View source for Decoding "The Burial of the Dead"


    Go to [[The Waste Land Text]]
    Go to [[Eliot's Notes]]
    Go back to [[Shoring Up Fragments Against Our Ruin: Quotations and Allusions]]
    Go to [["The Burial of the Dead" Annotations]]
    Go to "[[Order for the Burial of the Dead]]"
    Go to [[Biblical Stop Words List]]

='''''Decoding "The Burial of the Dead": Understanding Eliot's WWI Crisis of Faith'''''=

The Anglican burial service, the "[[Order for the Burial of the Dead]]" saw a lot of use after the massive death toll of WWI, and the decimation of nearly an entire generation of England's young men.  Eliot, who had tried to join the U.S. Navy upon the outbreak of the Great War, was rejected for physical reasons.  After the rejection, he moved to England, where more young men died, and witnessed the decimation of fighting men, watching and waiting from the sidelines.  His feelings of impotence, his guilt, his anger, and the other personal anxieties resultant from his married life create the feelings of disillusionment and bitterness in "The Waste Land." Young Eliot, so firmly a staunch Anglican for most of his life, may have even experienced a crisis of faith.  By looking at the "[[The Waste Land Text]]," especially "The Burial of the Dead," and critically comparing it to the Anglican "[[Order for the Burial of the Dead]]," it is possible to see Eliot's concerns with the promise of salvation, in a time which seems to be comparable to the Biblical vision of the end times.

='''Figure 1: Eliot's Prophetic Terms from "The Burial of the Dead" -vs- "Order for the Burial of the Dead"'''=

Here, Voyeur Tools provides a basic way of visualizing the very interesting thematic diversions of "The Burial of the Dead" from the "[[Order for the Burial of the Dead]]."  The key terms--"life," "eternal," "dead," and "death"--are all related in a Judeo-Christian resurrection of the eternal soul.  As the chart shows, in the "Order for the Burial of the Dead," which includes many passages from the Bible underscoring death as a sort of stopping point to the next stage of life (such as [[1 Corinthians 15]]: 20-22 " But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept.  For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."), the four terms are closer together and almost overlap entirely, with life occurring more frequently than any other term.  The "Order" promises life, even after death, and the service is for the living, who have to continue living on without the deceased.  

Alternatively, in "Burial of the Dead," the word "dead" outstrips all other terms, "life" goes down in importance, "eternal" does not occur at all, and "death" stays the same as it did in the "Order."  More emphasis is place on the individual dead, and on being dead, than on those who are left behind.  Even the few live people that Eliot includes in the poem seem to be haunted by a proliferation of the dead.  

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<iframe width="760" height="520" src="http://voyant-tools.org/tool/TypeFrequenciesChart/?corpus=1355169554721.3643&stopList=1355169608111yh&type=life&type=dead&type=death&type=eternal&mode=corpus"></iframe></html>

='''Figure 2: Recurrent Words from "The Burial of the Dead" '''=

Go to [["The Burial of the Dead" Annotations]]

The words that do feature prominently in Eliot's "The Burial of the Dead," are particularly telling for his attitude.  Both "dead," and "death," feature prominently, but so does "shadow," "winter," "roots," and "fear."  The last, "fear," introduces the crisis of faith most strongly.  


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In the "[[Order for the Burial of the Dead]]," the selected scriptures treat death as a natural process and, in fact, one to be embraced as a time of union with God and a way of finding comfort from the difficulties of life.  Life, in fact, is denigrated as a time of man's vanity, and a time of trial, where man is tested in order to be admitted to the New Earth after the Second Coming of Christ.  That "fear" features so prominently in "The Burial of the Dead," contradicts Christian precepts of embracing death, further underscored by the section's allusion to a document so full of comfort in a time of death.  The Lord's Prayer, [[Psalm 23]], features prominently in the "Order," and distinctly says "...though I walk through the alley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me..." (Psalm 23:4).  Interestingly, "shadow," is another frequently occurring word of this section of the poem.

='''Figure 3: Recurring Words from "[[Order for the Burial of the Dead]]"'''=

Although the graph of the recurring words from the "[[Order for the Burial of the Dead]]" includes the text of Psalm 23, as well as the texts of all of the other scriptures included in the "Order," the recurring words reaffirm the conclusion made from Figure 1, that the "Order" deals with eternal life of the body, kept holy by a covenant with the Lord even after death.  Thus, the recurrent words are "body," "life," "holy," "eternal," and "death."

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In an interesting way, the graph of the "[[Order for the Burial of the Dead]]," tells the story of the process of life after death.  At the beginning, "eternal," and "life" overlap for the most frequently occurring terms, indicating perhaps their greater importance, and directly below them, "death," and "body" overlap, indicating the the body has died, beginning the process towards eternal life.  "Holy," does not feature heavily at the beginning, perhaps because no divine intervention has occurred yet.

Then, the "holy" process takes off, creating life from the dead body, the "body," rises, becomes holy, and at the end, life skyrockets off, as does "eternal."

='''Figure 4: Recurring Terms in the Biblical Allusions of "The Burial of the Dead"'''=

In order to read more deeply into "The Burial of the Dead," and to understand its relationship to Christianity, and to the Message of the Bible, the chart traces the usage of recurring terms in "The Burial of the Dead" to see what aspects of these passages are most important, and thus, most influential to Eliot.  These terms, "idols," "broken," "evil," and "forsaken" tell a very subversive story of Eliot's intent.  

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Since the books of the Bible are arranged in the order that Eliot uses them at the bottom, the change over time is remarkable.  It begins with the introduction of "evil," or perhaps, the beginning of evil's reign, and creates a huge proliferation of idols.  Of course, the worship of idols breaks one of the commandments, and it appears, according to the chart, that Eliot's usage of [[Isaiah 2]] and [[Ezekiel 6]] (where the most frequent usages of "idols" occur) indicates that he believes his own time to be one of idolatry.  Looking at [[Isaiah 2]], the sort of idolatry occurring in the scriptures would certain resonate with Eliot.  [[Isaiah 2]]:7-8 shows idolatry to be an obsession with wealth, and a worship of the arts as a means of boosting an artist's ego--both would appeal to the times.  The transition from idols to "broken," however, shows that God has already begun the process of breaking man's idols.  In [[Ezekiel 6]], in fact, God makes the mountains of Israel a "Waste Land," in his wrath, as a means of humbling and frightening the Israelites into penance.  It would appear, then, that "The Burial of the Dead" indicates that this process has already begun.  When the "idols," come crashing down, the "evil" ones are "forsaken."  

It seems possible, therefore, that Eliot sees "The Waste Land" of his times as a time when God has smashed all of the cultural idols, as a way of humbling man.  All of the agonizing horrors that so many see or endure after World War I are directed towards idolators and sinners, as a means of expiating them from their sins.  Even the dead are being punished.  Spring rain reminds the corpses waiting in the ground for resurrection of their lives before death.  Even the dead continue to atone.

=='''Biblical Allusions'''==

Using [["The Burial of the Dead" Annotations]], it was possible to suss out the Bible passages most heavily used in writing "The Burial of the Dead," according to scholars. For a more in-depth analysis of these allusions, see the annotations. 

===[[Job 8]]===

===[[Ezekiel 2]]===

===[[Ezekiel 6]]===

===[[Ecclesiastes 12]]===

===[[Isaiah 2]]===

===[[Isaiah 32]]===

='''Figure 5: Recurring Terms in the Biblical Allusions from "[[Order for the Burial of the Dead]]" '''=

While Eliot does seem to believe that World War I is a form of punishment for mankind, titling this section of the poem after the comforting "[[Order for the Burial of the Dead]]" indicates that "The Waste Land" is a way of dealing with God's wrath, and a way of trusting in a divine plan.  

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=='''Biblical Allusions'''==

===[[John 11]].25-26===

===[[Job 19]].25-7===

===[[1 Timothy 6]].7===

===[[Job 1]].21===
 	 	
===[[Psalm 25]].6===

===[[Deuteronomy 33]].27===
 	 	 
===[[Romans 8]].38-39===
 	 	 
===[[Romans 14]].8-9===
 	 	
===[[Matthew 5]].4===

===[[John 14]].1===

===[[Psalm 39]]===
 	 	 
===[[Psalm 23]]===

===[[Psalm 130]]===

===End of Psalm Prayer=== 

===[[1 Corinthians 15]].20-6===

===[[1 Corinthians 15]].35-38===

===[[1 Corinthians 15]].42-44===

===[[1 Corinthians 15]].53-58===
 	 	 
===[[2 Corinthians 4]].16 - 5.10===
 
===[[Revelation 7]].9-17===
 	 	 
===[[Revelation 21]].1-7===

===[[Psalm 103]]===