Q: ‘The Waste Land is the epic of the modern times. Discuss with illustrations from the text.

Epic^[1], long narrative poem, majestic both in theme and style.

Epics deal with legendary or historical events of national or universal significance, involving action of broad sweep and grandeur.

Most epics deal with the exploits of a single individual, thereby giving unity to the composition. Typically, an epic includes several features: the introduction of supernatural forces that shape the action; conflict in the form of battles or other physical combat; and stylistic conventions such as an invocation to the Muse, a formal statement of the theme, long lists of the protagonists involved, and set speeches couched in elevated language.

 Commonplace details of everyday life may appear, but they serve as background for the story and are described in the same lofty style as the rest of the poem.

Epic poems are not merely entertaining stories of legendary or historical heroes; they summarize and express the nature or ideals of an entire nation at a significant or crucial period of its history. Examples include the ancient Greek epics by the poet Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey. 

The characteristics of the hero of an epic are national rather than individual, and the exercise of those traits in heroic deeds serves to gratify a sense of national pride.

At other times epics may synthesize the ideals of a great religious or cultural movement. The Divine Comedy (1307-1321) by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri expresses the faith of medieval Christianity. The Faerie Queene (Books I-III, 1590; Books IV-VI, 1596) by the English poet Edmund Spenser represents the spirit of the Renaissance in England and like Paradise Lost (1667) by the English poet John Milton, represents the ideals of Christian humanism.

Epic: a long narrative poem in elevated stature presenting characters of high position in adventures forming an organic whole through their relation to a central heroic figure and through their development of episodes important to the history of a nation or race.

Epics have 6 main characteristics^[2]:

1. The hero is of imposing stature, of national or international importance, and of great historical or legendary significance.
2. The setting is vast, covering many nations, the world, or the universe.
3. The action consists of deeds of great valor or requiring superhuman courage.
4. Supernatural forces—gods, angels, demons—in the action.
5. A style of sustained elevation is used.
6. The poet retains a measure of objectivity.
7. Episodes important to the history of a nation or race.

The hero generally participates in a cyclical journey or quest, faces adversaries that try to defeat him in his journey, and returns home significantly transformed by his journey. The epic hero illustrates traits, performs deeds, and exemplifies certain morals that are valued by the society from which the epic originates. Many epic heroes are recurring characters in the legends of their native culture.

Similarly, The Waste Land represents our current world is a mob of faces, of fragmented images, heap of broken images, a mere handful of dust, spiritually dead and sexually perverse. The universal appeal is in the fact that sexual perversion always leads to spiritual draught and vice versa.

In ‘The Waste Land’, the scene is set, history is added, and then the voices come in, expressing the feelings of the war generation. The feelings of hopelessness that are still around today, in depression, unhappiness, lack of caring etc . . . . . . Perhaps despair is not European condition, as most people would have despaired at some point in their lives.

"The Waste Land" as being a modern day epic is that Eliot is attempting to tell the story of the modern person. He gives a voice to the many voices, the many ideas, the many people in a diverse culture, which is also why he may include the numerous languages.

Give illustrations from the text of spiritual degeneration and sexual perversion.