“Compare and Contrast the ways in which Shakespeare and Eliot present the theme of Disillusionment in Hamlet and The Waste Land”

Firstly, Shakespeare and Eliot convey a similar struggle for identity as a response to crisis, leading one to become deeply disillusioned with the natural order of society around them. Both works highlight the feeling of grief as origin for this crisis, yet an adherence to the respective genres of the works separates them. As a Modernist text, The Waste Land notably reflects some of the wider concepts of the genre through its writing, addressing the predicament of how to restore society’s “great tradition” after the horrors of the First World War. This is perhaps reflected in the famous opening to the poem in Part I: The Burial of the Dead. Beginning with “April is the cruelest month, breeding…”, Eliot makes it apparent that this attempt is futile. If one takes ‘April’ to represent rebirth- as it normally marks the beginning of Spring and the return to the vegetation period- then it may be argued that the poet is drawing a parallel between the natural cycle of growth and decay and the attempt to rebuild society after its deconstruction. Additionally, Pericles Lewis suggests that the use of caesura in this opening deliberately distorts the metre of the lines, breaking up the use of iambic pentameter. The attempt to write in blank verse here shows a wish to follow the traditional literary canon constructed over centuries, yet the narrative voice apparently cannot construct the verse. This could imply that we, as a community, are unable of returning to pre-war tenets of high culture; that the atrocities of the early twentieth century have rendered us distinctly ostracised from our artistic past. Eliot therefore shows this disillusionment to be a result of the isolation of society from its cultural past, as the figures within the poem search in vain for meaning in their lives. Another example of this is the overall fragmented structure of The Waste Land. The leap from the ‘Madame Sosostris’ episode to Eliot’s dreary London setting, among others, shows a disjointed and uneven thought pattern, while the fleeting focus on each instalment perhaps hints that the narrator views each as being utterly futile and unworthy of concentrated focus. This develops the sense of disillusionment in the poem, and the shift across genders, nationalities and classes highlights how the war has had a universal effect on us all. In the same degree, Shakespeare’s Hamlet reflects the way in which the death of the regal father instils a feeling of disenchantment in the eponymous character, as he strives to find an identity for himself in the face of his royal duty. In accordance with the traditional model of Elizabethan tragedy, Shakespeare demonstrates how Hamlet’s royal status isolates him, setting him apart from Denmark’s expectations of a decisive king as a man occupied by thoughts, incapable of fulfilling the “great act” expected of him. This isolation and “philosophical predisposition” is most evident in the play’s sustained use of soliloquies; the sole presence of Hamlet on stage is the physical embodiment of his inward solitude, while also showing the audience his struggle to “act” through his lack of activity, and his focus on language. This is particularly apparent in the play’s most famous soliloquy, where Hamlet debates whether to temperately endure in suffering, or fight against his position in defiance and commit to an action. This can be seen in “...suffer/ The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” in juxtaposition with taking arms “against a sea of troubles/ And by opposing end them.” While this soliloquy is traditionally thought to represent the character’s struggle with the nature of life and the possibility of suicide, a more modern view might imply that Hamlet is rather more concerned with the nature of purpose in life. The contrast of “suffering” and “opposing” highlights the central paradox of the play: Hamlet’s struggle between fulfilling the role of a man of action and delay as a result of his “diseased” wit. This form of disillusionment is shown to be cyclical; the longer Hamlet waits in his decision making, the more he diminishes his purpose to act. It is from this internal conflict that the nature of his ‘delay’ arises; Hamlet endures until the choice to act is taken from him, and it becomes a necessity. As such, it is reasonable to suggest that Shakespeare presents Hamlet to be disillusioned as a result of his own inadequacy, as he struggles to find his own identity. Hence, Eliot and Shakespeare portray the way in which grief inspires a feeling of desolation in their works. Nevertheless, while Hamlet suffers as a result of his place in high society or the “grand tradition”, the narrative of The Waste Land demonstrates the way in which society struggled to continue this example on a universal basis, much in the way that other Modernist pieces took to blending ideas of high and low culture after the war.