Abstract
This article examines The Waste Land in terms of Nietzsche's theory of the will to power and the eternal recurrence. The German philosopher and T. S. Eliot concurred that nihilism was the modern condition, yet they took different attitudes toward existential skepticism. For Nietzsche it was the will to power that could defeat nihilistic states, to the extent that it leads to self-improvement and the pursuit of ambitions. Individuals that exploit the potentialities of the will, known as Übermenschen, relish life on earth as part of their own creation, even if it were repeated as infinitum. This outlook disparages the Christian belief in an imaginary afterworld that compensates for earthly agony. Unlike Nietzsche, Eliot does not condemn religion, but rather the loss of spiritual values resulting in the imbalance of the will. The poet appears to argue for the Buddhist middle way that rejects extremes of self-gratification and mortification, eternalism and annhilationism. As the literary equivalent of the eternal recurrence, the allusions in The Waste Land juxtapose past moments that reveal the excess of the will with its deficiency in the present. The poem thus hints at moderation as the key to liberate humanity from cycles of suffering.
