Anxiety

Term Paper Title	Anxiety
# of Words	2899
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	11.6

Anxiety

Analysis of _The Age of Anxiety_ by W.H. Auden

                        The themes and ideas in Auden's _The Age of Anxiety_ reflect his belief
                        that man's quest for self actualization is in vain.

                        I. Auden's background
                        A. As a 1930's poet
                        1. Views of Society
                        2. Diagnosis of the industrial society
                        B. Major conflicts of his works
                        II. _The Age of Anxiety_ overview
                        A. As a quest poem
                        1. Characters' search for self-actualization
                        2. Characters' inevitable failure in the quest
                        B. Characters' views on the general situation
                        1. Their belief to be in Purgatory when they are allegorically in Hell
                        2. Their disbelief in impossibility
                        III. _The Age of Anxiety_ character analysis
                        A. Quant
                        B. Malin
                        C. Rosetta
                        D. Emble
                        IV. Part I
                        A. Commonly called "Prologue"
                        B. Introduces scene and characters
                        C. Characters think aloud to reveal their nature
                        1. Quant views himself with false admiration
                        2. Malin examines the theoretical nature of man
                        3. Rosetta endeavors to create an imaginary and happy past
                        4. Emble passes his youthful judgment on the others' follies
                        V. First act of Part II, "The Seven Ages"
                        A. Malin's domination of this act
                        1. Serves as a guide
                        2. Controls the characters through his introduction of each age
                        B. Others support Malin's theories by drawing from past, present, and
                        potential future experiences
                        C. The ages
                        1. The first age
                        a. Malin asks the reader to "Behold the infant"
                        b. Child is "helpless in cradle and / Righteous still" but already has a
                        "Dread in his dreams"
                        2. The second age
                        a. Youth, as Malin describes it
                        b. Age at which man realizes "his life-bet with a lying self"
                        c. Naive belief in self and place in life is boundless
                        d. It is the age of belief in the possibility of a future
                        3. The third age
                        a. The sexual awakening
                        b. Distinction between dream and reality
                        c. Discovery that love, as it was thought to be, is a sharp contrast to love
                        in the bounds of reality
                        4. The fourth age
                        a. Presents circus imagery "as a form of art too close to life to have any
                        purgative effect on the audience"
                        b. Rosetta's definition of life and the world
                        5. The fifth age
                        a. Conveys the image of man as "an astonished victor"
                        b. Man believes he has made peace with the meaning of life
                        c. Anxiety declines as "He [man] learns to speak / Softer and slower, not
                        to seem so eager"
                        d. Man is no longer confined to a prison of prismatic color, but is free in
                        the dull, bland place that is the world
                        e. Emble's opposition of the fifth age
                        (1) Refuses to go willing...

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