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” ( The Hollow Men 39/43)
In the aforesaid lines Eliot shows his disgust and despair with the land , as barren and dead , the man as well, this hollow man has given the importance to false and insignificant
Gods.
The Meaningless and Futile Yearning
The poetry of T.S.Eliot in the 1920’s was a pessimistic one and displayed most of the negative aspect of the age ,that what seems to be a recurring motif in his other poems like ,
Gerontion ,The Wastel Land ,Rhasody on a Windy Night and other minor poems , through such poems
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In The Hollow Men (1925) Eliot has combined the poem with a highly professional and musical verse , to match the ritualistic mode of poetry , in a way like the refrain , repetition and the monotonous rhyme and rhythm whatever measurements are utilized to achieve the effect of the futile and the meaningless yearning of the modern men as hollow men of
T.S.Eliot .Murphy in his critical analysis of “The Hollow Men” he added that; “ The
Hollow Men present its readers with the verbal equivalent of nonentities who recognize the meaningless choices that they have made but are content to live with them for the lack of any lingering initiative to do otherwise”(Murphy, 2007,258)
Not only the actual men are empty and of less valued but their action , their voice and souls are also about the same , in the lines (8-10)their voices are matched to the dry wind on the grass or the small rat’s feet on a broken glass, in the same way the wind hits the dry grass they are exist , they can’t effect anyone around them for they only there in their shape .The image of rat , used sometimes to show how dirty small things are futile and valueless, but this time the value of the rat did not mean to show the importance of that creature
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They don’t get hurt or injured due to their light weight even though they will be walking on a broken glass. Eliot wrote in his poem ; Our dried voices when we whisper together are quiet and meaningless (The Hollow Men 5/7) such comparison accentuate the ‘meaninglessness of the voices , which is , by generalization , applicable to men at the same time .In her critical views on Eliot ,Sullivan separated the hollow men from the human kind in their context that characterized them as hollow , empty and indecisive she goes on the description: “The tragedy of the hollow men is intensified because it presented within the context of possible ultimate meaning :It gives the overall impression ,not that life as a whole is meaningless ,but that it has a purpose which the hollow men refuse to acknowledge ,it is therefore meaningless for them.(Sullivan ,1973,49). In such view Sullivan reduces the generalization and optimism of Eliot concerning the humanity and its crisis , in the condition of anarchy and the chaos of the war , and its consequences. As explained in the works of Eliot‘s life style, manners and as the term denotes
“Modern critics agree… that the novel has unity that its subject is an exploration of human aspiration and fulfillment by individual and social influences…” as a lining for various themes that Eliot uses through imagery and language. (Doyle 118) Beginning wi...
The characters of The Sun Also Rises have difficulty coping with the changing world just as the Hollow Men cannot deal with change in the situation they face. The narrator of The Hollow Men end the poem on a depressing note, “This is the way the world ends not with a bang but a whimper” (840 THM). Through his description of the world’s end with a whimper, the narrator presents a metaphor for his life which he feels is insignificant. With this he shows his thought of inability to face his issue, showing a feeling of incompetence which is very much how the characters of The Sun Also Rises feel. For instance, Jake has an encounter with a waiter in France, but finds a simple solution, “Everything is on such a clear financial basis in France. It is the simplest country to live in. No one makes things complicated by becoming your friend for any obscure reason. If you want people to like you you have only to spend a little money” (237 SAR). Here, Ja...
The valley is described as a “desolate” place where “ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills into grotesque gardens”. (21) Ashes that dominate the area take the shape of natural greenery. The term “grotesque gardens” uses alliteration, with juxtaposition; to highlight the odd pairing of ashes and greenery. Ashes are associated with death while ridges and “gardens” represent the potential to flourish and grow in the promise and ideal of equality as in “the trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams.” (143) The trees that once stood here were able to speak to man’s dreams, which allude to America, the land able to speak to man’s dreams and capacity for wonder. All this is replaced by grey ash that suffocates the inhabitants, restricting them to their social class. This presents a bleak image of hopelessness that surrounds the valley.
T. S. Eliot’s “The Hollow Men” is a dramatic monologue, free verse poem that consists of five parts that could be considered five separate poems. His use of “allegorically abstract text nevertheless achieves a remarkable unity of effect in terms of voice, mood and imagery” (Morace 948). Before the poem starts, there are two epigraphs; “Mistah Kurtz – he dead. / A penny for the Old Guy” (lines 1-2). Eliot alludes to these two epigraphs because their themes are developed throughout his poem. “The first epigraph is from Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,” a story …that examines the hollowness and horror of lack of faith, spiritual paralysis, and despair” (Bloom 61), just like the “hollow men” in his poem. The second epigraph “refers to the celebration of Guy Fawkes Day in Britain” (Bloom 61). This is a day that celebrates Fawkes’ unsuccessful rebellion against King James I with his capture in the cellar of the Parliament building, where stored gun powder was supposed to blow up and kill King James I and his family. Once captured, he cowardly turned over his co-conspirators and they all were killed. It is “celebrated with bonfires, fireworks, the burning of scarecrows,
...s, Colleen. The love song of T.S. Eliot: elegiac homoeroticism in the early poetry. Gender, Desire, and Sexuality in T. S. Eliot. Ed. Cassandra Laity. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004. p. 20
Message of Hope in Eliot's The Waste Land, Gerontion, and The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
T.S. Eliot is often considered one of the greatest and most influential poets of the 20th Century. Not only were his highly regarded poems such as “The Wasteland” and “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” influential to the literary style of his time, but his work as a publisher highlighted the work of many talented poets. Analyzing his poem, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” with psychoanalytic criticism reveals several core issues in the speaker of the poem, and may reflect Eliot himself.
As glimpses of a hopeful relationship between man and God stay persistent through World War I, T.S. Eliot reveals that the hollow men are inevitably ruined of hope and religion due to the men’s incredulous and post apocalyptic view of the world after the war.
...script version of "Gerontion," the old man is abandoned by nature, leaving him in his barren state. There is no hope for these characters to find meaning through nature because it is a force that is completely out of their control. However, by substituting "History" for "Nature" in "Gerontion," Eliot gives an element of hope to an otherwise dismal poem. By recognizing the old man's failure to perceive history in the "living" sense, the reader also recognizes that the perception of history lies in the individual. Unlike nature, man has a controlling influence in history. As long as this is understood, anyone, including the old man, can find belonging in the living sense of history in order to establish meaning in their present world.
The consistent pattern of metrical stresses in this stanza, along with the orderly rhyme scheme, and standard verse structure, reflect the mood of serenity, of humankind in harmony with Nature. It is a fine, hot day, `clear as fire', when the speaker comes to drink at the creek. Birdsong punctuates the still air, like the tinkling of broken glass. However, the term `frail' also suggests vulnerability in the presence of danger, and there are other intimations in this stanza of the drama that is about to unfold. Slithery sibilants, as in the words `glass', `grass' and `moss', hint at the existence of a Serpent in the Garden of Eden. As in a Greek tragedy, the intensity of expression in the poem invokes a proleptic tenseness, as yet unexplained.
T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land is an elaborate and mysterious montage of lines from other works, fleeting observations, conversations, scenery, and even languages. Though this approach seems to render the poem needlessly oblique, this style allows the poem to achieve multi-layered significance impossible in a more straightforward poetic style. Eliot’s use of fragmentation in The Waste Land operates on three levels: first, to parallel the broken society and relationships the poem portrays; second, to deconstruct the reader’s familiar context, creating an individualized sense of disconnection; and third, to challenge the reader to seek meaning in mere fragments, in this enigmatic poem as well as in a fractious world.
T.S Eliot’s poem, The Waste Land, is written in the mood of society after World War I. By using these allusions, The Waste Land reflects on mythical, historical, and literary events. The poem displays the deep disillusionment felt during this time period. In the after math of the great war, in an industrialized society that lacks the traditional structure of authority and belief, in the soil that may not be conductive to new growth (Lewis). Eliot used various allusions that connected to the time period and the effect of the war on society in his poem. Aided by Eliot’s own notes and comments, scholars have been able to identify allusions to: the Book of Common Prayer, Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles-Louis Philippe, James Thomas, Guillaume Appollinaire, Countess Marie Larsich, Wyndham Lewis, nine books of the Bible, John Donne, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Richard Wagner, Sappho, Catullus, Lord Byron, Joseph Campbell, Aldous Huxley, J.G. Frazer, Jessie L. Weston, W.B. Yeats, Shakespeare, Walter Pater, Charles Baudelair, Dente, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, and John Webster—all within the first section of 72 lines, about one allusion every two lines (Lewis). Using various allusions, Eliot was able to connect to the fact that he lived in a modern day waste land as a result of the destruction caused by World War I. Eliot used the allusions to show that death brings new beginnings and change, and love still flourishes.
Eliot creates a desolate and alienated world where the hollow men dream of a kingdom that could release them from the constant state of nothingness. He focuses on the hollow men’s inability to transcend although it is their only hope. He uses the imagery of disembodied eyes and fading stars to depict the state of the men’s consciousness. Aspects of the form copy the characteristics of the hollow men, as well. The speakers desire to avoid speech and his inability to complete full sentences are shown in the final lines of the poem. Eliot deploys, the hollow men represent all humankind, and their tragic existence concerns everyone.
T.S Eliot, widely considered to be one of the fathers of modern poetry, has written many great poems. Among the most well known of these are “The Waste Land, and “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, which share similar messages, but are also quite different. In both poems, Eliot uses various poetic techniques to convey themes of repression, alienation, and a general breakdown in western society. Some of the best techniques to examine are ones such as theme, structure, imagery and language, which all figure prominently in his poetry. These techniques in particular are used by Eliot to both enhance and support the purpose of his poems.
middle of paper ... ... What can be said is that Eliot's poetry, as misinterpreted, misread, and misunderstood as it may be, is a quintessential cornerstone in modernist thought, a fragment in the puzzle, which may yield an emergent whole, though it may not be fully grasped. Works Cited Eliot, T. S. & Co. Wasteland, Prufrock, and other poems.