The Literary and Social Background of T.S. Eliot
Eliot once said that, ”a great poet in writing of himself writes his age”, and to none is this remark more applicable than to Eliot himself. His Waste Land has been called the epic of the modern age, presenting as it does a panorama of the futility and anarchy that is contemporary civilization. Eliot’s poetry cannot be understood without an understanding of his age. In this chapter, we shall first consider the social milieu in which Eliot matured and created, and then the main literary trends which influenced him and determined the tone of his poetry.
(A) THE SOCIAL BACKGROUND
Urbanisation and Its Evils
The year 1890 may be regarded as a landmark in the literary and social history of England. It ushered in an era of rapid social change, and this change is to be noticed in every sphere of life. By the last decade of the 19th century, there was a complete break-down of the agrarian way of life and economy. It meant the end of rural England, and the increasing urbanization of the country. Indutralisation and Urbanisation brought in their wake their own problems. There have risen problems like the problem of over-crowding, housing shortage, a significant increase in vice and crime, fall in the standards of sexual morality, and a rapidly increasing ugliness. The atmosphere has increasingly grown more and more smoky and noisy, and city slums raise their ugly heads on tall sides. There has been a loosening in sex taboos and an increase in sexual promiscuity, for public opinion does not operate as a check in a crowded city. Early 20th century poetry vividly reflects all these evil effects of industrialisation. Ennui and boredom of city life and its agonizing loneliness are all brought out by poems like the Waste Land. However, the change has been beneficial in one respect at least: it has brought about a more healthy pattern in social relations. The Victorian ethics of competition and money-relationship has given place to a new concept of social responsibility and social morality. The new age has seen the emergence of the concept of the welfare state: the society or the state is now held responsible for education, health and well-being of the individual. “Divorce today carries no moral stigma comparable o that of exploiting the poor, or of ill-treating a child.” The sphere of social morality, in terms of public good, has expanded at the expense of private morality.
The Spirit of Questioning
The century ushered in an era of moral perplexity and uncertainty. The rise of the scientific spirit and rationalism led to a questioning of accepted social beliefs, conventions and traditions. In matters of religion it gave rise to skepticism and agnosticism. No doubt there was much questioning, much criticism of traditional beliefs in the Victorian era also, but the Victorian writer was not critical of the very fundamental, of the very basis of his social and moral order. On the whole his attitude was one of acceptance. Dickens and Thackeray are both critical writers, but they criticize only a few evils inherent in their social system. Basically, they accept their way of life, and are proud of it. By the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, we find writers, like Shaw, Wells and Galsworthy, criticizing the vary basis of the existing social, economic and moral system. As R.A. Scott-James puts it, “the 20th century has, for its characteristic, to put everything, in every sphere of life, to reconstruct, -to accept the new age as new and attempt to mould it by conscious, purposeful effort”. The wholesale criticism of the existing order from different angles and points of view, often opposite and contradictory, has increased the perplexity of the common man. Baffled and at the bay, he does not know what to accept and what to reject.
Interest in the Sub-Conscious
The atmosphere of perplexity, confusion and anxiety has been further accentuated by the long strides forward that the study of psychology has taken since the times of Freud. Freud emphasized the power of the unconscious to affect conduct. Intellectual convictions, he pointed out, were rationalizations of emotional needs. Human beings are not so rational as they are supposed to be : their conduct is not guided and controlled by the conscious, rather it is at the mercy of the forces lying buried deep within the unconscious. His followers, like Jung and Bergsen, have carried Freud’s formulations to their logical conclusion. In this way, a new dimension has been added to the assessment of human behavior and more and more emphasis is being laid on the study of the unconscious. The abnormal is no longer regarded as a sign of degeneracy; it is now recognized that even the normal are abnormal and neurotic to some extent. This has had a profound influence on 20th century moral attitudes, specially in matters of sex. Thus Freud and his followers have shown conclusively that repressed sex instincts are at the root of much neurosis and other signs of abnormality. His theory of “the Oedipus Complex” has caused a sensation and it is being freely exploited by 20th century writers. The study of the sub-conscious, even the unconscious, is the major theme of modern literature. Intellect is no longer regarded as the means of true and real understanding, and emphasis is placed on feeling and intuition. Rationalism, and along with it humanism is at a discount. T.S. Eliot, for example, rejects rationalism and pins his faith on the superhuman as contrasted with the purely human.
Changing Pattern of Human Relationships
As a result of the teaching of modern psychology, man is no longer considered as self-responsible or rational in his behavior. The theory of the Oedipus Complex, mentioned above, has had a profound impact on private and family relationships. Jealousies are recognized where no such imputations would have been made previously. Hamlet has been interpreted by Eliot in terms of the “Oedipus Complex”, it is the theme of one of D.H. Lawrence’s major novels and mothers are supposed to be jealous of their daughters-in-laws. Sexual renunciation has ceased to be a theme of literature, interest in sex-perversion has grown, and there is a free and frank discussion of sex. Victorian taboos on sex are no longer operative. There is a break-up of the old authoritarian pattern in family relationships, the assessment of the relative roles of the sexes has changed, women has cone to her own, and the notion of male superiority has suffered a serious blow. “The war of the generations”, of the old and the young, has resulted in a re-orientation of parent-child relationship. The greater mobility resulting from the automobile and the railway train has also weakened the authority of the old over the young and increased the rootlessness of man. This rootlessness has brought in its wake its own problems and frustrations. Eliot’s Waste Land reveals a harrowing consciousness of this phenomenon of 20th century city life.
Revolt Against Authority : Note of Anxiety
The First World War further strained the authoritarian-pattern of family relationships and increased tensions and frustrations. The reaction of the post-war world has been to suspect all manifestations of authority. It may be called an era of revolt against authority. Political and religious skepticism, general disillusionment, cynicism, irony, etc., have become the order of the day. The dictum “Power Corrupts” is a symbol of the revolt of the post-war generation. The temper of the age is ‘anti-heroic’, and ‘action’ and ‘success’ in a  worldly sense have become questionable values. Interest has shifted from “extrovert” to the “introvert”. ‘Neurosis’ and spiritual gloom are widespread. Economic depression, unemployment, overpopulation, acute shortage, etc., have increased the hardship of life, and caused stress and strains and nervous breakdowns. The hero in the inter-war novel is a person, to whom things happen “he is an ‘anti-hero’, a neurotic, a “cripple” emotionally, if not physically. There is an atmosphere of moral unease and uncertainty, a collapse of faith in the accepted patterns of social relationships and a search for new patterns.
Collapse of Old Values and Ideals

Though there has been an occasional revival of Christianity even in the orthodox forms, as in the works of T.S. Eliot and Graham Greene, the 20th century under the impact of science and rationalism has witnessed a gradual weakening of religious faith. Religious controversies no longer exercise any significant influence on public issues. Moral and ethical values are no longer regarded as absolute. Philosophy and metaphysics, instead of concerning themselves with the nature of God, show a keen interest in the study of the nature of man. To Freud, man is a biological phenomenon, a creature of instincts and impulses, to the Marxist he is an outcome of Economic and social forces. The pessimism and despair of the age is seen in the picture of man, “as but the outcome of chance collocation of atoms”. Gone are the days of the Victorian optimism when man was regarded as essentially rational, acting in his best interests, which, his reason was supposed to teach him, were identical with social good. The same perplexity and uncertainty is to be seen in the field of political theory. Socialism and internationalism have replaced the old Victorian notion of the supremacy of the whites. The entire gamut of imperial relations has undergone a revolutionary change. Nationalism is no longer regarded as enough, and imperialism has come in for a great deal of criticism. The relations between the nations of the world must be based on equality and mutual respect and not on the old basis of political subjection and imperial supremacy. The empire, instead of remaining a matter of pride, as in the days of Kipling and Tennyson, is looked down upon with a sense of guilt. Thus E.M. Foster in his Passage to India advocated relationships between nations, as well as between individuals, based on equality and the feeling heart. Eliot advocates that England’s literary isolation should end and he views English literature as a part of European literary tradition extending from Homer onwards. Cosmopolitanism is the order of the day, and emphasis is laid on the study of comparative literature, comparative mythology, religion, etc. Nationalism is thus in conflict with internationalism, and efforts to reconcile the two have so far met with little success.