Falls the Shadow

        The “hollow men” are afraid of not being remembered for anything other than perfection. They are afraid of being remembered as “lost violent souls” and if they can’t obtain a remembrance of perfection then they want nothingness, to feel nothing. This is why they are plagued with this idea of afterlife as they worry that “is it like this in death’s other kingdom/walking alone”. Their life is meaningless and even though they do fear the meaningless of their existence they also fear that they will find meaning but it will be worthless meaning.
       Everything surrounding the hollow men is broken, fragmented, and depressing. The broken images of “broken glass”, a “broken column”, a “broken stone”, and a “broken jaw” connect the four beginning sections of the poem. All of these images: the glass, the column, the stone, and the jaw are items of structure as glass can provide perspective, a column provides structure, stone provides foundation, and a jaw provides speech. Alluding to all of these images being broken emphasizes that the hollow men live in this state of no structure or meaning. They are alone as there perspective and speaking ability is broken. The hollow men are forced into monotonous, isolated lives without any communication with each other. The description of a shadow falling between “the idea and the reality”, “the motion and the act”, “the conception and the creation”, “the emotion and the response”, “the desire and the spasm”, “the potency and the existence”, and between the “essence and the descent” alludes to the brokenness of the hollow men’s existence.  The shadow interferes with the potential, “the potency” “the conception” “the motion” and does not allow for the “creation”, the actual. It takes away the ability of the hollow men to communicate with each other and creates an even more isolated world for the hollow men in which they cannot communicate their thoughts at all forcing them into a meaningless existence.