Essay

Humanity through the Lenses of Symbolism, Irony, and Imagery.

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Course
ENG103

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Lakeland College ( )

Through his two poems, The Unknown Citizen and Musee des Beaux Arts W.H Auden explores the human condition through time, expressing ordinary aspects of people’s interactions on a daily basis. The mundane nature of the human existence is clearly presented in Auden’s work using different literary...

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Uploaded on April 28, 2021
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Humanity through the Lenses of Symbolism, Irony, and Imagery

Through his two poems, The Unknown Citizen and Musee des Beaux Arts W.H Auden

explores the human condition through time, expressing ordinary aspects of people’s interactions

on a daily basis. The mundane nature of the human existence is clearly presented in Auden’s

work using different literary devices. Most of his poetry is meant to evoke fear and terror of

human existence in times of great uncertainties. Perhaps in so doing Auden hoped to remind his

audience of the true nature of man and indeed of the uncertain nature of tomorrow. Today we’ve

peace, yet tomorrow it might all go away. This paper will be exploring two similar works.

However, it would be unjust to the man to not note that he also expressed themes of love and

peace is some of his poems. While the style of writing is simple, its effectiveness to the reader is

evident from the success of Auden’s works in whatever theme he explored. An analysis of

Auden’s works illustrates that symbolism and irony with complementing imagery are used

extensively to express the human condition of the times when the two works were written

whereby human existence is ironical in itself.

In reverse analytical-then-description fashion, Auden used satire to criticize civilization

that did not amount to much in terms of happiness for the general public. According to Meyer,

Auden's “The Unknown Citizen” is a satire on the nature of a society and an ethos that pursues

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progress in the name of the common good while missing the point that all good should lead to

human happiness (1)”. An example of the use of satire is where Auden describes the unknown

citizen as a saint only because there was no official complaint against him. The value of the

individual is determined by their conformity to the societal structure with their happiness

anchored in being a model citizen. The poem was written just prior to the start of World War

Two when the society was geared toward a conformed society. The human element of joy and

satisfaction in life was superseded by the need to conform. The tone of the poem satirizes and

ridicules the manner in which human beings were reduced to cogs in the society’s machine. The

irony is evident where Auden praises the unknown citizen for being an exemplary worker who

had the proper opinions for the time.

The societal perspective prior to the Second World War is largely responsible for

Auden’s approach to poetry. Auden was very concerned with the persistent dehumanization of

the individual. The ironical statements where Auden states that, “And he had everything

necessary for the modern man/ A phonograph, radio, a car and a Frigidaire” show how the

standards for humanity were limited. The human element of enjoying life and achieving anything

outside the expected societal role was not seen as an important issue. Given the society’s

problems at that time, it seems that the reinforcement of civil duty was considered to be the only

important issue of the day. Meyer states that, “Individuals were honored for their faceless roles

in being good citizens who behaved according to both laws and programmatic probabilities, yet

they were asked to make the sacrifice of individuality and personal passion in the name of social

well-being.” Auden is satirizes how the human being has become a statistic rather than an

individual. The poem glorifies his unimpressive and undistinguished life of conformity as a way

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