Close Reading of The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot
New Historicism is a literary theory which emphasizes how a text is able to reflect
a historic moment the time it was written. It has the ability to create connection between
the literary piece with the specific period through highlighting the subject event of the
society particularly the cultural and political. In order to analyze a text through New
Historicism, one must first take into consideration the author’s background particularly
the society he is in. One poem that can be perceived with this lens is “The Hollow Men”
by T. S. Eliot.
T.S Eliot is a product of the Modern Period. The Modern Period marks the last
stage of the disintegration of the British Empire. People are into economic, cultural, and
belief crisis because of the heavy losses in war, people, economy and even its former
colonies. T.S. Eliot writes the poem during this time- a period wherein their land has
been a place of massive killing. This event is highly evident in his poem.
The first section of the poem allows the speaker to present themselves. “We
are the hollow men. We are the stuffed men leaning together headpiece filled with
straw.” depicts a group people who have to come as one in order to do something. This
can be inferred as the battalion of soldiers who are ask to fight during the war. It can be
supported by the last stanza “Remember us-if at all-not as lost violent souls, but only as
the hollow men the stuffed men.” It says that the soldiers should not be characterized as
violent because they are just ask to fill something and that is to fight during the war.
In the second section, the speaker says “Let me be no nearer in death's dream
kingdom Let me also wear such deliberate disguises rat's coat, crowskin, crossed
staves in a field behaving as the wind behaves”. This pictures the speaker who seems
to be afraid in death. He wants to stay in the field doing what he normally do; the thing
that he is ask to do (behaving as the wind behaves).
Despite this fear, the speaker still says in the third section “This is the dead land
This is cactus land Here the stone images are raised”. This show that he accepts that
New Historicism is a literary theory which emphasizes how a text is able to reflect
a historic moment the time it was written. It has the ability to create connection between
the literary piece with the specific period through highlighting the subject event of the
society particularly the cultural and political. In order to analyze a text through New
Historicism, one must first take into consideration the author’s background particularly
the society he is in. One poem that can be perceived with this lens is “The Hollow Men”
by T. S. Eliot.
T.S Eliot is a product of the Modern Period. The Modern Period marks the last
stage of the disintegration of the British Empire. People are into economic, cultural, and
belief crisis because of the heavy losses in war, people, economy and even its former
colonies. T.S. Eliot writes the poem during this time- a period wherein their land has
been a place of massive killing. This event is highly evident in his poem.
The first section of the poem allows the speaker to present themselves. “We
are the hollow men. We are the stuffed men leaning together headpiece filled with
straw.” depicts a group people who have to come as one in order to do something. This
can be inferred as the battalion of soldiers who are ask to fight during the war. It can be
supported by the last stanza “Remember us-if at all-not as lost violent souls, but only as
the hollow men the stuffed men.” It says that the soldiers should not be characterized as
violent because they are just ask to fill something and that is to fight during the war.
In the second section, the speaker says “Let me be no nearer in death's dream
kingdom Let me also wear such deliberate disguises rat's coat, crowskin, crossed
staves in a field behaving as the wind behaves”. This pictures the speaker who seems
to be afraid in death. He wants to stay in the field doing what he normally do; the thing
that he is ask to do (behaving as the wind behaves).
Despite this fear, the speaker still says in the third section “This is the dead land
This is cactus land Here the stone images are raised”. This show that he accepts that
