Critically appreciate Auden's poem "The Unknown Citizen"
Introduction: A Remarkable Poem
The Unknown Citizen is a light satirical lyric. It first appeared in 1939 in The Listener. The poem was later anthologized in the volume "Collected Shorter Poems (1950). Its central issue is the loss of identity of the common man under totalitarian regimes. The identity of an individual is reduced to the status of facts and data to be filed and stored.
The poem emphasizes the irony of the situation in a bitterly satirical tone. In this poem, Auden has given us a factual account of the life history of an unknown citizen, simply known as JS/07/M/378. This citizen is pictured as a victim of the modern commercialized civilization.
Commenting on the appealing quality of the poem, Dennis Davison observes as follows: "The colloquial language and the everyday allusions to frigidaires, radios, instalment plans, trade unions, etc. make one immediately at home with this poem."
The Title and the Theme
The title of the poem is a parody of the traditional way of recognizing the unknown soldiers after they died in the battle. The poem is a collection of details about an average man written in the flat, matter-of-fact tone of a report. His work at the Fudge Motors factory, his union membership, the newspaper he bought, his health card, the articles in his house, and his marital status, are all listed in the manner of a social survey questionnaire.
The reports of the investigating agencies (the Bureau of Statistics, Producers Research, High-Grade Living) agree that he was average and normal. However, the ultimate irony is that the reports of these agencies are based completely on the superficial and routine life of the citizens. They do not investigate the emotional aspect of his life. Moreover, they fail to address the real issue: the issue of freedom and happiness:
Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.
Development of Thought: Factual Record of an Unknown Man
The Unknown Citizen is in the form of a posthumous account of the superficial life of an unknown man - his habits, views, and tendencies. According to the Bureau of Statistics, there was no "official complaint" against him; he was almost like a modern "saint" who was devoted to the service of "the Greater Community".
He was a sincere and honest employee of Fudge Motors Inc. He was not "a scab or odd in his views". He honestly paid the membership fee of his union. He was "popular" among his friends and liked to have some wine with them. He bought a paper daily. He reacted to the advertisements in the paper in a "normal" way. He had taken out a number of life insurance policies in his name.
He knew well the benefits of instalment schemes. In his house there were all things necessary to "the Modern Man". He was the owner of "a phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire". His "opinions", if any, changed from time to time. "When there was peace, he was for peace; when there was war, he went." He was married and contributed five children to the population of his country.
As a student, he never interfered with the 'education' given by his teachers. However, the question of his freedom and happiness is "absurd". He had done nothing "wrong".
Irony and Satire in the Poem
The dominant tone of The Unknown Citizen is satirical which is made more effective by its underlying pointed irony. The poem brings out Auden's protest against a society which manipulates man by the laws of mass organization, commercial exploitation, social research and bureaucratic spies.
These systems and statistical records refer to man by numbers, and they are the chief target of the poet's satire. However, the real attraction of the poem lies in the ironic picture of the citizen it presents. The unknown citizen was a worldly wise opportunist, and yet he is regarded as a "saint":
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned world, he was a saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community
Then there is a use of irony in the following lines which imply that the opinions of the citizens changed from time to time:
Our research into Public Opinion is content,
That he held the proper opinions for the time of year.
However, the poet's satire reaches its peak in the last two concluding lines of the poem.
Structure of the Poem
The Unknown Citizen has a firm and tight structure. The poem may roughly be divided into four stanzas. The first stanza consists of six lines, including the epitaph which is engraved on the "Marble Monument" erected for citizen N. JS/07/M/378.
However, the other three stanzas have eight lines each. From the very first line to the last, the poem is concerned only with the description of the unknown citizen. This consistency of narration imparts the poem an organic whole.
Diction, Metre and Rhythm
The language and syntax is simple and lucid. It can be easily appreciated even by a novel reader. However, most of the sentences in the poem are complex and run through several lines. The poem is written in a colloquial style. It abounds in the words of everyday use.
However, some of the phrases and words are very formal, such as "the Bureau of Statistics". "Social Psychology", "Producers Research and High-Grade Living", "Researchers into Public Opinion", and "Eugenist"; and that is because the poem is written in the tone of a factual report. The lines of the poem are of uneven length and the metre is irregular. Though the poet has made use of rhyme, there is no set pattern of rhyme scheme in the poem.
