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The Hollow Men

To what extent is The Hollow Men reflective of T S


Eliots search for fulfilment? Discuss this in reference
to language, form and structure.
The Hollow Men by T S Eliot was written in 1922 and is
recognised to be slightly different from his other work: indeed Allen
Tate noted that 'The mythologies disappear altogether in The Hollow
Men which indicates that in this critics view Eliots previous poems
displayed a more abstract style. Contextually the poem was written
between WW1 and WW2, seven years into Eliots failed marriage with
Vivienne Haigh-Wood and five years before Eliot converted to
Anglicanism and became a Warden of his local Parish. Subsequently,
his desires for sexual and spiritual release feature strongly as themes
in The Hollow Men.
Firstly, in the title hollow is used to show the men as being void
of emotion, of human characteristics. Eliot also uses stuffed and
empty to describe the men; this creates the image of scarecrows
filled with straw with no human aspects apart from their shape;
stationary and inhuman. Scarecrows are essentially fake humans
used to scare birds, Eliots scarecrows look outwardly real but perhaps
their form is somewhat deceptive or false, they lack content. The
juxtaposition of all three adjectives, hollow, stuffed and empty,
especially as they are repeated, reflects Eliots need for more. Deaths
dream kingdom, Deaths other Kingdom and Deaths twilight
Kingdom are nearly repetitive of each other, and the use of dreams
and twilight creates imagery of uncertainness, a lack of solid reality
which is apparently real to the men but also deceptive as our
subconscious can sometimes control our thoughts. The lack of
expressive punctuation (which would give a more emotional human
feel to the poem) leads the speaker to read these lines in a
monotonous tone, with no expression, indicating the mood of the men.
As Eliot is clearly referring to heaven or hell or purgatory, this shows
that what the men are searching for is spiritual release; the repetition
of these words reinforces their desperation.
This theme is further explored with the repetition of eyes throughout
the poem. In the second section, Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
shows that the poetic speaker fears judgement: eyes witness and are
therefore Judges of us; they connote Judgement Day and therefore St.
Peter at the gates of heaven. The fact that he dare not meet them
shows that he is scared of facing up to reality, perhaps he has done
something wrong; however during the poem his opinion and desires
change. He describes the men as Sightless, unless/The eyes
reappear, showing that his preference to blindness and stagnation is

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the end to purgatory either way, heaven or hell. The couplet in the
fourth stanza, The eyes are not here/ there are no eyes here
suggests a circling of imagery, a never-ending wait to be released from
purgatory. Eliots personal live purgatory could be his failed marriage,
as Viviennes apparent mental instability and the fact that divorce was
still frowned upon in the 1920s meant that he was stuck.
The hollow men are completely stuck as well, reflective of Eliots
personal life. The couplet following the first section Shape without
form, shade without colour, /Paralysed force, gesture without motion
shows their stagnation; paralysed is obviously an unwilling lack of
movement, nobody chooses to have their physical independence taken
away from them by being unable to move. The hopelessness of the
men is shown with the use of caesuras, so the poetic speaker has to
pause in the middle of both lines to emphasise each of Eliots points.
The men need movement to be able to do anything, without it they are
possibly only as good as the scarecrows that Eliots choice of language
suggests
In the third section the almost repetition of This is the dead land/ This
is the cactus land creates imagery of the desert, the wasteland where
nothing can be found and again connotes purgatory and stagnation,
reflecting the unhappiness of Eliots marriage and his need for
fulfilment. There is no life here, as there is no life in his marriage.
Fading star is symbolic in the poem and could either again be
reflective of Eliots unhappy marriage, the light going out, or have
Christian connotations; the 3 wise men followed the star whilst
searching to find Jesus, the fact that the star is fading could suggest
the difficulties Eliot is having at this stage in his life in finding God. In
the next section the perpetual star symbolises the only hope of the
men, the empty men. Perhaps God is Eliots only hope in his
disturbed personal life.
The fifth section begins with a subversion of a childhood rhyme, Here
we go round the mulberry bush. Mulberry bush is a female phallic
symbolism equivalent with connotations of fertility and of the female
sexual organs, but Eliot subverts the meaning completely by re-writing
Here we go round the prickly pear, reflecting his own sexual
frustrations as there is nothing inviting about a cactus. His wife being
ill and their marriage an unhappy one it is possible to deduce that the
detached couple did not have a healthy sexual relationship at the time
the poem was written, however lack of evidence does leave this point
open to debate. The words prickly pear are intentionally harsh and
horrible to hear, the alliteration of the hard consonant more apparent
with the repetition in the rhyme. The imagery created by the warped
nursery rhyme, of men dancing round a cactus in purgatory singing is
absurd, but shows their attempt at retaining normality whilst they lose
touch with reality. They may be finding some comfort in childhood
memories, especially if they have nothing pleasant to look forward to.

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The final section of the poem begins with italics (the subverted
nursery rhyme) and ends with italics, which creates a circular effect
and the sense of being trapped, reflecting Eliot and the mens fruitless
search for release. It is split into 3 stanzas using 3 separation lines,
possibly reflective of the Holy Trinity and again reinforcing the religious
element of the poem. Each stanza begins with Between showing the
mens inability to move, as well at the wider themes of falseness,
deception or lack of reality and every second line begins with And,
the repetition makes it easy to understand and again forces the
speaker to read in an expressionless voice, empty of hope and
emotion. The stanzas all end with Falls the Shadow which sounds
very final, as if the end is finally near for the men. Shadows are dark
spaces traditionally feared by children due to their lack of light and
connote danger, in this instance death or the human failings of the
men.
For thine is the Kingdom separates the first and second stanza and is
repeated after the third. This is a line near the end of the Lords prayer
which is often spoken at the end of church services and is the pinnacle
prayer for Christians: the men may be trying to repeat it now as an
attempt to find reassurance and comfort. Eliots use prevents the flow
of the poem and makes the rhythm stagnant, as if the men are trying
to get the words out but cant quite succeed, maybe just as Eliot
attempts to find God but cant quite succeed. Life is very long
separates the second and the third stanza and shows the mens
desperate longing for death, life has become too long. For Thine is/
Life is/ For Thine is the is a reduction in the prayer and sounds almost
like a broken record, the words dead and not quite finishable, reflective
of Eliots struggle for release. The entire poem is about searching, and
Eliots search for spiritual and sexual fulfilment is evident in the Hollow
mens desire to be released from purgatory.
The use of three This is the way the world ends/This is the way the
world ends/This is the way the world ends sounds as if the men are
stood on the edge of life and has apocalyptic connotations. As its a
repetitive chant it sounds like a childs nursery rhyme as does the
prickly pear chant in the section before, but again presenting major
adult themes in unsettling childrens vocabulary, death and infertility
have no place in an idealistic childrens world. Not with a bang but a
whimper. is a very abrupt end to the poem, as death is a very abrupt
end to life. Eliots use of bathos, the complete anti-climax finish to the
poem is scarier than if the ending was an explosion of rage or passion:
whimper sounds vulnerable and shows the loss of hope, emotion and
humanity. Its not what we expect of an apocalypse and this unsettles
us more.

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