Literary Devices in The Hollow Men

Just as section V begins with a musical chant that appears in italics, it ends with another, and both are dark in tone and theme. The world’s ending with a “whimper” rather than a “bang” echoes the “quiet and meaningless” whispering of the hollow men in section I. It also implies that life in the modern world is no longer lived with purpose, passion, faith, or courage.

Juxtaposing fragments of the previous choral responses creates a sense of desperation and dissolution leading to the poem’s nihilistic conclusion.

“Falls the Shadow” serves as a refrain in this stanza and the two that follow. The three stanzas are constructed with parallel phrases followed by the refrain. The concept of that which is desired remaining incomplete or unfulfilled is the theme in each of the three stanzas and echoes the lines in section I: “Shape without form, shade without colour, / Paralyzed force, gesture without motion.” The “shadow” may be interpreted as symbolizing the “Paralyzed force”—the paralysis of the spirit and the will—that afflicts modern life, rendering it futile and meaningless.

A broken jaw implies the inability to speak or communicate, which reinforces the theme in the poem surrounding a lack of agency and a sense of spiritual sterility.

The haunting beauty of the metaphor “valley of dying stars” contrasts dramatically with the disturbing images of the hollow men in section I and illustrates the often elegiac tone of the poem.

A synecdoche for those who had lived and died with purpose and faith, there are no “eyes” in modern society, suggesting a lack of not only vision but clarity.

Section III ends with the image introduced at the beginning: “stone images” receiving the “supplication of a dead man’s hand.” Through repetition, the ideas of faithlessness and futility are underscored. The “broken stone” motif is also found in section II in “sunlight on a broken column.” However, in the context of section II, the image represents opposite ideas.

The alliteration of the “t” sound unifies the physical (“trembling”) and the emotional (“tenderness”) in expressing the need for human connection.

The fading star motif introduced in section II reappears here, again symbolizing the loss of religious faith.

The word “supplication” means an earnest plea or prayer. The phrase “a dead man’s hand” is a synecdoche for those who live in the “dead land” of modern society.

These two metaphors develop the dryness motif introduced in section I. The speaker’s describing his society as a “dead land” and a “cactus land” emphasizes that it is an arid spiritual wasteland devoid of any life or vigor.

The phrase develops the motif introduced in section I and continued throughout this section, describing death as a kingdom into which the living will pass. Note the use of “twilight” as an adjective; it has melancholic connotations that suggest a fading or closing.

The phrase refers to a scarecrow standing in a field, another “hollow” man stuffed with straw with whom the speaker identifies. Choosing to wear the disguise of a scarecrow, as well as other disguises, symbolizes the speaker’s alienation from other human beings and the inability to exercise personal agency, behaving instead only “as the wind behaves.”

The poem’s star motif is introduced here and developed in subsequent sections of the text. In Christian belief, Jesus is associated with a star; the nativity story in the Gospel of Matthew describes the star of Bethlehem leading the Magi to Jesus at his birth. Describing the star as “fading” suggests the loss of religious faith in the modern world.

The imagery in the passage is visual (“a tree swinging”) and auditory (“wind’s singing”) in describing an afterlife experienced by the ancestors of the speaker’s generation. These images of peace and beauty contrast dramatically with the negative images in section I that describe the “hollow men” of the present age.

The eyes are described here with a direct metaphor comparing them to “sunlight on a broken column.” The connotations of “sunlight” are positive, as the word suggests brightness and clarity. Here it may also represent spiritual truth shining upon what is broken in the modern world.

“Eyes” repeats the reference to “direct eyes” in section I. An example of synecdoche, “eyes” now represents those who had lived with faith and purpose prior to the generation of the hollow men. In the context of this section of the poem, the word also has connotations of being judged. The alliteration of the “d” sound in “dare,” “dreams, “death’s,” and “dream” emphasizes the speaker’s quiet despair as he confronts the truth of his own life.

The passage is an allusion to Paradiso, the final part of Dante’s Divine Comedy that describes his journey into heaven; those with “direct eyes” enter heaven, “death’s other Kingdom,” and are blessed by God. It also alludes to both Canto 3 of Dante’s Inferno and ancient Greek mythology in which dying is depicted as crossing a river into another realm. The connotations of the word “direct” are significant, for the word suggests action and engagement, rather than the weakness and withdrawal that are characteristics of the “hollow men.” In the context of entering heaven, “direct eyes” also suggests a sense of spiritual vision that comes from one’s religious faith.

“Colour” is the British spelling of “color,” and “paralysed” is the British spelling of “paralyzed.” The phrases “Shape without form,” “shade without colour,” and “gesture without motion” are parallel in construction; the repetition of the parallelism emphasizes the idea that modern life is characterized by apathy and superficiality. “Paralysed force” interrupts the catalogue of parallel phrases in construction and meter, drawing attention to a second idea in the couplet: that the failure to engage in life meaningfully results from a failure of will, a type of spiritual paralysis. The couplet’s standing alone in section I distinguishes it from the rest of the text in the section, indicating that it is of special significance in developing themes in the poem.

Eliot employs two similes in describing the “dried voices” of the men as they “whisper together.” He compares them first to the sound of “wind in dry grass” and then to the sound of “rats’ feet” running “over broken glass” in a “dry cellar.” The two auditory images have negative connotations, especially in the references to rats and broken glass.

The word “dried” has connotations of lifelessness and sterility. A motif in the text, the idea of sterile lifelessness is repeated in the remainder of the stanza in “dry grass” and “dry cellar.” The motif is also found in section III in the references to “dead land” and “cactus land.” The motif contributes to a theme in the poem: that people in modern society are disengaged from life and lack will, commitment, passion, and power.

The image recalls the allusion in the epigraph to the stuffed dummies carried on Guy Fawkes Day. Being “hollow” and “stuffed,” like the effigies of Fawkes, suggests the lack of agency.