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 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 [sic] anatomizing society" and interpret social and spiritual acts as failures of communication (Magill 74). They also put forth a diagnosis of the industrial English society among economic and moral decay in the 1930's (Magill 72). Conflicts common in his works are those between war and peace, corruption of modern society, and the "dichotomy between the The Age of Anxiety is, in general, a quest poem. Unlike the ideal quest, however, this quest accomplishes nothing. The char
Ironically, his failure to do so is the primary composition of the climax of the work (Nelson 118). This pairing represents the possibility of hope with the two youngest, Emble and Rosetta, and it also symbolizes the futility of hope with the two eldest, Quant and Malin (Nelson 121). With this distinction comes the discovery that love, as it was thought to be, is a sharp contrast to love in the bounds of reality (Nelson 119). If man asks for more, the world only gets worse" (Nelson 120). Malin conveys the image of man as "an astonished victor" in the fifth age. Throughout the quest, the characters believe themselves to be in a form of Purgatory when they are allegorically in Hell. New York: MacMillan Publishing Co. Instead, he demands to know why man must "Leave out the worst / Pang of youth. He controls the actions of the characters through his introductions to each age. The anxiety of life declines as "He [man] learns to speak / Softer and slower, not to seem so eager. The fifth stage is reached when the group sights "the big house" while riding on a trolley.
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Acceptance Essays
