Men’s Spiritual Vacuity and Inefficacy in Eliot’s Poem The Hollow Men

Abstract

The Hollow Men by Eliot is a widely read poem which is structured of five sections. These sections deal with a group of hollow men unable to communicate with one another, a hollow man who is afraid to look at others directly, the barren land where they cannot fulfill their desire, their unwillingness to look at others and to be looked at by them,and finally a nursery rhyme which they can’t recite completely respectively. They are unable to think, create, respond and act because of the shadow that falls in between them.This article primarily explores men’s spiritual vacuity and inefficacy in this poem. It is an episodic free verse poem which reflects the poet’s pessimistic vision towards the human life and the present world. The poet presents the men as effigies which lack human efficiency and the world as a dead cactus land lacking the spring of blooms and joys. It reflects the conditions and contexts of modern men through divergent allusions. Men feel helpless and lonely despite being in a group, find no senses and meanings in spite of their assertions, realize their inefficiency and inability despite their sound health and certificates, feel unfortunate and miserable in spite of their material advancement and wealth, and find death in their lives despite being alive.