Notes on the hollow men

KARL MARX VIEWS

When Karl Marx was commissioned to write a manifesto for the communist future, he
wrote in absolutist terms. He believed that the only way that workers, oppressed under a
form of industrial slavery, could only improve their lot in life was through violent
revolution and through rapid changes in the ways that government ruled.

But the incorporation of Marxist thoughts and principles into the western industrialized
world did not come through sudden, overwhelming, and violent revolution, but through
years, even decades of battle to improve the lives and conditions of workers. The American
unionist movement did not begin, grow, become an overwhelming force, then go into
decline very rapidly at all.

This indicates that Marxist principles are not only not obsolete, they were not as absolute
in their construct or predictions as he thought that they should be. There were other ways
beside whole scale, violent revolution to end oppression of the American worker, just as
there are other ways for workers, or the "proletariat" to gain a larger share of the profits
from their labor than the complete dismantling and reconstruction of society.

And there were ways that are labeled as "Marxist" in origin and concept, but which are
both far from Marxist and which are unique to the countries in which they originated.
Social Security, a system to guarantee that workers paid into, then recieve retirement or
disability income, is a uniquely American entity, as is Medicare. These were not Marxist
principles that involved the destruction, then rebuilding of the American government, but
unique and positive creations of the American government.

Marx was absolute in his belief that the industrial worker would completely lose his
connection to nature as the source of sustenance, and become slave to the machine as the
main source of money, which could buy sustenance. While most developed countries can
in no way function on an agrarian model these days, and while most workers in developed
countries do not have an agrarian or natural way of making a living, there is more
connection to and love of nature than ever. Even in tightly packed urban centers, there are
ways to get to and to interact with nature, care for and honor the environment, and live
lifestyles that incorporate natural, rather than artificial elements than ever before.

Marx never foresaw urban, regional, or national planning, where parks, natural
monuments, and even incorporating landscaping into new communities, as a possibility.

American efforts to preserve natural wonders, set aside protected wilderness, and take
massive tracts of lands into the public trust for the benefit of all citizens, were simply not a
part of Marx's construct, which predicted a complete loss of the freedom that a natural life
allows, when all citizens became urbanized, industrialized drones.

Marx also never predicted the deurbanization of industry, where factories and industrial
operations did not need to be confined to filthy, over built and over populated cities.

Marx was also wrong in considering the laborer, himself as a commodity. It was the
laborer's skills and work that was the commodity, as the elite in Edwardian England found
out when their servants no longer had to work under the even more horrific conditions that
they suffered as servants, and could choose to work in industry. Marx did not envision that
developed countries could broaden educational and job skill development so that far more
azam_numl@hotmail.com 1

of the public had far more opportunity to achieve specialized technical educations, or even
higher educations at the best institutions in the land.

Marx did not envision a military that actually released better educated and trained
individuals back into society, where the GI Bill allowed many of them to attend college,
and to enter the field of their choice.

The concept of five day work weeks, vacation and holiday time, and sick leave are
definitely Marxist style improvements for the workers in highly developed countries, and
so is unemployment insurance and workers compensation insurance. But Marx simply
could not foresee that these improvements could happen without a complete revolutionary
overthrow and restructuring of government.

While Marxist ideas and Marxist thought originally sought to improve the lot of the
industrialized and oppressed worker, not all improvements have been because of Marxist
thought or principles, or under the conditions that he believed were mandatory. As a result,
his thought was absolutist, but is not obsolete.

Nor has his thought been as influential in the development of modern work as many
believe it to be. These days, it is a capitalist's world. Workers are scrambling to maintain
their lifestyles, and to express their demands of government in battle while insanely
influential capitalist interests are equally, if not more powerful in getting government to
bear their interests in mind first.

HOLLOW MEN IN THE LIGHT OF MARXISM

A uniform hangs in the shadows inside the ruined temple, the name printed on it KURTZ.
Water drips from somewhere, a voice recites TS Eliot, books lie in bronze light and you
notice that this jungle library includes The Golden Bough. Of course it does. It's a book to
read at the end of the river.

First published in 1890 by the Scottish anthropologist JG Frazer, The Golden Bough has
had a more powerful influence on modern literature and cinema than Freud or Marx. A
vast essay on comparative religion, it traced the roots of Christianity in folklore, of science
in magic, and did so with the vulgarity of a bestseller. To know that Kurtz, in Francis Ford
Coppola's Apocalypse Now, is a reader of The Golden Bough is to see him as a priest-king
whom Martin Sheen's assassin must ritually slaughter, himself to become the new King of
the Wood.

The chief literary source for Apocalypse Now is Eliot, whose 1925 poem "The Hollow
Men" Marlon Brando recites for Dennis Hopper:

"We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men


Leaning together
Headpiece stuffed with straw. Alas!"

Three years earlier, Eliot had acknowledged his debt to Frazer in "The Waste Land",
writing of a "work of anthropology ... which has influenced our generation profoundly; I
mean The Golden Bough". Eliot's generation - the modernists - were all victims, survivors
or fortunately distant witnesses of the mass sacrificial slaughter of European youth of the
first world war. And there is a startling image in The Golden Bough that casts new light on
the war's resonance for this generation.

ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF T.S. ELIOT’S

THE HOLLOW MEN

Table of contents

1 Introduction.
1.1. Description and aims of the paper.
1.2. The introductory epigraph.
2 The poem: The Hollow Men.
3 Analysis, interpretation and discussion.
3.1. Main linguistic, rhetoric and aesthetic devices used.
3.2. Interpretation and discussion.
4 Conclusion.

1. Introduction.

1.1. DESCRIPTION AND AIMS OF THE PAPER.

Eliot, a master of the written craft, carefully thought out each aspect of his 1925
poem The Hollow Men. Many differences in interpretation exist for Eliot’s complex
poetry, since we find an extensive range of facts to consider in this work. As Eliot often
intertwined his writing by having one piece relate to another, The Hollow Men is
sometimes considered as a mere appendage to The Wasteland. The Hollow Men, however,
proves to have many offerings for a reader in and among itself.
Following the idea above, the poem will be treated in isolation in this paper, trying
to unravel all the figures, symbols and meanings that Eliot wished to transmit through The
Hollow Men, reading onto and between the lines.


Firstly, we will work on an intensive analysis, describing and explaining as
accurately as possible all the linguistic, rhetoric and aesthetic devices found in the text,
such as repetition, foregrounding, deixis, symbols and images, rhyme and rhythm. This is
something that will help us understand in a better way the deep structure of the poem and
its relationship with the meaning(s) involved. At this stage we will look at the poem as a
whole, since similar devices are used all along, paying special attention to the last part
(section 5), which is visibly different from the rest.
Secondly, and taking into account the previous analysis, we will perform an
interpretation of the poem, this time working each part in isolation, revealing their meaning
as if we were dealing with five different `chapters´ of the same story, in order to obtain and
discuss the main ideas and senses contained.
In the conclusion, all the ideas explained before will be put in common, tracing a
final outline of The Hollow Men together with a personal approach sketching my
impressions about it.

1.2. THE INTRODUCTORY EPIGRAPH.

Now, taking a quick look at the poem, we appreciate that it starts with an epigraph,
which contains two pertinent references.
Mistah Kurtz –he dead.
A penny for the Old Guy.
First, Mistah Kurtz –he dead is an allusion to Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. In his
novella, Conrad portrays the empty nature of men. Mister Kurtz, an European slave trader
who had travelled to Africa in order to go on with his business, is a character who lacks a
soul, thus, a true `Hollow Man´, as we’ll see afterwards. Here, we have to highlight a
couple of striking aspects. On one hand, the `phonetic´ spelling of `Mister´, which changes
into Mistah. On the other hand, the ellipsis of the verb `to be´ in he dead. This proves that
the speaker is probably some kind of non-native English speaker who uses a pidgin or a
creole language (a slave, if we look back at Conrad’s novel). But, why a slave? Probably
because he represents another kind of `hollow man´ -a passive soul, humble, but passive.
What’s more, it seems that this verse is the answer for a question like `Where’s Mister
Kurtz?´, as if we didn’t know that he (is) (already) dead. This idea of `ignored death´
related to `emptiness´ will be subsequently developed through the poem.


In the second quotation the epigraph alludes to England’s November 5th tradition of
Guy Fawkes Day. In 1605, Guy Fawkes unsuccesfully tried to blow up the Parliament
building. Eliot’s quote A penny for the Old Guy is called out on this holiday by children
who are attempting to buy fireworks in order to burn straw figures of Fawkes. In this verse
Old and Guy are written with capital letters, emphasising the fact that the puppet represents
a `poor, old, mortal fellow´ who needs to be given a few alms. In any case, we must notice
the vagueness of the sentence, as the Old Guy does not make reference to any specific
character or person, and we wouldn’t have guessed who Eliot is addressing if we didn’t
know the cultural background mentioned before.
Even so, what’s the relationship that these two verses have? This epigraph seems to
hark back longingly for even such monstruous men who at last believed in what they were
doing, however horrific the results, setting up a natural contrast to the hollowness of
modern man, who fundamentally believes in nothing and is, therefore, empty at the core of
his being, like a Guy Fawkes dummy, or a Fallas’ ninot, if we bear in mind the well-known
celebration in Valencia (Spain). So, two different types of `hollow/stuffed men´ are
presented: he who lacks a soul (Mister Kurtz) and he who lacks a real body (Guy Fawkes
dummy), representing both physical and spiritual emptiness.
Within the first two verses Eliot establishes the setting and theme and begins a
rythmic pattern that will hold true for at least four of the five sections of the poem.
Now let’s concentrate on the text, which is divided in five sections that
immediately follow the epigraph.

2. The poem: The Hollow Men, written in 1925 by Thomas Stearns Eliot. Published the
same year.

Mistah Kurtz –he dead.
A penny for the Old Guy.

I
1 We are the hollow men,
We are the stuffed men.
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
5 Our dried voices, when
We whisper together,
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rat’s feet over broken glass
10 In our dry cellar.

Shape without form, shade without color,
Paralyzed force, gesture without motion;

Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death’s other kingdom
15 Remember us –if at all- not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men,
The stuffed men.

II
Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
20 In death’s dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column.
There, is a tree swinging
25 And voices are
In the wind’s singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.

Let me be no nearer
30 In death’s dream kingdom.
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises:
Rat’s coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
35 Behaving as the wind behaves

No nearer-

Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom.

III
This is the dead land,
40 This is the cactus land.
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man’s hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.

45 Is it like this,
In death’s other kingdom
Walking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness.
50 Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.

IV
The eyes are not here,
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars,
55 In this hollow valley,
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms.

In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech,
60 Gathered on this beach of the tumid river
Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star,
Multifoliate rose
65 Of death’s twilight kingdom.
The hope only
Of empty men.

V
Here we go ‘round the prickly pear,
Prickly pear, prickly pear.
70 Here we go ‘round the prickly pear
At five o’clock in the morning.

Between the idea
And the reality,

Between the motion
75 And the act,
Falls the Shadow.

For Thine is the Kingdom.

Between the conception
And the creation,
80 Between the emotion
And the response,
Falls the Shadow.

Life is very long.

Between the desire
85 And the spasm,
Between the potency
And the existence,
Between the essence
And the descent,
90 Falls the Shadow.

For Thine is the Kingdom.

For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the

95 This is the way the world ends.
This is the way the world ends.
Not with a bang but a whimper.

3. ANALYSIS, INTERPRETATION AND DISCUSSION.

3.1. Main linguistic, rhetoric and aesthetic devices used in the poem.

Repetition
Repetition is the most important and abundant feature in this poem, which employs
about 180 different words in a work 420 words long. Not only does it connect different
sections of the poem, but it even appears within the same line (behaving as the wind
behaves, line 35).
In lines 1-2 we see the first repetition in the poem. In this case, we’re dealing with a
structural repetition (we are the hollow men; we are the stuffed men). This structure
Subject + to be + copula will be used again in the first lines of part III (this is the dead
land; this is the cactus land) and part IV (the eyes are not here; there are no eyes here). This
proves that the author reinforces, through repetition, the description of states and
existences using the verb to be in Present Simple. At the end of Part I, the first couple of
verses is repeated again (as the hollow men, the stuffed men), enclosing the whole idea of
hollowness and emptiness. In lines 11-12 (shape without form, shade without colour,
paralyzed force, gesture without motion) the structure A without B, C without D seems to
be highlighting the main themes in the poem: meaninglessness, nothingness and paralysis,
in the case that we had treated shape/form, shade/colour and gesture/motion as synonyms
in some way. Therefore, all these concepts are `cancelling´ each other by a system of
`binary opposition´, present as well in part V (between the idea and the reality, between the
motion and the act falls the Shadow, etc). The lexical and semantic pattern in lines 11-12 is
related to the one in part V:
Between the a
And the b,

Between the c
And the d
Falls the Shadow
In this case, the opposition between a, b, c and d (idea/reality, motion/act,
conception/creation, emotion/response, desire/spasm, potency/existence, essence/descent)
completes a series of structured stanzas that comprehend both `prospect´ and `fulfillment´
together with `failure´ in the last verse (Falls the Shadow). So, we appreciate again the idea
of paralyzed force (line 12), unfulfillment and stasis.
Of course, the repetition of ideas and words is numerous all along the poem. The
most commonly repeated items are the eyes (mentioned in lines 14, 19, 22, 52, 53 and 62)
the voices (described in lines 7-10 and 25-28), the stars and many references to death’s
other kingdom, which appears throughout the poem with different names (death’s dream
kingdom, twilight kingdom, this last of meeting places, death’s twilight kingdom, this
valley of dying stars, this broken jaw of our lost kingdoms, etc). However, we’ll see their
meaning within the poem in the interpretation.
Another kind of repetition is carried out through negation (Eyes I dare not meet in
dreams; these do not appear; let me be no nearer; no nearer; not that final meeting; the eyes
are not here; there are no eyes here). Eliot uses negation as an expression of sorrow and
guilt, trying to avoid the unevitability of death (no nearer –not that final meeting in the
twilight kingdom).
Part V, however, changes in a radical way the tone of the previous sections of the
poem. In it we find a children’s song the main element of which is repetition (lines 68-71).
The verve of the nursery rhyme spins us round in a sinister way, since it disturbs the
familiar mulberry bush replaced with the arid prickly pear, making the rhyme like some
distorted survival of a primitive chant. Eliot’s substitution makes this seem an infertility
dance. The sentences from the Lord’s prayer (For Thine is the Kingdom) are confused by
the addition of a complaint in the same typographical form (Life is very long) and then we
find a tripartite distinction of truncated verses in lines 92-94, as if we had to `fill in the
gaps´ to complete them. This fact supports the idea of infertility and emptiness. The last
stanza recalls the opening nursery rhyme chorus, but gives it a universal voice which
seems to include all that we’ve heard before in what is now a ritual chant with an
appropriately childlike sound:

Not with a bang but a whimper.
It has been demonstrated that repetition is the fundamental element of The Hollow
Men, as it can be found from the very beginning to the very end, not only emphasising
structures, words and ideas, but also giving us the impression of rituality and paralysis of
the actions taking place. Everything in this poem is circular, repetitive and somewhat
absurd, like a group of children dancing and singing round a prickly pear.

FOREGROUNDING
Foregrounding can be defined as the standing out of certain elements by several
means. In The Hollow Men, T.S. Eliot uses different literary mechanisms in order to
foreground items. Repetition, as it’s just been explained, may be considered as a way of
foregrounding, but there are many others as we will see.
If we read the first two lines (We are the hollow men, we are the stuffed men), we
will clearly appreciate that two words are blindlingly obvious: hollow and stuffed. These
highlighted words make us see the binary opposition mentioned before and get sticked into
our minds as if the rest of the words in the verses where they’re included did not exist. This
way of foregrounding also appears at the beginning of part III (this is the dead land, this is
the cactus land), so now we’ve just been given the image of the men and the place that the
poem is talking about. The beginning of part IV is similar, but in those verses the emphasis
falls on the negation (the eyes are not here, there are no eyes here). Therefore, we could
affirm that this way of foregrounding is strongly linked to repetition, because the
foregrounded items appear in sequences of identic utterances (see part V’s between the a
and the b, between the c and the d, etc).
Nevertheless, many other devices are used to reach this effect. In line 4, Headpiece
is foregrounded, as it appears at the beginning of a noun clause, emphasising the fact that it
is the `headpiece´, and not another part of the hollow/stuffed men, what is `filled with
straw´. The same happens in line 19, where the Eyes, functioning as a direct object, appear
at the beginning of the sentence. In part II, a tree (line 26) is also foregrounded as it
occupies a place we wouldn’t expect (There, is a tree swinging), after the verb `to be´ and
before the continous tense.
Another mechanism of foregrounding is used when individual items or ideas appear
alone in a whole verse (and voices are, line 25; in a field, line 34; no nearer, line 36;
walking alone, line 47; in this hollow valley, line 55; sightless, unless, line 61; multifoliate

rose, line 64). This reveals the fact that the rythm of the poem is rather slow and moves in
fits and starts, due to the abundance of short, enjambed sentences all along.
The repetition –and thus, foregrounding- of deictic marks (we, those, these, us, me,
there, here, this) from part I to part IV shows us the extreme importance that the subjects
and places described in Eliot’s work have. Through their analysis, we will indicate in detail
the setting and the `poetic persona(e)´ in The Hollow Men.

DEIXIS
The deictic marks indicate the space, the time and the person –or persons- taking
part in a textual situation. The Hollow Men is completely full of them. Let’s look back
again at the first couple of verses. The We mentioned, obviously refers to the speaker, but
also to other people. However, its meaning is rather vague, as we don’t really know if it
refers to `me and you and others´, `me and you but not others´ or `me and others but not
you´. In any case, the speaker is implied within the state of being a `hollow, stuffed man´,
and so are all the rest of `subjects´ to whom We refers. In the last stanza of Part I, we find a
Those which is clearly opposite to We as it says: Those who have crossed with direct eyes,
to death’s other kingdom remember us not as lost, violent souls, but only as the hollow
men, the stuffed men. This means that We are not remebered as lost, violent souls (Mistah
Kurtz or Guy Fawkes) but just as hollow men, in relation to Those (who have crossed with
direct eyes), implying as well that the hollow men do not possess those `direct eyes´. Even
so, we cannot distinguish the complete meaning of We.
In part II, the first person appears (I, line 19; me, lines 29 and 31), a person who is
one of the hollow men but, in this case, he/she is giving a personal, subjective vision from
his/her position. That position is significantly distant from death’s dream kingdom, as it is
indicated by a There, and then the speaker pleads for being no nearer (line 29).
Part III shows a different situation. Now the speaker is in death’s other kingdom,
because now it is referred to as This (is the dead land) and Here (the stone images are
raised), opening in line 45 a rhetorical utterance that indicates the proximity to the place (Is
it like this in death’s other kingdom, ...). We could say that the speaker is not alone (at the
hour when we are trembling ..., lines 48 and 49; leaning together, line 3; in this last of
meeting places (...) gathered on this beach, ..., lines 56-60), however, everything looks as if
the hollow men were alienated from one another; they do not interact.
Part IV again mentions the place where the hollow men are (the eyes are not here;
in this valley of dying stars, in this hollow valley, this broken jaw of our lost kingdoms, in

this last of meeting places), and then a last We (grope together, line 58) which clearly
refers back to part I.
In part V, the we in the children’s rhyme connects back to We in parts I and IV, as
the hollow men lean, gather and dance altogether in a kind of ritual meeting.

SYMBOLS AND IMAGES
The description of the symbols in The Hollow Men will be developed in depth in
the interpretation. Nevertheless, we will sketch them out in order to perceive a general
overview.
On the one hand, the image of the hollow men, stuffed men leaning together,
headpiece filled with straw reminds us of that of standing -not walking- corpses, immobile
dying bodies (let’s look at lines 11-12). This, of course, possesses a tight relationship with
the image of the scarecrow (let me also wear such deliberate disguises, rat’s coat,
crowskin, crossed staves in a field, lines 31-34), as it is an immobile, inanimate
anthropomorphic figure fulfilled with straw.
On the other hand, the voices and the eyes seem to be appalingly disembodied.
They appear as independent, supernatural concepts apart from the hollow men’s existence.
In many literary interpretations the voices symbolise the act of speech and the expression
of the thoughts, whereas the eyes have been considered as the external reflection of the
soul. Taking into account these points of view, and that the hollow men’s voices are quiet
and meaningless and they are soul-lacking (the eyes are not here), this interpretion has not
been chosen lightly at all, but this will be deeply explained later on. In the poem, we ignore
who the eyes belong to. At first, they’re a source of fear (Eyes I dare not meet in dreams,
line 19); later, they might be a source of hope (sightless, unless the eyes reappear as the
perpetual star (...) the hope only of empty men, lines 61-67). This conception of the eyes
has to do with that of the star, first appearing as a fading star –a star which is fading either
does not exist or is very distant because the only reminiscence we perceive from it is its
light-, then becoming dying- and later perpetual –alive, eternal. Its connection with life and
its religious interpretation in relation to after-death transcendence is clear.
The references to the realm where The Hollow Men takes place are truly
symbolical. It is described as death’s other kingdom or death’s dream kingdom, meaning
that there is `another´ world of death apart from the beyond itself, or that it is possible to
`dream´ even when you’re dead. In both cases, it is a `Wasteland´, a place where nothing
can escape from despair and sorrow (dead land, cactus land), proving there’s another kind

of death which isn’t caused by the mere death of the physical body. It is also mentioned as
the twilight kingdom, valley of dying stars, hollow valley –like the men themselves-.
There, the eyes do not appear and the voices are meaningless, making the subject fear that
realm (Let me be no nearer (...) not that final meeting, ...). We might say that it’s even a
grotesque place (this broken jaw of our lost kingdoms). However, in Part V kingdom is
written with a capital K and is related to the Lord (For Thine is the Kingdom), so now it
refers to Heaven, and not to death’s other kingdom –whose kings are not the devil or the
evil itself, but Nothingness and Despair. The beach of the tumid river (line 60) may
symbolise, according to Greek mythology, the river that the souls must cross in order to
reach the beyond. The Shadow –with a capital S- clearly connotes darkness, nightime and
death.
At five o’clock in the morning, the only clear reference to time in The Hollow Men
has a powerful symbolism. This time of midnight has always been considered as the hour
of resurrection but, what has it got to do with the dance around the prickly pear? It is
obvious: this is not a rite of resurrection, but of abortion and interruption of life.
Concerning the prickly pear it must be said that due to its use instead of the mulberry bush,
its symbolism is increased. A prickly pear (a cactus) is something sour, thorny and sinister,
and reckoning on the fact that it’s also a phallic symbol, it provokes revulsion and disgust,
reinforcing, once again, the idea of infertility.

RHYME AND RHYTHM
This is not a particulary `rhyming´ poem, but rhyme also plays an important role. In
Part I, like all of other parts –except the fifth- the final line of the stanza rhymes with one
of the previous lines. For example, the scheme in the first stanza is AABCABDCCB.
Although the last line could have ended with the two C’s, it reverted back to a familiar
rhyme ending. This tactic gives the feeling of familiarity and completion at the end of each
stanza.
Partial rhymes like alas; (...)less; grass; glass with rasping, coarse sounds give the
reader a sensation of the plight of the hollow men. If we bear in mind that the mentioned
voices are faint, like whispers, this feeling deepens. This happens as well with the sound /∫/
in shape and shade. Most of the other rhymes are performed with consonantic, closing
sounds which add an extra emotion of poetic `claustrophobia´: crossed/lost (lines 13-15),
column/solemn (lines 23-27), staves/behaves (lines 33-35), tenderness/kiss (lines 49-50),
alone/stone (lines 41-47), existence/essence (lines 87-88).

As regards rhythm, it must be said that the tone is that of exhaustion, yet
paradoxically the words do not falter and die as we are given the impression they might;
rather, the atmosphere is broken by changes in style. The punctuation in the poem makes
the reader `stop´ at certain verses because a comma appears at the middle of some of them
(i.e. lines 13-14) slicing a whole utterance. In other cases, we may lose our breath getting
tangled up with long, non-punctuated sentences (lines 7-10; lines 24-28). As it has been
mentioned before in this paper, the rhythm of the poem doesn’t have a definite pattern and
travels in fits and starts, imitating the hollow men in their dazed wobbling and the
swinging of the tree in line 24.
In Part V, the rhythm dramatically changes. The nursery rhyme in lines 68-71 is
somehow musical and catching, breaking with the previous sections. The structured
stanzas (between the idea and the reality, etc) together with the verses from the Lord’s
prayer shape a liturgical tone similar to that of the (Christian) masses, in which the priest
recites repetitive prayers and when he finishes the audience answers with a `summarised´
one (For Thine is the Kingdom). The last stanza is repetitive, saddening and hopeless,
following the general impression of the poem.

3.2. INTERPRETATION AND DISCUSSION.

Part I
We are the hollow men, we are the stuffed men. The first verses of the poem
indicate a contradiction that surprises us. Hollow means “having a cavity within”, implying
the idea of `emptiness´. It also has a figurative meaning, that of “lacking real value or
significance”. Stuffed, however, means “filled by packing things in (to the point of
overflowing)”. So now we appreciate the difference between the ideas of lack and
abundance. But what do the hollow/stuffed men lack and what do they have in great
quantities? If we look at line 4 (Headpiece filled with straw) we’ll notice the author
highlights this part of the body as the one `stuffed´, and considering the headpiece as the
representation of the mind, we’ll assume that these two verses have a symbolic, figurative
meaning: the hollow men –who the speaker belongs to (We are)- are fulfilled with absurd,
non-sense ideas and thoughts, causing them to be –in a contradiction in terms- empty and
futile (let’s look back at the second meaning of hollow).
Leaning together (line 3) works in the text as an adjective because of the absence of
the verb `to be´. `To lean´ means “to incline or bend from a vertical position”. This

indicates submission or even surrender (Alas!, line 4, expressing unhappiness and pity),
and it might also mean that the hollow men are praying in their knees. This idea is
supported by the followng description of their voices: Our dried voices, when we whisper
together are quiet and meaningless. Their voices are not dry but dried, connoting that
they’ve been dried by something or someone, but what or who? That’s something we still
ignore. When the hollow men in their leaning –praying- whisper together, in group, their
voices have no sense, they don’t even exist –another contradiction, can a voice be quiet?-,
they’re hollow, like the men themselves. In lines 8-10 the voices are compared with wind
in dry grass or rat’s feet over broken glass in our dry cellar. In both cases, we could argue
that wind `doesn’t affect´ dry grass –if it were humid, the wind would dry it anyway- and
rat’s feet `aren`t affected´ by broken glass, because of their size. What’s more, a cellar –a
basement- is supposed to possess humidity, but it is dry, like the grass and the voices. This
comparison greatly accentuates the `meaninglessness´ of the voices, which is, by
generalisation, applicable to the men as well.
The next stanza is configured by two verses. The first one is Shape without form,
shade without color. What may it mean? At first glance, we could say that, for instance,
shape and form are synonyms and shape without form is another contradiction that
confirms the previous ideas about the poem. But the truth is that they’ve got a slight
difference in meaning: a shape is the visible, external form of something, whereas a form is
the shape and structure of something as distinguished form its material or content. So,
we’re dealing with an element that can be distinguished by its external configuration but
not by its inside. Shade without color has a similar meaning. A shade is a partial darkness
caused when something covers the light, but it’s without color, that is, it doesn’t cause any
visual sensation, it cannot be perceived. The whole verse gives us the idea of vanity and
futility, as things can only be perceived indirectly through their external appearance. The
second verse in this stanza is Paralyzed force, gesture without motion. Now we’re not in
front of a fact of perception, but of movement. It’s supposed that a force is a mobile energy
or power, but here it’s paralyzed, and a gesture, which can be static or not, is obvously
motionless. This verses emphasises the concept of paralysis and stasis: everything is
hollow and the situation won’t change. Furthermore, if we take into account both verses
together, we obtain the image of a `dead corpse´: it’s just something material, static,
completely soul-lacking and absent of life.
The last stanza makes reference to people apart from the hollow men (Those who
have crossed with direct eyes, to death’s other kingdom remember us). In this sentence, the

use of the present perfect instead of the present simple used so far gives us the idea of a
past action recent in time, or even a remote action with a present consequence. It’s said that
they’ve crossed –indicating movement- with direct eyes, to death’s other kingdom. Direct
eyes do not hesitate, move or close, they’re always staring at the same point without
blinking. Death’s other kingdom implies the existence of another reality belonging to
death. So those either knew where they were going or they have simply not crossed to the
beyond itself on their own, it seems that they’ve had some kind of guidance to one of its
`parallel worlds´; they’ve been led. Those have a strong connection with us (the hollow
men), as they remember them, they knew who they were, but if at all (line 16) -without
necessity or just as a simple anecdote- the hollow, stuffed men are remebered by those as
such, and not as lost, violent souls. The hollow men might be lost and violent, like Mister
Kurtz or Guy Fawkes, but they’re remembered as non-lost, pacific, hollow, stuffed
creatures.
Part I brings the title and theme into a critical relationship. We’re like the `Old Guy
´, effigies filled with straw. The first stanza –as well as Part V- indicates a church service
and the ritual service throughout. The erstwhile worshippers disappear in a blur of shape,
shade and gesture to which normality is attached. Then the crucial orientation is developed,
towards death’s other kingdom. We know that we’re in a kingdom of death, not as violent
souls but as empty effigies of this religious service.

Part II
The first stanza quickly mentions one of the most important symbols in the poem:
the Eyes. In line 19, they function as a direct object and appear at the beginning of the
verse. This symbol remains completely disembodied, it’s an element of its own and doesn’t
belong to any being. However, through repetition and poetic diction we could say that the
speaker (I) is referring to the direct eyes in line 14. What we appreciate is that the eyes are
a source of fear, accentuated by the fact that the `hollow man´ who is speaking dares not
meet them in dreams, so that they produce in him a sensation of horror. And why are the
eyes so terrible? Maybe because they have witnessed the secret path –the path to death’s
other kingdom, a track full of horror and despair. Fortunately, the eyes –those eyes-
(mentioned with the deictic These) are not in death’s dream kingdom. Now other has been
substituted by dream, meaning that the kingdom where the action takes place is not entirely
real, but surreal, and it can only be perceived or imagined through a different stage of
conciousness. What we can guess is that that kingdom is distant to the speaker, since it’s

mentioned with the deictic There. Thanks to the metaphor in verses 22-23 (There, the eyes
are sunlight on a broken column) we find out that the eyes do indeed appear, but in an
indirect way, just as a reflection of themselves. What’s more, the sunlight –a symbol of
greatness- and the broken column –a symbol of ancient glory- seem to have a connection
with the description of the voices’ meaninglessness in Part I. The sunlight doesn’t produce
an effect on the broken column, it just bounces off it, it’s a paralyzed force. The adjective
broken even emphasises the distortion of the reflected light.
In line 24 there is another element of death’s dream kingdom (There, is a tree
swinging). What catches our attention is that a tree doesn’t swing, it could sway at the
most. But why swinging? The verb means to “move freely to and fro when hanging from a
support”. Now it makes sense if we link it to the new metaphor about the voices (lines
25-28): And voices are in the wind’s singing more distant and more solemn than a fading
star. The wind’s singing -its movements- is like the tree’s swinging, they don’t have a
particular direction, they’re meaningless. Furthermore, if the voices are whispers and are
distant within the wind’s singing, they become unfortunately inaudible. And not only that,
they’re more distant and more solemn than a fading star. Something solemn is serious and
has an established form or ceremony, whereas a fading star is a decaying, dying element,
because the light it produces is weak and stars are so far away that their light is the only
thing we can perceive from them. Therefore, in death’s dream kingdom the voices –like the
tree- are even more meaningless and quieter than they were before, and what’s worse,
they’re barely inaudible, meaning that the hollow men’s prayers are unuseful -even
unnecessary- in that place.
The next stanza shows us a desire (Let me be no nearer) of the speaker, who is not
addressing to anyone in particular, but expressing the deepest will of his soul –he knows
that death’s dream kingdom is approaching, and doesn’t want to come any closer (no
nearer), because he’s afraid of meeting the eyes (not that final meeting in the twilight
kingdom, line 37). Here is another description of the place, now it is twilight itself, because
that word is not an adjective as it appears in the verse, but a noun. The relationship
between twilight and fading star is obvious: they represent a gradual reduction of light. Not
only is the kingdom surreal, but decadent and darkening as well.
Verses 31-32 describe another desire (Let me also wear such deliberate disguises).
Also indicates either that the speaker is wearing other clothes apart from the ones below
(line 33) or that pleads for wearing them in addition to being no nearer (line 29). Deliberate
proves that those clothes have been chosen in an intentional, wilful way, being aware of

their nature, as if the `hollow man´ were preparing his clothes for a special journey, as if he
knew that the Darkness is near. However, they are disguises, making us understand that he
wants to go unnoticed so that the eyes don’t recognise him. And which are those clothes?
Rat’s coat, crowskin, crossed staves. What we obtain is the image of a `scarecrow´ that,
together with the animal furs it’s dressed up with –a rat and a crow, symbolising the plague
and the death- gives off an obscure, grotesque image of itself. The Hollow Men are
compared with scarecrows –immobile, soul-lacking puppets filled with straw, human only
in appearance. The complement In a field (line 34) adds solitude to the utterance. Besides,
the speaker wants to be like the wind (behaving as the wind behaves, no nearer-, lines
35-36), that is, moving to and fro, going ahead and back –swinging, like the tree- so that he
can’t get any closer to death’s dream kingdom.
In this section of the poem we’ve seen a progress from flickering to darkness, from
evening sun to dusk, from false greatness to decay, from illness to death: `indirectness´ of
the light (line 23), fading (line 28) and partial obscurity (line 38). Is death’s other/dream
kingdom approaching? We’ll try and answer that later on. We’ve also depicted an
expression of fear towards the eyes and a sensation of distance, paralysis and worthlessness
due to the description of the voices, the tree and the scarecrow.
Part II defines the hollow men in relation to the reality that the direct eyes have
met. Luckily, they are only reflected through broken lights and shadows, all is perceived
indirectly. From this point of view, the speaker could not be any nearer, any more direct, in
that twilight kingdom. Anyway, he fears the ultimate vision (line 37).

Part III
In Parts III and IV, the poetic persona is in death’s other kingdom and speaks from
there, or at least he’s had some kind of revelation. From now on, it won’t be There
anymore, but Here (lines 41 and 42). At the beginning of the stanza there’s a description of
the place from a perspective of proximity: This is the dead land, this is the cactus land. In
this pair of verses, as in the first couple in Part I, the speaker offers a specification of the
element described –he doesn’t say a dead land or a cactus land, but uses the to refer to
them, so we’re not dealing with whatever arid land, but with the dead and cactus land par
excellence. The author uses cactus as an adjective, making the land desert-like, desolate
and dry –like the voices and the grass in Part I. It is, of course, lacking in life, like the ever
standing stone images (line 41). These images, that we could consider as statues
representing the divine reality on earth, are raised –we ignore who’s raised them, as we

ignore who dried the hollow men’s voices (line 5)- and are somehow personified as living
altars for dead people (here they receive the supplication of a dead man’s hand, lines
42-43). The whole sentence has a powerful meaning, symbolising the absence of hope and
the worthlessness of the supplication due to the nature of the pleading corpse that, here,
represents a lost, violent soul. Moreover, the dead man’s hand, which is the real imploring
element, is disembodied like the eyes and the voices, they all seem to act completely on
their own.
The hopeless description above is framed by the last verse (Under the twinkle of a
fading star), which inescapably underlies the nursery rhyme “twinkle twinkle little star”.
This childlike connotation will be better explained in Part V.
The fading star appears again, but now not as one of the terms in a comparison, but
as a visible element in the landscape. Twinkle means “a flickering light” and is related to
twilight, but it can also be applied to a person’s eyes. Under the twinkle puts us in a
situation of inferiority, as if we were being `spied´ by some supernatural force –maybe the
star, maybe the eyes, maybe God.
The next stanza opens with a `rhetorical utterance´ as if the speaker were
contemplating the landscape and could not assimilate so much desolation (Is it like this in
death’s other kingdom). Verses 47-49 tell us again that the hollow men gather altogether
but they’re detached from one another (alone), however, a striking feature suddenly
appears: when we are trembling with tenderness. The hollow men are frightened and feel
cold (trembling). Even so, this action is performed with tenderness, introducing a new
element of fondness and affection that did not exist so far. This is the first appearance of
the hollow men’s emotions, as if the desolation of the landscape had aroused certain
sensibility inside them. This feeling is better explained in the next verses (Lips that would
kiss form prayers to broken stone). The Lips are disembodied, following the pattern of the
poem, and it’s said that they’d even kiss –love- inanimate, earthly items like prayers or
stones. These verses represent a moan, a need of giving love, a desire which cannot be
acomplished because of the physical and spiritual devastation of the place. It is, in fact,
another paralyzed force.
Part III defines the representation of death’s kingdom in relationship to the worship
of the hollow men. A dead, arid land, like its people, raises earthly images of the divine,
which are implored by the dead. The image of frustrated love is a moment of anguished
illumination suspended in death’s other kingdom. Furthermore, the broken stone unites the


stone images and the broken column, which bent the sunlight and, by generalisation,
reality.

Part IV
In this section, the absence of the eyes is repeated and highlighted by the first two
verses (The eyes are not here, there are no eyes here). The hollow men are still in death’s
other kingdom (here) and not only do they assume that the direct eyes do not appear (The
eyes are not), but they’ve also found out that any kind of eyes exist in this place (There are
no eyes), not even theirs, or anyone else’s. In this moment, they’re blind and cannot
perceive the surrounding su-reality (Sightless, line 61).
Verses 54-56 add more dramatism to the place, this time depicting it as a valley of
dying stars. This valley –which implies the existence of mountains or a river (tumid river,
line 60)- possesses dying stars. The fading star has now become dying, indicating the
progression towards darkness, disappearance and death. The valley, how not, is hollow like
the men, and it is also described as the broken jaw of our lost kingdoms. From a literal
vision of the verse, we could say that broken jaw is related to the men’s inability to speak,
but it has a figurative sense: it is like the black sheep of the universe, the most scornful
place anybody has ever set a foot on. Our lost kingdoms emphasises its remoteness, as if it
were a land that cannot be easily discovered and explored.
The end is nigh, and this kingdom will become this last of meeting places (line 57),
meaning that the hollow men have met in different places, but this one, without any doubt,
will be where they will eventually have to say goodbye to each other. The next verse
explains the hollow men’s blindness and silence (We grope together and avoid speech).
Grope means “to search blindly with the hands”, but it also has a sexual connotation: “to
fondle for sexual pleasure”. The first definition is clear within the meaning of the text, but
the second one is harder to explain. Maybe they’ve realised they won’t be together
anymore and decide not to talk and let their instincts flourish, but perhaps this is going too
far. The eroticism of the image is also manifest with the appearance of the beach of the
tumid river (line 60). On one hand, the river’s volume has increased and it might overflow
at any moment, like in an explosion of sexual impulse. On the other hand, the river, in
relation to verses 13-14, might symbolise the one that wandering souls must cross to reach
the beyond, accompanied by Acheron, the boatman in classical mythology. In any case, the
hollow men are doomed.


Later on, a terrifying element transforms into the only source of their salvation
(Sightless, unless the eyes reappear as the perpetual star, multifoliate rose of death’s
twilight kingdom). It doesn’t say, for instance, reappear as the `fading/dying star´ or
`sunlight on a broken column´, but as the perpetual star, multifoliate rose. We may also say
that the eyes could be Acheron’s, meaning that depending on their appearance, they will be
a guide either to paradise or to hell. Anyway, here we understand perpetual as `eternal,
ever shining´ and the multifoliate rose as life, freshness and youth. So the hollow men wish
the eyes to return as something alive and creative, not frightening or deceasing, but we
already know that this desire will not bear fruit.
The last verses of this section (The hope only of empty men) make us wonder: are
the eyes their only hope, or is the salvation they bring only applicable to the hollow men?
The truth is that the sentence is rather ambiguous. Both could be thought as correct. And
not only that, the men become empty, gaining a much more literal significance –they’ve
lost the straw fulfilling them, now their hollowness is complete.
Part IV explores the loving impulse in Part III in relation to the land, which now
darkens progressively as the valley of the shadow of death. Now there are not even hints of
the eyes, not even the hollow men’s, and they are without any vision, unless the eyes come
back as a source of life. But for them, this is only a futile hope.

Part V
As it had been said before in this paper, the last section of The Hollow Men opens
with a nursery rhyme substituting the `mulberry bush´ by the `prickly pear´. This element
alludes to the cactus (land), summarising all the features of death’s other/dream/twilight
kingdom: dryness, aridity, solitude, repulsion and immobility. The hollow men go ‘round it
at five o’clock in the morning. This circular movement depictes an image of children
dancing hand-in-hand and singing like in a traditional, ritual game. The time when this
happens, when nightime and darkness dissipate and the sun begins to shine, also has an
outstanding significance. That is the time of resurrection, of returning to life, of hope for
the empty men. However, all the elements explained seem to mock the hollow men’s
situation, as if the children’s song did not have to welcome the sunlight, but to scare it
away and bring obscurity again. This ritual of `interruption of life´ is developed within the
remaining verses of Part V.
The Shadow (darkness, fear, nothingness) falls in the very middle of pairs of
(abstract) concepts (each one of them with a defining the) which represent `prospect´ and

`fulfillment´, interrupting creation at all levels. In the second stanza, it breaks the `bridge´
between the conceptual world and the referential world (idea/reality) and stops a change of
posture (motion/act). In verses 78-81 it interrupts fertilisation and physiological processes
(conception/creation); (emotion/response). In lines 84-89 disconnects voluntary and reflex
actions (desire/spasm), what “is” and what “could actually be” (potency/existence) and
finally destroys the link between the past and the present, the Beginning and the End, the
àlpha´ and the òmega´ (essence/descent). The Shadow becomes the God of anti-creation,
it stops time and aims for an eternity of hollow abstraction and nothingness. Now it has
been demostrated the objective of the hollow men’s ritual: if they cannot avoid their tragic
destiny, nothing in death’s other kingdom will do.
In addition to that, the sentences from the Lord’s prayer now get a new meaning:
are the prayers addressing to God? Or to the Shadow? If we compare the prayer `Thy
Kingdom come´ to verse 29 (Let me be no nearer), then Part V and the whole poem shape
some sort of Ànti-Lord’s prayer´, because its goal is just the other way round. Line 83
(Life is very long) is a complaint that justifies this ritual, liturgical event. Perhaps the most
appropriate thing to say would be `life is too long´ and it should be cut off right now. The
truncated utterances (92-94) are probably the elements which best exemplify the advent of
the Shadow, meaning that the act of speech has already been interrupted.
The last stanza, describing the incoming Apocalypse, is completed by an ironic
excuse with a negation at the beginning (Not with a bang but a whimper). The destiny of
humankind is not to disappear in a grand, spectacular way, but in a pathetic, humiliating
manner full of sorrow.
But the most devastating irony is formal: the extension of game ritual in liturgical
form.

4. CONCLUSION.

The Hollow Men portrays a poetic conciousness in which intense nostalgia for a
state of heavenly purity conflicts with the paradoxical search for a long-lasting form of
order through acts of denial and alienation. To the common observation that The Hollow
Men expresses the depths of Eliot’s despair, one must add that the poet in a sense `chooses
´ despair as the only acceptable alternative to the inauthentic existence of the unthinking
inhabitants of the waste land.


The Hollow Men is an episodic free verse poem. Eliot constructs a desolate world,
death’s dream kingdom, to explore humankind’s evasion from spiritual intention. The
focus of the poem is on the hollow men’s inability to interact with each other and with the
trascendental spirituality that is their only hope. The form and range of techniques
employed by the poet foreground this predicament and highlight its broad aplicability. The
title of the poem draws our attention to the importance of the collective personae. The
hollow men represent all humankind, and their tragic existence –the poem suggests-
concerns us all.
The poem’s despair and disillusionment are no illustration of weakness; they are
perfectly objective, because they are essential moments in the progress of the soul, as in
the progress of traditional Christian mystic. Principles of intellectual order control the
despair of The Hollow Men as well, in the way the text conciously evaluates experience in
abstract terms, distinguishes between antithetical states of being and establishes, both in
form and subject matter, the archetype of the Negative Way as an alternative to disorder as
well as to the illusory order of visionary experience.
The formal strategy of The Hollow Men, like its thematic content, seems designed
to demonstrate how effectively the Shadow of the inarticulate falls between the conception
and the creation of an artistic work. Formal aspects of the poem imitate the characteristics
of the hollow men it portrays. For example, their desire to avoid speech finds a counterpart
in the poem’s paucity of utterance: the technique of constant repetition and negation
manages to employ only about 180 different words in a work 420 words long. The
Paralyzed force, gesture without motion applies not only to the men themselves but also to
the poem as a whole, which exhibits little narrative progression in the conventional sense
and avoids verbs of direct action.
As the hollow men grope together and whisper meaninglessly, so the poem itself
gropes toward a conclusion only to end in hollow abstraction, broken prayer and the
meaningless circularity of a children’s rhyme. The conscious reduction of poetic
expression to a bare minimum does away with metaphor and simile and produces a final
section of the poem almost completely devoid of modifiers. The poem avoids capitulation
to the silence of the inarticulate by relying on a highly structured syntax that tends to order
experience in terms of binary opposition: Shape without form, shade without color or
Between the idea and the reality, between the motion and the act. The quality of a poetic
style marked by verbal austerity and relentless negation forms a structural counterpart to a
thematic strategy that repudiates the validity of human experience at every level. In

modern existential terms as well as those of traditional Christianity, the Negative Way
leads ultimately to an encounter with the nothingness which, paradoxically, can inspire the
individual with faith in God.
The central images of the poem are death’s kingdoms and the eyes. The first
mention of the eyes serves to foreground the lack of direction of the hollow men. Those
who have crossed... to death’s other kingdom do so with direct eyes –the very guidance
which the hollow men refuse to acknowledge. In their land, The eyes are not here, yet their
hope rests on the prospect of these shy eyes reappearing as the perpetual star, multifoliate
rose. The star is another recurrent symbol which draws attention to the plight of the hollow
men. Their landscape is one of fading stars which twinkle barely enough to illuminate the
image of a dead man’s hand. We are given the impression that soon their landscape will
silently descend into darkness. The images of this landscape construct the hollow men as
being resigned to a state of suspension, paralysed by their own inability to turn conception
into creation, emotion into response; spiritual redemption into their only hope. The poem
privileges these supernatural symbols –eyes, stars, death’s kingdoms- over the natural. The
hollow men are sightless, colourless, immobile and barely able to speak, while at the same
time divine images linger in the landscape. The effect is to highlight a man as a finite
creature distinct from the trascendental. The deliberate disguises that man makes for
himself fail to hide the ultimate truth about our tragic existence.
The Hollow Men explores this boundary situation in its images of finality or
extremity and in a thematic structure comprising two different states of being. The poem’s
speaker anticipates with dread that final meeting; the men grope together in this last of
meeting places; the final section, in its generalised abstraction of all that has gone before,
tells us that This is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper. Our condition
as human beings is doomed, our fate is unfortunately tragic, but the only guilties will be us
if we cannot prevent ourselves from being the hollow men, the stuffed men.

Bibliography:

· T. S. Eliot’s Poetry and Plays: A Study in Sources and Meaning. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1956.
· Poets of Reality: Six Twentieth-Century Writers. Harvard University Press,
1965.
· Conflicts in Conciousness: T.S. Eliot’s Poetry and Criticism. Urbana: University
of Illinois Press, 1984.
· The Savage and the City in the Work of T.S. Eliot. Clarendon Press, 1987.


· Williamson, George. A Reader’s Guide to T.S. Eliot: A Poem by Poem Analysis.
New York: Octagon Books, 1979


Notes on the hollow men

More Related Content

What's hot (20)

Similar to Notes on the hollow men (20)

More from MUHAMMAD AZAM, VICE PRINCIPAL IMSB G-6/4, ISLAMABAD (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

Notes on the hollow men