Wants Flashcards
What does title showcase?
Desires - to an extent: expectations
Speakers desire (isolation/nothingness - death) are in conflict with desires of society.
‘However
However
However’
Anaphora - shows conflict between the speakers desires and those of society.
‘sky grows dark with invitation cards’
‘follow the printed directions of sex’
‘family is photographed under the flag staff’
Expectation to socialise and participate in society, makes him feel overwhelming dread.
Sex: expectation that we define ourselves through sexual desires, which are presented as dull, generic and routined.
‘Beyond all this’
Repeats to reiterate thats the undeniable desire
‘the calendar, the insurance, the tabled fertility rites’
Planning of able to have a baby.
All about having control over your own life.
Larkin criticising how organised human behaviour is and how controlled every minute aspect of our lives
‘oblivion runs’
Speaker rejects the idea of defining yourself through a family or nation.
‘runs’
end of stanza, repeated same line.
the verb suggests the desire for oblivion is constant - isn’t dulled by societal expectations.
Desire for oblivion and death is an on-going thing or feeling.
‘Beneath it all’
Societal expectations are drowning and overwhelming him
‘The costly aversion’
Larkin suggests if we dont accept death, we dont truly live.
