Has all hope been lost for the inhabitants of the Waste Land? One interpretation of “What the Thunder Said” certainly seems
to suggest this.  The idea of hopelessness is one that fully infiltrates this section of the poem.  It makes its way into every stanza
and leaves the reader feeling that all hope is, in fact, lost.

The idea of hopelessness begins in the first stanza with Eliot’s reference to Jesus’ arrest at the Garden of Gethsemane.  The reader gets a description of anger, crying, and imprisonment.  The crucifixion of Jesus is also mentioned which naturally takes
hope away from all.  

Throughout the next stanza’s hopelessness is portrayed by a sense of lifelessness.  There are continual references made to the lack of water and barrenness of the land.  The fact that there is an absence of water and that all that is present is rock and sand is repeated several times throughout these lines.  Eliot also chooses to use words that contain a sort of lifeless denotation as well as connotation within this piece of his writing. In line 342 he refers to the “Dead mountain mouth of carious teeth that cannot spit,” as well as the “dry sterile thunder without rain” in line 345.  These lines illustrate the feelings that hope, and life is gone. The mountains have died and are in a state of decay and the thunder that rumbles overhead is completely unproductive.  

This same theme of lifelessness is present within later stanzas of the poem as well.  Line 394 refers to bones saying, “dried bones can harm no one.” Soon that is all that is to be left of the people on the mountain, simply dried bones because their world is withering away.  Images that represent hope and rebirth, such as the Ganges River and the Himavant are mentioned but they are shrouded in misery. The river has sunken and stands ready for water while black clouds cover the mountains.  While these hopeful images are given to the reader they are used to disillusion them because the images are not what they seem.     

The poem also ends on a hopeless note.  In line 410 it makes reference to obituaries, signifying death and line 428 makes reference to an arid plain, again showing the barrenness of the land.  The poem ends in the typical modern style of fragmentation, suggesting that there is still a sense of hopelessness that pervades the Waste Land.  

                                                                                                                              M.K.