The Hollow Men
The Hollow Men
by T.S. Eliot

The Hollow Men Themes

Little Words, Big Ideas

Dissatisfaction

You can't blame the Hollow Men for being dissatisfied. They are trapped in the desert on the bank of a river they can't get across. In fact, you would expect them to be even more ticked off then th...

Passivity

The Hollow Men have a bad case of "the Shadow." Like when you sit down to do your homework, and you can't bring yourself do open your book, you too can blame the Shadow. But the Hollow Men have it...

Identity

The Hollow Men all speak as one because they have the same identity: an empty one. The words "hollow," "empty," and "stuffed" are repeated again and again. Though we think we're dealing with flesh-...

Dreams, Hopes, and Plans

At several points in the poem, the Hollow Men express vague hopes of being rescued by "the eyes." Do they think that the souls with eyes will come back on the last day of history and pluck them off...

Exile

In Canto 3 of Dante's Inferno, Dante's guide Virgil explains that some souls are not accepted by either Heaven or Hell. They didn't do any good in the world, but they didn't actively work against t...