In this poem, T S Eliot presents disillusion and physical inertia of modern life. The eternal footman is someone who waits while holding the coats of visitors. But this footman may be doom or death and may be the giver may nor return. Hence, the footman snickers, which is a half-suppressed, scornful laugh, rather than a normal laugh since he knows the person whom coat he is holding may not return back as in the case of a visitor who enters a building for entertainment or work.
