The Waste Land as Satire

[David Simpson]

Thomas Eckhardt asked:

> Do you think Heart of Darkness and The Waste Land are satires?
> Why?
>
>

If we define satire as literature that seeks to expose and criticize human vice and folly and which portrays humans as mostly selfish, cowardly, stupid, coarse, and greedy, then The Waste Land obviously qualifies. (Less sure about Heart of Darkness, though one could probably make a good case.)

Eliot himself clearly considered The Waste Land a satirical poem and later characterized it as the bitter expression of "a personal grouse against life" and "just a piece of rhythmical grumbling."

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homepage: http://www.depaul.edu/~dsimpson
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