A Comparative Study of Thanatos in T.S. Eliot’s Poetry and the Poetry of Manouchehr Atashi and Ali Babachahi

Abstract

Death has always occupied man’s mind as one of his major concerns and its traces can well be detected in his life. All forms of art, particularly literature, have embraced death and its accompanying elements as one of their prominent subjects. Moreover, this theme has not been confined to any specific realm which by itself hints at the universality of death. Beside the presumed affinities, different facets have also been attributed to death and thus it has not been perceived as one single entity by literary figures in all literary works. Despite the evident presence of death in western literature, it would be a mistake to confine the treatment of death as an angel-like figure merely to modern western poetry, for it dates back to ancient Greek mythology where Thanatos appears as the manifestation of death. Even though his initial attributes used to be those related to a deadly agent who would ruthlessly take man’s life, before long it would be replaced by an angel-like image demonstrating a peaceful agent who would accompany human beings at the time of their death in a serene manner. Apparently, it has found its way into Eastern Literature as well. This study aims at establishing a comparative study of Thanatos or death-wish in some poems selected from both a Western poet from Great Britain, i.e. T. S. Eiot and two Persian poets from Southern Iran, i.e. Manouchehr Atashi and Ali Babachahi. In this comparative study, death-wish would be discussed based upon the chosen poems through the use of descriptive-analytical method. The selected poems have been contextualized in this study.