The Waste Land: A “Modern” Grail Legend

In original notes of The Waste Land,Eliot claims that the Grail Legend is the most important quotation,which influences not only the structure,but also the theme of the poem.This research is based on the aforementioned clue,taking other quotations in The Waste Land into consideration,to discuss the relationship between the poem and Grail Legend.What The Waste Land represents,is the questing journey of its narrator,so “the Quester” becomes his highly cognizable mask.In the context of Grail Legend,“female”,“water” and “grail” become an “symbolic unit” which is important for the poem,and mainly it’s its antitheses that consist the narrator’s questing journey.This symbolic unit is represented: 1)in chapter one as deserted land,in this chapter,the narrator fails his questing because of “the fatal forgetfulness” he committed;2)in chapter two as a group of “corrupted women” and two sexual inverted characters,they aggravate the narrator’s disastrous circumstance.In chapter three,the narrator set out for his final journey,in the end of which he adapts the “inward turning” which is revelated in three thunders,and draw himself out of external environment.In last stanza of The Waste Land,the narrator loses motivation and becomes “the Fisher King”.He eventually transforms himself from an actor to an audience of a tragedy.The transformation of the narrator predicts Eliot’s convert to religion.