orm, shade without color, / Paralyzed force, gesture without motion” (11-12). Although difficult to discern exactly what is going on and where in the poem, the reader easily perceives the overall feeling of the hopelessness in just the opening lines, “We are the hollow men / We are the stuffed men”(lines 1-2) establish a grim feeling of emptiness. Images like “This is the dead land / This is cactus land…Under the twinkle of a fading star” (lines 39-44) create a bleak, dry, desert land setting. The theme of the poem parallels those of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (Smith). The degradation of ritual (religious or otherwise) and the emptiness or reduction of human to childish behavior is parallel concepts in both pieces. Part I of the poem describes the insignificance of the “hollow men.” Part I gives the vague setting and shows the request of the hollow men to be viewed as empty; “Remember us…not as lost / Violent souls [which Kurtz and Fawkes both were], but only / As the hollow men” (lines 15-18). It also introduces two motifs, that of eyes and kingdom. “Those who have crossed / With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom” (line 13-14) is an allusion to Dante’s Paradiso (Bowler). Kingdom with a capitalized K may refer to Heaven (although all references to a “kingdom” do not), and those with “direct eyes” are allowed to go there and become blessed. “Eyes” in the poem refer to those of Charon in Dante’s Inferno (Williamson, 157). With the line, “Eyes I dare not meet in dreams” (line 19) the speaker states that the “eyes” are a source of fear. Playing a connective role in the poem, the first two lines in the first four sections have a specific rhythm. Section I’s, “We are the hollow men / We are the stuffed men” (lines 1-2) is like II’s “Eyes I...
