Draft
The Hollow Men can also be read as a commentary on loss of faith and religion, where the biblical allusions and symbolism infer that the Hollow Men have lost their connection to God.
“Stone images” and “supplication” shows the hollow men praying. This refers to a passage in the Bible, where Israelites stop following God and instead worship false gods, which are frequently illustrated as “graven images”. This idea of losing faith is further shown through this motif of a “fading star”, the symbol of Jesus Christ, where “fading” could represent the loss of faith in Christianity.
“Lips that would kiss” refers to a custom in which followers would kiss idols of their God to show faith, while “broken stone” symbolises the fading religion, as their representation of God is broken.
To further illustrate their lack of connection to God, the “hollow men” are described as blind, and “sightless”, as a representation of them losing their faith. They can restore their “eyes”, i.e. faith, through a “multifoliate rose”. The rose is a symbol of the Virgin Mary in Catholicism, and thus the speaker is saying that to restore their faith, or “sight”, they need the Virgin Mary’s help.
”death’s twilight kingdom” represents heaven, and a common Catholic belief is that if you reject God, you go to hell. This further supports the notion of having their “sight” restored, to save them from hell.
Again, this motif of a dying star symbolises the loss of faith in God that the Hollow Men experience.
“Thine is the kingdom” refers to a passage in the Bible, where Christ states, “Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, amen.” To summarise, God is the ruler of everything in the universe. However, this line is italicised, implying that the persona does not actually state this line, and instead an external voice does. This external voice could potentially be related to God, as they know the Bible and can quote from it. Conversely, the speaker cannot; they try and fail, with “Thine is the…thine is the…”, representing their disconnection to God.
The aforementioned Shadow could also be interfering with the persona’s ability to relate to God. The Shadow interferes with notions such as idea and reality, motion and act. In essence, it is dividing cause and effect, and seems to be tied to negative emotions, as increasingly nihilistic statements start to appear.
The persona views the Shadow as invincible; the poem ends with the world seemingly ending “not with a bang but a whimper”, indicating that the persona has lost all hope of fighting back. As the Shadow separates cause and effect, the world seemingly fades. However, the aforementioned allusions remind the reader that God can reset everything, i.e. Make everything right, and perhaps provide the Hollow Men salvation, through a higher purpose. However, since the poem states that the world has already ended, the persona acknowledges their failure and has given up on trying to follow God, but still reminisces of their past religion.
Final Copy
The Hollow Men can also be read as a commentary on loss of faith and religion, where the biblical allusions and symbolism infer that the Hollow Men have lost their connection to God.
“Stone images” and “supplication” illustrates the hollow men praying. This references a passage in the Bible, where Israelites stop following God and instead worship false gods, which are frequently depicted as “graven images”. The notion of losing faith is further shown through this motif of a “fading star”, the symbol of Jesus Christ, where “fading” could represent the loss of faith in God.
“Lips that would kiss” refers to a custom in which followers would kiss idols of their God to show faith, while “broken stone” symbolises the fading religion, as their representation of God is broken.
To further illustrate their lack of connection to God, the “hollow men” are described as blind, and “sightless”, as a representation of them losing their faith. They can restore their “eyes”, i.e. faith, through a “multifoliate rose”. The rose is a symbol of the Virgin Mary in Catholicism, and thus the speaker is saying that to restore their “sight” or faith, they need the Virgin Mary’s help, or to follow the ways of the Virgin Mary.
”Death’s twilight kingdom” represents heaven, and a common Catholic belief is that if you reject God, you go to hell. Thus, their “sight” must be restored, to save them from hell.
This repeated motif of a dying star symbolises the loss of faith in God that the Hollow Men experience, and this expression of the “empty men”, which is similar to “Hollow Men”, could also serve as a reminder of their lack of faith.
“Thine is the kingdom” refers to a passage in the Bible, where Christ states, “Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, amen.” To summarise, God is the ruler of everything in the universe. However, this line is italicised, implying that the persona does not actually state this line, and instead an external voice intervenes. This external voice could potentially be related to God, as they know the Bible and can quote from it. Conversely, the speaker cannot; they try and fail, with “Thine is the…thine is the…”, representing their disconnection to God.
The aforementioned Shadow could also be interfering with the persona’s ability to connect to God, hence the speaker’s inability to quote the Bible. According to the poem, the Shadow interferes with notions such as idea and reality, motion and act. In essence, it is dividing cause and effect, and seems to be tied to negative emotions, as increasingly nihilistic statements start to appear.
The persona views the Shadow as invincible; the poem ends with the world seemingly ending “not with a bang but a whimper”, indicating that the persona has lost all hope of fighting back. As the Shadow separates cause and effect, the world seemingly fades. However, the aforementioned allusions remind the reader that God can reset everything, i.e. Make everything right, and perhaps provide the Hollow Men salvation, through a higher purpose. However, as the world has already ended, the persona acknowledges their failure and has refrained from following God, but still reminisces of their past religion.