Speak to me. Why do you never speak? Speak What are you thinking of? What thinking? What?” (The Waste Land) What literary techniques does T.S. Eliot use to represent the awkwardness of social relations in The Waste Land? Your response should offer a close reading of selected sections/lines from the poem.

T. S. Eliot’s major poem, The Waste Land, is considered a profound expression for the sense of alienation and meaninglessness that many have found characteristic of the spirit of the modern era. The poem was written by Eliot after a series of personal crises that eventuated in exhaustion and depression and a brief period of psychotherapy. His illness can be characterized as a tranistory narcissistic regression with partial fragmentation and loss of ego dominance. Through the help of his psychiatrist, Roger Vittoz, a benign, supporting super-ego figure, and his collaborative alter-ego, Ezra Pound, with whom he formed a self-confirming, mirroring transference, Eliot was able to return to creative work and use the experience of his illness to add a new dimension to English literature.