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How does religion impact literature
T s eliot's the hollow men symbolism
How does religion impact literature
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The Theme of Emptiness in “The Hollow Men”
“The Hollow Men,” a poem written by T.S. Eliot shows the narrators disgust and his faithless attitude toward all mankind. He refers to the human race as being “hollow,” (1) and having a “headpiece filled with straw,” (4) which creates the feeling and theme of emptiness. Eliot also uses allusions, symbols, and repetition as powerful, and depressing poetic devices to make mankind seem hollow.
The theme of emptiness is clearly visible throughout the poem, and it begins in the title. “The Hollow Men” refers to mankind being empty, and that there is no meaning to their life, and no purpose for the hollow men to go on. IN the first section of the poem, the second stanza states “Shape without form, shade without colour, Paralysed force, gesture without motion.” (11-12) Here Eliot puts strong ideas together in such a way that they seem to cancel out each other, leaving an empty feeling . In section three, Eliot used “dead,” (39) and “cactus” (40) to describe the setting, and “In deaths other kingdom/Walking alone,” (46-47) leaves the reader in an empty state of mind with no surroundings. When someone shouts into an empty, or wide area, it will always echo and repeat itself until it quietly dies off. This example of emptiness is expressed in the very last stanza of the poem, “This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends Not with a b...
The first two lines of the poem set the mood of fear and gloom which is constant throughout the remainder of the poem. The word choice of "black" to describe the speaker's face can convey several messages (502). The most obvious meaning ...
In the poem, “The Hollow Men,” isolation is a theme that occurs often. The author, T.S. Eliot, uses the description of hollow men to emphasize his definition of isolation. The hollow men have headpieces that are filled with straw. The straw represents that the heads are empty. The hollow men may have once been associated with royalty but now are filled with straw.
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 poem “Woodchucks” by Maxine Kumin is about the dehumanization of a man to the point where he is completely opposite from the person he used to be. He is desensitized to the point where he can justify to himself a mass extermination. It shows the effect hatred and evil can have on a human’s soul and how that can change their behavior. The poem begins with the man having a prejudice against one population, the woodchucks, which finally evolves into a personal vendetta towards them. The author, Maxine Kumin, mainly uses dramatic irony and symbolism to show how the growth of evil inside of a person until all that is human is carved away. A few other literary devices are also used in her poem. These devices include characterization, alliteration, and metaphors.
When read for the first time, The Waste Land appears to be a concoction of sorts, a disjointed poem. Lines are written in different languages, narrators change, and the scenes seem disconnected, except for the repeated references to the desert and death. When read over again, however, the pieces become coherent. The Waste Land is categorized as a poem, but exhibited visually, it appears to be a literary collage. And when standing back and viewing the collage from afar, a common theme soon emerges. Eliot collects aspects from different cultures or what he calls cultural memories. These assembled memories depict a lifeless world, in which the barrenness of these scenes speak of a wasted condition. He concentrates on women, including examples of violence committed against them and the women's subsequent lack of response to this violence, to show how apathetic the world is. But The Waste Land is not a social commentary on the plight of women. Rather, the women's non-reaction to the violence against them becomes a metaphor for the impotence of the human race to respond to pain. Violence recurs throughout time, and as Eliot points to in his essay "Tradition and Individual Talent" in the epigraph, we can break this cycle of violence and move ahead only by learning from the past and applying this knowledge to the present.
“The Hollow Men” by T.S. Eliot is a poem of struggle for meaning amongst the meaningless. T.S. Eliot shows the reader how in this day and age society is becoming less and less active and beginning to become more careless in the way in which we live and behave, as represented throughout the poem. It brings out all of our worlds weaknesses and flaws. Eliot brings out the fact that the human race is disintegrating. We are compared to as hollow men with no emotions, cares, and nothing inside. Hollow men all look different in some way, but inside we are all the same. We shift in whatever direction we are being blown in. In The Hollow Men, by T.S. Eliot examines the absence of spiritual guidance, lack of communication between individuals, and absence of direction of outstanding and pro founding leadership.
Eliot commentary on civilization and its lack of humanity and common good toward one another, which was a common idea as the full impact of World War One came to light. Death and suffering on such a scale were unheard of. The poem represents his idea that individuals are helpless and confused by the condition of the post-war world, perhaps brought about by society’s loss of compassion. The poem is written in fragments and is confusing to navigate which amplifies this point. Loneliness is a central theme and it is manifested in different ways. The idea that love and compassion are absent from life is delivered through series of conversation between lovers and friends. A couple sits in their home, surrounded by spectacular things, however, their lives seem incomplete and lonely. In the poem one calls out to their partner “Stay with me../ Speak to me. Why do you never speak? Speak./ What are you thinking of? What thinking? What? '/ I never know what you are thinking. Think.” (Eliot 111-115). They are never answered. A different couple, together on what appears to be a date only go through the motions of intimacy as the date evolves, “Exploring hands encounter no defense;/ His vanity requires no response,/ And makes a welcome of indifference.” (Eliot 240-242) In both these scenes a shallowness exists, even though they are with someone, they are alone. Additionally, The impression of individuals removing themselves or disconnecting from humanity
The human psyche has a desire for seeing others in pain. The dark romantics used this to create a legacy of literature that terrified their readers to the core. The dark romantics were individuals who used their pessimistic view of the world and incorporated it into their literature to invoke terror and fear into their readers. In contrast to the transcendentalists, dark romantics saw the world as evil and decaying. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil” and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” both authors use symbolism, suspense, and irony to emphasize the importance of tragedy as a theme throughout dark romantic literature.
... “There were no bourns./There were no quiet rooms” (18-19). Unlike the rest of the poem, this stanza has two definite sentences, making for a more emphatic, choppy rhythm. This sudden shift, combined with the words in the stanza, show very clearly that the noise and the choices will never end and he will never find peace. It is frightening to think that this could be humanity’s fate.
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,
Eliot's Themes of Death and Futility in the Poem Remind Your Self of The Hollow Men. One of the major themes explored by Eliot in the Hollow Men is that of death and the futility of life. Eliot portrays life, war, royalty, religion and. death as futile in the poem.
...In "The Waste Land," Eliot delivers an indictment against the self-serving, irresponsibility of modern society, but not without giving us, particularly the youth a message of hope at the end of the Thames River. And in "Ash Wednesday," Eliot finally describes an example of the small, graceful images God gives us as oases in the Waste Land of modern culture. Eliot constantly refers back, in unconsciously, to his childhood responsibilities of the missionary in an unholy world. It is only through close, diligent reading of his poetry that we can come to understand his faithful message of hope.
imagery to compare life as “The Hollow Men” to Hell and endless torment. It is possible that compared to Vivienne’s vivacious and boisterous personality, Eliot felt as insignificant as the hollow men. He concludes the poem with “This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but with a whimper” (82). Such an ominous ending invokes both thought and sympathy in readers.
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.