The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot (1925)Analysis and interpretation(adapted from: http://mural.uv.es/rubafa/hollowmen.htm, accessed on March 11, 2013)

Consider the epigraph

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

Mistah Kurtz – he dead.• An allusion to Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, a novella

that portrays the empty nature of men• Mister Kurtz, a European slave trader who had travelled to

Africa in order to do his business, is a character who lacks a soul, thus a true ‘Hollow Man’

• Phonetic spelling of ‘Mister” = Mistah, and 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 pidgin or a creole language (a slave, if we look back at Conrad’s novella) – Why a slave? – Probably because he represents another kind of ‘hollow man’ – a passive soul, humble, but passive

• This verse may also be seen as an answer to the question “Where’s Mister Kurtz?”, as if we did not know that he (is)(already) dead. (the idea of ‘ignored death’/emptiness)

A penny for the Old Guy.• Allusion to England’s November 5th tradition of

Guy Fawkes Day. In 1605 Guy Fawkes unsuccessfully 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 the verse Old and Guy are written with capital letters, emphasizing the fact that the puppet represents a ‘poor, old, mortal fellow’ who needs to be given a few alms.

What’s the relationship between these two verses?• Mister Kurtz – lacks a soul = spiritual emptiness• Guy Fawkes dummy – lacks a real body = physical

emptiness

Hollowness of modern men, who fundamentally believe in nothing and are therefore empty at the core of their being

First impressionsRepetitions?

Structural repetitions 1: reinforcement of the description of states and existences due to the use of the verb to be in the Present Simple + emphasis on the idea of hollowness /emptiness

We are the hollow men,We are the stuffed men. (I)This is the dead land,This is the cactus land. (III)The eyes are not here,There are no eyes here (IV)

Structural repetitions 2: the structure A without B, C without D that highlights the main themes of the poem: meaninglessness, nothingness and paralysis if we treat shape/form, shade/colour and gesture/motion as synonyms

Shape without form, shade without color,Paralyzed force, gesture without motion(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.)

Repetitions of ideas and words

EyesVoicesDeath’s other kingdom

Another kind of repetition is carried out through negation

Eyes I dare not meet in dreams (II)These do not appear (II)Let me be no nearer (II)No nearer (II)Not that final meeting (II)The eyes are not here,There are no eyes here (IV)Eliot uses negation as an expression of sorrow and guilt, trying to avoid the inevitability of death

Part V and its repetitions• A children’s song based on repetition:Here we go ‘round the prickly pear,Prickly pear, prickly pear.Here we go ‘round the prickly pearAt five o’clock in the morning.• The familiar mulberry tree is replaced with prickly pear

(cactus) – infertility dance – primitive chant• Use of truncated verses as if the reader were to complete the

gaps – infertility/emptiness:For Thine isLife isFor Thine is theEverything in this poem is circular, repetitive and absurd

Symbols

Hollow men, stuffed men leaning together, headpiece filled with straw (I) – standing – not walking- corpses, immobile dying bodiesLet me also wearSuch deliberate disguises:Rat’s coat, crowskin, crossed stavesIn a field (II) – inanimate, immobile, anthropomorphic figure filled with straw (a scarecrow)Voices and eyes – disembodied; they appear as independent, supernatural concepts apart from the hollow men’s existence• The voices are quiet and meaningless• We do not know who the eyes belong to (first, they are source of

fear, then a source of hope, etc.)The realm of the Hollow Men (death’s other kingdom)At five o’clock in the morning. (IV) – dancing is a rite of resurrection around prickly pear (abortion/interruption of life)

Interpretation: part I

Hollow/stuffed men/headpiece filled with straw = the hollow men are filled with absurd, nonsense ideas and thought, causing them to be empty and futileLeaning together = submission or even surrenderOur dried voices, whenWe whisper together,Are quiet and meaninglessAs wind in dry grassOr rat’s feet over broken glassIn our dry cellar. = their voices have no sense, have no effect = meaninglessnessShape without form, shade without color,Paralyzed force, gesture without motion = being distinguished by external configuration, not content/material = vanity/futility + paralysis of movement, stasisWe are like the ‘Old Guy’, effigies filled with straw

Interpretation: part 2

Eyes I dare not meet in dreams = disembodied, yet a source of fearThanks to the metaphor (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.

Another element of death’s dream kingdom (There, is a tree swinging). 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 useless -even unnecessary- in that place.

Let me also wear Such deliberate disguises: (= chosen on purpose, yet to be invisible)Rat’s coat, crowskin, crossed stavesIn a field (= scarecrow/hollow/stuffed men)

Interpretation: part III (setting)

This is the dead land,This is the cactus land.Here the stone imagesAre raised, here they receiveThe supplication of a dead man’s handUnder the twinkle of a fading star.

A need of giving love, a desire which cannot be accomplished because of the physical and spiritual devastation of the place

At the hour when we areTrembling with tenderness.Lips that would kissForm prayers to broken stone.

Interpretation: part IVIn this last of meeting placesWe grope togetherAnd avoid speech,Gathered on this beach of the tumid river= 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.

Interpretation: part V

A nursery rhyme that substitutes 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 depicts an image of children dancing hand-in-hand and singing like in a traditional, ritual game. The time when this happens, when nighttime 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.