as contrasted to the fertility of a mythical past. Another
important modernist technique employed in The Waste Land is the comprehensive cultural,
historical and literary references to past epochs and mythological traditions. Talking about James
Joyce's Ulysses, Eliot defined this technique as "the mythical method", a constant parallel
between the writer's contemporary age and the past achieved through mythological references in
the depiction of ordinary and common sketches. Eliot concluded that this techniques was "a way
of . . . giving a shape and a significance to the immense panorama of futility and anarchy which
is contemporary history".

The poem's fragmentation is further heightened by the juxtaposition of different poetic styles
(ranging from passages in Elizabethan English to lines that reproduce the jargon of the working
class), forms such as monolgues and choruses and metres.

"The Waste Land" is notable for its many different voices. In presenting them, Eliot uses a poetic
technique akin to polyphony in music. At most points in the poem, we're unaware of precisely
who or what is speaking. Voices come and go, drifting in and out of the unfolding drama, leaving
behind them the merest trace of personal identity.

This is perfectly deliberate on Eliot's part, for he recognizes that a new age has dawned, one in
which all the old certainties have been undermined. Society has become fractured, atomized; the
cultural hegemony of the upper classes, the traditional transmitters of high culture and learning,
is crumbling. All that's left in this cultural desert, this anonymous wasteland of the modern city,
are fragments, artifacts, and bits of the past gathered together by Eliot from the wreckage of
history. Hence the voices from Kyd, Dante, Baudelaire, and Wagner, extracts of Elizabethan
drama—their fleeting presence reminding us of a vanished world and of the state we now find
ourselves in, both socially and culturally.

No more can society speak with one voice. The modern world is a democratic world, an age of
many voices, each one claiming to speak with as much authority as any other. Eliot demonstrates
this in his new, multi-voice poetic style. So mixed together with the fragments of high culture
and learning we have the inane chatter of lower-class women in a London pub and the self-
dramatized nervous wittering of Madame Sosostris, the clairvoyant.

There is no way out of this malaise; no way to turn the clock back to some golden age. All we
can do is shore our fragments against our ruin as the modern world around us becomes more
chaotic. In response to the modern condition we need to construct a new myth, a new voice, one
that speaks with the authority of thunder:

"Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata." (Davmor1973, eNotes, 26).

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Eliot contrasts the past with the present in several ways throughout his poem, The Waste Land..
In the first part of section two, the description opens with a reference to the description of
Antony and Cleopatra's first meeting in Shakespeare's play Antony and Cleopatra, and Eliot's
footnote explicitly refers the reader to that passage. The love and passion of Antony and
Cleopatra was an event that changed the future of the Roman Empire and, through that,
influenced the direction of the Western world. This passage is rich and seductive in detail,
controlled in tone, and cohesive in structure.(Abrams, 1993).

Eliot equally expressed the importance of past literary endeavours and their influence on
contemporary works:

‘No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation
is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists’.

The past is the sum of our knowledge and memories, that the past and the present share the same
dimension of existence. That is, the past is something that may manifest in the present through
memory, yet it is itself dependent on the present moment for its existence. An unremembered
event in the past ceases to have happened, and remembrance is crucial to the past’s survival.

At the very beginning of this discussion it is necessary to mention what is myth ‘A traditional
story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining a natural or social
phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings’

The title of the poem encloses simultaneously diverse levels of experience arising out of different
waste lands. There are four waste lands in the literary history. The First Waste Land is of King
Oedipus of Thebes, which show Oedipus complex i.e. sexual intercourse between mother and
son. The Second Waste Land is of King Fisher, who became impotent (lacking sexual power)
due to some immoral activity. The third Waste Land is the Biblical Waste Land; it is concerned
with the sufferings of people who worshipped idols. The fourth or modern Waste Land is written
by T. S. Eliot which signifies the sins and fire of lust in modern society. The waste land of the
instinct for fertility where sex has become nothing but a means of momentary, bestial pleasure
rather than a sacred, life giving source of resurgence. Well at the end of every waste land we find
a solution and penance of rebirth or regeneration. Similarly, the modern waste land by T. S. Eliot
also ends in the ray of hope; here T. S. Eliot gives us a message that the three "DA's", Datta,
Dayadhvam and Damyata are the solutions to save the modern civilization from chaos and ruin.

Mythological Allusions in First Section "The Burial Of The Dead":Eliot’s 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 pre-war upper class,
and have ordered lives in which they “read, much of the night, and go south in the winter” (Eliot
286).
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The title of the first section of the poem, “The Burial of the dead”, has. a significant
mythological meaning. According to the poet’s note, it has been taken from the Anglican burial
service. In line 20, `Son of man; refers to Ezekiel. Now we will see the similarity between “The
Waste Land” and “Ezekiel” in the Bible. The poem is seemed to us as a dramatic monologue. It
appears before us like a conversation to establish the class and character of the protagonist. There
a question is found:

In literature, April is consider the month of rebirth or regeneration but for waste-Landers April
is the cruelest month as they are not will to revive. In line 20 "son of man” symbolizes the Holy
Christ. In line 22

"A heap of broken images, Where the sun beats

And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief "

symbolizes loss of spiritual values in the modern man. In line 23 "dead tree" symbolizes
complete barrenness of modern civilization. In line 25 "red rock" symbolizes Christian Church.
In lines 35, 36 and 37 "Hyacinth" is a plant which is a symbol of sensuous love. In line 52 "one-
eyed merchant” symbolizes the modern man whose commerce eye is opened but religious eye is
closed. In line 60 "Unreal City" symbolizes London city, this is also an allusion taken from
Baudelaire’s poem in which this phrase refers to Paris. Line 62, "A crowd flowed over London
Bridge, so many," is parallel to Dante's line in Inferno. Line 64, "Sighs, short and infrequent,
were exhaled," is allusion from Dante's Divine Comedy. Line 68, "with a dead sound on the final
stroke of nine" is a allusion towards the boring mechanical life of waste landers and "final stroke
of nine" symbolises the death time of Christ. There is another allusion from the opera of Richard
Wagner's Tristan and Isolde in lines 32, 33 and 34 which are "Der Heimat zu Mein Irisch Kind
Wo weilest du? " In line 43 "Madame Sosostris" is an allusion taken from Aldous Huxley's novel
Crome Yellow. Line 48, "Those are pearls that were his eyes” is an allusion from Shakespeare's
play "The Tempest". In line 49 "Belladonna” symbolizes beautiful women, the description of
Belladonna is also an allusion from the paintings of Virgin Mary by Leonardo De Vinci. In line
61 "brown fog” symbolizes the barrenness of city life.

Mythological Allusions in Second Section "A Game Of Chess": This section is

about the rape of a young girl and problems of married life in lower class families. The title of
this section is allusive which is taken from Middleton's play "Women Beware Women". In “A
Game of Chess,” 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 Eliot’s commentary on the extent to which the Industrial
Revolution has eroded the sense of purpose in human life.

"The Chair she sat in, like a burnished throne "

Glowed on the marble, where the glass’

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In line 77 is an allusion taken from Shakespeare's play Antony and Cleopatra. Lines 92 and 93
are allusion taken from Aeneid in which the ceiling of a banquet hall of Queen Dido of Carthage
is described, the lines are "Flung their smoke into the laquearia Stirring the pattern on the
coffered ceiling” In Line 98 "sylvan scene" is another allusion towards the painting showing a
forest scene and the Satan entered the garden. In line 99 "The change of Philomel” is an allusion
about the story written by Ovid in his book Metamorphoses, in which god transformed Philomel
into a nightingale after facing many tragic events in life. In line 103 "Jug Jug" is a French term
which symbolizes sexual intercourse. In line 115 "rat" is a symbol for modern man and in line
116 "dead bones" symbolizes men with dead souls. Line 125 "Those Pearls that were his eyes" is
an allusion from Shakespeare's play "The Tempest".

Line 138 "Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door" this is an allusion taken
from the Middleton's play "Women Beware Women", in this play a game of chess is played with
mother-in-law to diverge her attention to enable a lustful Duke seduce her daughter-in-law. In

line 161 chemists selling abortion pills symbolizes the one eyed merchant who has only
commerce eye.

The last line of this section, line 172 is "Good night, ladies, good night, sweet ladies, good night,
good night." This very line is taken from Ophelia's farewell in Shakespeare's play Hamlet, this
line symbolises the tragic life of lower class families after marriage. (International Journal of
Multidisciplinary Research and Modern Education 2454 - 6119 Volume I)

Mythical and Allusions in Third Section "The Fire Sermon": 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 in which individuals are both dismembered and standardized” (98). In this
way, Eliot characterizes the “automatism and machine conditioning” (Suárez 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.

The title of the third section of the poem ‘the Fire Sermon’ is related to an oriental tradition. In
the Fire Sermon, the Buddha elucidate to the priests that all things, which are received as
impressions through the physical senses or through the mind, are actually on fire? The ritual
requires that the priests ask about the nature of the fire and that the explanation is that things
burn with the fires of passion, abhor, infatuation; birth, death, lamentation, misery, pain and
frustration. To understand the theme of the title, we can here mention Eliot’s note.
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He says:

“In the Fire Sermon, Buddha counsels his followers to conceive an aversion for the burning
flames of passion and physical sensation, and thus live a holy life, attain freedom from earthly
things, and finally leaves the cycle of rebirth for “Nirvana ‘.

This section is also deals with the sex perversities in modern man, and tells about the rape of
three daughters of River Thames.

Lines 177 and 178 are about the pollution of the river Thames, these lines symbolises spiritual
degeneration of the modern civilization. ‘The river bears no empty bottles,sandwichpapers. In
lines 176, 183 and 184 "Sweet Thames" is allusion from Spenser's Prothalamion. In line 182 "By
the waters of leman I sat down and wept…’ is another allusion, the reference is to Lake Leman,
where Bonnivard was imprisoned. Line 191 "Musing upon the king my brother's wreck" is
allusion taken from Shakespeare's play "The Tempest".

In line 204 "Jug Jugjugjugjug" is a French term which symbolises sexual intercourse. In line 207
"Unreal City” symbolizes London city, this is also an allusion taken from Baudlaire’s poem in
which this phrase refers to Paris. In lines 218, 229 and 243 "Tiresias" is another allusion taken
from Sophocles' Oedipus Rex. Line 221, "Homeward, and brings the sailor home from sea", is an
allusion taken from Stevenson's play Requiem. Lines 277, 278, 290 and 291 are a reference to
Wagner's Opera. In line 279, "Elizabeth and Leicester", is a allusion to Queen Elizabeth and
Leicester sailing upon the river Thames in the past time. Line 292 "Trams and dusty trees” is a
symbol of the progress of materialistic culture in London. Lines 307, 309 and 310 are allusions
from St. Augustine’s confession, who prayed to God to save him from the fire of lust. Line 308,
"Burning burning burning burning" is an allusion to Buddha's fire sermon where he says that the
world is burning in the fire of lust.

Mythical Allusions in Fourth Section "Death by Water": This is the smallest

section of the poem; Eliot wants to illustrate that although we are physically alive, despite that
spiritually dead. Water is a symbol of rebirth, life and purification albeit for waste-landers it has
become a source of death. In line 312 "phlebas” is a symbol for 20th century modern man, in the
same line "Phoenician" is a symbol for London city. Line 317 "He passed the stages of his age
and youth” is allusion towards the captivation of the image of nice Osiris who gets old as he rises
and falls on the waves, later he is reborn.

Mythical Allusions In Fifth Section "What The Thunder Said":The title of the
last part of the poem appears to be derived from the parable of the thunder, an Indian myth from
the Upanishads. In it, the supreme lord of the Creation speaks through thunder, answering the
request of his off-spring.

In his notes, Eliot states that the first passage of this section contains three themes: “the journey
to Emmaus, the approach to Chapel Perilous and the present decay of Eastern Europe”. In line
327, "thunder of spring” symbolizes rebirth of Holy Christ. Line 328, "He who was living is now
 10

dead" is about the Fructification of Holy Christ. Line 354, "And dry grass singing” is a symbol
for minor spiritual revival. Line 358, "But there is no water" symbolises that in order to gain
spirituality one has to face hardships. Line 373, "Falling towers” stands for Christian Churches.
In line 411, "I have heard the key” is a reference to the story in Dante's Inferno. Key symbolises
one's release from one’s own ego. Line 416, "Revive for a moment a broken Coriolanus" is
another reference borrowed from Shakespeare's play Coriolanus. In line 418, "The boat
responded” is an allusion from Wagner's Opera, Tristan and Isolda. Line 427, "Poi
s'ascosenelfocochegliaffina" is an allusion borrowed from Dante's Purgatory, this line means
please remember my pain. In line 431 "Hieronymus" is an allusion from Kyd's Spanish Tragedy.

In lines 402, 411, 418 and 432 "Datta, Dayadhvam and Damyata" these words are allusions
towards Indian Mythology. Datta means to give, Dayadhvam means to sympathize and Damyata
means to control. Eliot wants to say that deliverance can be achieved by acting upon these three
doctrines i.e. to give, to sympathies and to control. Line 428, “Quandofiamutichelidon---O
swallow swallow” is an allusion towards the story of Philomela and her sister and their
transformation in to nightingale and swallows respectively.

Eliot's allusive and symbolic technique is far reaching. He uses more allusions and symbols than
that of John Milton. He wants to relate the present to the past, in order to convey some didactic
purpose from the past incidents. Through these allusions and symbols he forecasts the future of
modern man and modern civilization. Modern man can attain deliverance by acting upon the
message of Thunder i.e. give, sympathize and control. He quotes the references of more than
thirty writers. Mostly he takes those allusions from the past which symbolize spiritual
hollowness, degeneration in free sex and sterility. (International Journal of Multidisciplinary
Research and Modern Education Volume I )

CONCLUSION

In a nutshell it can be said that, The Waste Land is a great achievement of the history of
literature. In this poem Eliot delineates several myths like the Grail Legend, The Fisher king
desolate land, Tiresias connected with King Oedipus of Thebes, vegetation myth, related to the
chain of human being, and a third Biblical myth. Tough out these myths Eliot tried to show the
actual imagine of his contemporary Europe and its tumultuous situation, and the luminous
ancient period, through which he creates a nexus between ancient world and the modern world,
along with this he also spread glance on the chain of human beings that Death-rebirth-death.

Moreover, the past has predominance over the present. Eliot takes the reference from more than
thirty writers. It showed the courage and vitality of the human spirit; it had the capacity to do
things both virtue and vice. People then were not lethargic, inert, and self-centered. Eliot wrote
that the quality which distinguishes humanity is its capacity to do good or evil. Vigor and vitality
are the secret of any civilization or a great period in history. In this modern era, spiritual
paralysis has overtaken man. It is the result of our secular democracy, commercial interests and
 11

mechanical and technological progress which has decayed man's faith in religion, moral values
and individual development and achievement. Man may be an atom in this great universe, but he
is an intense atom, capable of yielding energy and power. It is this latent power which needs to
be unfolded and improved. (Roma,2013).

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