Eliot truly defines what the foundation of The Waste Land is about at the end. The idea of fragments being supported by Eliot is reflected by the several themes and stores that shore on this stanza. The story of the Fisher King is repeated several times throughout the poem, and connects the vitality of humanity and story to the Waste Land. The comment on London strings from Eliot’s commentary on war, industrialization, and the bare land following the aftermath of humanity. The reference to The Spanish Tragedy (Hieronimo) reflects the idea that literature builds on each other, the foundation of the waste land itself. Eliot brings all these pieces together in the final stanza of the Waste Land.

In The White Devil by John Webster, Flamineo insults his sister and her maid after they tried to kill him. He claims that all women benefit from marriage and men have to sell their souls to the devil. He states that more women will kill their husbands then save them. The rampant misogyny in this scene is reflected when Vittoria is imprisoned for her brother’s crime, even when there was no evidence against her.

Eliot pairs this scene in the section of Datta, or giving, one of the essential pillars to obtain the highest universal principle, Brahman. By connecting Vittoria’s entrapment with the idea of giving, Eliot challenges these principles of self-control, giving, and compassion for many different experiences. One may not expect Vittoria to give back to her husband, or express self control or compassion for the man responsible for her imprisonment. Eliot sets up Brahman to be an impossible state to obtain for women across literature.

In the retelling of an urban legend by Marudanayagam, visitors to a house become restless when a fourth unknown entity joins them. The three visitors welcome each other despite the lack of space for the three of them. However, the feeling of the fourth presence is ominous and creates discomfort for the visitors. They recognize that it is Lord Vishnu, the hindu god for human salvation and preservation. Eliot preserves the story of Vishnu in the Waste Land. The narrator in this section sees another figure walking with them. Eliot sets this figure to be the continuation of the narrator in the future; the one who walks ahead is the same as the one who noticed it. This character demonstrates the vitality of one's existence. This character stands for human salvations, a theme that can be argued as the foundation of the Waste Land.

Eliot includes water in this section following his use of it in the Death by Water. In What the Thunder Said, water is absent. This brings "red sullen faces" that "sneer and snarl" and the dry mountain has "carious teeth". Eliot then creates hope that water and the sound of water comes with the revival of the "cicada and dry grass singing". The sound of water contrasts "The shouting and the crying" and the "thunder of spring". However, "there is no water" so the poem must cope with "What the Thunder Said".

In Dante's Inferno, Ulysses explains to Dante and Virgil that he had urged his shipmates to pass the marks made by Hercules. He said " 'Consider how your souls were sown: you were not made to live like brutes or beasts, but to pursue virtue and knowledge.' " He encourages them by appealing to their human desire for knowledge. This curiosity can be killed by water, as Ulysses crew loses their lives and knowledge to the storm.

Last year, Keeilah explains that Eliot uses the cycle of death and life throughout the poem. He "draws on the imagery of the boat and river to guide the readers through a life cycle in the poem". With this statement in mind, it is possible that Elliot uses Death by Water to be the rebirth of knowledge and not the barrier it was for Ulysses.

The the chant sung by the Rhine daughters are used here in Eliot's the Waste Land. Eliot maintains the erie tone of the sisters who chant siegfried's future demise. The idea of incoming failure is depicted through Eliot's description of a modern boat. Elliot takes to stand us to describe the boat related to the river, a recurring theme just before this stanza and in Wagner's Twilight of the Gods. Elliot hints at industrialization bringing oil and tar to rivers and nature.

In the Vicar of Wakefield by Goldsmith, Olivia was almost tricked to marry Squire Thornhill. Her father believe that the only way to heal her guilt is "to die". Elliot re-words the short poem buy a Goldsmith to say that a woman who "stoops to folly" after experiencing her lovers "exploring hands" thinks "I'm glad its over" and needs "pace about her room... alone" and listen to music. Here I think Elliot rehumanize has female victims in many of our stories. Initially they are abused, killed, trapped, or cursed. But in this stanza Elliot allows a woman who experienced trauma to heal without dying and heal alone. In the previous paragraph Elliott describes what is very clearly sexual assault. She could have chosen to reflect the graphic imagery in something like Baudelaire's poem where a woman is killed and her corpse was raped. However, he writes the scenes from the female's perspective where terms such as "patronizing kiss" and "assault" condemn these actions.

Eliot references the Parliament of Bees by John Day. In the Parliament of Bees, day uses the societal structure of the bees to critique the actions, such as war, of modern society. Eliot rewords parts of Day's poem to reflect the world that we live in. Instead of the hornets hunting, Eliot uses the sound of the horns and motors in our industrial society. These noises bring more of our historical literature around the world. Eventually, it was the industrialization in our world that changed our society, out nature, and literature. There still exists this wasteland in the imagery here that reflects the destructive actions in the "bee-hive society".

It is interesting that Eliot chose to end this section of the poem with this piece from Hamlet. In lines 139-152, Eliot recreates a scene about a woman and her husband. The narrator tells her she must do all these things like fix her teeth so that her husband doesn't leave her. She is told to think about her husband. This acts as Eliot's own example of women being trapped in their tragic love stories. In class, we dissected many texts were women are abused, exploited, and left for dead. Eliot revives these themes by connecting the Waste Land to Hamlet. Ophelia goes crazy when the man she loves kills her father. A women's madness is not unheard of in literature. Ophelia says good night to ladies while eliot includes characters from his own story. Outside these lines mentioned, Eliot continuously alludes to the situation the women in his story is in. She has no choice. Eliot continues on the traditon of trapping women to their romantic tragedies.

Eliot uses feminine language which connects to Baudelaire's sexualization and mutilation of women. Baudelaire creates an image of a murdered woman who gets used by her male killer. This disturbing scene is contrasted with the feminine imagery used. Baudelaire refers to the "sequined fabrics", "perfumed dresses" and "bouquets". Despite this, the imagery remains sexual as the furniture is referred to as "voluptuous". Eliot mimics this imagery through the emphasis on "strange synthetic perfumes" and "coloured glass". However, Eliot's use of feminine imagery feels uncomfortable next to the beautiful description of a woman sitting in a throne with glittering jewels because the feminine tone isn't used to sexualize the women, but rather objectify her. While Baudelaire used words like "voluptuous", Eliot highlights the money and wealth surrounding this women. She is linked to items like antique windows and shiny tables.

The image depicted in these lines show a crowd of gloomy sad people. the diction of the "brown fog of winter dawn", the collective sighs of the group, and the fact that everyone is looking at their feet set the somber and drab tone. This scene reflects the scene in Dante's Inferno where Dante and his guide find the group of people in terror. They are described as "the wretched souls of those who lived without disgrace yet without praise". These people "have no hope of death/and their blind life is so abject/that they are envious of every other lot." Eliot connects these two groups under the umbrella of their envy. Neither the crowd on the bridge or the lamenters in Hell cared about others, instead remained selfish and sinful, letting their guilty conscience reflect through their sighs and their punishment.

The crowd on the bridge can also be connected to Baudelaire's poem. In the poem, the narrator sees the same disgruntled, "broken" old man who walks "as though his sabots trod upon the dead". Instead of seeing the same man repeatedly, the narrator sees society during the mid-19th century in an industrialized Paris. Baudelaire makes the point that the industrialization of Paris scared away the "city full of dreams" and replaces it with people with "bitter frost" gazes "not bent but broken". Eliot argues that as our society becomes more and more industrialized, our streets and bridges become overflowed with people full of despair, focused on themselves and remain envious.

In this stanza, between lines 46-59, the narrator is reading the tarot cards to give a fortune to the reader. The cards are not pulled with an explanation. In "Chrome Yellow" by Aldous Huxley, Mr. Scogan tells people the horrors of life that they will experience. Despite this, people still stand waiting to hear their terrible fates. Mr. Scogan even tells a young girl she is to blame for her own curiosity. These people are told this is the truth and accept it as such. They allow themselves to influence their behaviors, futures, and actions by the fortune teller. Eliot could be trying to influence the minds of the readers by referencing tarot cards meant to be someone's fortune. These cards are not meant to be read separately from themselves and the rest of the Waste Land. In Weston's piece, he argues that to understand the parts of the Grail such as the cup, lance, sword, and stone, we must compare them to each other, to aspects of the stories of the Grail, and then to everything together. The four pieces act as the four suits of the tarot and exist separately from their stories. It is in their separate exist that we can also find connections of "Human Life energy". Eliot challenges the reader to feed their curious mind and dissect the future given to us, or wait until the Waste Land is over to see it's bigger picture.

Eliot begins the poem referencing the Burial of the Dead. Basevi argues that funeral rites stem from the desire of those living to protect the memory of their passed one. This reflects the conversation we have around Eliot where we agreed the Waste Land is the resting place for legendary literature throughout time. Interestingly enough, Eliot begins the poem addressing how nature affects the bodies in the ground. By describing April as the "cruellest month" that mixes and sirrs, Eliot describes it to be cruel to revive the memory of those buried at the waste land. It would be better to leave it in "forgetful snow", covering it up. Chaucer offers a differing perspective of nature. In the poem, Chaucer appreciates the "sweet-smelling showers" and revive the earth to the root and has the power to grow flowers. Chaucer recognizes the life and beauty of spring while Eliot argues it brings memories that should be forgotten. Additionally, Eliot speaks from the perspective of the buried, the dead, the forgotten literature.

TS Eliot honors Sibyl of Cumae by extending her memory throughout time. Sibyl describes that "the time will come when the passage of days will render such body as I have tiny, and my limbs, consumed with age, will reduce to the slightest of burdens". She has experiences centuries of history but will still feel the effects of age. She will eventually become non existent, but will still need a voice. I believe this resonated with TS Eliot as he preserves the memory of old and classic stories to extend their vitality. Sibyl' only has her voice to be remembered by and as time goes on, people on our society will tend to forget the importance of her story or the power her voice holds. TS Eliot revives her myth, resharing it with the rest of the world and giving a new platform for her voice. This seems to fit Eliot's goal with this poem as the original homage to Conrad reflects Eliot's personal connection to this novel. When Mr. Kurtz dies and says the line that was the original epigraph, the moment reminds me of Eliot. While re-encountering stories of the path, he has the "complete knowledge" necessary to understand the Waste Land. With that knowledge, he must have reflected on range of emotions related to desire, temptation, and fear. Kurtz tasks Marlow with notes from his exploration and urges him to protect. This reflects the way Eliot tasks his readers with maintaining the life of the stories connected to the Waste Land.

In "Ritual to Romance", by Jessie L. Weston, the origins of the Grail reveal the deep historical and spiritual connection of humanity to nature. In the tale of Sir Gawain, it was concluded that the Grail "would have resulted in the restoration to fruitfulness of a Waste Land", however as "soon as Sir Gawain asked of the Lance...the waters flowed again thro' their channel, and all the woods were turned to verdure". Sir Gawain's hope to avenge the Lance is what restored the vitality of the land. This lays claim to the argument that human vitality is spiritually linked with the nature we are apart of. The results of the analysis showed that "the land becomes Waste" as the prosperity of a certain King's freedom is weakened. Aryan ancestors acted under the assumption that "the principle of life and fertility whether animal or vegetable , was one and indivisible". This carried over into the mourning of death and the renewal of life for many people. There exists ritual where straw dolls of deceased loved ones are tied to trees before being cut down, however this is a sign of rejoicing not mourning. It is evident that there is a deep rooted history strengthening the string of human life and nature's life. In the “Golden Bough”, the author criticizes these rituals where humans attempt to connect their life to Gods or nature. They state that “to live and to cause to live, to eat food and to beget children, these were the primary wants of men in the past, and they will be the primary wants of men in the future so long as the world lasts”. Our true historical connection is not to the spirits of nature or the Gods of death, but rather we as a human species have core wants and needs that we can never despel. The most important primal instinct is the sense to live. Elliot refutes the spiritual rituals of our human ancestors and instead characterizes them in an earlier light. The waste land is not connected to our vitality, rather we connect our life to nature. We assume our magic rituals aid or mimic the work of Gods and can change seasons or increase animal herds. In reality, humans are afraid of dying and the most eternal cycle in our world is nature.

Eliot challenges the reader to reflect on our spiritual, historical, and emotional connection to nature. Why does the title “The Waste Land” give us a sense of loss? When we read the poem, we are approached by many different experiences, senses, and descriptions. None are similar or connected on the surface but we can see a true barren landscape of human desperation beneath it all.