Philip Larkin

Larkin's poetry cynically portrays a society in which the proletariat “are deluding themselves” rather than presenting a hopeful picture of society where “they go beyond the limits which society sets for them” to what extend do you agree with this?



In many of Philip Larkin's poems, he has shown how the proletariat are restricted within that society. For example, in the poem 'The Large Cool Store', Larkin shows how they are trapped as it says ' timed for factory, yard and site'.This shows that everyday they have to go to such places like this to make money so that they are able to live that life. It also shows that the proletariat are trapped because they don't get a say whether or not they would want a better job because that's the only jobs that they would get. Larkin also uses words such as 'browns and greys, maroons and navy' this shows how the proletariat are entrapped within this dull life as these are dull colours portrayed. The bourgeois would have brighter and bolder colours because they get to do much more with their life as they have that power, and in this case the power is money so if you don't have money then you don't get those privileges. Larkin suggests near the end 'To suppose they share that world' this portrays that maybe the bourgeois had pretended to give the proletariat a life that is equal to them when they know that they aren't. As they say 'suppose', the proletariat are just thinking that and its not actually true.

Another one of Larkin's poems are 'Mr Bleaney', in this poem it shows where he used to live and describes the place as ' flowered curtains, thin and frayed...bed, upright chair, sixty watt bulb, no hook. 'This indicates  how this is all Mr Bleaney had left in his room to show the amount of power that the bourgeois had and that the proletariat didn't have enough money to have anything efficient in their homes. This also shows how he was trapped in that room with nothing else to show for himself because he couldn't afford it. Further down into the poem it says 'I'll take it' this shows how easy it is to take this room by saying I'll take it because there isn't anything valuable in there which shows the amount of power that the proletariat had. Further down the poem it says 'stuffing my ears with cotton wool to drown the jabbering' this shows that you were able to hear what the people living next to you were saying, this shows the quality of the flat that the proletariat lived in wasn't very good and they didn't have an option for the kind of place they lived in because they didn't have enough money. At the end of the poem it says 'And at his age having no more to show than one hired box should make him pretty sure, He warranted no better, I don't know.' This shows that at the end of his life, he had nothing to show for it and many proletariats didn't because they didn't have the money, whereas if a wealthy person had died, they would've have a lot more to show for their life because they had money and money gives you an identity.It also shows how he didn't fight it and just went along with it and died like that because its trying to show how the bourgeois had set those standards in society that this is right.       
Another one of Philip Larkin's poems are 'Ignorance', from looking at the title of the poem which is ignorance might be portraying what the bourgeois are or showing that the proletariat are blind to what the bourgeois are restricting them from. It also might be saying that the bourgeois are the ones who are controlling their lives and so they have no way to get out of that loop that they are in. It says' Strange to be ignorant of the way things work Their skill at finding what they need,' This shows that the bourgeois aren't particular aware of what they are doing to the lower class, and don't look at what the lower class actually need and leave them in that society where its hard to get out, so which is why they are being called ignorant. At the end of the poem it says 'and yet spend all our lives on imprecisions, that when we start to die, we have no idea why.' This shows that the proletariat live this life like this all the way through but then when they have finished with their life, they don't understand where its all gone, but it also could be interpreted from the bourgeois side that they are controlling the superstructure all their life and so busy on controlling the proletariat's lives, that when they start to die, they don't know why.

The next poem of Philip Larkin is 'Here', this is similar to 'The Large Cool Store', the reason for this  because both of the poems are showing that the proletariat are wanting to be like the bourgeois. In the first part of the poem it says 'Push through plate-glass swing doors to their desires' this shows how the proletariat are pushing against the stereotypes of living in a society where they are restricted and they are pushing to living their dreams and doing what they want to do. Further down the poem, it says 'A cut-price crowd, urban yet simple, dwelling..' this shows how the proletariats life is like, simple and cut price, so its showing how dull their lives are because they cant afford it to be any better. Furthermore, it says 'Loneliness clarifies.' this shows how the proletariat are feeling, they fell lonely because they don't have the luxuries like the bourgeois and are trapped within that society and cant go out to socialise and speak to other people and then feel lonely. The last line of the poem which is 'Facing the sun, untalkative, out of reach.' this shows how the proletariat lives are live that their dreams of breaking out of that society is 'out of reach' and they are 'un talkative', that they don't have anyone to speak to but the other proletariats, not the wealthy.
 
To conclude, some of Philip Larkin's poems do show that the proletariat are just deluding themselves like 'The Large Cool Store' but then some of the other like 'Here' show that the proletariat trying to break out of that society that they are being held in.

The Large Cool Store

The Cool Store by Phillip Larkin

How does Larkin explore ideas of inequality between social classes?

This poem ‘The Cool Store’ is a description of a shop which sold cheap, dated but fashionable clothes basically a Marks and Spencers shop in Larkin’s time. I think that Larkin does explore ideas of inequality between social classes as the themes of this poem are clothing and fashion, Larkin comments on the working class and the illusions they have, thinking that they are better if they dress a certain way.  I think that Larkin explores the ideas of inequality between social classes through what clothes they wear and what that represents as you’d normally think that the richest people wear nice clothes but poor people don’t.

The language used in ‘The Large Cool Store’ is simplistic and contains mostly monosyllabic words which are used to evoke the look and feel of department stores. Larkin used words such as ‘browns and greys’ to portray the dull lives of proletariat. Larkin uses the contrast in between ‘browns and greys’ of weekday clothes and more glamorous colours such as ‘lemon, sapphire, moss green’ when they are dressing up at night. This show how advertising creates the false consciousness people can escape their dreary lives in the way you dress. This also shows how materialistic people are as they can only happy if they have nice clothes, this is called consumer culture. The structure of the poem is ABABA; this is a very monotone and boring structure to the poem to show how the people’s lives in the poem were like. The society that is created in this poem portray to me that materialistic things only matter because if you wear drab clothes, you must be of the lower class and if you wore nice clothes, you were considered higher in the social class. Also if you were poor and couldn’t afford clothes like that, then your life, like described in this poem, was boring and was wishing to be like the people who could afford it.

The characters in this poem are the people who are poor and the people who are rich, also the women and how they are described for example when it says ‘flounce in clusters’ this shows how people thought women were really dramatic that they ‘flounce’, this shows how people were stereotypical back in that day with saying how they think women act. The characters of the poor society were shown as people whose lives were very drab and boring as it says ‘who leave at dawn low terraced houses, timed for factory, yard and site.’ This shows that the poor people who work in places like factories and sites which aren’t great, have to leave their terraced houses at dawn so this shows that no matter how hard poor people are working, they still live in terraced houses and have to leave early. They wore drab clothes in the day for when they went to work because of where they worked and what they did, but then in the evening, they wore much brighter colours because that’s when they aren’t working and aren’t being labelled as being in the poor society and wearing much brighter and bolder colours shows how much they think that you can only live happily if you dress a certain way.

The key characters in this poem sort of do believe in the prevailing social order because they just get on with it and they don’t question it. They have to work at factories or sites and have to wake up at dawn and still leave their small terraced houses, and they have to wear such horrible clothes whilst wealthy people get to wear nice clothes, they think this how society is and that you if you wear designer clothes, people will look at you a different way and that’s what the lower class actually believe because in the night they would dress properly because then people would think more highly of them.  The author of this poem is Philip Larkin; the social status of him was that he was middle class as he lived in a middle class home so he wasn’t upper class or lower.

The characters in this poem who are the poor and the rich (the proletariat and the bourgeois) they are products of what society has created, the reason for this is because society is made them thinking like they need to wear this to show their status etc. Wearing drab and disgusting clothes made people look down on you and then treat you in a different way than how people would treat upper class people, this is called the class struggle, this shows how people would struggle to get to the higher class because they know their lives would be much different, this shows that the ideas that people had and then society followed.

The ideas presented about society can be used in a Marxist perspective, as this society is all based on hierarchy, this is the levels of how people are ranked and this is how people are laid out in this poem as the upper class would be at the top because they have the money and the power and then the lower class at the bottom because they don’t have much power and work for the upper class. There is also a materialist philosophy, this is that, you should have certain things to look a certain way and to be treated a certain way. Furthermore, other ideas are the proletariat and the bourgeois, this is the poor and the rich, and this is how they class you whilst living in that society.

To conclude, what this poem is trying to get across is that buying these materialistic things will define you in society as to whether you are wealthy or not and that wearing dull clothes represents your life, that you are living a dull life and if you are wearing bright, glamorous clothes, this shows you can pay more which shows that you are wealthy and then you should live a better life.

Komal Mahal