Vocations as codes of existence and definitions of Identity in Philip Larkin’s ‘Livings’

Abstract EN

Larkin’s ‘Livings’ survey three occupations as samples tentatively representing existence.

Separated by time and vocations, the three people with whom the trilogy concerns itself are a business man in 1929, a lighthouse keeper probably in the early twentieth century, and a Cambridge don between the seventieth and eightieth centuries.

The careers of the three personae expose their mental, psychological, and emotional preoccupations and reveal a lot about their worldviews.

More importantly, questions of being, existence as well as identity are explored inadvertently in terms of what types of vocations selected and why, and if they meet or fall short of expectations.

The poems discuss how the labourers assess their jobs.

Contentment and delight or else weariness and disappointment surface as their views are uncovered.

Finally, light is turned on the way workers respond to the careers’ milieus including people and props.