There are numerous symbols and allusions throughout T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land such as fertility, fragmentation, religion and many others. Another important allusion is the constant references to water and deaths associated with water. At the end of the section titled A Game of Chess, Eliot alludes to Ophelia's suicide in water. This allusion is important because it is yet another reference to suicide. Eliot is suggesting the potential for suicide and its prevalence in an upset world, a waste land of emotion.

The idea of water and death associated with it, is contradictory to the typical meaning behind the symbol of water. Water is generally thought of as a place of birth or rebirth. The greatest idea of this symbolism lies within the idea of baptism. In water, you are born a child of god and the act of dipping your head in water is what accomplishes this. In The Waste Land, the symbol of water is constantly shown as a symbol for death, infertility/unproductiveness and fear. Looking back at the first allusion in the first line of the poem,

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.

Eliot is commenting on the fact that water does not bring life. April is normally associated with a lot of rain which brings life to flowers but an excessive amount of rain will kill the flowers. This inverted idea can be seen against the end of the second section, the reference of the death of Hamlet’s Ophelia. This reference to Ophelia ,who kills herself in water surrounded by flowers, illustrates the idea of how water can directly kill. The water kills both Ophelia and the flowers, saying that too much of anything is never good.

The section titled The Fire Sermon offers more symbols and allusions to Eliot's inverted and twisted idea behind the symbol of water. In the beginning of the section water is referred to as dull, "while I was fishing in the dull canal" (Eliot 189). This allusion represents the barren picture of the unusual waste land Eliot is referring to. A waste land is normally associated with the idea of a barren place, most likely a desert, yet Eliot's waste land is alive with symbols of life, yet they are all dead or dying. The dull canal is portrayed by the swarming rats, symbolizing scavengers feeding off the remains of the unwanted or deserted. The rats also symbolize the idea that the narrator is in a waste land, because nothing around is living except these scavengers.

The title of section four is Death by Water shows his negative portrayal of water through the title itself and through the understanding of the section. It is the shortest section of the entire poem and it describes the death of the dead Phoenician sailor that was predicted by Madame Sosostri in first section of the poem. This section provides a contrast between the Phoenician sailor and to Christ. The Phoenician is referred to rising and falling, “As he rose and fell He passed the stages of his age and youth" (Eliot 317-318) just as Christ rose from the dead and then fell back to the dead. Eliot contrasts Christ to the sailor to show that there is not rebirth in the waste land, there is only decay. The sailor has died and forgotten the world and everything he knows. He is gone and he will never return.

In the final section, What the Thunder Said, Eliot references children’s song, "London Bridge is falling down falling down falling down" (Eliot 426). A bridge is what protects man from water. With the construction of a bridge man is now able to cross water more easily and safely. Here, Eliot is describing the London Bridge collapsing. The bridge can no longer protect man from water, showing the connection between water and death. Additionally, Eliot's choice of a song that talks about the destruction of a symbol of connecting life, the London Bridge, shows that everything is falling apart. Another allusion in the final section is the final line which states, "Shantih Shantih Shantih" (Eliot 433). The final line of the poem is an allusion to the Book of Philippians, and it means “the peace which passeth understanding”. This is important because it concludes a section that offers an understanding to the world and why it is a waste land. Eliot is saying that we cannot understand peace because we only know the waste land and its death and destruction.
Eliot uses the symbol and allusions of water to reinforce his idea that the world has become a desolate waste land. He stresses in the poem is that there is no rebirth and that water does not give life and instead it causes death, "you should fear death by water" (Eliot 55). Eliot's atypical view of the world is a reaction to the horrors he sees because of wars. His history is a cyclical view that features death, but no true rebirth; he praises winter for its honesty, a season of death, and despises the spring season for its false idea of life.