Analysis of The Age of Anxiety by W.H. Auden Essay Example For Students

Analysis of The Age of Anxiety by W.H. Auden Essay Analysis of The Age of Anxiety by W.H. AudenAnalysis of The Age of Anxiety by W.H. AudenThe themes and ideas in Audens The Age of Anxiety reflect his belief thatmans quest for self actualization is in vain. I. Audens backgroundA. As a 1930s poet1. Views of Society2. Diagnosis of the industrial societyB. Major conflicts of his worksII. The Age of Anxiety overviewA. As a quest poem1. Characters search for self-actualization2. Characters inevitable failure in the questB. Characters views on the general situation1. Their belief to be in Purgatory when they areallegorically in Hell2. Their disbelief in impossibilityIII. The Age of Anxiety character analysisA. QuantB. MalinC. RosettaD. EmbleIV. Part IA. Commonly called PrologueB. Introduces scene and charactersC. Characters think aloud to reveal their nature1. Quant views himself with false admiration2. Malin examines the theoretical nature of man3. Rosetta endeavors to create an imaginary and happy past4. Emble passes his youthful judgment on the others follies V. First act of Part II, The Seven AgesA. Malins domination of this act1. Serves as a guide2. Controls the characters through his introduction of each ageB. Others support Malins the ories by drawing from past, present, and potential future experiencesC. The ages1. The first agea. Malin asks the reader to Behold the infantb. Child is helpless in cradle and / Righteous stillbut already has a Dread in his dreams2. The second agea. Youth, as Malin describes itb. Age at which man realizes his life-bet with a lyingselfc. Naive belief in self and place in life is boundlessd. It is the age of belief in the possibility of afuture3. The third agea. The sexual awakeningb. Distinction between dream and realityc. Discovery that love, as it was thought to be, is asharp contrast to love in the bounds of reality4. The fourth agea. Presents circus imagery as a form of art too closeto life to have any purgative effect on theaudienceb. Rosettas definition of life and the world5. The fifth agea. Conveys the image of man as an astonished victorb. Man believes he has made peace with the meaning oflifec. Anxiety declines as He man learns to speak /Softer and slower, not to seem so ea gerd. Man is no longer confined to a prison of prismaticcolor, but is free in the dull, bland placethat is the worlde. Embles opposition of the fifth age(1) Refuses to go willingly into middle age(2) Demands to know why man must Leave out the worst / Pang of youth(3) Is disturbed by time unlike the others for he is still young enough to have a futuref. Quants domination of the fifth age(1) Attempt to eliminate all hope(2) View on mans adaptation to the fifth age6. The sixth agea. Man begins to show ageb. Impotent, aged, and successful, Malins portrayalof a man of this age is indifferent to the world7. The seventh agea. Hypothetical man is tired outb. Malin is ready for this age in contrast to theothers reluctance to die just yetVI. Second act of Part II, The Seven StagesA. Unlike The Seven Ages, this act is nothing more than a dreamB. The Seven Stages is an attempt to find the perfect time of lifeC. The stages1. The first stagea. Each character begins alone, isolated with his owntho ughtsb. Justification of the view that the quest is fornaught2. The second stagea. Is initiated by the first pairing of characters(1) Shows possibility of hope(a) Emble(b) Rosetta(2) Shows futility of hope(a) Quant(b) Malin3. The third stagea. Begins as the couples turn inland(1) Emble and Rosetta by plane(2) Quant and Malin by trainb. The characters complete the third stage withoutsuccess in their search for self4. The fourth stagea. Malin speaks for them all in his derogatorativestatements about the cityb. Malin passes judgment on its citizens based onthe urban surroundings5. The fifth stagea. Rosetta visits a mansion in which she wishesshe were raised and to which she wishes sheshall returnb. While Rosetta is within the house, the othersexamine its exterior and its comparison tohe human bodyc. Rosetta finds life inside the house no betterthan before6. The sixth stagea. A forgotten graveyard is the settingb. Symbolizes The results of life7. The seventh stagea. The characters wande r deep into a forest, eachtaking a solitary pathb. They meet at the edge of the forest with a desertbefore themc. As they realize that life has no meaning, thedesert becomes the real world, thus endingthis stage with their awakeningVII. The remaining three partsA. Follows the characters from the bar to their homesB. The four remember the despair of the conclusion of The Seven Stages rather than the journey itselfIn Audens lengthy poem, The Age of Anxiety, he follows the actionsand thoughts of four characters who happen to meet in a bar during a war. Theirinteractions with one another lead them on an imaginary quest in their minds inwhich they attempt, without success, to discover themselves. The themes andideas that Audens The Age of Anxiety conveys reflect his belief that mansquest for self-actualization is in vain. SOLO Report EssayQuant is more dominant in this age than any other for it is this agethat he represents. In it, he attempts to eliminate all hope for a future. Hefeels that if man cannot adjust to mediocrity, it is too bad. . . If man asksfor more, the world only gets worse (Nelson 120). The sixth age is attributed to mans scars of time, to mans aging. Impotent, aged, and successful, Malin portrays man to be indifferent to theworld (Nelson 120). Hypothetical man is exhausted when His last illusions have lostpatience / With the human enterprise in the seventh age. Malin greets this agewith preparedness, but the other characters feel reluctance in greeting death(Nelson 120). The second act of Part II of The Age of Anxiety, The Seven Stages,is different from The Seven Ages in that the first act is based on experiencesand the second act consists entirely of a dream. The purpose of The SevenStages is to determine the ideal time of life for man in which he can residefor eternity (Nelson 121). The first stage begins like all quests begin, with all characters alone. They are each isolated with his own thoughts. Their journey ends in the samefashion, with each of them alone, which labels this as a false quest for nothingis accomplished (Nelson 121). The second stage is initiated by the pairing of the characters. Thispairing represents the possibility of hope with the two youngest, Emble andRosetta, and it also symbolizes the futility of hope with the two eldest, Quantand Malin (Nelson 121). The third stage begins as the couples begin to head inland. Emble andRosetta travel via plane, which symbolizes the useless attempt to escape life byflying above it. Quant and Malin, on the other hand, travel by train, whichrepresents the same inability to escape life, although this time the method isthrough immersion into life (Nelson 121). In the fourth stage, Malin speaks for the group in his derogatorystatements about the city. Malin also passes judgment on the people of the citynot on the basis of personality content, but on that of the surroundings ofwhich he thinks so lowly (Nelson 122). The fifth stage is reached when the group sights the big house whileriding on a trolley. Rosetta, with her false past as an outline, references thehouse to one in which she was imaginarily reared, and to which she shall return. During her visitation to the house, Quant and the others analyze the housesexterior. Quant comments on the houses appearance: The facade has a lifelesslook. The house is compared to a human being, with its book-lined roomsserving as the brain and the guards at the front gate who / Change with theseasons serving as the senses. Rosetta finds her life within the house nobetter than before (Nelson 122). The sixth stage takes place in a forgotten graveyard. It is observedas a still / Museum exhibiting / The results of life, which could either bedeath or the life that results from death as the Flittermice, finches / Andflies restore / Their lost milieu (Nelson 122). The seventh stage begins as each character plunges deep into a denseforest where they are confronted by a vast desert. Here, Quant asks thequestion, Do I love this world so well / That I have to know how it ends? Thefour take heed of the question and realize that their quest has no meaning, andas they do so, their dream world drifts upwards into the realm of consciousnessand the vast desert makes the transition to reality (Nelson 122-123). The remaining three parts follow each of the characters from the bar totheir respective homes. They each remember the despair of the conclusion ofThe Seven Stages, but have no recollection of the journey itself (Nelson 123). Auden has effectively portrayed the flaw of man in his fruitless questfor the meaning of self. His representations of Quant and Malin as the elderswhose future is bleak counters the bright and cheery illusion that Emble andRosetta may possibly have a future, though, in reality, the only sure future isdeath. Works CitedAltick, Richard D. Lives and Letters. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1969. Auden, W. H.. 19th Century British Minor Poets. New York: Delacorte Press,1966. -. City Without Walls and Other Poems. New York: Random House, 1969. -. Secondary Worlds. New York: Random House, 1968. Bahlke, George W., ed. Critical Essays on W. H. Auden. New York: G. K. Hall Co., 1991. Barrows, Marjorie Wescott, ed., et al. The American Experience: Poetry. NewYork: MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1974. Kunitz, Stanley J. And Haycraft, Howard, eds.. Twentieth Century Authors. New York: The H. W. Wilson Company, 1942. Magill, Frank N., ed.. Critical Survey of Poetry. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:Salem Press, 1982. Nelson, Gerald. From Changes of Heart (The Age of Anxiety). CriticalEssays on W. H. Auden. Ed. George W. Bahlke. New York: G. K. Hall Co.,1991.