From War to Contagion: An Exploration of the Philosophical Relevance of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land during the Times of Pandemic

Abstract

With death sprouting like fungi and its fear spreading like the mycelium, the contemporary pandemic times mirror the pathetic state of the inhabitants of a bizarre post-war and postmodern realm called ‘The Waste Land.’ This paper attempts to unveil the existential challenges of humanity to grapple with the ambiance of death’s omnipresence during the Coronavirus catastrophe, concerning T. S. Eliot’s magnum opus, ‘The Waste Land.’ It highlights the portrayal of the dead and the living as ‘the walking dead’ and relates to the pandemic’s nature of overflowing graveyards that blur the boundaries between life and death. It also provides a philosophical inquiry into today’s human reality that is replete with spiritual hollowness and absolute hopelessness and ensures to remind the forgotten masses of the true essence of human existence- true for all times ranging from war to contagion.