Wyatt and the Obstacles to Happiness

Abstract

In this article, Professor Daalder reveals that much of the importance and interest of Wyatt's human content appears to lie in what are the speaker's – and no doubt Wyatt's own – psychological shortcomings in the pursuit of his well-being. He explains how, no matter what the impact of real events on Wyatt may have been, and despite the fact that the speaker of the poems again and again appears to look outside himself for causes of his distress, the observant reader cannot finally avoid the impression of a mind creating its own internal obstacles to happiness.