Start of A character analysis for Mr Bleaney
Character Analysis on Mr. Bleaney
Mr. Bleaney is a poem written by Phillip Larkin, which portrays the life of an isolated man in a confined room. The poem is a metaphor of Mr. Bleaney's life. The poem is written through the voice of an unknown speaker.
From the poem we gather that Mr Bleaney is a man who cares little about the material possessions, shown by the fact he lives in a rented room with poor conditions such as the “curtains, thin and frayed”. He does not own very much, so this gives the idea that he has a lack of self expression. The only way he does express himself is through doing the gardening for the home-owner. At one stage during the poem, Mr Bleaney tries to escape the lack of excitement in his life by asking the home owner to buy a “set”. This signifies he is aware of the repetitiveness of his lifestyle and wants some attempt of control rather than relying on other people.
The room Mr Bleaney rented appears to be cramped, due to the quotation “Behind the door, no room for books or bags”. This either shows that he doesn't have enough money to be able to enjoy a larger, spacious room or that he has so little that he doesn't need much to be satisfied.
Larkin writes about Mr Bleaney's repetitive lifestyle, in particular his “plugging at the four aways”, where Mr Bleaney would gamble small amounts of money continuously. This represents how life can be so simply wasted, and how damaging gambling can be to a persons individual lifestyle.
Mr Bleaney is only renting the room suggesting he is quite poor and perhaps weak as renting a room has little status compared to being the owner. In addition, the author uses indifferent words like "they moved him" to refer to his death which shows that he is physically and emotionally dying, but that it does not have any importance. This is reinforced by the fact that in the 6th stanza it says, "But if he stood and watched the frigid wind Tousling the clouds..." meaning Mr Bleaney is like a ghost,
Mr. Bleaney is a poem written by Phillip Larkin, which portrays the life of an isolated man in a confined room. The poem is a metaphor of Mr. Bleaney's life. The poem is written through the voice of an unknown speaker.
From the poem we gather that Mr Bleaney is a man who cares little about the material possessions, shown by the fact he lives in a rented room with poor conditions such as the “curtains, thin and frayed”. He does not own very much, so this gives the idea that he has a lack of self expression. The only way he does express himself is through doing the gardening for the home-owner. At one stage during the poem, Mr Bleaney tries to escape the lack of excitement in his life by asking the home owner to buy a “set”. This signifies he is aware of the repetitiveness of his lifestyle and wants some attempt of control rather than relying on other people.
The room Mr Bleaney rented appears to be cramped, due to the quotation “Behind the door, no room for books or bags”. This either shows that he doesn't have enough money to be able to enjoy a larger, spacious room or that he has so little that he doesn't need much to be satisfied.
Larkin writes about Mr Bleaney's repetitive lifestyle, in particular his “plugging at the four aways”, where Mr Bleaney would gamble small amounts of money continuously. This represents how life can be so simply wasted, and how damaging gambling can be to a persons individual lifestyle.
Mr Bleaney is only renting the room suggesting he is quite poor and perhaps weak as renting a room has little status compared to being the owner. In addition, the author uses indifferent words like "they moved him" to refer to his death which shows that he is physically and emotionally dying, but that it does not have any importance. This is reinforced by the fact that in the 6th stanza it says, "But if he stood and watched the frigid wind Tousling the clouds..." meaning Mr Bleaney is like a ghost,