What are the concrete ways in which the speaker deals with death in Aubade by Philip larkin?

Answer 1

Death is a reality,whined at or withstood. Portraying this particular theme, Philip Larkin makes us realise the immortality of the speedy worldly affairs which moves unperturbed even in the face of the mortality of life.

Necked dread of death, is what Philip Larkin claims to experience every morning waking up at four and contemplating the fact that he is one day nearer to death. He is afraid of the eternal silence, "not to be here/ Not to be anywhere", the condition of "No touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with,/ Nothing to love or like with". He disagrees that humans never fear of the things that he can not feel. In fact that is exactly what we fear about.

He despises the way religions project humans to be immortal. He states that it is only a pretense of forgetting about the death.

Although Larkin makes his poem sound a little effusive and emotionally laden rather with a stark and morbid outlook towards the subject, the poems also is geared towards making us realize that the fact that we are mortals, should not and can not be a reason for our inaction and passivity. As the twilight approaches, the phone in an office gets ready to ring, every body starts becoming busy in this "rented world". The start of the day only reminds us that "Work has to be done".

But in this face of activity, business, restlessness and the unrestrained state of this world, "Postmen like doctors go from house to house" reminding us of our mortality.

Answer 2

In "Aubade," the speaker confronts death by exploring the fear and anxiety it brings. The speaker acknowledges death's inevitability and its mystery, grappling with the idea of nonexistence. Larkin uses vivid imagery and introspective language to convey the speaker's struggle with the concept of mortality.