Beginning of Essay
In Auden's lengthy poem, "The Age of Anxiety", he follows the actions and thoughts of four characters who happen to meet in a bar during a war. Their interactions with one another lead them on an imaginary quest in their minds in which they attempt, without succ ....

Middle of Essay
.... "dichotomy between the rich and the poor" (Barrows 317). "The Age of Anxiety" is, in general, a quest poem. Unlike the ideal quest, however, this quest accomplishes nothing. The characters search for the meaning of self and, in essence, the meaning of life, but because their search is triggered by intoxication due to alchohol, the quest is doomed from the start. Throughout the quest, the characters believe themselves to be in a form of Purgatory when they are allegorically in Hell. They fail to realize this due to "the modern human condition which denies possibility but refuses to call it impossible" (Nelson 117). In "The Age of Anxiety", there ar ....