18 pages • 36 minutes read
The Unknown Citizen
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Themes
The Dangers of Conforming to the State
“The Unknown Citizen” makes it clear that there are dangers in conformity, in embracing a system that operates in lockstep. Auden’s poem—told to the reader in the voice of a State that numbers its citizens—shows how such conformity retracts inalienable rights such as freedom and the pursuit of happiness. In this State, the individual is subject to a dystopian surveillance in which only their performance is enumerated. By seeing what the State lauds about the citizen—his conformity—the reader can see what they dislike or hope to eliminate—his individuality.
The citizen in the poem is lauded not for anything he said, or created, nor for any humanitarian act he may have perpetuated. Instead, he is congratulated for being exactly what the State expects him to be: someone against whom there is never an “official complaint” (Line 2). The citizen does not rock the boat. He goes to work every day, buys a paper, pays his fees, and owns everything deemed “necessary to the Modern Man” (Line 20). He does not question any political action, for “when there was peace, he was for peace when there was war, he went” (Line 24). Further, he duplicates his likeness within his “five children” (Line 25), which is approved by the State’s eugenics department, suggesting that he reflects a demographic the State hopes to perpetuate. To its many bureaucratic bodies, the citizen is exemplary, elevated to the level of a “saint” (Line 4).
Auden’s own observations of communist China, the fascist socialist party in England, and the rise of Hitler’s Nazis made him aware of the passive thinking of others, especially those who turn a blind eye to those who are “odd in [their] views” (Line 7) or who might question “the proper opinions” (Line 23). The question of “Was he free? Was he happy?” (Line 28) and the State’s response, “Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard” (Line 29), cuts two ways. It makes the reader wonder about the citizen’s true happiness and level of freedom, but it also points out that to the State the qualities of freedom and happiness are “wrong” (Line 29). This shows that while the State’s conformity might allow ownership of a “phonograph, a radio, a car, and a frigidaire” (Line 21), it is not designed to promote or condone individual desire or challenges to its authority, creating an ominously dangerous atmosphere.
Manipulation of Identity (The Known Versus Unknown)
The monument to the unknown citizen in Auden’s poem is “Erected by the State.” This immediately calls into question the authoritative voice of the poem, which is a representative of that entity. The State clearly owns the information about the man in the poem, but there is nothing to suggest theirs is an accurate assessment. In other words, the State’s narration is also “erected.” It is deliberately constructed to elevate the “citizen” and downplay the man who might have been “popular with his mates” (Line 13).
His friends certainly would have called the man by his name instead of the statistical number of “JS/07 M 378,” and so would his wife and his children, depending on their ages. These human characters are anonymous within the State’s official elegy. The poem contains no specificity about his boss, fellow soldiers, or the bartender who might have served him “a drink” (Line 13) either. All of these specific people would probably have anecdotes that could better describe the citizen as an individual unto himself, rather than in relation to the State. Instead, he, and the people in his circle, are stripped of humanity by an entity that treats them all as mere statistics. In this way, the unknown citizen becomes anonymous and unreal, frozen in marble.
The answers to the questions that would explain any human’s inner life—“Was he free? Was he happy?” (Line 28)—are also left unanswered. The State suggests that they are the “absurd” (Line 28) because all that matters is what they “have heard” (Line 29). The State tries to convince its audience that the declarations of the “Bureau of Statistics” (Line 1) and “High-Grade Living” are accurate. But the reader has no reason to believe them. Auden is suggesting that the State may wish to persuade the people, but instead are building a monument to its own fabrication. The elimination of the personal from the “Marble Monument / [...] Erected” (Lines 2-3) shows that not only is the citizen “unknown,” his anonymity is deliberate.
The Numbing Comfort of the Modern World
One of the myths about Benito Mussolini, the Italian dictator from the 1920s-1940s, is that he gained so much power amongst his citizenry because he made the trains run on time. The reality is much more complex, but this apocrypha encapsulates the idea that ease of living might persuade someone to sacrifice their rights (or others’) for convenience. That “the unknown citizen” is primarily interested in acquisition, and unwilling to challenge the State’s view, is made clear in a reading in which the State’s assessment of the citizen is accurate. Here, the citizen’s commitment to a smooth, uncomplicated life, keeps his world ordered—although not necessarily “free” (Line 28).
The citizen goes about his days without questioning his role as a cog in the State’s machine. He is dutiful to their needs, the State suggests, because he can utilize the “advantages of the Instalment Plan” to purchase things like “a phonograph, a radio, a car, and a frigidaire” (Line 21). He enjoys meeting his “mates and like[s] a drink” (Line 13) and if that means that the “Social Psychology workers” (Line 12) are monitoring him to see if his “reactions to advertisements [are] normal” (Line 15), so be it. He has a steady job and he is “fully insured” (Line 16). Economic fear often plays into a person’s willingness to sacrifice others in order to maintain their success. Because the citizen is able to possess “everything necessary to the Modern Man” (Line 20), he does not question other practices that might be problematic.
The citizen will not express any unusual or improper “opinions” (Lines 9, 23) and goes along with the views of the State: “When there was peace, he was for peace; when there was a war, he went” (Line 24). He does not question why there is a war, or if it is justified. He does not seem concerned the State investigated his Union (Line 11) or noted his service to “the Greater Community” (Line 5). He is indifferent to the fact that a “Eugenist” (Line 26) evaluates his family or what the State’s “teachers” (Line 27) might impart to his children. These notations reflect Auden’s critique of those in Germany who ignored other people’s suffering under fascist regimes because society functioned in their favor. Auden’s wife, Erika Mann, published her critique of the Nazi educational system, School for Barbarians (1938), a year before “The Unknown Citizen” was written. In the book, she critiqued the Nazi educational promotion of racial superiority, which were ideas that sprang from eugenics.
“The Unknown Citizen” never received an “official complaint” (Line 2) because he did what the State wanted. Others’ difficulties remain unimportant because they do not touch him personally. In other words, he turns a blind eye to the sinister surveillance made by the State because he can buy “a paper every day” (14).
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By W. H. Auden
