2. Themes: illusion, deception, beauty and reality
http://youtu.be/7d3VAYGnXjY
‘Essential Beauty’ is a poem in which Larkin juxtaposes advertising and reality in an
often ridiculous manner in order to show how advertising deceives us and dresses up the
reality of life with unrealistic images.
The title alone alludes to the idea that it was essential in society at the time to strive
for the beauty that was displayed by advertisements and suggests that beauty was a
necessity of life. However, this was a society based on deception as the adverts claimed
that people needed items which were unnecessary or could not live up to the image
displayed on the billboard.
3. During the time period the poem was based upon (the late 1950s/early
1960s), advertising was growing hugely popular as it offered people the
chance to achieve their unfulfilled dreams. Many of the food items mentioned
on the advertisements would have been fine cuisine and therefore, the type of
food people would strive to be able to afford. The poem is also thought to be
set in Hull, which was heavily bombed during the Second World War and left
riddled with holes. In the place of these holes, rather than rebuilding, many
billboards were placed to cover up the destruction and put it out of mind.
4. In the first line, the frames of the advertisements are stated as being “as large as rooms”, thus
implying that they are containers which hold our lives, just as in ‘Ambulances’.
These advertisements “block” the ends of many streets and prevent anyone from being able to
escape the false imagery. They are a form of imprisonment which symbolise how society felt trapped
in the world of advertisement –tricked by unattainable beauty.
Whilst “graves” has connotations of death, these symbols of our mortality are screened/covered
by adverts for “custard”- a laughable and irrelevant term which clearly shows how the advertisers
cared little for the serious issues of life and instead strived to create blissful images. Mortality and
suffering are hidden with pleasant images which mean nothing.
The alliteration of the ‘s’ sound (e.g. “salmon, shine”) also creates a soft and enticing sound which
displays how people were lured into buying the advertised products.
5. Various idealistic images are listed by Larkin as being depicted on the advertisements
and the people upon them “owe their smiles, their cars…to that small cube”. Those that
appear on these advertisements, Larkin seems to suggest, owe their fortune to advertising
that OXO cube or alternatively, it is trying to say that the people who buy the product can
have those smiles also and live the dream life they desire.
All of the images portrayed are references to “how life should be” in an ideal world
with no imperfections. However, this is impossible as the auxiliary verb “should” highlights-
this is just unachievable advice, as further proved by the comical and absurd rhyme of
“gutter” and “butter”. Such is the stark contrast of disgust and beauty that the idea itself is
made laughable.
6. Moving into the second stanza, repetition of the word “pure” appears to show that these
adverts that “dominate” our lives look down upon us as “imperfect”. There is a paradox here
however in that adverts are considered “pure” when actually they are just an illusion and untrue
whilst humans are perhaps the more pure for their flaws.
Reality starts to seep into this stanza, where nothing is “new” or “washed quite clean” and
people aspire to live the lives depicted in advertisements. They join “tennis clubs” and wear pure
“white” yet spend their time in “dark-raftered pubs”, thus dispelling the idea of them as wealthy
people. The pitiful image of the “boy puking” underlines the fact that people were disappointed
by what the adverts promised and even those in old age were drawn into buying the expensive
products. The alliteration of “Granny Graveclothes” (the tea that the old men drink) makes a
blunt joke of death yet the advertisers do not mind exploiting these worries that play on people’s
minds.
7. In the last few lines of the poem, Larkin shifts to the more darker theme of death as the “dying
smokers sense…that unfocused, she”. Alluring women were often used to sell cigarettes at the time
but no “drag ever brought near” the fantasy that smoking would attract women. A different
interpretation is that the “she” referred to has not been pulled in by the consumerist society. Caesura
is used in the very last line to put emphasis upon the idea that death is “smiling” and that people
don’t realise the truth of advertising until it is too late.
The first 16-line stanza focuses upon the perfect images created in the advertisements and how
the myths were portrayed.
The second 16-line stanza destroys the illusions and shows how the adverts have no connection to
reality.
Rhyme appears in some places to give a comical and disconnected effect as the contrast
between real life and advertisements is blatantly presented.
8. ‘Love Songs in Age’- illusion and reality. Whilst love is a lie in this poem, in ‘Essential Beauty’, it is
advertising that is the deception.
‘Here’- how modern life and consumerism pollute lives.
‘Talking in Bed’- putting up a false front or speaking false words.
‘Sunny Prestatyn’- people are conned into believing there is a better world through advertising.
Sources: http://www.allinfo.org.uk/levelup/essential.htm ,
https://thewhitsunweddings.wordpress.com/2014/09/22/essential-beauty/
