Epigraph

An epigraph is a short statement (a sentence, a paragraph, a poem) that comes at the

beginning of a literary text, but the words belong to a different author. The epigraph is
used to introduce the current literary text, and gives some clue as to its theme, or its
connection to this previous text.
The introductory epigraph.

Now, taking a quick look at the poem, we appreciate that it starts with an
epigraph, which contains two pertinent references.
Mistah Kurtz –he dead.
A penny for the Old Guy.
First, Mistah Kurtz –he dead is an allusion to Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. In his
novella, Conrad portrays the empty nature of men. Mister Kurtz, an European slave trader
who had travelled to Africa in order to go on with his business, is a character who lacks a
soul, thus, a true `Hollow Man´, as we’ll see afterwards. Here, we have to highlight a
couple of striking aspects. On one hand, the `phonetic´ spelling of `Mister´, which
changes into Mistah. On the other hand, the ellipsis of the verb `to be´ in he dead. This
proves that the speaker is probably some kind of non-native English speaker who uses a
pidgin or a creole language (a slave, if we look back at Conrad’s novel). But, why a slave?
Probably because he represents another kind of `hollow man´ -a passive soul, humble,
but passive. What’s more, it seems that this verse is the answer for a question like
`Where’s Mister Kurtz?´, as if we didn’t know that he (is) (already) dead. This idea of
`ignored death´ related to `emptiness´ will be subsequently developed through the poem.
In the second quotation the epigraph alludes to England’s November 5th tradition
of Guy Fawkes Day. In 1605, Guy Fawkes unsuccesfully tried to blow up the Parliament
building. Eliot’s quote A penny for the Old Guy is called out on this holiday by children
who are attempting to buy fireworks in order to burn straw figures of Fawkes. In this
verse Old and Guy are written with capital letters, emphasising the fact that the puppet
represents a `poor, old, mortal fellow´ who needs to be given a few alms. In any case, we
must notice the vagueness of the sentence, as the Old Guy does not make reference to any
specific character or person, and we wouldn’t have guessed who Eliot is addressing if we
didn’t know the cultural background mentioned before.
Even so, what’s the relationship that these two verses have? This epigraph seems to
hark back longingly for even such monstruous men who at last believed in what they
were doing, however horrific the results, setting up a natural contrast to the hollowness
of modern man, who fundamentally believes in nothing and is, therefore, empty at the
core of his being, like a Guy Fawkes dummy, or a Fallas’ ninot, if we bear in mind the
well-known celebration in Valencia (Spain). So, two different types of `hollow/stuffed
men´ are presented: he who lacks a soul (Mister Kurtz) and he who lacks a real body (Guy
Fawkes dummy), representing both physical and spiritual emptiness.