The Hollow Men - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

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)Slide2

Consider the epigraph

Mistah

Kurtz – he dead.

A penny for the Old Guy.Slide3

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)Slide4

A

penny for the Old Guy.

Allusion to England’s November 5

th

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.Slide5

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 beingSlide6

First impressions

Repetitions?Slide7

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)Slide8

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.)Slide9

Repetitions of ideas and words

Eyes

Voices

Death’s other kingdomSlide10

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 deathSlide11

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 pear

At 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

is

Life is

For

Thine

is the

Everything in this poem is circular, repetitive and absurdSlide12

Symbols

Hollow men, stuffed men leaning together, headpiece filled with straw

(I)

– standing – not walking- corpses, immobile dying bodies

Let me also wear

Such deliberate disguises:

Rat’s coat,

crowskin

, crossed staves

In 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) Slide13

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 futile

Leaning together

= submission or even surrender

Our dried voices, when

We whisper together,

Are quiet and meaningless

As wind in dry grass

Or rat’s feet over broken glass

In

our dry cellar

.

= their voices have no sense, have no effect = meaninglessness

Shape without form, shade without color,

Paralyzed force, gesture without

motion

= being distinguished by external configuration, not content/material = vanity/futility + paralysis of movement, stasis

We are like the ‘Old Guy’, effigies filled with strawSlide14

Interpretation: part 2

Eyes I dare not meet in

dreams

= disembodied, yet a source of fear

Thanks

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.Slide15

A

nother

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.Slide16

Let me also

wear

Such

deliberate disguises

:

(= chosen on purpose, yet to be invisible)

Rat’s coat,

crowskin

, crossed staves

In a

field

(= scarecrow/hollow/stuffed men)Slide17

Interpretation: part III (setting)

This

is the dead land,

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.Slide18

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 are

Trembling with

tenderness.

Lips

that would kiss

Form prayers to broken stone.Slide19

Interpretation: part IV

In this last of meeting places

We grope together

And 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.Slide20

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.