e is not a big deal heard around the world, for he is so negligible or insignificant. People go on with their lives as if nothing happened. No one would care for his death. He dies unnoticed by others.
In this poem, the speaker anticipates with dread “that final meeting”. The men grope together “In this last of meeting places”. The final section, in its generalized abstraction of all that has gone before, tells us “this is the world end.” At last, the hollow men cannot avoid death.
After the War, the people were becoming empty in spirit. They had no beliefs and they were also afraid of those who had beliefs and wisdom. In fact, there were many people like the hollow men in the Western world after the First World War. They dare not to accept the reality. They had not any beliefs or souls. They will die unnoticed in the end.
3. The modern men revealed in T.S. Eliot’s early poetry
The theme of Eliot’s early poetry is death. The speakers in his early poems are the representative characters in the modern society during or after the First World War. All of these men suffer from spiritual crisis. They are hopeless; the only thing they can do is to wait for death.
Prufrock is a middle-aged, ineffectual, sorrowful, tragic twentieth century Western man. He is possibly the modern intellectual who is divided between passion and timidity, between desire and importance. The modern men like Prufrock are born with certain shortcomings. They are timid, hesitant, self-deceiving, unconfident, sensitive and anxious. However, the very root of their pains is based on their timidity. Somehow they might be the victims of the rotten Western civilization. Their individualities are stuffed by the Western civilization. In a genteel society, under such environment, the modern men like Prufrock feel lonely, dissimilated. They also attempt to break away from the genteel society but fail in despair.
Gerontion, the little old man, is a less stable and less identifiable persona than any speakers in Eliot’s early poems. At the same time, what he speaks has more menace because it echoes more hollowly.[19] Gerontion is stuffed by his “history”. He is a typical character after the First World War. For the damage of the war, the modern men like Gerontion become hopeless and lonely, facing the rotten and decayed world; the modern men see no hope but become dismal. They are the creation of the rotten world.
The hollow men are stuffed with straws. The modern men like the hollow men are empty in spirit and lead insignificant life. They appear spiritually dead; they are only flesh and blood without souls. They have no beliefs and they are also afraid of those who have beliefs and wisdom. In fact, there are many people like the hollow men in the Western world just after the First World War. They dare not to accept the reality. They have not any beliefs or souls. They will die in the end.
They all suffer from spiritual emptiness. In such society condition for such person as Prufrock, Gerontion and the hollow men who are born with fatal shortcomings, there is only the same fate waiting for them that is death.
4. Conclusion
From the above analyses of the modern figures in T.S. Eliot’s early poems, we can see the writing style of the author. T.S. Eliot is a perceptive poet. He has many life experiences. With his special insight, he sees society clearly and reveals the real portraits of modern men to us. Prufrock, stuffed by the Puritanism and the Western civilization, is full of conflicts in his innermost being. He is planning to visit his lover but he is so hesitant and timid that he does not make any closer contact at all. His fate is clear. The modern men like Prufrock are also the real hollow men; they are also empty in spirit. Gerontion, a little old man, in the decayed house, remembering his trivial and insignificant things in the past, is hopeless; he is waiting for death. The hollow men are stuffed with straws like the scarecrows in the field without any souls. They suffer from spiritual emptiness, fearing the truth. These figures are all the “hollow men” without anything. Prufrock, Gerontion and the hollow men are the incarnations of the modern men during and after the First World War.
As usual, works written in a certain society environment are usually the mirrors to reflect the society situation in that period. T.S. Eliot’s poems have no exception. He is a modernist writer. His poems are the mirrors to reveal the modern men in that period. He reveals the spiritual crisis of modern people. The world we are living now is full of competition, and many people suffer from the spiritual emptiness. We ought to learn to adjust to the modern world and try not to become the people like hollow men, Prufrock and Gerontion. They are going to die in the end. Hell is their destination.
Bibliography
[1] Jerome Beaty, Alison Booth. The Norton Introduction to Literature［M］. New York: W.
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