THE UNKNOWN CITIZEN

Wystan Hugh Auden

W.H Auden was an Anglo-American poet, born in England, later became American citizen. He was born in York, England, on February 21, 1907. He moved to Birmingham during childhood and was educated at Christ Church, Oxford. As a young man, he was influenced by the poetry of Thomas Hardy and Robert Frost, as well as William Blake, Emily Dickinson, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Old English verse.  He was regarded by many as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. His work is noted for its stylistic and technical achievements, its engagement with moral and political issues, and its variety of tone, form, and content. The central themes of his poetry are love, politics and citizenship, religion and morals, and the relationship between unique human rights and the anonymous, impersonal world nature.

W. H. Auden served as a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 1954 to 1973, and divided most of the second half of his life between residences in New York City and Austria. He died in Vienna on September 29, 1973.

The Unknown Citizen was written in 1939, shortly after moving from England to the United States. It was first published in 1939 in The New Yorker and first appeared in book form in Auden's collection Another Time (1940). Twentieth-century Western authors and poets have often examined the alienation and silence of modern life and the loss of personal identity and autonomy (self-rule), accelerated by the advent of technology. Sometimes these works, particularly novels and films, project the loss of a total civilization and political system that leaves individuals helpless. W. H. Auden’s The Unknown Citizen is less dramatic but no less telling about the path of the twentieth century, particularly after the introduction of computer-age technology.

The title of the poem The Unknown Citizen reminds the reader of the unknown soldiers who followed their countries’ calls, who gave their lives in defense of their countries, who died to ensure the continuity of the society for which they fought, and who stood for the bravery of all soldiers. They are honored for their deeds; only their deeds, not their names remain as a silent witnesses that they lived. The “Unknown Citizen,” though not a warrior, also represents the life his social values and records in his “metaphorical” Bureau of Statistics files, files that hold facts but tell only a partial story, leaving much else in silence.

“The Unknown Citizen” is dedicated “To JS/07/M/378. This Marble Monument is erected by the State.” Instead of being a monument to a named citizen, the monument is dedicated to the citizen, known to the state by numbers and statistics, not by name; he is a kind of Everyman in general, and who is no man in particular. The poem then details all the supposed characteristics that the state finds important to identify JS/07/M/378 and to remember him. The unknown citizen had all the right parts. No one really knows him or even what he looks like.  But that does not matter since his information fits in all the little slots.

The poem begins with an ironic epigraph, “To JS/07 M 378 / This Marble Monument / Is Erected by the State.”

The citizen to whom the monument has been built has been found to be without any fault. He was a saint not because he searched for God but because he served the government perfectly. He did not get dismissed from his job. He was a member of the Union and paid all his dues to the union. A report by the Union shows that he worked in a factory and paid his union dues. He had no odd views. The Social Psychology investigators found him to be normal, as did the Press: the social psychology workers found that he was popular among his fellow workers and had a drink with them now and then. He also bought a newspaper every day and had the “normal” reactions to advertisements. The Health-card report shows that he had good health and although he went to the hospital once, he came out quite cured. The citizen was sensible about buying things on an installment basis. He had everything a modern man needed at home. The Producers Research and High-Grade Living investigators showed he was normal and “had everything necessary to the Modern Man”—radio, car, etcetera. Moreover, this ideal citizen was found to be sensible in his view. When there was peace, he supported it. But when there was war, he was ready to fight. He didn’t hold his personal views on anything. He was married and had the appropriate number of five children, and he did not quarrel with the education they got. He never interfered with the public schools. The poet now asks the important questions. Was this man free? Was he happy? No government statistics can ever answer these kinds of questions.

The Unknown Citizen is a typical Auden’s poem in that it shows the poet’s profound concern for the modern world and its problems. A keen intelligent observer of the contemporary scene, Auden was one of the first to realize that a citizen will have no scope to develop his initiative or to assert his individuality. He will be made to conform to the State in all things. It is the picture of such a citizen that is ironically presented in the poem. Auden dramatizes his theme by showing the clear gap between the complete statistical information about the citizen listed by the State and the sad failure of the judgments made about him. The poet seems to say, statistics cannot sum up an individual and physical facts are inadequate (insufficient) to evaluate human happiness- for man does not live by bread alone. In the phrase ‘The Unknown’ the word ‘unknown’ means ordinary, obscure (vague). So the whole phrase means ‘those ordinary, obscure soldiers as citizens of the state who laid down their lives for defending their motherland wanted to name and fame but remained unknown. The title of Auden’s poem parodies this. Thus The Unknown Citizen means the ordinary average citizen in the modern industrialized urban society. He has no individuality and identity. He has no desire for self-assertion. He likes to remain unknown.

At the end of the poem, the poet asks two questions. Was he free? Was he happy? No government statistics can ever answer these kinds of questions. By asking these questions, the poet is drawing our attention to the question of freedom and happiness. And ironically, the poet suggests that the modern man is a slave to routine and he is incapable of understanding such concepts as freedom and happiness. This poem may also be labeled as an "elegy" which is a poem about a dead person. The poem is also satirical.  It shows what the poet thought might be the future of the individual if the government continued to pry into personal business. 

Therefore, such a question in this context would be ‘absurd’. Thus, this poem The Unknown Citizen is a bitter attack on modern society-its indifference towards individuality and identity. The only way for an individual to survive in a regimented society is to conform, obey and live in perpetual mental slavery. Such a creative is this ‘unknown citizen’ who is utterly devoid of any urge for self-assertion. Such a modern man is a slave to the routine, is incapable of understanding such concepts as freedom and happiness.