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ence happens everywhere in the modern society.
 The title of section Ⅲ “The fire sermon” alludes to an oriental tradition in which Buddha preaches against the burning fires of lust and other destructive passions. This section opens on a vision of the modern river with debris left on the river banks after the feastings and love-makings, which is set in contrast to the “sweet Thames” with the beautiful nymphs preparing for a wedding described in Spenser’s Prothalamion. In the end of this section, Eliot imitates Robert Wagner’s opera The Three Rhine Maidens in his description of the experiences of three Thames maidens. The first maiden’s “Supine on the floor of a narrow canoe” indicates “being raped”. The second maiden’s asking “what should I resent?” involves regret. And the third maiden’s memory of “broken fingernails of dirty hands” implies suffering violence. With the reference to The Three Rhine Maidens, a series of contemporary seductions and assignations are interwoven with ironic evocations of the past.
 2.4 "Revival" System
 Revival is the most important theme in The Waste Land. This system is focused on the two key images: “Fire” and “Water”.
 2.4.1 Fire
 “Fire”, an active force, is capable of both destruction and creation. It is a threat to everybody and everything because of its power to devour all that it encounters. In this sense, it is always compared to sexual lust for the same flame quality and possible disastrous outcome. But such power also makes it a symbol of the purgatorial force which sweeps away all the evils. It also leads to its implication of rebirth which can only be achieved through the total destruction or the death of the former one which might be old or bad. The eternal bird Phoenix serves as a good example. The related myths reveal that every five hundred years, the bird would burn herself, but three days later, out of the ashes, a new phoenix would be reborn.
 In The Waste Land, the dual meanings of fire are the most conspicuous in the third section. The title of The Fire Sermon alludes to what was preached by Buddha against the fire of lust, anger, envy and other passions that consume men. In The Fire Sermon Buddha tells his followers that everything is on fire: “forms are on fire…impressions received by the eye are on fire; and whatever sensation, pleasant, unpleasant, or indifferent, originates in dependence on impressions received by the eye, that also is on fire. And with what are these on fire? With the fire of passion, say I, with the fire of hatred, with the fire of infatuation…”(Southam, 1990: 132). However, in “The Fire Sermon”, the poet mainly focuses on the destructive fire of lust or sexual desire. The poet delineates a series of scenes: the Thames River, Sweeney and Mrs. Porter, the nightingale’s song, the merchant Mr. Eugenie’s invitation, and especially the casual relationship between the typist and the house agent’s clerk, all of which show or imply the damaging effect of the fire of lust, and the torpid souls devoured in the fire.
 Nevertheless, fire with its cleaning effect, is important as a means by which the sinners mentioned above can purify themselves so as to get a symbolic rebirth. In the third section, following the exhibition of all those unpleasant scenes with people consumed by lust as the heroes, close to the end of the section, there comes the “culmination” of this part of the poem:本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。