Allusions – The important technique used in the poem is the allusion. Allusions are the references to the past knowledge. The title of the poem as critics suggest is taken from William Morries “The Hollow Land” or from Rudyard Kipling’s “The Broken Men” as well as Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” extracted from Brutus speech. The epigraph of the poem is taken from Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” where Kurtz met his own death knowingly and the other allusion is Guy Fawkes from the history of England who was accused as a conspirator who attempted to kill King James I in a. These allusions gives a thematic structure throughout the poem where Kurtz who represents European civilization lost his direction of life in Africa as well as Guy Fawkes who represents the power and fear and lack of spirituality in the society. The allusion to the Bible “For thine is the kingdom” is the Lord’s prayer where it is repeated to remind the hollow men that this is the world he lives in and there is no escape.
Development of Self – The development of self is important in Eliot’s poem. The poem uses subjective pronouns such as “We “ and “me” that highlights a particular self of a person. It only involves a singular person having multiple selves. This is the direct influence of the development of psychoanalysis at that time. The poem projects the inner turmoil of the speaker who is hesitating and lives in a fear for the “shadow” falls. The speaker also tells in the second part that reflects the idea of self. The speaker tells that he will also wear and disguise himself as “Rat’s coat , crow skin, crossed staves” that highlights the idea of inner and outer self. The outer appearance is the dress that the speaker will wear and pretend to be in the death’s dread kingdom and hides his inner self from it that he fears.
Modern Predicament – The theme of modern predicament makes the poem a representative of modernism. The theme of meaningless society , fear , hollowness within , lack of spirituality , sophistication, complexity and others. The poem captures these modernist themes in the poem. In the first part of the poem , the meaningless society is projected and the speaker is highlighting the inner mind of the hollow men. The mind of the modern men is hollow filled with meaningless pursuits and the thoughts or “voices” as the speaker suggest is clearly is “quiet and meaningless”. The speaker also talks about the hollowness within the mind and soul of a modern men who are nothing but stuffed with “straw” or uselessness. The poem also captures the lack of spirituality within the soul of hollow men as the lines suggest that the modern mind is formless , shapeless , colourless and in a state I’d repose meaning the lack of spiritual force within. It also suggest the decay and degradation of society and mind within.
The other stanzas of the poem also gives insight into lack of morality where the modern mind worships not God but the idols created through “stone images”. Ghe speaker is clearly highlighting the hero worships of politicians during the first world war. It seems that the modern man is unable to worship God and worships the others by carving their statues. The degradation of cultural values is also depicted where the speaker dreads the death’s kingdom and the dream he sees it in. The fading star is a loss of cultural values and modern sophistication where the speaker sees these death kingdom through his own eyes where he hides his inner fears within and pretends to wear a coat in his outer appearance to survive in the death’s dread kingdom. The theme of modern complexity is seen when the speaker compares the society with a cactus being grown and the movement of prickly pear. This is the images that the poem evokes and the technique is called objective correlative where the images correlates with the situation of the modern society. It projects the modern society to be having difficulties and problems and dry as a desert where there are no water for rejuvenation for spiritual loss and loss of cultural values.
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Symbolism – The symbols are used in the poem to bridge certain emotions when words fail to express those felt emotions. The word “dry” symbolises the lack of spiritual and moral sense in the society. It also reflects the meaningless and nothingness world. The “eyes” here symbolises the direction and enlightenment that seems to be lost in the modern world. The “dread death’s kingdom” here symbolises the modern society. The “lost violent souls” symbolises the modern man who are lost from their direction and enlightenment. It could symbolise spiritual loss and cultural loss as well. The word “fading star” also symbolises the decline and degradation of society. The “Rat’s coat , crowskin , crossed staves” symbolises superficial and sophisticated modern lifestyle. The images of “dead land” and “cactus” symbolises the degradation of the society and the imagery bridges the imagery of dead society from a spiritual and cultural values. The modern society grows a cactus plant that is filled with thorns and painful and as well as complex. The “dying stars” and “hollow valley” also symbolises the directionless and lost civilization of modern society. The “rose” symbolises Virgin Mary and purity and the modern society needs a spiritual guidance and the eyes itself is missing from the society.
Multiple Voices – There are multiple voices in the poem where the different voices comes from different references. The voices are from the thoughts of the speaker flowing in different forms and opinions or experiences. It is a direct influence of Freudian psychoanalysis that shows the multiple personalities of an individual.The first few voices shows the meaninglessness of the modern society. The other voices also evokes a religious tone where “For thine is the Kingdom” is a voice clarifying that this is the kingdom that the modern world has created and there are no escape or resolution. The modern complexity is such that the speaker captures it in a breakage of line or irregularity of lines that is incomplete. This shows the hesitation of the speaker or the fear that exists within the mind of the modern man. The two contradictory ideas are yoked together in the poem where the speaker states that if there’s an idea and wants to be applied practically ,it falls into the shadow meaning that the idea cannot be brought forth into the reality due to the fear.
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