Exploring Sexual Perversion in Thomas Stearns Eliot’s Poem The Waste Land

Abstract

The Waste Land, which is an eminent poem by Thomas Stearns Eliot, stands as a foundation of modernist literature. This poem is renowned for its intricate layers and profound thematic complexities. The prime aim of this article is to explore sexual perversion within the poem. The author went throughbooks, and journal articles for the secondary data to make a comprehensive review concerning the poem and sexual perversion. The critical analysis of the previously published materials was done by maintaining the sexual perversion as a prominent theme of the poem. Phrases and verse lines which hint at the case of sexual perversion were extracted from the poem and they were critically analyzed as the primary data. The critical analysis was based on Georges Bataille’s, French writer, theory of eroticism which specifically addresses sexual perversion as a deviated physical relationship between a man and a woman, disregarding contemporary social values and norms. By situating these depictions within the historical and cultural context, the article concludes Eliot’s treatment of sexual perversion as a critique of contemporary moral decay and social degradation. The implication of this article lies in its critical examination of the poem’s portrayal of sexual deviancy as a metaphor for the spiritual and cultural disintegration of modern civilization.