T.S. Eliot is right — we are hollow men.
Or, at least, we are related to many hollow men.
Welcome to Part 2 of my close analysis of how The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot resonates across place and time. 🤩
Easily one of the most thought-provoking works of modernist literature 🧠, let's dive deeper into how and why Eliot suggests moral passivity, due to the modern condition 🏙️, can exacerbate a lack of a metanarrative – and if his ideas are still relevant today.
Debasement of morals
In Part IV of the poem, Eliot manipulates language to communicate a deadened atmosphere to suggest that moral apathy can lead to a lack of a metanarrative. The lives of the hollow men are depicted as, due, to their similarly moral ‘hollowness’, purposeless and meaningless. The static kinetic imagery in “them groping together” “and avoiding speech” implied that while people may be physically alive and moving, they are, in essence, spiritually dead. It is as though modern people are so morally drained by the modern condition that their lives become so purposely, that they wait passively for death.
It is also important to note that Eliot depicts these hollow men as “gathered at the beach of this tumid river”. This "tumid river" is an allusion to Acheron, the river that surrounds hell in Danté’s 'Inferno' (in the Divine Comedy). As Danté journeys deeper into hell's abyss, into 'Inferno', he witnesses increasingly obscene punishments. Thus, by alluding to Danté’s 'Inferno', Eliot emphasises that moral apathy as encouraged by modernity may lead humanity into further disrepair and confusion.
Eliot's idea that immorality leads to a lack of a metanarrative resonates strongly with my modern Australian context – specifically, his idea is parallel with issues in Australia's public sphere. One primary example is the stagnation in our political sphere which has exacerbated a loss of metanarrative felt by the whole Australian population.
By incorporating allusions and manipulating language to portray people in modern society as spiritually dead, Eliot effectively urges me to condemn the way immorality, encouraged by modernity, can lead to a lack of a metanarrative.
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