




































 

 

                  ISSN : 2693 6356 

2020 | Vol 3 | Issue 6 

 

PHOENIX BUILDING TYPIST AND THE HOLLOW MEN AS POST-WAR 

ARTIFACTS 

 

Dr.R.Sowmiya, Assistant Professor 

Subramaniam College of Arts and Science, Coimbatore 

 
 

Abstract 

T.S. Eliot and Judith Wright's sonnets depict a society lacking in moral restraint in the 

wake of World War I. At the beginning of the sonnet, the protagonists of The Empty Men had 

already had one mission fail. The Empty Men, if it reveals where optimism goes, provides a 

glimpse of a way out of the abyss, claims hillis Mill operator, a j. The vulgar and insignificant 

lives of people are also shown in The Typist in the Phoenix Building. The people's aloofness 

reflects the society's high level of development. Both reporters have to deal with the varying 

attitudes of highly-evolved people who seem to be going through life aimlessly. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE LIFE OF POST-WAR SOCIETY IN THE HOLLOW MEN AND THE TYPIST IN 

THE PHOENIX BUILDING 

T.S. Eliot and Judith Wright's sonnets 

depict a society lacking in moral restraint in 

the wake of World War I. At the beginning 

of the sonnet, the protagonists of The 

Empty Men had already had one mission 

fail. The Empty Men, if it reveals where 

optimism goes, provides a glimpse of a way 

out of the abyss, claims hillis Mill operator, 

a j. The vulgar and insignificant lives of 

people are also shown in The Typist in the 

Phoenix Building. The people's aloofness 

reflects the society's high level of 

development. Both reporters have to deal 

with the varying attitudes of highly-evolved 

people who seem to be going through life 

aimlessly. The aftermath of World War I is 

depicted in the sonnets of T.S. Eliot and 

Judith Wright as a time of moral decadence. 

The heroes of The Empty Men had already 

failed at one mission at the outset of the 

poem. Hillis Mill operator, a j., believes 

there may be hope for humanity after 

reading The Empty Men since the book 

shows where optimism might lead. The 

Typist in the Phoenix Building also depicts 

the triviality and ugliness of human 

existence. The people's reserve is indicative 

of the advanced state of their civilization. 

Both reporters are exposed to the divergent 

perspectives of highly developed 

individuals who seem to be drifting through 

life without a particular destination in mind. 

All the guys get together and say 

the Lord's Prayer at the conclusion of the 

poem. They've already told God exactly 

what's going on, so they're at a loss for 

words. 

And the gloom falls low because 

thine is the throne. 

 

They hope that if they pray to the 

Lord, he would hear them and deliver them 

from their despair. Because of their 

idealism, they braved the emptiness of the 

outside world and entered the everlasting 

one. They hope that God, in his or her own 

right, has the ability to save their miserable 

spirits because of this. Since all the hollow 

guys have the same empty identity, this 

alludes to the poem's topic of individuality. 

Judith Wright, a committed 

environmentalist, gained notoriety in the 

decades after World War II for her intense 

interest in Australia's natural landscape. 



 

 

She went back to her father's station during 

the start of WWII to assist out because of 

the severe scarcity of workers. She sees the 

interaction between humans and their 

natural surroundings as the driving force 

behind her creative inspiration. Her poetry' 

figurative language demonstrates how 

closely our subjective experience mirrors 

the external world. 

The Australian landscape is a 

recurring theme in her work, which started 

to acquire popularity in Australian art in 

the decades after World War II. Among 

other things, she writes on the dynamic 

between European settlers, native 

Australians, and the Australian outback. 

She describes how one's subjective 

experience parallels the external world. 

Judith Wright's "Typist in the Phoenix 

Building" is a pessimistic poem that 

criticizes the moral decline of interpersonal 

connections. He feels sorry for humanity 

since they are living pointless lives and 

engaging in base sexual behaviors. 

Humans, the poet says ironically, are 

"easily 

hooked up and had their minds 

blown. They lack the ability to control 

their sexual desires and instead give in to 

them quickly. Because of this, the 

populace lives in an odd manner. 

The female typists at the Phoenix 

Building work in comfortable rooms and 

often seem upbeat and enthusiastic about 

their work. They always seem to sit near 

the young, vivacious male clerks who are 

always up for a chat. The male typists 

make sexual innuendos casually and 

without regard for the female coworkers. 

This has led to the derogatory term "half-

cock clerks" being used to the male staff. 

Men put a lot of effort into their 

appearance. 

It's quiet as the metal bird perches 

on the wall; Shirley and her secretary are 

touching and falling apart in the hallways 

made of fireproof tiles. 

To symbolize the sterility of 

contemporary culture, Wright created a 

phoenix bird out of metal. In the poem, she 

used a metal and mute phoenix to 

symbolize contemporary civilization, 

which she sees as lacking in rebirth, 

emptiness, and aimlessness. The bird 

keeps a close eye on the typists and the 

rest of the building's activity. 

 

Late-afternoon inclinations 

Where mental extremes and 

sensual midpoints meet. 

at the late afternoon, intercourse 

between the sexes at the Phoenix Building 

is common, even though the sexes work in 

completely separate departments. It's plain 

to see that sex no longer means anything to 

them, and there's no longer any mystery 

around the others. The prisoners of the 

Phoenix Building have no sexual activity 

slowdowns, and they have sex year-round. 

The fact that the city and the typist and her 

male friend are experiencing summer does 

not make the poetess happy. 

The building's PCs and other 

machinery are shielded from the elements, 

including fire and water. However, there 

are those people who are more 

constraints are successfully broken, 

causing the person to lose their footing and 

succumb fully to their desires. Thus, those 

who have the fireproof and waterproof 

construction are not insulated. Wright's 

sonnets connect the reader to her 

viewpoint on global social concerns from a 

socially fundamental vantage point, 

prompting them to reflect on the aspects of 

society to which she makes reference. 

According to David Spurr, "The 

persona of The Empty Men has shown up, 

mentally and imagistically, at the external 

furthest reaches of one world just to find 

that its ''purposeful masks' cover a limited 

absence of probability: between the 

strength and presence "Falls the Shadow. 

Both writers portray a highly developed 

culture that has lost sight of the need of 

cherishing but is driven by want. They do 

it for the sake of pleasure rather than true 

interest in sex. People constantly interact 

with one another. They're morally akin to 

monsters for having an improper rapport 

with a bomb. Normal people's lives, 

homes, families, and a whole lot of other 

important things are impacted by the 

battles. They've been through so much 

heartbreak and pain that the only way they 

can find happiness again is via dishonest 



 

 

means.  

Reference: 

 Poets of Reality: Six Twentieth-

Century Writers. Harvard 

University Press, 1965. 

 

 Conflicts in Consciousness: T.S. 

Eliot‟s Poetry and Criticism. 

Urbana: University of Illinois 

Press, 1984. 

 Indian Journal of World 

Literature and Culture vol. 2 July-

December 2006 periodical issue 

pg. 23-30 

http://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C616883
http://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C616883

