M.C.

College

Sylhet.

“Auden's Treatment of Modern Life"

By:

Dip Uuhudur

Deparment of English

M.C.College,Sylhel,Bangladesh

Term paper for M.A (Final) in English

Class Roll.8291

Regi. No.:19311025781

Supervisor:

Mohummed Budruzzuman

Assistant Professor

Department of English

Examiner:
Aluku Runi Dus Muhahler

Assistant P'rufessor

Depantment of English

(Alliliated to National University)

 Submitting Date: 12'*September,2022

"Auden's Treatment of Modern Life"

Term Paper (Subject Codle:311105)

Suhminted In DDepartment of English

M.C.College,Sylhet,Hangladesh

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of

M.A(Final)in English

By:

Din Bahadur

Class Roll:8291

Regi. No.: 19311025781

Session:2019-2020

Approved by:Mobammedl Badruzzaman:

Signature

Assistant Professor

Department of English

M.C.College,Sylhet,Bangladesh.

Examined by:Alnka Ranl Das Mahalder :

Signature

Assistant Professor

Department of English

M.C.College.Sylhet.

Submltting Date: 12th September2022

Conclusion

The majority of great poets produce work that has unsersal mportance whele also being
representative of their time. W.ll. Auden is mo exception in thus respect. Like hns contemporary 1.S.
F-liot, he mirars and surseys dillerent issues of his age However.he is concered to a greater degree
than Fliet withncial porblems Honseser. le is concerned to a greater degree than Flint wi sil problems
Auden explores socal inustice. oppressien and loss of huran values through lis work. Auden'sconcern
on human is tl:e recurrent theme of his poetry. After all the explanations. is prelly much clear that
Auden had an acute awareness of contemporary reality.and dealt with various social. political.
religious and philosophical prohlems af hisage Hle was interested in solving the prohlem> and in
curing the ills atllicting the modern man. Anden is the spokesman of the masses. He talks about the
need for individual freedom and sympathy los the helpless. Auden find、his objects of writing among
everyday sordid realitses of diseased society. To he brief. social conscinusness shapes the poetic
career of Auden

Work Cited

✓WII Auden. A Critical Evaluation,Ir S Sc

Modern Poetry:A Study Guide

All in One: A Study Book MA Finali

realistic Hlis teatment of lose is intellestoal caet thom enuotaal ht s e deal,with the lose m an mopersonal and desshf mmer the hs om tath a tomantie le of bae qest of a s

of tt sesand emotional expereners that we penrall tint i the lae poese of sich poets as Spemser. Shakespeare,Damne. Keats, Roben Bowumg andl WBt Yeat.

(v) Realistic Picture of Dismal World:

Auden never shes to espos the realste pture of the contemgtay dismal word llc condition of man in the post wa perioal torms the man theme of bs poem."The Shacld n
smal world where one could find "ashy lke leapl withtafetreare and brown" "the march of armies", "harbed ware" encleoares and the execution ol wur prseners who "di
evils of modern lite such as the rape of the girls and the stabhing of a hay by two others ane clearh teferred to hisnot a world "where promises were kept o one con

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inhumanity of man in this world forms a thematic concern of the poem

Auden,with the reference of his poem "Ihe Shield of Achilles", draws & gloomy picture of modern world in which life is anilicial.larren

No hade of grss nu soge of neghbrhd

Nothing to eut and mowhere to sit dawn"

llere Auden gives a vision of the modem wasteland in which people ane spirituality dead. It is all a spiritually desolation.life is unnatural,emply and hollow.

(si) Individual Sufferings matters litle to suciety:

Auden,in his surious woks, depits the hmman postun of sfering in thiwur.al Jeseriles hom activities and happenigs l distutbed or imerrupted by the sullering of an mdisidual Whileone mnan suffers ur is weighed down ly
sorrow and prn, the actisities of othiers continue as if nothing las happened.Uhe peem "Mnsee des Beaus Atts" reflects that reality-

the expenste delcate shup tht must lane s

Referring to Brueghel's famous paintmg"lcarus",Auden illustrates his view here of the indiflerence of humanity tow ards the sutlering of man.

(vii) Attitude to Religion/Christianity:

Ai a later point in his poctry career. Auden departed froin Marxism and emlraced Religion.Hle drew on the thoughts of sarinus Christian theulogians to lind a cure for modern ills.In the earlier phase of his poetic career, he
sugpested cure for various sncial and political ills in terms of Freudian theories or of the scin-political theories of Marx. But in his later career,he was converted to Christianity and sought a remedy for various ills in terms
Christian belief.

Auden's religious faith and his belief in Gnd can be traced in his poem "Petition"-

"Harrow the house of the dead. look shinmg at

New styles of architcture,a chage of heort"

As in themanner of conventional prayer.in this poem Auden adldresses God as the Supreme Being "Sir". In Uese concluding lines,Aulen sechs Gof's help in healing the ills of Man as well us in bringing about a
revolutionary change in socinl order.

as"Moral,guilty"lhan then te contesses tat with a the realetic lolles las teloeds still"entirely beanttul"to hum

Auden helieses that transslormess in lose is must & persam does not stay onthe same state as he she grows old and their outw.ad home stans to decty gradually In his fameslse Iyric "Lulay"hesa
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 Their pedantic horare en

Auden here speaks atut the transitory nature of love and eriticizes those who are apainst the pleasure of sensual love.

Knowing all the adversities.Auden wishes for his belosed a happy and contended lile in this world in the face of all the emolional drymess and insults, and at the same time makes a forceful plea for the universal love. The concluding lines of "Lullaby"present
the same thing-

"Nom of drness see fed

By the moluntan powrs.

Night of insult os

Wathed by every human love."

Auden wishes that with his loving arms around his beloved. may he able lo gain strength to face the emotionally dull and dreary periods of her life calmly.

Auden's love poetry is very beneficial. lle wants to change the environment because of love.Love should not be suppressed but it should hring a change in enviroument and make our society healthy and inspiring. Love is
not properly channelized in that age which caused so many social problems. Auden has given a picture of the right social environment.Auden helieved that through love the social atmosphere could be changed and
social ills remedied.

(iii) Treatment on Human Conlition:

Auden was deeply interested mn the hman sestmy on thes carth.and bad ysympatictic understanding ot the conditionot man Inorder to heal the iis ot homanity Aude pateed the way io agape or umisersal lose av a lasting
care lle msisted on achange hcar acceplance of guilt, atonentent throagh sulfering an praver.and suhmss God Initially he was inerested in saes poltal remedies of the malales of the wrld Then he sought psycholagical
cures tor sansus plrssical anad sacial ill、And finally he came to believe in the healing power of religins lanh and unsersal love Thus Audens social. political and religious concems may eed the lghtfhs Froader human
concerns.Hle was aware of human frailties,hunt he was never trustraled and neser gase up the case of humanity as lost lle was quite optmistie in his vien of human life on earth

In his addition to his dealing with rersonal and unisersal love, Auden also depicts the human condition in general in this weelJ.He stam,human weikresses like faithlessness of lovers and the "dryness" and "insulr" they
may have to face in their lite In "Lullahy" Auden says-

"But in my arms till break of du

Let the Imng cretue

Mortai guilty.but to me

The cnttrely beuutiful

There shows the realistic concern of Auden's treatment uf modern life.

(iv)Realistic Treatment of Love:

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Auden's conceptof love has wider significance based on the dogmas of Christianity. He is not in favour of Platonic love. that the gloritication of love. Platonic love is unrealistic. According to modern psychologists, it inoles so many cumplications.The principle

of unfulfilled urges is very detrimental. Unlike the romantics, Auden explains love as an ordinary way.He never overpraises his heloved as we see in the writing of Romantics.The romantic and victorian poets has persenified their beloved or the nature to the

highest level.They even compare their lover with Goddesses, although they are just a human with all the faults and vices. Auden is totally different in this regard as he portrays his beloved

3.Auden'sTreatment of Modern Life

(i) Maladies of Middle Class undl Social Repression:

analstial terms drasn from Ireal and other less kuosn thinkers like Grddeck aud Homer Lane Aecondline to ha,a society that was
constanily tryimg to enver its uglmes and shams with the superficial show of respectabilityemuld only pendace neuratics.cranks and
eccentrie people who tried ia escape from life

In the moder age man is suffening from a sense of botedom Nan is lonely cven in a crowd.and is spiritually dead. Anden has used dillerent types of landssape to
symbolize the spiritual and psychological states of the modern man,and so are his penples and places. Auden has eonveyed spiritual deselation of a sick
industrial society by the use of desolate rocky landscape

Auden marks that the world is lising in a eloomty and nightmarish atmosphere of pre-war period.The dictators like Hitler and Mussolini are posing a threat to world
peaee.and the different natians are living in an isolated condition because of their hatred for one another. The contemporary picture of moral and spiritual crisis is
sividly highlighted in the poem "In Memory of W.B.Yeats"-

"Intellectual disgrace

Stures from every humun face.

And the seas of pity l

Locked and frozen in euch eje."

Auden employs here a very beautiful image of frozen seas topoint out the feelings of contempt and mercilessness,dominating the heart of
human beings in his time.

Auden wonderfully compares the greatest Cireek hero Achilles with the moder man in the concluding lines of "The Shield of Achilles"-

Referring to the death of Acllesthe reck heo e dy was mle msuherable eveept on his lett heel.Auden imphes tht a modem man isble i stnd aeamst the siolence,eniely and inhmmanity that are rampat in the worhl today

The nineteen thinties were a perind of sevee ecomomic depiession in Eineland as in America.The after-eflects of the Tirs World War planged the entire country mn gloom The brutal oppression and socil injustice that plapued indisiduals at this time made
them groaned There was a feeling of dejection and frustration all areund Auden desenthedthes period as "Smokeless chimneys,damaged hridges."and "a time of crisis and dismas. Auden who was trying to make his mark as a poet at this time naturally
became interested in the condition of the people and prohlenis with which they were confronted. Fxpressing his concern for the peace of the world.Auden was aware that all Europe was in the grp of the terror of war and the hleed thirsty eaders of Europe were
threatening each other.

(ii) Scientific Attitude to Nature:

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Auden's treatment of Nature has made him different to others. Ilis vision over the nature 1s not the kind of rraditional.lle does not portray nature as the Georgians or the Romantics did. His attitude to nature is scientilic. To him.Nature is a malter in motion. Like
the romantics.he does not humanize nature. He says in "In Memory of W.B. Years"-

Fur from his illness

The wolves ran on through the evergreen forest.

The peasant river was untempted by the Jashionable ques:"

Auden here breaks the conventional way of wriling an elegy expressing that how Nature remained unaffected and unmoved by Yeats' illness leading to death.

2.WH Auden:Biographieal Sketeh

mtamils Te was the thd son of Gepe Ampirtas and Constae Reralic Birmingham Umversuts. Anden receised lis cark edation af St Idmon

Prepuratory school where he was alited the age of Sad spent aful live sears tll 1920 when he got humsell adminted imo teshams

scl.oNortlkwhere lc specialized in Biolgs

Auden was at Chrsichurch,Oxford.Irom 1925 to 1928 Danng this period he started writing and his interest in poetry increased
tremendousty. Ile became the eduer of the "Oviord P'oery"which he edited with Charles Plamle in 12 and with Cecl Day Lewis in 1927.
Here he also made friends with Stephen Spender and other potential wniterswl Iater became known as the "Auden Group'. After Auden
came out of Oxford in 1928. he went to Germany and stayed in Berlin for some time. In March 1929.Isherwood joined Auden in Berlin.The
impressiae made by the Weimar Republic is to be felt in his early pocms.Auden's first volume of poems, dedicated to Christapher
Isherwood.his friend at Gresham Preparatory School.was hand-printed by Stephen Spender of Oxford in 1928 In the year 1935.Auden
married Erika Mann.daughtet of the celebrated German novelist Thomas Mann, to provide her with a British passport and a means of
escape from Nazi Germany. "Look Stranger", a volume of poems. Auden published in 1936. was dedicated to his wife.Erika Mann.Mann
and Auden never lived together.hut remained on good terms throughout their lives and were still married whenMann died in 1969 On
January 18.1939 Auden and Isherwond lefi England to live in America, and in 1946 aequired American citizenship.But Auden hept on
writing and publishing puetry and visiting poetry now and then. He was appointed a professor of puetry at Oxford in 1956. He held the post
with great distinction until 1961 when he was succeeded by Robert Graves.In 1948,Auden received the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.He was
awarded Bollingen Prize in 1953 and was elected to American Academy of Ants and Lellers. "The Shield of Achilles" was published in
1955 and for that he got the National Book Award.In England.Auden was honoured with the King's Gold Madel for poetry in the year 1937.
This remarkable poet died suddenly in Vienna on his way hack to England after his summer vacation on September 29,1973.

1.Introduction

Auden entered the wald of potry when England was passing thngh an ag量disillasionmemt,despan,fear and ansicty the hpes anrsedl by
the Tirst World Warwere frustrated.Common peuple'ssuflerne was made worse ly the ecanomtic dwnturn,sal instability,political
rivalry,andl contici.Amdeni engages wh diflerent socal,pohtical. theological,and philosophical themes of lis time and hss n keen
awareness of modern society.Ilis poetry portrayed the contemporaty society viidly Enlike the contempotaries. Auden had his own siew in
Page-11
writing which was ditferent to others thgh the use o similarly moder techniques. Auden's poelry addresses contemporary isues and
demonstrates his awareness of the realities of the modem world. lle was interested in linding solutions to the issues and treating the
diseases haunting modern man In fact.he was deeply concered ahout the human destiny on the earth and had a sympathetic attitude to
the condition of man. As a poet of modern era. Auden holds ample evidences of modernism in his poetry. As a representative of his age,
he has portrayed ir's loneliness. anxicty.frustration.depression and despair. and pointed out lt's social and plitical ills. and spiritual
contlicts. The picture of twentiethcentury society is gracefully depicted in his works. Auden was very much different in composing poetry
comparing to his contemporaries. Ilis attitude towards the themes of poems like love. nature and lamentation was pretty much
Mohammed Badruzzaman

Assistant Professor

Department of English

M.C.College,Sylhet.Bangladesh.

INDEX

SI Contents Page No.

1. Introduction 0X

2. WII Auden:Bingraphical Sketch (19

3. Auden's Treatment ofModern Life 10-15

(i) Maladies of Middle Class and Social Repression 10-11

(ii) Scientific Anitude of Nature 11

(iii) Treatment on Human Condition 12

(iv) Realistic Treatment of Love 12-14

(v)Realistic Picture of Dismal World 14

(vi) Individual Sufferings matters little to society: 15

(vii)Aititude to Religion Christianity: 15

4. Conclusion 16

5. Work Cited 17

6. Appendix 18

Abstract

Ilus term paper is an observation oser the ude and treatment of moem lte of Wystan Hugh Audlen,a prominent 20th century poet. wha is
ranked nest to IS Elit in thes period As a representative of the age. Anden shows all the social, economic.spartual sttusticn of the
contemporary suciety

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As a conscious social ohserer Anden deals wath the moal problems of the 20th century society.This thesis is an eversiew of his treatment
of the contemporary society in the lights of some of his well-known poems. Nineteen thiries was the time when people were devastated
mentally hecanse of the pre-war situation. As a representative of his a Auden represents the society as it is. Through his poems, he shows
hope and reconciliation and gives a message of love, faith and joy in the atmosphere of hatred distrist. faithlessness and despair
prevailing in the modem world. He has also bighlighted the adverse effects of various economic and political systems such as
capitalism.imperialism and totalitarianism. His poetry definitely reveals the realities of modern times.

Auden is a keen observer and skilled delineator of the ills of the world lle finds his age afflicted with various social and political maladies.
He has a clinical approach to seciety. and is interested in diagnosis and treatment of these ills. The treatment requires come suitable
remedy to cure these ills. He was aware of human frailties, but he was never frustrated and never gave up the case of humanity as lost. He
was quite optimistic in his view of human life on carth.

Acknowledgement

Having all the appreciation to the Almighty, al first. I woold like to thank my family whom I am all indebted What I am now,capahle of doing
a term paper, is only because of my family On the other side, my friends are such a helptul hand who intluenced me a for completing this
term paper. I would like to hove my whole heared gratitude to our respectahle teacher MD Badruzzaman. Assistant Professor.
Depanment of English.MC College,without his patiently guidance there wouldn't be a slight possibility even think ahout doing a term
paper. After all. the atmosphere.I have with them,inspired me cnormously to create a term paper.
 Page-3

Declaration

Modern Life"iscomplel hsed m supersiston of Mohansmed Bahuzzaman.Assistant Prtesan. Department of trelst I have monitered this te

puper as the fllilment of the requnements of MAm Inploh. M.C College.Sylhet.Banglalesh Llanve tken relerences from ditterent books

duriy the peried of writing. Any part of this term paper or fall hasr't heen sobmaitedl to any other institution.

Dip Bahadur

Class Roll:8291

Regi.No.:19311025781

Sessioin: 2019-2020

Department of English

M.C.College.Sylhet, Bangladesh

Dedicution

Ioms Muer.

Appendix

Contentment: Satislaction,Happiness.Iultillment

✓Maladies:Sickness.disorder,disease

Desolation:Isolation.Barrenness.Soltude

Rampant:Widespread. Unrestrained

Plunge:Cast oneself.Dive

Detrimental:Haruful.Injurims. Destructise

Plea:Appeal.Prayer.Invocation

Sordid: Despicable,Dishonorable.Cheap