existence where water can bring both resurrection and destruction In the earlier part water stands for drowning and fear of death and in the later section it signifies hope and the possibility of renewal For instance April is the cruellest month breeding Lilacs out of the dead land mixing Memory and desire stirring Dull roots with spring rain In this case the spring rain represents the hope for rebirth yet it just fosters dull roots implying that the regeneration is partial or impossible The Fisher King The Fisher King is a mythical figure representing a barren land's wounded or impotent ruler In 'The Waste Land ' the Fisher King symbolizes modern society's impotence and spiritual decay He symbolizes the lost connection between the spiritual and the material world The Tarot The image of the hanged man in the Tarot Cards symbolizes sacrifice and spiritual transformation Madame Sosostris is a character with tarot cards She tells the future of his followers by using these cards She also fears the police standing for human hypocrisy We find the following excerpt about her in the poem Madame Sosostris famous clairvoyante Had a bad cold nevertheless Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe With a wicked pack of cards Unreal City This phrase from 'The Burial of the Dead' is a description of London The local people need more faith They gather for work at London Bridge at nine o'clock representing the hour of Christ's crucifixion indicating that religion ends when trade begins Unreal City Under the brown fog of a winter dawn A crowd flowed over London Bridge so many I had not thought death had undone so many The Chapel Perilous The term chapel perilous originated from Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur It is a place for an encounter where the wicked witch Hellawes fails to delight Sir Lancelot In The Waste Land T S Eliot symbolized it to show spiritual crisis and uncertainty The Thunder Thunder or the voice of the gods or divine forces is a powerful symbol in the poem The final section 'What the Thunder Said ' symbolizes hope and renewal bringing rain and potential redemption to the wasteland According to the Indian legend of thunder God replied in thunders once people were trapped by drought and famine and desired divine help Finally in 'The Waste Land ' T S Eliot combines various symbols and detailed imagery to illustrate the spiritual and emotional desolation of the modern world Eliot uses this tiny part of his rich symbols to show the readers the fragility of life the costs of conflict and the desire for spiritual rebirth amid modernity's wasteland