The Hollow Men
Eliza Hale
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper
 His earlier work is more
negative, as he was searching
for a “higher world”.
 Many religious references and
allusions points to his interest
in the subject.
“Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless…”
“Remember us -- if at all -- not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men…”
“Between the desire
And the spasm
Falls the Shadow…”
The speaker is a hollow
man. He has a bleak
opinion of mankind, and
thinks this shadow has
fallen down to block
mankind from living
meaningful lives.
*Well-known stories and figures have
connotations which add meaning to
the poem.
(-1) Mistah Kurtz – he dead.
(0) A penny for the Old Guy
 -1 – Heart of darkness. Man who
died in the Jungle of Africa.
 0 – Guy dies trying to overthrow
the British government. Now they
have a holiday where they burn
stuffed scarecrows representing
Guy.
(55) In this hollow valley
(56) This broken jaw of our lost
kingdoms.
 Samson was a hero who killed
2,000 Philistines with the jaw bone
of an ass.
 Another who died doing
something brave.
 Here the jaw is “broken”, therefore
not like strong Samson.
 First lines:
(1) We are the hollow men
(2) We are the stuffed men
 Contrast between heroes and
hollow men.
 Does the speaker admire these
martyrs?
(13) Those who have crossed
(14) With direct eyes, to death’s other
Kingdom
(15) Remember…
 Kingdom capitalized implies specific place…
 In Dante’s Paradiso those with “direct eyes”
go to heaven.
 Dante had more than one heaven, more
than one hell, purgatory.
Those who have lived might not even remember us… Plea for
people to do anything.
(20) In death’s dream kingdom
(38) In the twilight kingdom
(46) In death’s other kingdom
(56) … our lost kingdoms
(30)
(65)
 Attitude towards the kingdoms?
 Are these places for the spirit or for the
body?
(57) In this last of meeting places
(58) We grope together
(59) And avoid speech
(60) Gathered on this beach of the tumid
river
 Tumid = river to cross into hell in
Dante’s inferno.
 Why? The hollow men are going to hell.
(63) As the perpetual star
(64) Multifoliate rose
(65) Of Death’s twilight kingdom
(66) The hope only
(67) Of empty men.
 Star = Jesus Rose = Mary
 “Eyes” from the “twilight kingdom”
 Hope only of empty men. They
want to be saved, but don’t do it
themselves.
 The speaker does not have faith
that religion can help
(68) Here we go round the prickly pear
(69) Prickly pear prickly pear
(70) Here we go round the prickly pear
(71) At five o’clock in the morning.
 Mulberry bush vs. prickly pear
 What happens at 5 o’clock in the
morning?
 Creepy to turn children’s rhyme into
song of hollow men.
(52) The eyes are not here
(53) There are no eyes here
(54) In this valley of dying stars
(55) In this hollow valley
(56) This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms
 Eyes replace judgment, because these
eyes can see past the outside to the
hollow interior
DRY DICTION EFFECT
• Unpleasant
• Without meat, or value
• Dead
(1)We are the hollow men
(2) We are the stuffed men
(3) Leaning together
(4) Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
(5) Our dried voices, when
(6) We whisper together
(7) Are quiet and meaningless
(8) As wind in dry grass
(9) Or rats’ feet over broken glass
(10) In our dry cellar
(37) This is the dead land
(38) This is cactus land
….
(68) Here we go round the prickly pear
(23) Sunlight on a broken column
(24) There, is a tree swinging
(25) And voices are
(26) In the wind’s singing
 Life, energy. In the “dream
kingdom”.
(1) We are the hollow men
(2) We are the stuffed men
(17) As the hollow men
(18) The stuffed men.
 Highlighting speaker’s despair.
(11) Shape without form, shade without
colour,
(12) Paralysed force, gesture without
motion;
 Repetition of structure (parallel)
 Antithesis. Comparison.
 Lost at first. Description of hollow men
after.
Is the shadow between the men
and their souls? Is that why
they’re hollow?
Lines 72 – 91 three stanzas:
“Between the _____
(motion)
And the __________
(act)
Falls the Shadow”
 Demonstrating how infiltrated the
“shadow” is in the hollow men’s lives.
 Valley of the Shadow of Death (54-55)
(77) (91) For thine is the kingdom
(separated in other versions)
 The lord’s prayer.
 Repetition in religion. Sounds like
sermon.
 Followed by prediction of world’s
end in nursery rhyme rhythm.
(95) This is the way the world ends
(96) This is the way the world ends
(97) This is the way the world ends
(98) Not with a bang but a whimper.
How did Mistah Kurtz, Guy, and
Samson end?
Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
For Thine is
Life is For
Thine is the
This is the way the world ends
 The speaker describes a life without
substance using:
 Dry diction
 Allusions to purgatory, inferno and paradise
 Allusions to the Valley of death
 2 separate deaths: physical and
spiritual.
 The repetition of antithesis