Deceptions by Philip Larkin - Explanation
The poem is written by Larkin after reading about an incident of a rape of a girl. He used a rape victim's statement from a magazine named "London Labour and the London Poor" of the 1840s as an epigraph. Larkin feels the agony suffered by the victim and consoles her.
The narrator consoles the rape victim and supports her in her worst encounter with hell itself. He says that he can feel her agony even this far from her. He can imagine the ordeal which the rapist put her through.
It was a sunny day when she was raped and the place where she was raped was near the road which has a lot of hustle and bustle with vehicles moving continuously. The narrator wants to highlight this fact that her chastity was destroyed under broad sunlight, no one came to her rescue. It is not possible for her to forget that day, she is unable to cast out the memories of her worst nightmare. The stark daylight when she was raped forbids the scars to heal. She was so devastated that her mind is compared to "a drawer of knives" (Simile).
The narrator presents her social condition. She was a poor girl who lived in slums. The narrator is aware that he couldn't imagine the overall suffering she faced in her life, that's why he says "I would not dare/ Console you if I could". He is sure that she has gone through a lot of suffering and pain. The narrator makes a universal notion that when a person is infatuated with desire, his/her reasoning blurs or takes the back seat. He then addresses the rapist and breaks his fallacy that although the victim was drugged, but the rapist was more deceived than her. He didn't gain anything with this brutal act, he will rot in the prison and earn the hate of people. Nothing is gained with the fulfilment of his carnal desire.
The narrator consoles the rape victim and supports her in her worst encounter with hell itself. He says that he can feel her agony even this far from her. He can imagine the ordeal which the rapist put her through.
It was a sunny day when she was raped and the place where she was raped was near the road which has a lot of hustle and bustle with vehicles moving continuously. The narrator wants to highlight this fact that her chastity was destroyed under broad sunlight, no one came to her rescue. It is not possible for her to forget that day, she is unable to cast out the memories of her worst nightmare. The stark daylight when she was raped forbids the scars to heal. She was so devastated that her mind is compared to "a drawer of knives" (Simile).
The narrator presents her social condition. She was a poor girl who lived in slums. The narrator is aware that he couldn't imagine the overall suffering she faced in her life, that's why he says "I would not dare/ Console you if I could". He is sure that she has gone through a lot of suffering and pain. The narrator makes a universal notion that when a person is infatuated with desire, his/her reasoning blurs or takes the back seat. He then addresses the rapist and breaks his fallacy that although the victim was drugged, but the rapist was more deceived than her. He didn't gain anything with this brutal act, he will rot in the prison and earn the hate of people. Nothing is gained with the fulfilment of his carnal desire.
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