English 1022E Lecture Notes - T. S. Eliot, Fire Sermon, Jessie Weston
16 Nov 2011
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Document Summary
Three issues that loom largely in the third part of the poem: It deals with the illnesses (psychological, physical) of the modern world, and suggests cures for those diseases. The figure of the fisher king is important. He is a character who rules over a wasted and infertile land. Because of his inattention to spiritual matters and the rampant materialism of his people and himself. In order for the land to return to fertility, a knight has to appraoch the kingdom and do a number of important things: He does this by spending a night in the ruined. He has to be alone in this frightening place that reminds him of his own mortality, makes him confront that mortality, and move beyond that mortality with the possibility of rebirth. In the morte d"arthur the quest for the holy grail is satisfied/achieved by sir galahad who is able to complete it because of his purity.
