![]() 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. ![]() 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 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”. ![]() 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 poem captures these modernist themes in the poem. The theme of meaningless society, fear, hollowness within, lack of spirituality, sophistication, complexity and others. Modern Predicament – The theme of modern predicament makes the poem a representative of modernism. 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. 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 speaker also tells in the second part that reflects the idea of self. The poem projects the inner turmoil of the speaker who is hesitating and lives in a fear for the “shadow” falls. This is the direct influence of the development of psychoanalysis at that time. It only involves a singular person having multiple selves. The poem uses subjective pronouns such as “We “ and “me” that highlights a particular self of a person. 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.ĭevelopment of Self – The development of self is important in Eliot’s poem. 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 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. 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. Allusions are the references to the past knowledge. Allusions – The important technique used in the poem is the allusion.
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