What Techniques Does Auden Employ to Narrate Victorand as I Walked Out One Evening?
In both 'Victor' and 'As I Walked Out One Evening', Auden utilise techniques such as the personfication of time to suggest to the reader that life is a journey and it waits for no one. The use of the first person singular in As Iwalked suggests that it is quite a personal experience, however, in Victor, third person is used to distance the narrator for tge events.
W.H. Auden's 'Victor' includes three different voice through out the poem, his dad, the narrator and Victor himself. Auden uses Victor's dad, who has direct speech during the opening stanzas, to imprint a controlled and biblical lifestyle with no feeling of love. This is further emphasises through the quoatation 'Don't dishonour the family name'. It is then the narrator who tells the reader about Victor's growing up and his life before and after Anna. Auden does this by the use of the third person when refering to Victor, Anna and the other minor characters through out the play. It is then Victor that speaks when asking his father questions such as '......."....' The fact that Victor is asking questions to his afther suggests that he is still trying to please him, which further suggest that Victor is seeking for love in his father.
The poem 'As I Walked Out One Evening' consists of three separate speakers: the lovers, the clocks and the narrator. Each speaker represents a different measure and attitude towards time. The lover’s song paints time to be conquerable and ignorable – no more than a passing annoyance that they are outside of. The soliloquy of the clocks demonstrates time as a product of society, there to keep its subjects in line, and ultimately a ruling force. Finally, the narrator speaks of love as being outside of both of these things. Time is a constant flow than brings change and opportunity, and any claim to deny or control it is an illusion.
To begin, the months in 'Victor' parallel and dictate the events that shape the poem. The poem begins in 'frosty December', a vivid image
W.H. Auden's 'Victor' includes three different voice through out the poem, his dad, the narrator and Victor himself. Auden uses Victor's dad, who has direct speech during the opening stanzas, to imprint a controlled and biblical lifestyle with no feeling of love. This is further emphasises through the quoatation 'Don't dishonour the family name'. It is then the narrator who tells the reader about Victor's growing up and his life before and after Anna. Auden does this by the use of the third person when refering to Victor, Anna and the other minor characters through out the play. It is then Victor that speaks when asking his father questions such as '......."....' The fact that Victor is asking questions to his afther suggests that he is still trying to please him, which further suggest that Victor is seeking for love in his father.
The poem 'As I Walked Out One Evening' consists of three separate speakers: the lovers, the clocks and the narrator. Each speaker represents a different measure and attitude towards time. The lover’s song paints time to be conquerable and ignorable – no more than a passing annoyance that they are outside of. The soliloquy of the clocks demonstrates time as a product of society, there to keep its subjects in line, and ultimately a ruling force. Finally, the narrator speaks of love as being outside of both of these things. Time is a constant flow than brings change and opportunity, and any claim to deny or control it is an illusion.
To begin, the months in 'Victor' parallel and dictate the events that shape the poem. The poem begins in 'frosty December', a vivid image