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The Hollow Men T.S Literature 12 ☙ Ms. Pitchford­Yeung 20th Century Notes: T.S. Eliot The Hollow Men T.S. Eliot Tasks: ❑ Read the introduction to T. S. Eliot in our textbook, pp. 949­50. ❑ Read “The Hollow Men” and the Commentary, pp. 952­54. (Note: the Commentary itself presents some ideas that could be debated. Too much fun.) ❑ Preview these lecture notes. Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888­1965) T. S. Eliot is considered one of the key figures in modernist literature. On writing: “The historical sense,” he maintains, “involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence; the historical sense compels a man to write not merely with his own generation in his bones, but with a feeling that the whole of the literature of Europe from Homer and within it the whole of the literature of his own country has a simultaneous existence and composes a simultaneous order…” (Encyclopedia of Contemporary Literary Theory, 1997, pp. 308­09). ​ ​ On reading: He argued for imperious objectivity in reading texts and had no time for critics who subjectively feel and think their way through a work of art. Eliot argues that the “perfect critic seeks to transcend his personal impressions and to make objective statements” about the work, using the tools of comparison, contrast and analysis. Criticism, he writes, is “the disinterested exercise of intelligence” (ibid. 309). ​ ​ Some key themes & motifs to consider in “The Hollow Men”: ➢ spiritual impotence of modern civilization ○ apathy, cowardice, weakness, ineptness, passivity, sterility, ignorance, insignificance, fear… ○ lack of will, purpose, impetus, faith, commitment, enlightenment… ○ (“The Hollow Men” was published in 1925: consider the context of early 20th century) ➢ futility and emptiness of idealism when it is detached from action and reality ○ ideas without action ⇒ paralysis, stagnation ➢ quest versus failure; prospects versus fulfilment ➢ degeneration of language, culture, society Literature 12 ☙ Ms. Pitchford­Yeung 20th Century Notes: T.S. Eliot Eliot’s “The Hollow Men” and Dante’s The Divine Comedy ​ (some points on this page are adapted from Kathy MacRae) One of the many interpretations of the hollow men’s situation is that they are representatives of our modern ​ civilization, caught between the choice of redemption and salvation (i.e., path to Paradise) and the choice to refuse salvation (i.e., path to Hell). ​ In “The Hollow Men,” Eliot both despairs of and condemns the spiritual and creative impotence of his world. ​ ​ He sees contemporary civilization in a state of paralysis and stagnation, where humanity has lost the faith, ​ ​ desire, courage, moral impetus to work actively toward change and progress. Eliot makes heavy allusions to Dante’s The Divine Comedy: ​ ​ ➢ Dante’s poem The Divine Comedy (completed in 1321) is divided into three parts: ​ ​ ○ Inferno [Hell], Purgatorio [Purgatory], and Paradiso [Paradise]. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ➢ Dante himself takes the role of the narrator who has gone astray from the True Way into the Dark Wood of Error (Worldliness, Sin). The shade of Virgil appears and explains the path Dante must take in order to leave Error and arrive in God’s Paradise: descend into Hell (recognize sin); ascend through Purgatory (renounce sin); and then ascend to Paradise (the light of God). Virgil’s shade guides Dante through the first two parts of his journey. In “The Hollow Men,” particularly Parts III & IV, the speaker pictures himself in a desolate wasteland where he ​ ​ ​ and the other hollow men loiter in non­action, failing to commit to anything. This spiritual landscape brings ​ ​ ​ to mind Canto III of Dante’s Inferno, where the Neutrals (Opportunists) linger in the Vestibule (entrance) of ​ ​ ​ ​ Hell. ​ ➢ Canto III of Inferno introduces the “Neutrals” or “Opportunists”: ​ ​ ○ they are the “souls who have lost the good of intellect” whose “sighs and cries and wails” ​ ​ resound in the “starless air” (18, 22, 23) ○ “the nearly soulless / whose lives concluded neither blame nor praise” (32­33) ​ ​ ○ mixed with the Opportunists are the “angels who were neither for God nor Satan, / but only for ​ themselves” (35­36) ​ ○ “in their blind and unattaining state / their miserable lives have sunk so low / that they must ​ ​ ​ envy every other fate” (43­45) ​ ○ “Mercy and Justice deny them even a name. / Let us not speak of them: look, and pass on” ​ ​ (47­48) ➢ The Neutrals are trapped at the entrance to Hell. Eternally unclassified, they are condemned to gather by the river Acheron, unable to ever cross the river into Hell proper. For these Neutrals, whose earthly lives have ended, it is now too late to make a choice between good and evil. The hollow men in Eliot’s poem are still alive. However, IF they remain uncommitted and fail to ever desire and ​ ​ work toward change in their lifetimes, they too will end up like the Neutrals in the Inferno. ​ ​ ​ [In class I will explain more details of the hierarchical structures of Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.] Glances at Paradiso: The images of “death’s dream kingdom” in Eliot’s poem have correspondences to the ​ imagery in Dante’s Paradiso (or Heaven as we know it). According to Dante, as one rises through Paradiso and comes closer to God, one becomes better able to tolerate light. At the lower levels divine light can be tolerated only if it is reflected. As one rises through its circles, one learns to tolerate light. In the upper part of Paradise, Dante sees the multifoliate rose which has a space for each soul in heaven (Paradiso, Canto XXXII). Beyond the multifoliate ​ ​ rose, Dante finally confronts divine light / divine truth and his journey ends at that moment. Work Cited: Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy: The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso. Trans. John Ciardi. ​ ​ New York: New American Library, 2003. Print. Literature 12 ☙ Ms. Pitchford­Yeung 20th Century Notes: T.S. Eliot The Hollow Men T.S. Eliot Lecture Notes Your Notes & Responses EPIGRAPHS: Allusions to quest and failure ➢ Mistah Kurtz—he dead ○ from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness ​ ○ Kurtz: descent into darkness of savage ritual & primitive environment ○ failed in his quest to “reform” natives in Africa ➢ A penny for the Old Guy ○ Guy Fawkes: involved in Gunpowder Plot, 1605 ○ rebellion against government’s persecution of Catholics ○ attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament ○ Fawkes was discovered guarding the explosives ○ Guy Fawkes Day: November 5 (fireworks!) ○ stuffed dolls of Fawkes: bearer of guilt ○ another quest that ended in failure ○ controversial legacy: Traitor or Hero??? ➢ Kurtz and Fawkes DIFFER from the Hollow Men ➢ despite their eventual failure, at least Kurtz and Fawkes were men of action & strength ○ they are among the “lost / Violent souls” (15­16) ○ they may be in Hell, but at least they made a choice ○ showed courage to turn their ideals into action & reality: they made things happen ➢ the hollow men, by contrast: ○ apathetic, passive, lazy, unmotivated ○ lack conviction, faith, courage, will, impetus for action ○ idealism without action? stasis, paralysis Literature 12 ☙ Ms. Pitchford­Yeung 20th Century Notes: T.S. Eliot PART I 1. Eliot uses the imagery of scarecrows to suggest sterility and lack of purpose or will in modern life. ➢ hollow men = scarecrows, stuffed dolls ○ “headpiece filled with straw” ➢ sterile, ineffectual, impotent, weak, inept, virtually mute ○ “dried voices,” “whisper,” “quiet and meaningless” ○ “Leaning together” to show dependence ➢ bland, apathetic, passive; without direction or impetus ○ waiting for the wind to move them ○ “Shape without form, shade without color, Paralyzed force, gesture without motion” ➢ insignificant, easily forgotten, unworthy of distinction: ○ they imagine those who “Remember us—if at all—” 2. The realm of “death’s other Kingdom” (14, 46) refers to Paradise. The speaker of the poem is NOT part of “death’s other Kingdom.” Instead, he is one of the hollow men. ➢ those who inhabit Paradise are the souls of people with “direct eyes” who have chosen redemption with God ○ they have “crossed” over into Paradise because of their commitment to salvation. ➢ Paradise is too distant for speaker to fully envision or comprehend: “Is it like this / In death’s other kingdom” (45­46) ➢ hollow men do not have the impetus to ascend to heaven ○ cannot cross over into Paradise: no courage or conviction ○ but neither do they have the commitment of the lost violent souls (like Kurtz or Fawkes) who choose to cross into Hell Literature 12 ☙ Ms. Pitchford­Yeung 20th Century Notes: T.S. Eliot PART II 3. The hollow men want to avoid meeting the direct “eyes” of ​ ​ the people who led purposeful lives. ➢ eyes = souls who have chosen path of salvation and are able to tolerate the full light of Paradise (cf. Dante) ○ hollow men are ashamed? cowardly? afraid of judgment? ○ they know they are not worthy ○ looking directly would imply action and commitment, which they want to avoid ➢ hollow men choose instead to hide away in “deliberate disguises”: avoidance in dreams and in death ○ “Eyes I dare not meet in dreams” ○ “Let me be no nearer / In death’s dream kingdom” ○ “Not that final meeting / In the twilight kingdom” ○ speaker wants the eyes to remain “More distant and more solemn / Than a fading star” ○ passive; waiting for the wind to move them (scarecrows) ➢ the eyes and other aspects of Paradise appear to the speaker only as fragments or reflections of other images; he is not worthy to tolerate the full light or vision of Paradise (refer to Dante, again!) “Sunlight on a broken column”… “tree swinging”… “voices” in “the wind’s singing” 4. The line “Eyes I dare not meet in dreams” (19) makes use of synecdoche. This fragmentation of the body is significant. ➢ disembodiment: ○ dehumanization of modern life? ○ degeneration, disintegration of modern civilization? ➢ our eyes are our only hope for salvation because they represent courage, purpose, faith, commitment, strength, desire for change, etc.
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