TS Eliot Hollow Men

T.S. Eliot's poem "The Hollow Men" has a sense of hopelessness. In The Hollow Men, T.S. Eliot contrasts his straw-filled hollow men with "lost violent souls." Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, mainly the character Mr. Kurtz, influenced him. Eliot is saying that it is better to have met death and to have firm beliefs, than to sit idle. Both Eliot and Conrad are portraying the society to be decaying. A response of disappointment in man is made noticeable in “The Hollow Men.” Eliot lists faults he finds in mankind. He writes of insincerity, lethargy, and coldness.
The hollow men are at a halt. They cannot choose life or death. They are left with a life where they will ...