Analysis Of "The Age Of Anxiety"
In Auden's lengthy poem, "The Age of Anxiety", he follows the actions and thoughts of four characters who happen to meet in a bar during a war. Their interactions with one another lead them on an imaginary quest in their minds in which they attempt, without success, to discover themselves. The themes and ideas that Auden's "The Age of Anxiety" conveys reflect his belief that man's quest for self-actualization is in vain.
W. H. Auden was born in York, England, in 1907, the third and youngest son of Constance and George Auden (Magill 72). His poetry in the 1930's reflected the world of his era, a world of depression, Fascism, and war. His works adopt a prose of a "clinical diagrostician ...
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nothing. The characters search for the meaning of self and, in essence, the meaning of life, but because their search is triggered by intoxication due to alchohol, the quest is doomed from the start. Throughout the quest, the characters believe themselves to be in a form of Purgatory when they are allegorically in Hell. They fail to realize this due to "the modern human condition which denies possibility but refuses to call it impossible" (Nelson 117).
In "The Age of Anxiety", there are four characters of significance. Quant, the first to be introduced, addresses himself in a mirror, an action typical to a drunken man. He is an aging homosexual widower who finds refuge in the mirror because it offers him the easiest way of facing himself (Nelson 117-118).
Malin, the most dominant character overall, is a medical intelligence officer on leave from the Canadian Air Force. His background labels him as the "would-be doctor and leader" in the world of "The Age of Anxiety". His name ...
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the infant" as though he is observing us as the infant while his own infancy fails to exist. The child is "helpless in cradle and / Righteous still" but already has a "Dread in his dreams." By this, Auden means that even when we are most innocent, we are still imperfect (Nelson 119).
The second age is youth, as Malin describes it. It is at this age at which man realizes "his life-bet with a lying self." Despite this, man's naive belief in self and place in life is boundless. It is in this age that the belief in the future is possible (Nelson 119).
The third age is termed by Malin as the age of sexual awakening. It is in this age that the distinction between ...
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Analysis Of "The Age Of Anxiety". (2005, July 5). Retrieved April 19, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Analysis-Of-The-Age-Of-Anxiety/29601
"Analysis Of "The Age Of Anxiety"." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 5 Jul. 2005. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Analysis-Of-The-Age-Of-Anxiety/29601>
"Analysis Of "The Age Of Anxiety"." Essayworld.com. July 5, 2005. Accessed April 19, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Analysis-Of-The-Age-Of-Anxiety/29601.
"Analysis Of "The Age Of Anxiety"." Essayworld.com. July 5, 2005. Accessed April 19, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Analysis-Of-The-Age-Of-Anxiety/29601.
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