The Whitsun Weddings", Philip Larkin (1964) - identity, belonging and rootlessness in "Home Is So Sad", "Afternoons", "A study of reading clothes", "Self's the Man", "Mr Bleaney '

Résumé du document

In his anthology, 'The Whitsun Weddings', Larkin develops several themes, such as the concepts of identity, belonging etc. He expresses his opinions on these themes with the use of certain language features that help set a mood for the poem. In 'A Study of Reading Habits and Afternoons', Larkin explains how growing up inevitably provokes a change of identity. In the first poem, the writer only focuses on one person. The use of the first narrative persona 'I' may suggest that this is an autobiographical writing, and it goes through the different stages of life and how growing up affects his opinion on reading as well as his interest and personality. Each stanza presents a different episode of the narrator's life.

Extraits

[...] In Afternoons, Larkin still develops the theme of identity, but he uses this time, the contrast between generations and sexes. He first emphasises the importance of time with the reference to the period of the year and of the day “Summer is fading”, the hollows of afternoons” as well as that of place “Behind them” “Before them”. This reinforces the difference between the children and their parents, the theme of identity and belonging are developed with the referenced to “their courting places” followed by the lovers are all in school)” thus showing the confusion between the parents and the children who are experiencing the same love stories, only with the difference of time, and therefore the idea of belonging, and of whose those “courting places” are. [...]

[...] The other theme tackled by Larkin concerns the idea of rootlessness. Although in both Home Is So Sad and Mr Bleaney, the question of propriety is discussed, Larkin seems to think that owning a house is not enough to feel we belong somewhere. In Mr Bleaney, he states “having nothing more to show/Than a hired and the reductive comparison of Mr Bleaney's flat to a “hired shows that although this was where he lived, it never was a home. This effect is emphasised by the constant reminder of the previous tenant: it happens/ That I lie where Mr Bleaney suggesting that the narrator feels like a stranger in his own flat, that he does not yet belong there. [...]

[...] Furthermore, Larkin also hints to the problem of identity and belonging within marriage, which he further develops in Self's the man. As he refers to Arnold's marriage as a way of “stopping her from getting Larkin clearly establish marriage as a way of possessing someone. As he then describes much more trivial matters, such as the problem of money : money he gets for wasting his life on work/She takes as her perk” as well as that of time has no time at he shows how marital life meaning a share of everything, and so a lack of identity and personal propriety. [...]

[...] However, the most significant change is that of the third stanza, because Larkin has his character say “Don't read much thus abandoning what had been a major interest throughout his youth. Larkin shows a fracture between youth and age, as well as a change of identity through his study of the narrator's reading habits. This is reinforced by the denial of the narrator's previous ‘black and white' vision of the world; dude/Who lets the girl down before/the Hero arrives ( ) Seem far too familiar.” Looking back and mocking his utopian ideas as a young man can suggest that the narrator is blasé, but may also show a bitter mood because he is not able to perceive life in such an easy way as he used to. [...]

[...] "The Whitsun Weddings", Philip Larkin (1964) - identité, appartenance et déracinement dans "Home is so sad", "Afternoons", study of reading habits", "Self's the man", "Mr Bleaney" In his anthology Whitsun Weddings”, Larkin develops several themes, such as the concept of identity, belonging and rootlessness. He expresses his opinions on those themes with the use of certain language features that help set a mood for the poem. In A Study of Reading Habits and Afternoons, Larkin explains how growing up inevitably provokes a change of identity. [...]