Henrik Edoyan, A Religius Philosophical Critical Approach 2015

I

Preface

The two universal concepts of chaos and cosmos had an assertive role and function in the

formation of the religious-philosophical perception of ancient Greek people. These two concepts

sometimes manifest themselves apparently and sometimes in a disguised manner in all aspects of

the life, mentality and cultural heritage of Greek society. Understanding the origin and the real

cause of whatever occurs in the universe is not an easy task therefore the human mind mostly

refers to its intuitive capabilities although human reason attempts to identify the ‘center of

meaning’ of those phenomena, this ‘center’ constantly changes its ‘form’ and ‘sign systems’,

going through certain stages of transformation and transfigurations, therefore the process of

recognizing and identifying should be guided through the same direction of those changes

otherwise human mind will perpetually lose the possibility of identifying the sign system.

Chaos, by its very essence is unknown and unidentified, cosmos is known and

understandable. Yet since the chaos lies as the basis of cosmos it exists within the cosmos as a

‘non-retreated shadow’ (as it is stated in ancient Buddhist texts) therefore cosmos becomes

‘unidentifiable concept’ which requires a new outlook for analysis. This new outlook is ‘art’

through which the ‘closed curtains’ of cosmos is removed.

By removing the ‘closed curtains’, the art itself appears within the ‘closed curtains’, and

we have no other choice than opening those closed curtains.

The ‘mystery’ of art lies within the spirit (as human beings are the mystery of the whole

universe therefore the understanding of human beings will lead to the understanding of the whole

universe). Wherever the ‘spirit’ is absent the ‘mystery’ is absent either therefore sprit is

synonymous to mystery, without mystery there would be no art, therefore the mystery of art must

be searched not within the art itself but within the spirit, which is the incarnation of art.

Culture is the essence of man’s existence in the universe an indispensible part of his inner

world. Man cannot survive in universe outside this ‘inner world’. He exists in nature (by nature

we mean the whole world of object) but he is confined to his own inner world. Within the

Henrik Edoyan , Anita Hayraptian 2

framework of his cultural understanding he will be collapsed as an intellectual and spiritual

entity if he is taken away from this world.

Chaos is enclosing man’s existence in all apparent and disguised meanness. Chaos exists

deeply in human soul and it function in all emotional laurels of his existence. What illuminates

human soul and takes him out of this darkness is cosmos. Cosmos function at a mental-

intellectual level, as his inner composition (without which human beings could no longer

survive). In general it can be stated that the whole existence of human beings is established upon

chaos-cosmos relation. The French philosopher M.Merleau Ponty1says human body is not an

object, it is a situation, the same forces are applicable to the realm of culture either, which is also

identified as a situation being located between two opposing forces within the same system,

therefore by understanding culture we will be able to understand its internal situation which is

the chaos-cosmos relationship. The formation of culture is closely related to the formation of

chaos-cosmos relation. The development of culture, its synchronic structure, the internal and

external relations of its whole system are closely related to the degree, nature and dynamics of

the transition from chaos to cosmos. It could be stated that the route of cultural movements

passes through the transitory progression of chaos to cosmos showing its synchrony (present)

situation meanwhile presenting a kind of diachronic nature. On the one hand the past functions

as an experience and on the other hand the future appears as a possibility. It could be stated that

the culture is the same as the model of cosmos comprised within the overall existential system of

human beings, therefore without cosmos there would be no culture. While the direction of

transitions is usually from chaos to cosmos (from disorder to other), there exists another

transitory movement from cosmos to chaos, i.e. the movement from culture to anti-culture.

Avoiding these extremely complex and enigmatic discussion, I should state that all these

concepts manifest themselves in what is known as the ‘crown’ of culture, that is the ‘art’,

especially in its consistent ‘nucleus’ which is the ‘Literature’. Literature not only reflects the

transition of spirit’ from one state into another but also it actively participates in this process

consequently in literature we see the rhythmic ‘pulsing’ movement from chaos to cosmos and

vice-versa which is the result of the operation of the spiritfunctioning as the nucleus of culture.

1. Maurice Merleau Ponty (1908-1961) – French phenomenological philosopher

3 A Way to Equiliberium

By applying Hegelian approach for our literary analysis which considers literature as the

function (operation) of spirit we will see that the history of western literature has passed through

several complex stages which might be regarded as the gradual development of spirit possessing

an enigmatic nature and history. Therefore, the western literary tradition acts as a part of

Christian cultural heritage, including within itself that informative center operating in the deepest

levels of Christian culture (as the ‘nucleus’ does in an atom)which is the figure of Christ.

Therefore the great macro-system of western literature has immediate ties with the concept and

spirit of Christ. Each ‘impulse’ or ‘sign’ used in the above mentioned macro-system signifies the

sign system of Christian mentality, its structure, formal frameworks, semantic constructions and

the logic of development. Even those works that are somehow categorized as atheist literary

works are closing associated with the concept of Christ and its inner impulses.

That’s why, all literary works that are a part of Christian cultural heritage (including

Armenian literature either) regardless of their ethical, linguistic and historical differences have

many things in common, they are internally associated with each other, and with a greater or

lesser intensity, have passed through the same developmental stages. These changes that lead to

the development of the Christian literary tradition are not necessarily imposed from outside,

rather, there exists as an inner energy deriving from Christian ethical tradition which functions

as the motivating force of all these changes.

As T.S. Eliot asserts; culture and religion are two sides of the same coin. Culture can never

grow or develop in the absence of religion.

Religion provides the framework for culture. The informative center of culture, its inner

layer, seems to be incomprehensible for objective observer who looks from outside. This center

lies within the boundaries of religion. Those who sought it outside the religion they fail to grasp

anything because it doesn’t exist anywhere else. Here I don’t want to focus too much on this

discussion because it requires lengthy and detailed analysis. The only point that I would mention

is the fact that art specially literature lies between religion and culture. From one side it is the

‘messenger’ of religion in the realm of culture and from the other side it is the ‘consul’ of culture

in the domain of religion. Therefore art brings culture and religion together and establishes a

solid and integrated construction. Within this construction, the culture smashes the dogmatism of

religion and the religion restricts the spontaneity and the unconstrained nature of the art. (On the


other hand the mechanical nature of art that has the same destructive effect as the extreme

spontaneity.) By its very nature, literature is responsible for all the things that the spirit is able to

gain in the realm of religion, culture and in a much broader sense for the accomplishments and

failures of human existence. Therefore, literature is obliged to acknowledge its nature (because

literature knows and acknowledges everything except itself) otherwise it cannot achieve its very

purpose (and it could deeply harm human existence).

The purpose of this study is to analyze the inner organic interrelations that exist among

literature, culture and religion from a historical approach. Christianity as the basis of the western

culture determines the whole spiritual-epistemological basis of the western culture, meanwhile

culture serves as an underlying construction specifying the from and nature of literature, and its

structural and philosophical orientations. From the other side literature exerts its influence upon

culture, and culture has a deep impact on religion. Therefore these concepts exit in the state of

mutual interaction and none of them can survive without the other. Therefore all the questions

that arise in the realm of each of these concepts are solved not within their own domain but

within the realm of the other concept. The questions that are arisen in the realm in of literature

(and art in general) will not be answered within the same domain, and the same is true about

culture and religion.

The historical development of literature runs within the framework of the development of

culture, and here we see that this historical period is mainly divided in to two distinct eras. (here

we are only talking about the western world without considering the literature of antic world or

the oriental countries which are established on a different religion-spiritual basis.) these two

periods are Middle-ages and the Renaissance. The former beginning from IV-V centuries from

Augustinus Aurelus2 and ending to Dante Alighieri3 the later beginning from Dante Alighieri

up to XX century. By extending the Renaissance period up to present time I would like to

emphasize, upon the significance of certain concepts in literature such as the inner unity of

culture, sharing the same center of meaning, underlying the man centered universe. We may find

the dominance of these concepts on the literary movements and stylistic approaches of the

literature of 17 to 20th centuries appearing as the different perceptions and interpretation of 2. Astinus Aurelius –(354-430)- One of the great fathers of Roman Catholic church 3. Dante Alighieri ( 1265- 1321) – Major Italian poet of Middle Ages .


Christ’s figure. These different perceptions create different attitudes and outlooks in the realm of

culture, art, literature and human existence in general. The Christ-man figure of Renaissance

period substitutes the Christ-God figure of Middle Ages. During this process the culture and

what is basically known as the crown of culture i.e. the art passes through a reconstructive and

recoding stage. The dichotomy between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance is in fact the

dichotomy that exists between God and Man. Relying upon that, they move apart from each

other but ultimately they become unified within the Christ figure as well. The Christ figure

equilibrates the two opposing cultures within his cosmic existence. The modern man has to

choose, he is forced to choose his path and the nature of his existence in a state of complete

freedom which he has already gained. Like the biblical St. Peter who after denying Christ , finds

him once again and revives his faith this time permanently, because this time ha made his choice

as a free man.

1


I. The Mythological Figure of Christ

In the development of culture and literature

Middle Ages-Christ as God

We may notice that the cultural development of post-antique period of the western world is

distinctly divided in to two periods: the Middle Ages (from 5th century to the mid 13th century)

and the Renaissance beginning from the second half of 13th century up to end of 16th century or

the mid 20th century. This division might seem inaccurate and quite controversial, because 14th

century is normally considered as the beginning of Renaissance period (the death of Cervantes

and Shakespeare in 1616) and this is a period following by three dominant literary movements

of Classicism, Romanticism and Modernism stays in sharp contrast with Middle Ages .

In spite of possessing dissimilar characteristics, each of these movements followed the

same epistemological guideline which had already started in Renaissance period and was

passing its developmental stages, each stage corresponding with a specific movement and their

combination corresponding to the great macro-system which was called ‘Faustian macro-

system” by Oswald Spengler4r including within itself the whole cultural structure of the western

world up to the 20th century. Spengler believes that the meaning has become exhausted from its

semantic nucleus, the existence has become deprived of its spiritual dimension, what substitutes

the meaning is the anti-cultural machine or the mechanical-mechanistic mentality as opposing

to the creative-spiritual culture. In western languages the world culture is derived from the root

‘cult’ in which the sense of worshiping is quiet apparent while in Armenian language the word

‘MESHAGOOYT’ (culture) does not include the sense of cult, religion or worshiping, but what is

being emphasized is the concept of cultivation (MESHAGEL), transforming the natural

phenomenon and adding some humanistic aspects . Therefore semantically the two words are

synonymous but etymologically they are different. That’s why in Armenian language the two

words are used equally in different contexts due to the contextual requirements.

The spiritual-creative crises is in fact the crises of the man , because this is only man

who is considered as a spiritual-creative being having the capability of incarnating the spirit 4. Oswald Spengler- (1885-1936) – German historian


within his own being. Therefore what Oswaldo Spengler refers to as semantic deprivation, the

exhaustion of meaning and the substitution of the spiritual by mechanical-mechanistic elements

he is actually referring to the concept of man who used to be, the epistemological center and

nucleus, the categorical -imperative meaning and direction of the Renaissance culture all of

which serving as the basic structure upon which the foundation of the whole Renaissance

mentality lies. The decomposition of structure shows that the nucleus could no longer provide

the vital functioning center for the whole system, and at this point the disintegration of the

whole system occurs. In other words, what we face is a cultural collapse, since the man, who

functions as the governing center of the whole system, creating the vital energy no longer exists.

What Fredrick Nietzsche5 refers to as ‘death of god’ is in fact the ‘death of man’ in literature.

Nietzsche wishes to overthrow God, but in fact his attack is directed toward man, whose image

of downfall was quite understandable for him.

It is quite obvious that Nietzsche’s statement has a metaphorical connotation, if he is

talking about ‘God’ he cannot ‘die’, if he is ‘dead’ he is no longer a ‘God’. Therefore what

Nietzsche is talking about is the specific perception of man about God, the mask which

metaphorically speaking god is wearing, this mask is perceived in different ways, due to the

various approaches and perception of man in different periods. This is what we obviously see in

Dante’s Paradise(/which changes due to the degree of my perception/) God is unchangeable; our

perception of God changes, and if that ‘mask’ has changed it means that man has changed either.

F. Nietzsche was the first who had observed the exhaustion and termination of man in culture

finally leading to cataclysm. Mary people criticize Nietzsche for his anti-humanistic approaches,

but the truth is that Nietzsche is only reporting what a genius man could observe

On the other hand, ‘overcoming man’ is a central concept in his philosophy. ‘man is

something that should be overcome’ says Nietzsche, considering his developmental outlook (a

new man should be born, who is no longer a man but a ‘superman’). Time has verified the truth

of Nietzsche’s statements. In western art and literature immediately after Nietzsche’s statement

we saw drastic changes occur. As a consequence of these changes man becomes deprived of his

aesthetic dimension and turns into a shapeless abstraction. (/shape without form, gesture without

5. Fredrick Nietzsche – (1844-1900)- German philosopher


motion/. T. S. Eliot-The Hollow Men) the aesthetic mentality of 20th century could be defined as

an attempt to move away from man as a self exhaustive entity, to abandon his forms and

circumstances and to look forward to an open space where man as a tangible, this worldly being

or concrete existence is no more the focus of attention. It tries to reach a domain where man no

longer exists. The upholders of this mentality try to attain a territory where only pure art and the

abstract aesthetic forms and structures are present.

2.

If man as an object and epistemological-informative center has been exhausted and

overcome it means that man is capable of following an evolutionary directive, including a

beginning-progression and an end. By tracing the origin of man we may find out that he has

entered the domain of art and literature since early Renaissance period, the initial impulse of

which had already started in mid 13th century by ‘the appearance of the new-sweet style’ in

poetry which aimed to explore man and his world with all its implications. The western macro

system from 13th up to the beginning of 20 century focuses on man and his world therefore that

period could be defined as a humanistic or man-centered period possessing its unique

epistemological center which functions and manifests itself in all dimensions of man’s existence.

Within that man-centered micro system, the existence of man develops as a musical theme

which is formed and elaborated due to the interactions that it establishes with its own

infrastructure.

A pieces of music ends whenever its theme stops developing , therefore a piece of music is

a closed construction, the integrity and unity of which is supported by its theme. When the

theme ends, the music ends either and its continuation becomes meaningless because it loses it

integrity and coherence, shatters into pieces and finally ends.

In spite of its geographical and chronological diversity (including different nationalities,

countries, languages and different time periods, different artistic movements which follow one

another) the western culture (by western culture we mean the Christian culture, because the

foundation of western culture is the religious-philosophical conception of Christianity) is a


unified and coherent system preserving its informative indivisible center in its all components

from which the Christian cultures of different nationalities with all their external difference and

internal consistencies originate and culminate.

Christianity is like a shining star which illuminates all Christian communities and cultural

systems with different intensity. (the same is true about Armenian culture either which serves as

an immediate upholder of Christian culture).

The macro system of Christian culture which follows the antique culture, by its very

essence is divided into two systems that in spite of lying on two contrasting poles are closely

related to each other as the two subcategories of a bigger system containing the epistemological

center of the one which preserves the integrity of the whole system. The Christian spirit is

equally present both in Middle Ages and in Renaissance period. Their opposition lies in their

function and their perception of this world. The structure of the culture, its direction and its

epistemological identity depends upon the perception and interpretation of the concept of Christ,

depending on the fact that on which aspect of Christ we focus.

In modern times, Christ figure as a dynamic entity presents new insights and outlooks due

to the intellectual capacity of each person. The Christ figure didn’t remain the same during the

passage of time, it walks along each individual. The mentality, emotions, the sense of curiosity

and inquisitiveness, the lifestyle, the world model of each individual depends upon how he

perceives the Christ figure, and this acts as the fulcrum for individual’s mentality. The

equilibrium of this fulcrum depends upon the absolute equilibrium of Christ figure the

determining and ultimate purpose upon which the dominate principle of culture lies.

By equilibrium we mean the absolute balance and harmony that exists between man and

God within Christ’s figure, through which the individual gains the opportunity to reestablish

his lost connection with God and to recognize himself as the ‘son of God’ and to overcome those

forces that are against him, keeping him on the path of guilt and death. The theological mentality

of Christianity (not only the theological but also its aesthetic and scientific mentality either) tries

to appreciate and interpret the inner equilibrium and harmony of Christ figure, the pinnacle of

which is portrayed in the mystery of Golgotha when the doors of heaven and earth and the only

path leading to them were opened for the man.


Understanding Christ figure means attaining the harmony which exists in the unification of

God and man, when man reveals the spirit of God within himself (God becomes human, and the

man acquires divinity, it means each of them acquires the qualities of the other in other to

overcome boundaries and to reach the that magnificent and glorified moment when God meets

the man and man returns to the period prior to the commitment of the original sin and finally

God forgives him.)

During the last two thousand years, the western man has been searching for Christ within

his own soul. He has passed through several developmental stages and has gained certain

inevitable intellectual spiritual achievements leading to the concept of Christ’s equilibrium.

This concept should deeply penetrate human soul and while associating with his inner

world, should become the ultimate guideline of his thoughts and actions.

In history, these degrees are defined as the appearance of successive artistic movements

and directions that could be considered as the divided constituents of a much greater whole. i. e.

the Christ equilibrium. Each of these constituent segments appears at specific historical period

with definite chorological logic.

It is impossible to bring them out of those chronological and geographical limits, since

their existence is meaningful only within those limits. Thus, those constituents namely the

Middle Ages, the Renaissance, Classicism, Romanticism and Modernism appear only at a

definite and specified time period perform their function and then retreat to the background and

offer their position to a new movement which functions as a new manifestation of the spirit. The

one that retreats remains in the ‘depth of the soul’ and the later proceeds to eternity (where there

is no time scale).

From eternity, their light will shine upon the periods which come next while their roots still

remain in the ‘depth of soul’. On the surface structure the different cultural movements seems to

have contradictory natures, while in fact they have originated from the same root, that is the

‘depth of soul’, functioning as the ‘different segments of one ‘whole’, and following the same

path. ‘the path is important’ says Hegel, considering the movement of spirit. Nicolas Koosanos

(1401-1464) says: ‘Oh god, now I see you within the unification of contradictions where the

angles of heaven are protecting it’.


On an internal plan, watching the complete structure of the western culture constructing

around its internal epistemological center (the absolute equilibrium of Christ) and following its

historical path of two thousand years that is the path of approaching and withdrawing from the

very center which leads to equilibrium, we notice that the general outline of the above mentioned

structure is divided in to two systems, each of them possessing its own epistemological center

and its own unique mask which acts as the different phenomenal aspects of the same face.

In other words, the absolute equilibrium of Christ is subcategorized in to two systems. In the

first one, Christ is perceived as God and in the second one as a Man. This is the basis upon which

all criteria and conventions of artistic movements and their related deep structures (such as

theological, mythological, historical, philosophical considerations) originate. The first one is called

God-centered and the second one Man centered system which operate as contradictory impulses

across the surface structure, while in deep structure they become unified. This opposing movement

in surface and deep structure which constitutes to the formation of Christ’s mythological acts as the

motivating force for the development of western culture. This occurs when God and Man become

separate entities, one of them moving to foreground and covering the other which remains in the

background. That’s why in God-centered cultural systems man is presented as an indefinite,

impersonal and infinite existence (contrary to his real quantities i. e. being definite, personal and

limited). In man-centered culture, God is defined as specified and individualistically limited

existence. (the qualities that opposes God’s existence). These metaphorical conceptions are the

consequences of perceiving God from a single dimension, and violating the equilibrium of Christ

that by passing through centuries is trying to reach the third stage, the one that is still absent from

the other two:( ‘The Reality is the upholder of the future-Hegel)’

In this new era, we are witnessing the emergence of cultural system, that is the

incorporation of the previously established two systems into a new mythological figure, which

has an integrated perception of Christ as its basis. This new perception, by no means opposes the

teachings of the Bible, because the truth never denies another truth, but it merely confirms it.

Here, Christ appears as having a comprehensive characteristics, possessing an esoteric existence

as a mere equilibrated spirit, neither as God nor as man but as God and man simultaneously.

Therefore, after acquiring different nomination, the new culture should be based upon a new

perception of Christianity, including within itself the fundamental principles of the previous two


systems (God-centered and man cantered) and present itself as spirit while facing cosmos and

as cosmos while facing spirit. Man exists as the eye of spirit observing the infinity of spirit and

reincarnating in the metaphysical domain of the spirit where the borderline between the reason

and emotion vanishes. Here as the result of the unification of emotion and reason and

connecting with cosmos, the human action appears. In this case the emotion identifies itself with

the reason and the reason identifies itself with the human action and vice versa).

3

The God centered culture corresponds to Middle Ages which begins in 5th century as a well

formed, independent and integrated mental system. It passed through the developmental

historical stages and reaches to the point of complete evolution (as the development of a musical

theme) and finally ends in late 13th century.

Here I have no intention of making a detailed analysis of the art, culture and literature of

Middle Ages about which numerous researches have been previously done. Attempting to enter

this field of study is just like swimming in a deep ocean, It seems that this period is one of the

most complex, mysteries and enigmatic periods of the history of art. Here, I am going to

emphasize upon some of the most important aspects of that period which has a direct

correspondence with our study. Comparing Middle Ages with the antique period, we may find

the following principle distinctions:

1) The basis of the ancient Greek art is the concept of cosmos (the word cosmos

encompasses the concept of regulation, the idea which is absent from Armenian DIYEZERK

(cosmos) word, although semantically these two words are synonymous)


Cosmos is understood as a spatial concept, which enters into the confined boundaries of

body and manifests itself as its corresponding spirit (Hegelian principle). According to this

principle body is perceived as a limited entity acting as a ‘closed cosmos’, a self contained

entity, having no interest in establishing contact with the outer world, since in the outer world

only chaos exists, an entity which is in sharp contrast with cosmos. (as we know in Greek

mentality, universe is a limited entity) if cosmos is limited then each individual is a limited

cosmos therefore its existence couldn’t be continued into the body of another person. . The eyes

of the Greek sculpture are shut (he doesn’t look at the observer) and his body is naked (open).

His eyes are shut because he is concentrated on his own existence (inner cosmos) and the

observer is not important for him.

2) The basis of medieval art lies upon the perception of the concept of time.. The

spirit manifests itself as history, an event. The universe is unlimited, since the spirit is

unlimited either. (the boundaries of spirit are not specified). The unlimited spirit penetrates in to

the body and liberates it from all its boundaries, deforms its natural composition and reveals its

true nature in the spiritual world. In medieval sculpture, the body is a spatial limited entity ,

therefore it is kept hidden from the observer but its eyes are open because they are considered as

the windows of the soul, through which it can penetrate through the observer’s soul stay there

and become eternal.

In the religious icon-observer relationship, the active side, unlike the Greek sculpture, is

the icon itself. He is the one who starts communicating with the observer, he is the one who

imposes his own rules and conventions , and the observer just accepts everything passively.

Through the open eyes of the sacred image (icon ), his spirit looks at the world, follows the

observer, penetrates in to his soul, analyzes his spiritual world and merges with his inner values

and beliefs and finally gains a spiritual significance. The icon is not made up of human soul, but

of divine spirit to whom the human soul is subject to. The human soul acts in the second plan, as

a background upon which the reflections of images of the divine spirit are seen. The distance

between the two plans is the distance between the human soul and the divine spirit, and between

them lies the universe which is defeated as the result of the activity of the divine spirit. Hegel

says: ‘in the absolute religions the image of God is not created by the human soul. God, himself

due to certain principles appears as a self contained entity and an absolute, independent self


consciousness’ therefore in such a relationship the active part is the icon , while in Greek culture

it is the observer.

In the antique culture, cosmos is the ultimate form of regularity and harmony and the

world of gods is perceived as the absolute beauty, which acts as the secret of cosmos, its

epistemological and ontological center, consequently the beauty is perceived as the truth, in

other words the criteria for judging about the truth is beauty. The more beautiful, the more

truthful.

In Middle Ages the divine spirit is the truth. When Pilate asked Christ what is the truth? he

remained silent (if he wanted to answer, obviously he would say that the truth is he himself) it is

impossible to talk about the truth, it should be illustrated. Its illustration is conceived as the

absolute beauty, because that is the illustration of divine spirit, and the divine spirit, due to the

Neo-Platonists’ claim, is the absolute beauty, which shines upon the material world and makes it

beautiful either. (the beauty of the nature is the shadow or reflection of the absolute beauty) the

word VOKI (divine spirit) in Indo European languages means God, but in Armenian language

the word VOGI does not necessarily mean God , it means the divine spirit. In Russian language

[the word God is the same as both ‘spirit’ and ‘god’.]

The suffering divine spirit (the crucified Christ) could not be plastic, physical (or

psychological ) suffering causes facial or bodily deformation. Apollo is not a suffering god, the

Greek gods do not know anything about pain and suffering, they are plastic, acting as the

upholders of the cosmic harmony. Deformation is the essential feature of divine spirit, which is

observable in the figure of Christ. The central mythological figure of culture, art and literature of

the middle ages, its epistemological significance is Christ, his teaching and his existence. All the

sign systems of the Middle Age culture find their original reference in the existence of Christ

figure. All phenomena of Middle Age culture are encoded and signified through the

epistemological relation they establish with o Christ/ God , Christ/ Man figure in which the God

like dimension is foregrounded and the equilibrium of Christ figure is violated. The origin of

this violation lies in the concept of deformation (deformation of Christ figure) in the middle age

thought, therefore deformation is the process which is being imposed upon the art as the

outcome of the intervention of divine spirit.


In God centered art, the ultra sensational perceptions (a sensation beyond the five senses,

are closely associated with contemplation and intuitive imagination. This type of sensation has

its origins in ‘the world of spirit’, it comes from the above, not the physical world) manifest

themselves within the sensational entities. The spiritual sparkle penetrates the individual

(subject) binding him with the world above. The individual doesn’t find himself within God, but

finds God within himself, therefore the artistic creation turns into a kind of epiphany, through

which man’s true nature becomes illuminated, liberating him from physical aspects and

drawing him toward the absolute. Since within the soul of each individual lies that sparkle,

which is the sign of the existence of God in man’s soul (the eye’s sparkle) therefore the physical

aspect appears in the second plan, and if that sparkle disappears (of course it doesn’t disappear

completely, because in that case man will stop being a human) the physical sensational

dimension of the individual will be ruined , it will rebel against the will of God, therefore it will

be doomed to fail.

Let’s go back to Hegel, who presents the deepest analysis of the medieval Christianity “(in

“The phenomenology of Mind”, “The Philosophy of Religion”, “Aesthetic”, “The Philosophy of

History” and other individual works). Comparing to the classical art ( ancient Roman or Greek)

which is considered as the pinnacle of artistic creativity and is served as a criteria for judgment,

the medieval period is a non-creative era. ‘The true art is the religious art, but there is no need

for that kind of art, if God himself has the appearance of nature: for example, if he looks like the

sun or river. There is no need for art, if the truth and the external appearance of God has a

definite human or animalistic shape and its medium is light. Art begins whenever the human

figure is absent and only his image exists in the mind as the reflection of God’s presence, the one

that we see in Buddha’s teachings. “

Christ as the embodiment of the abstract figure of God is the central mythological figure

and the energetic nucleus of medieval art that gives life and energy to the whole system. Roman

Catholic Church accepts the idea of the equilibrium of God and Man within Christ figure, but

during Middle Ages the Christ figure was perceived from its godlike dimension and the

humanistic dimension was seen as a background setting or an obscure sketch, that shines dimly

on the God-like dimension. Therefore the life, suffering and death of God becomes the central

theme of the art and literature of this period. Everything revolves around this central thematic


axis developing and illuminating various connotations and their inner diversity becomes unified

within that axis.

Another thematic axis related to the three circles of man’s existence, that is his death

(end of earthy life) suffering (struggle against sin) and life (salvation) functions on the reverse

direction. These two reverse directions met each other in the second circle which is the

suffering. Both sides suffer. God is suffering for man and man is suffering for God. The suffering

of man is related to the suffering of God. Man repeats within himself the existence of God giving

him the possibility to return to his soul and to establish a reconciliation. The final circle of this

thematic line is the Resurrection. God is resurrected on earth so that the man could be

resurrected in the heaven. As we hear in J. S. Bach’s cantata ‘Oh God you entered the prison so

that our prison wouldn’t last forever.’ Here ‘prison’ symbolizes earthly life. When man suffers

for God he becomes resurrected. In the heart of the two sufferings or in the center of the two

thematic lines (God approaching man and man approaching God) lies the energetic nucleus

which is called ‘Love’. The origin of this love is God; this love comes from God and penetrates

in to the human soul, establishing a link between two alien existences. If man rejects this love

which has been offered to him by God (the Greek language the wordagape is used for this love)

then he loses the only chance of life that has been offered to him. The central motif of God

centered culture is Man’s love to God which is the reversed image of the love of God toward

man. This love receives its corresponding image in the sacred icons of The Mother and the Son

(Mary and Jesus), in church music and also in the religious songs dedicated to Virgin Mary (in

medieval art, these three artistic forms were closely connected to each other, since the basis of

all three was the same ‘energetic nucleus’). The figure of The Mother hugging the child is the

most perfect epistemological expression of love of God. Human love cannot survive

independently; it should join the love of God, since human love is the reflection of divine love

incarnated in human soul. It is just like the reflection of light that will disappear if the source of

light is dimmed, the same is true about body which is not able to survive if the soul is taken away

from it.


For the great Danish writer and philosopher S. Kierkegaard6Abraham is the symbol of

faith, since he was ready to sacrifice his son Isaac for God (the strangest and the most

unbelievable thing that a man can do.) the basis of that strange attempt is not Love of God but

Faith. The love of God and the love of son do not contradict each other. The father loves the son

more than himself, on the other hand he loves God more than himself either, on this level the

boundaries of love disappear, as within the realm of Absolute the boundaries of relative concepts

disappear. Because of its Absolute nature, Love, has neither limitations nor boundaries.

Abraham gave credence to his faith by scarifying his love to faith. In Old Testament, God still

hasn’t manifested himself as Love , he was revealed as Faith. Faith is the first stage of the three

stages that man has to take in order to reach God (the second is Hope which cannot exist without

Faith the third one is Love which gives life to Faith and Hope) and without having Faith the

doors of heaven would be closed for man. (Like Dante who ascended from Purgatory to heaven

accompanied by the heavenly love of Beatrice who acts as the symbolic representation of Love).

In New Testament, through Christ figure, God manifests himself as Love ,and makes a

transition from the Old( Testament) to the New (Testament) which stands at a much higher

spiritual level, an unlimited realm that nothing else can take its place. This love is transmitted

from Abraham to Virgin Mary that holds the child in her arm, ready to sacrifice him for love.

God sacrifices his son to man, because Abraham had sacrificed his son to God. The thematic

conflict of Old Testament is resolved here, in the New Testament. God makes his vow, and in

this way Abraham’s act becomes justified. Faith dies without love, yet Love is God himself,

God’s connection with man is established through love.

Love in religious cultures is perceived as a superior from of reason . Christ as the third

entity of the trinity, encompasses within himself the two other superior principles; i. e.Love and

reason (logos). Within the existence of Christ, non of them is able to survive without the other ,

there is no Love without reason and no reason without Love (‘both of them lead us to the same

destiny’). The Christian holy church attempts to reach to an equilibrium between love and

reason. (the other side of Christ’s equilibrium). Certain circumstances have caused different

Christian churches to be inclined to one or the other entity of the Holy Trinity. The Roman

6. Soren Kierkegaard – (1815- 1855)- Danish philosopher , theologian and religious author.


Catholic church is more inclined to the concept of Love that exists between Christ and Virgin

Mary (that’s why many psalms and religious songs of Catholic church is dedicated to Virgin

Mary, in other words they mostly worship Virgin Mary), but Lutheran Protestant church is

inclined to Holy Spirit (the third entity of Trinity) emphasizing upon the unity of spiritual

intellectual powers, and the significance of active mind and personal experience.

4

As we have already seen, the medieval art with its whole structure was directed toward

God, and the image of Man is seen in dim sketches somewhere hiding behind the figure of God,

lacking any face or independent nature or significance, that is a structure in which the ‘subject’ is

absent, here the subject acts only as a receiver and passive doer of the action, like a mask, over

which the shadows of divine figure run. Here, the absolute dominance of Christ is felt, which, as

stated earlier is the consequence of the one dimensional perception of the Christ figure. This was

a necessary step to take, the obligatory imperative of the universal spirit, a path to cross which

will lead to the revelation of the secret of the total equilibrium of Christ. The dynamic

development of culture, precisely shows those steps that are necessary to take, therefore the

history of culture is the history of the development of spirit. All changes and transformations

have their roots in the history of spirit and are justified by it. Although structure and history act

as oppositions (one being static the other dynamic) yet they penetrate into each other, and are

recoded by each other. Obviously, the structure has a history, it passes through certain

developmental stages, its internal epistemological controllers are always in alert position, ready

to break the boundaries and fly (when the changes of its internal quantitative semantic features


reaches its maximum level), but history has a structure either (if the history doesn’t have a stable

logical sequence, epistemological center, the totality of cause and effect relations etc it could not

be categorized as history). The central cultural theme of medieval period (here the word theme is

used in a much broader sense, it means the inseparable informative nucleus, that dominates the

whole structure) has a beginning, a development and an end. This theme is not static and it is

not permanently perceived as a metaphysically concluded conception, rather it has a starting

point and an elevated metaphysical nature and while entering the realm of consciousness and

history, it manifests itself as a dynamic, developing spirit which undergoes certain inner changes,

This theme is open and receptive toward time and resists any kind of stagnation and fixity. The

above mentioned epistemological progression of medieval culture can be traced in the literature

of medieval period from IV –V up to XIII centuries.

During this period of one thousand years, different literary forms emerge, each of them

contributing to the process of the development of the medieval central theme.

These literary forms were the scriptural – theological literature, the legends, morality

plays, the mysteries and religious drama, psalms, epic poems, chevalier novels and the poems of

troubadours: the development of the literary forms of this period shows that although the

literature of this period was identified as a religious one but the central theme of God/Man had

its own developmental logic due to type of relationship that is established between God and

man.( that is how much God gets closer to man and how much it moves away him)

Whenever God moves away from man the relationship becomes completely invisible and

whenever God approaches man it seems that the relationship has become observable and

tangible. Anyway, man under the dazzling light of God’s presence is unable to manifest his

whole identity.

Here, it is completely impossible to analyze the works of all Middle Age authors, this will

require the composition of numerous volumes of books which will comprise a huge library when

we notice that a great interest has recently emerged about the literary heritage of Middle Ages

in the modern world , the main cause of this interest is the fact that modern man is deeply in

need of spiritual-metaphysical literature.

It seems that modern man is searching for something permanent, stable and immortal

which can be found in the literature of Middle Ages. Modern man is unable to find a response for


this deep need in modern world, modem world is indifferent toward him although it seems that

modern man has succeeded to open up the secrets of the material world, but as far as the

metaphysical concepts are concerned he hasn’t found anything in this world except

bewilderments.

By generalizing the history of God centered literature, we could observe that God as the

inseparable epistemological center and a “categorical imperative” concept of Middle Ages

manifests itself in those theological-philosophical texts that had prominent literary significance.

The ‘Confessions’ of Augustinus Aurelius7.” The Consolation of Philosophy” by Boetius8, are

examples of this type of literature no matter how closely they were associated with the traditions

of antique literature. Although the great philosophers and theologians of the late Hellenistic age

or early Middle Ages such as Philo of Alexandria9, Tertullianus10, Origen Adamantius11 , the

byzantine preachers and theologians Hovhan Vosgeberan12, Grigor Nazianzaxi13,Grigor

Nyoosaxi14 and others wrote with poetic inspirations and personal emotional language, but it is

difficult to categorize those works as pure literary pieces although in Middle Ages the word

literature was used in a much broader sense and many literary works of that period could not be

categorized as literature in later periods.

Theological literature emerged during a period that Christianity became the dominant

religion of many Mediterranean countries and consequently many churches and religious centers

were established there . Theological studies, the interpretation of Christ’s teachings and

principles were an urgent need for those religious communities. The early Christians were not

capable of doing such studies, because they had an unquestionable deep belief in Christ’s

teachings and it seemed that they were living within Christ’s existence. The light (impulse) of

Christian belief for early Christians was so powerful and dazzling, that they feel no need to

7. Augustinus Aurelius – (354- 430)- One of the great fathers of Roman Catholic church 8. Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius – (480- 524) – Roman philosopher 9. Philo of Alexandia- (20 B.C- 50 A.D) – Greek Philosopher 10. Quintus Septimus Florens Tertullianus – (160 A.D – 220A.D) – The first Christian father who produced

extensive Latin Christian literature. . He was called the father of the Latin Christianity and the founder of Western Theology. He was the first Latin writer who used the word Trinity.

11. Origen Adamantius- (184/185- 253/254) – Early Christian scholar 12. Hovhan Vosgeberan- (347-407) – Armenian theologian and philosopher of Middle Ages 13. Grigor Nazianzaxi – (329-389)- Armenian Christian father and theologian of Middle Ages 14. Grigor Nyoosaxi – (335- 394)- Armenian Christian father and theologian of Middle Ages


interpret them. The first Christian interpreters were the theologians and philosophers who were

educated by early Greek philosophy and they were most prominently influenced by the

philosophy of Plato. They were attempting to understand the great metaphysical energy that was

spreading in Middle East and southern Europe. For them this ‘impulse’ was not as powerful as it

was for early ‘Sacrificial Christians’, but they were able to analyze and interpret Christ’s

teachings which served as a basis for the formation of the theological studies of Middle Ages.

1) The ‘Confessions’ of Augustinus Aurelins was the first autobiographical work of

early Christian age in which the author set forth the history of spiritual development.

Not trying to make any literal analysis of the text (considering the fact that there are

conceptual parallels between ‘Confessions’ and ‘Book of Lamentation’ of Grigor

Narekatsi15) it should be stated that in ”Confessions” although on the level of subject

matter, the narrator (the I) is the author himself, but the informative center of the work

is ‘God’ who acts as the origin of the whole thoughts, sensations, emotions and the

spiritual energy of the work. This energy has descended from the ‘above’ on the soul

of the author.

The initial cause of his soul’s progression and development is not “I” but “God”

against whom the “I” is simply a dead spot (/I, who is carrying my corpse…/). This is

God who could resurrect the “dead souls”. The structure of the work (“Confessions”) is

based upon two epistemological oppositions, i.e. God/ Man. The former regulates the

later due to the willingness or credence of the later, the later strives to get rid of his

‘corpse ’ and enter life ( which is his spiritual salvation). Here Man acts as an objects

whose every step is directed by the subject (God). Man occupies a secondary position

in this work, the primary agent (God), which is the source of creative evolution

functions beyond the visible domain.

2) In the biographies of the saints, the presence of the ‘above’ (God) is more dominant. It

seems that the ‘below’ (the Man), does not have any personal life or biography, his

biography first of all is related to Christ who forces Man to renounce all that is related

to earthly life. It seems that the saint is a man who has renounced his own self and by 15. Grigor Narekatsi or Gregory of Narek (951-1003) is a canonized Armenian saint, a monk, a poet, a mystical

philosopher and theologian.


whom God overcomes the world(the world in this context means the evil). The distance

between the two worlds in these works is much bigger than what we see in the

“Confessions” of Augustine’s.

3) In Legends, although Man still exists in the world, but it seems that this existence is an

obligation, since Man is portrayed as the upholder of a ‘mission’ from the ‘above’ and

he is expected to fulfill that mission. In legends the heaven is the existence , the earth

is the non-existence , therefore Man reinforces his ‘will-power’ to save himself from

the non-existence.

The hermit movement was an attempt to reinforce the will-power of mankind, although

such an attitude is quite incomprehensible for the modern man, but that is an essential

and obligatory component of the history of spirit without which the man could not

survive within any given spiritual reality. One of the most typical legends is the legend

of St. Alexis16, the only son of a Roman rich family who left his home and then

returned after many years without revealing his true identity. His father, not knowing

him ordered him to be taken in out of pity, and the servants put him in a hole under the

stairs . When it was revealed to his father in a dream who he was it was too late, for

Alexis died of hunger and neglect. This fantastic character creates different reactions.

Hegel considers it as horrible and blameworthy and even miserable, but in fact that is

an example of the ultimate from of the dedication of human soul. The greatest

temptation and refinement of his will – power. St. Alexis is not a character; he is the

embodiment of a faith and religious principle. He has ceased to live as a human on

earth; this is his faith that still survives.

4) In Mysteries and spiritual drama (the difference between these two is rather relative)

the opposition of Man and God reaches its ultimate level, Man completely disappears

in mysteries and the only actor is Christ, his passions, his death and his resurrection. It

is the absolute victory of soul over the world. The narrative basis of mysteries are the

stories of New Testament which are divided in to several circles (“the birth”,

“resurrection” etc.).

16. Saint Alexis (died in 400A.D) – The patron saints of beggars and pilgrims in Roman Catholic Church


In the presence of Christ, Men appear as shadows, and the author, especially in the

early periods, was absent. In late Middle Ages, the author sometimes added some

poetic pieces to the original text but these pieces were more illuminative than

interpretive. These pieces that were performed in the church were not permitted to

include any personal accounts, like the holy icons that seemed to be fixed images

lacking any personal interpretations.

5) In spiritual songs (in Armenian language it is called sharagans ) the totality of the

impersonalized feelings is dedicated to God and this is the only sensation that

dominates over Man’s soul. It doesn’t have any personalized subjective aspect,

although the text might refer to all subjects (persons) , yet it belongs to none of them.

The prayers are mixed with spiritual songs (there is a distinctive difference between

spiritual songs and prayers, the former is inspired from above (the spirit) the later

originates from the subject). In impersonalized songs the subject is not yet a subject,

that means it doesn’t have any individual self – consciousness, but in poetry when we

talk about impersonal text we mean a piece of work that lacks personal characteristic.

6) In Epic poems the individual’s self consciousness is more dominant than in spiritual

songs. In the epic poems of Middle Ages the sense of “debt and obligation” toward

God and the king who inherits his monarchy on earth is obvious. The king is the

incarnation of the monarchy of God, originating from the spiritual world above. If

there is a spiritual monarchy in the heaven (and Christ is regarded as the monarch) then

on the earth the monarchy should exist either and the king is the head of the heavenly

monarchy on earth .Obeying and serving the king is obeying and serving Christ. The

best example of epic poems is the circle of French epic poems. (‘Chanson de Geste;17,

the “Heroic songs” which includes ‘Roland’s song’. The characters of the poem are

presented as super-human creatures whose only purpose is to fulfill their obligations,

that’s why there are no female characters in this poem who may present any personal

emotions and sensations). Although Carlos the great, Roland and Oliver and the other

knights are not saints, but they are too close to saint figures because they serve Christ.

17. Chanson de Geste- Old French “song of heroic deeds”- French Epic poems of11-12 centuries


The only character who has personal intentions is Ganelon18 who is a negative

character since he acts against the spirit and he betrays his chivalry title.

Not focusing on other epic poems of Middle Ages (like the Celtic “Senior Edda19” and

“Junior Edda” the German “Goudrona”, the Anglo-Saxon “Beowulf”20 and the Spanish

poem “A Song of my Cid ”21) here it is worth to focus on “The Song of Nibelung22”

where the personal self-consciousness is expressed much forcefully than in “ The song

of the Roland23”. The French epic has a heroic nature and the patriotic dimensions are

emphasized. “The sweet France” an expression that is occasonally used in the poem

symbolizes Christian world with its Christian king who is in strong opposition with the

pagan king of Spain. Defeating him means defeating Christ’s enemy which is the

ultimate purpose of Christian knight. In “Nibelung Song” there aren’t such motifs, yet

its epistemological significance is much broader than “The Song of the Roland”. “The

Song of the Roland ” in spite of being limited in its epistemological significance is

composed with a greater artistic creativity. The motivating force in “Nibelung Song” is

human lust, and the problem of love and revenge. This is the viewpoint though which

the whole universe and the intricate web of human relationship are observed. The

religious reflections and the God searching attitudes are set in the background; they are

invisible for human eye, merely acting as a general – abstract context upon which the

heroes encounter their destiny. The conflicts of Siegfried24, Brunhilde25 and Grimhild

has a psychological aspect, the cause of tragedy is the world of human lust, the woman

and the love (unlike “The Song of the Roland ” that has no female character). In this

epic poem different characters are presented from different layers of the society, they

18. Ganelon ( literally meaning fraud or deception) – In “Matter of France” he is the knight who betrayed

Charlemagnes’ army to enemies. 19. Edda- Sources of medieval skaldic tradition in Iceland and Norse mythology 20. Beowulf- A conventional title of an Old English heroic epic poem written by an anonymous Anglo Saxon poet

between 8th to early 11th century 21. The Song of my Cid – (or Poem of the Cid) Spanish: Cantar de Mio Cid – Spanish medieval epic poem 22. A Song of the Nibelung – A circle of epic operas by German composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883) 23. The Song of the Roland- (French: Le Chanson de Roland) a French heroic poem, and one of outstanding

examples of Chanson de Geste 24. Seigfried- The third of the four operas that constitute The Ring of Nibelung 25. Brunhilde, Grimhil – Female characters in The Ring of Nibelung


encounter different legendary – fantastic image, these features do not appear in the

French poem. Siegfried as a man of ancient times by entering the new world, and “the

gulf of lust” signified by the presence of two powerful female figures i.e. Brunhilde

and Grimhilde experiences downfall. . Although in this poem man appears as an

independent existence, with his indisputable anthropomorphic features, but the

unknown forces of the fate dominate over him. These unknown forces are the invisible

“energetic centers” the intangible presence of which create certain characteristic

features and symbols for the characters, who are deprived of any personal concrete

manifestations, inhabited in the dark unconscious archetypal codes of human instincts

and the deeper levels of human soul.

Among the epic poems of the Middle Ages “Sasounxi David” (David of Sasoun) has an

outstanding position. In this work, different time references are used simultaneously.

(this poem was written in ancient period and there is no reliable source for specifying

its exact composition date). In its totality, this work, presents the four stages of human

evolution (in its esoteric sense, the four worlds, the four levels of man’s mystical

existence , the four generations of gods, the four gospels, the different mythological and

philosophical connotations of number four is important either ) until it reaches the

stage of the formation of the concept of the individualistic “I” which is manifested in

the tragic figure of the abandoned and alienated little Mher. The tragic aspect is related

with self-consciousness, therefore in the poem the only tragic figure is little Mher, he is

the symbol of the newly born “I”. this epic poem, which is the apogee of the epic

creativity of Armenians has not been fully analyzed and interpreted by literary scholars,

only a few attempts have been made in this regard.

7) The Chivalry literature with its two divisions of genres: chivalry novels and chivalry

lyrical poems (or the poetry of troubadours) is the last accord of the Middle Age

literature in which the concept of man gets closer to the concept of God and the energy

of God spreads over him as love, encompassing within itself the figures of the man and

the woman or the” knight” and his “dame” for whom the heavenly love has descended

and reached to the level of sexual love, and the Eros has ascended to the position of

God. The paradoxical “energetic field” of love functions as the basis for the heroic acts


of the knights. On the one hand the knight is trying to fulfill his obligation toward God

and on the other hand he is feeling obliged to serve his beloved woman and to idolize

her. The “dame”, which was called “donna” by the Provence26 troubadours27 of XII

century, was the reflection of the image of the holy Mary (Madonna) whom the knight

idolizes. This duality of love is the central theme of the love story of “Tristan and

Isolde”28 the blond Isolde whom Tristan loves and the white hand Isolde whom Tristan

marries are the symbolic figures showing the duality of love in chivalry novels. In the

first one Tristan finds the love of God and in the second one love of mankind. Due to

the ideas of Sigmund Freud this could be interpreted as the battle between ego and

super ego on the level of the “self” but this could only be seen from one dimension this

unsolvable contradiction has a fatal consequence for the newly developed individual

figure. (Tristan).

The central idea of the novel is not the life of Tristan and Isolde (although they are the

protagonists of the story) but the love that flourishes in their soul and they don’t know

what to with this feeling. The tragic figure is neither Tristan nor Isolde but the bisected

nature of their love that makes all characters of the story to get involved in it.

Although man appears as an established individual in the story, but still the

supernatural forces dominate over him and man is unable to understand his own

identity. The concept of individual identity gets its final and definite shape in Dante’s

works, where the divine and human features appear in a certain equilibrium. Here he

overcomes the one-dimensional perception of Christ figure (Christ as God) and moves

toward the humanistic dimension of Christ (Christ as Man). In this way he turns toward

a newly developed mentality , where man appears as the epistemological center and

God as the background upon which the whole incidents of human life unfold. It seems

that this is an inverted from of the mentality of the Middle Ages, where the center and

the background charge their positions. This could be illustrated with the following

26. Provence- A geographical region and historical province of south of France which extends from lower bank of

Rhone river on the west an the Italian boarder on the east 27.Troubadour- A composer and performer of lyric poetry in Provence during high Middle Ages (1100-1350) 28. Tristan and Isolde – A romance by Gottfied von Strassburg (1210)


scheme, where the internal progression of the dominant theme of Middle Ages related

to genre development of literary works is detectable.

In the first one the object (God) and subject (man) are present. The information comes

from the object i.e. God (descends from the above) to the subject (below- Man) who is the

receiver of the information. In the second one (Biographies of the Saints, legends) the

significance of the object increases therefore the role of the subject diminishes (God apparently

exercises a sovereignty over man): in the third one (Mysteries and Religious drama) the subject

is absolutely absent, he doesn’t have any impact over the object . In Mysteries and the Religions

drama the distinctive line between the object and the subject occasionally becomes blurred and

indefinite. These works merely demonstrate God’s (Christ-God) life, his passions, his death and

resurrection. The subject has merely the role of an observer performing no action. In the forth

one the role of the subject develops (Spiritual songs, Epic poems) which is directly related with

the process of the actualization of God’s will. In the fifth one (Chivalry novel and Lyrical

poems) the subject approaches the object and becomes the active part. The equilibrium of the

two sides becomes evident in Dante’s “The Divine Comedy” which has great affinities with the

“Confessions” of Augustinus Aurelius. The subjectivism of Augustinus (the lyrical basis of his

composition and language) in “The Divine Comedy” changes in to objectivism (epic principle).

Renaissance


Christ-Man

Since XIII century a general shift in the understanding of the two facets of Christ figure

occurred i.e. the human facet of Christ gained significance.

Earlier, this facet was used to serve as a background, carrying upon itself the influence of

the divine facet, the one that suppresses the human existence withdrawing it to the background.

It was quite obvious that, the human facet was not able to bear upon itself the heavy

burden of God’s dynamic and fervent existence for a long time; that’s why it became

“separated” from him on the Golgotha29 to join him again three days later. The last prayer of

Christ on the cross “Oh God, oh God why have you forsaken me30?” apart from its esoteric

interpretations is regarded as the last prayer of man to God. The separation and the nullification

(death and resurrection) have symbolic meanings, they serve as an inviolable basis upon which

the human destiny lies, that is the outlook of Man toward the mythological figure of Christ

beyond the “circle” of physical world. The crucified Christ “abandons” the spirit of God just in

the same way that Christ figure enters the cultural system of Renaissance period, gradually

ascends to its climax, makes some arrangements for the appearance of his “human” facet, and

establishes a new cultural system called “Renaissance”. (the term “Renaissance” is not a suitable

expression for specifying the nature and characteristics of this period since in the word

Renaissance the dominance of the features of the antique culture is emphasized while

Renaissance period is not a period of reconstructing and transfigurating of the antique values ,

rather it is considered as a period of establishing a new system of thought with specific

structural and formal characteristic which is quite different and even to some extent stands in

sharp contrast with the norms of antique art although foregrounding the significance of Man was

considered a common feature in both periods.

The pointer of the spiritual “compass” turns toward a new phenomenon, where man

becomes the focus of attention, the new “categorical-imperative” of the culture with all its

implications. Christ approaches man as a human, but departs him as a God. This epistemological

29. Golgotha (Greek word meaning a place for a skull)- a place outside Jerusalem where Christ was crucified 30. Mathew 27:46


correlation of the two paradoxical processes of approaching and departing is the paradigm of

Renaissance period, its central conflict, having Christ as an approaching figure on one side and

Christ as a departing figure on the other side where the later on a symbolic level is revealed by

the former.

Departing Christ (Christ as God) sets as a background for the mythological figure of

approaching Christ (Christ as Man). The approaching Christ appears in the foreground, the

concept is directly related with Renaissance man, who seeks within his soul (consciously or

unconsciously)the concept of the approaching Christ - Man

The inner dynamism of Christ figure is created as a consequence of its appreciation on two

levels; the Christ figure set as foreground and Christ figure set as background. This is the typical

characteristic of Western culture. While western culture is based upon dramatization (because of

its inner dynamism originating from Renaissance period), the eastern culture is based upon

lyricism, that’s why the dominant genre of western literature is drama while the dominant genre

of eastern culture is lyric poems. Eastern drama has lyrical characteristics while western lyricism

has dramatic features.

Everything revolves around the internal “bipolar” nature of Christ figure as it is

appreciated by man. This appreciation, in turn, is related to the historical evolution of the

perception of Christ figure. The “Christ-God” medieval perception gradually gives way to

“Christ-Man” perception while the former moves to the background exerting its reflection upon.

the foregrounded (“Christ-Man”). In “God-Man” association, the God stands in the first plan

covering Man, as in Middle Ages God takes man under his own shadow. Now in Renaissance

the man, awakening after a long sleep tries to find himself within the existence of Christ, he

attempts to peer with his own eyes, finding and justifying his own “self” as an earthly existence,

standing all-alone in a detached space in the intersection of the world’s alien powers, facing his

destiny all alone. In this situation, he is forced to choose, and become the central figure of the

world’s literature and art, that develops, passes through the evolution stages, reaches his climax

and then withdraws.

Thirteenth century is marked as the beginning period for the earthly incarnation of the

image of man in the realm of literature. In this period the Italian troubadours created a new

sweet poetic style which could be considered as the early forms of European lyric poetry. They


organized and canonized the poetry which had their origins in medieval period (canonization

and systematization were the categorical principles of Middle Ages which were closely

associated with the systematized perception of spiritual realities and scholastic attitudes). In

Italian poetry these categorized principles were substituted by a free creative style as a poetic

model of the individual world, presenting new structural and linguistic forms.

This could be seen as a step moving toward the subject, a kind of separation from the

general background, the creation of a new reality, where the subject gains new face and destiny.

The first step that was made toward creating structural independence in poetry was the formation

of sonnet by Sicilian poet Giocomo De Lentini31. In his sonnets, within the restricted and

systematized from of poetry he created the possibility of the free and unlimited development of

the content (and we see this unconstrained development of the content in the world of poetry up

to the present time). On the other hand in the period rhyme was introduced in the poetry (many

experts believe that the impact of Spanish-Arabic poetry had a dominant role in the creation of

rhyme but as Hegel mentions, rhyme was the consequence of the development of the inner

rhythmic patterns of the language not the consequence of any foreign impacts). Rhyme is absent

in medieval poetry, since the revelation of the spiritual content is the basic element of each line

of poetry, possessing a huge amount of energy which compensates the lack of rhyme in poetry

and makes rhyme seem redundant. The reduction or withdrawal of spiritual content in poetic

text makes it possible or opens up a space for the entrance and settlement of individual existence

in the poetry where through the usage of “rhyme” the possibly of revealing the true nature of

individuality is created. In other words, the using rhyme is synonymous to the presence of

human individuality in the text. In poetic expressions, gradually the spiritual content moves

“downward” while finding its reflection in the “upper” world.

Rhyme as one of the most important elements of rhythm, apart from creating a formal

structure for the inner world of each individual, it joins the different lines of poetry and creates

an epistemological correlation between the two spheres or two levels, which gradually diverge

from each other: the downward sphere moving more downward and the upward level moving

more upward. In this way the dramatic tension of the text reaches its climax and on this level

31. Giacomo De Lentini – Italian poet of 13th century


usually the spiritual content becomes invisible cutting all its connections with man, leaving him

all alone without any spiritual support. This is the phase where man reaches absurdity and his

human existence disappears. Since rhyme is the immediate expression of the individual lyrical

perception which has appeared as foreground (this principle also applies for epic and dramatic

poems, where the lyrical element is always present) it compensates the absence of spiritual

content as a central element of the poetic structure and a linguistic-rhythmic figure. In the poetry

of antique period the absence of rhyme is associated with the concept of the eternal existence of

cosmos as the ultimate from of systematized entity and the relation of man with cosmos as the

most perfect and definite conception. (later in mid ninetieth and early twentieth century the

significance and presence of man as a dominant figure diminishes therefore the usage of rhyme

patterns becomes rare in poetry and gradually the free verse becomes common).

Heaven – Earth

(Body – Soul)

As we know perceiving the human aspect of Christ figure became dominant after Middle

Ages when Man disclosed his own being within the existence of Christ. At this stage he arrived

at this conclusion that the existence of God could be comprehended only through knowing your

own self, unlike the dominant mentality of Middle Ages which says by knowing God Man will

be able to know himself. Self-knowledge and recognizing the inner world of human beings

which used to be forbidden zones and concepts beyond the boundaries of human understanding

gained remarkable significance in this period , since through this perception the reconstruction

of the mythological facet of Christ would occur which might lead to the formation of a new


understanding of Christ and illumination of the individual mentality. This zone was quite

unknown to man up to that time. Although the materialistic aspect of human mind was a known

concept at that time but still it hadn’t proved its existence as an independent entity and an

object which possesses spiritual significance. In the sweet new poetic style of the thirteenth

century poets, the early signals of the arrival of this new world had already been heard. At first

these signals were weak, barely audible but little by little they got intensified and reached to the

point that the writer became immersed in the his own emotions and sufferings not being able to

find any responses for those signals in the outer world. The poet, finding himself on earth and

accepting the impulse of this world within his own consciousness first of all finds the “love

impulse” which is the strangest of all impulses and is able to muffle all other signals, and with

its “hidden” energy set all other spiritual energies into motion. These energies move according to

the command and movement of the love impulse which acts as the governing center of a spiritual

process controlling the intricate system of emotional and intellectual associations. Here, I world

like to refer to the twentieth century French famous writer, François Mauriac’s32 witty statement

about the thematic relations in literature. He believes that basically in literature three

fundamental relations exist.

1. God and man

2. Death and man

3. Man and women

All other themes revolve around these three as their various manifestations and

interpretations. Furthermore, these three relations appear simultaneously, although in this

combination one of them gains the focal position and the other two hide themselves within the

layers of the text becoming the implied and inexplicable inner symbolic level of the text.

Therefore within the sub layers of any artistic work, God and man and death and love

relationship are implied (otherwise it will be deprived of its inner psychological-semantic

significance and will turn into scholasticism without having any aesthetic value). Death-man

relationship is correlated with God and love. Eros rises to heaven, associating with human fate

(death), becoming a connection link between heaven and earth, joining the spiritual significance

32. Francois Mauriac- (1885-1971)- French author


with inner emotional energies which are re-signified and recoded under the influence of spiritual

significance, and becoming purified and consecrated. But if Eros is supposed to ascend to

spiritual significance, it is essential for death to descend and reach Eros, enter the intricate layers

of human soul and receive corporal features (becoming incarnated). This opposite process of

incarnation and de-incarnation is the most essential inner movement in the realm of poetry and

the basis of European dramatic lyricism upon which its structural foundation lies.

If the spiritual significance is supposed to descended it should leave its heavenly magnetic

center (Christ’s heavenly spirit), this becomes possible when the “pointer” of mans perception of

Christ is directed toward his human facet, otherwise the entrance would be impossible. The

movement of this pointer can neither be accelerated nor slowed down; it has its own definite

pace, which appears as a poetic inspiration making the poets find the true path, or not to disturb

the progression of this movement by using new figurative language. (the poem is created by

itself, the poet doesn’t use any intentional force to make the creative process happen.)

Beatrice in Heaven : Dante

1

Dante defines the thirteen century Italian poetry as “Those dulcet lays of yours”

(“Purgatory” XXIV line 113). Considering his style, which he calls it “dulcet ” by characterizing

its human nature (unlike the harsh religious style of Middle Ages when the human facet appears

only as a background). Following the Provencal troubadours who wrote in Occitan33 language (

not Latin), the Italian poets started to write in Italian abandoning the Latin which had become a

dead language at that time and was not a suitable language for expressing the individual’s

emotions, rather they chose the vernacular language (the vulgar, street talk) to write. The new

style was originally used in Sicilia then it moved to northern Italy becoming a definite poetical

movement. The famous poets of this new style were Guido Guinzelli34 (Dante met him in

Purgatory Canto XXIV). Guido Cavalcanti35 the famous poet and philosopher was a senior friend

33. Occitan – Old Provencal language (8-14 centuries) 34. Guido Guinzelli (1230-1276)- Italian poet. Dante considered himself as a disciple of him 35. Guido Cavalcanti (1250-1300)- Florancian poet


of Dante. He and Dante had a great contribution to the development of this new style (“New

Life” collection) what joins these two poets together, apart from the common stylistic techniques

was the theme of love, “Eros ” as it was mentioned earlier. The impersonalized Donna figure of

Provence poets and singers, which (as stated earlier) was the symbol of St. Mary (the dominant

motif of chivalry literature ), observed by human viewpoint and subjected to the strict

systematization of chivalry principles, forcing the poet to work in a limited creative zone,

received a more individualized aspect in the poetry of thirteen century. It became liberated from

chivalry coding system. The new style searched the origin of love in “vision and pleasure”,

through vision (eyes ) the “image of beauty” penetrates in to the soul “settles there and rules over

the mind”.

Although the poets of the new sweet style imitated many of the conventions of

troubadours, but in their works a wholly specified informative center was portrayed, paying

much more emphasis to the spiritual meaning and not focusing upon the unique characterization

of Eros. Guido Guinzelli fundamentally changed the image of Provencal love. He believes that

the earthy love is the “transfigurated” form of the heavenly love, which approaches only virtuous

souls and purifies them from malicious lusts. “As the fire is extinguished by water, any kind of

untruthfulness disappears by the touch of love”, since the truthfulness and love exist side by side

“as the sun and its brilliance”. In his poetry, love as the heavenly supreme force, which is

capable of capturing human soul is presented as an abstract idea and the truth. Love doesn’t

find its full embodiment in his poetry, rather the idea of love and passion are dominant, instead

of the inner passion and vivacity we find intellectual enlightment purely signaling the presence

of emotion and demonstrating its external reflection. Guido Cavalcanti moves a step further, he

talks about love and in this sense he stands much closer to the love even being able to touch “its

surface”, but this touch “doesn’t burn” his hand.

The descending of the spiritual meaning upon Eros doesn’t occur easily, because for Eros

either it is difficult to ascend and reach the level of spiritual meaning. They meet each other in

the uppermost level of the fusion of spirit and mind. Here Eros mingles with the spiritual

meaning and the spiritual meaning in return, gains a concrete name, identity, specific features

and fate and enters the symbolic-allegoric sub layers of language where the mind (here referred


to as spiritual meaning) and emotion penetrate into each other, bringing one another in to life.

None of them is able to survive without another.

The character , ( the relationship of which with the humanistic facet of the history is the

same as the relationship of the original and the fake) externally manifests the inner sign

system (the spiritual meaning or the mental world) and the sign system in return needs to be

reincarnated within the character to gain the only possibility of entering the world. In the

poetry of Dante this process occurs. Here Beatrice is the central figure who contains within

herself the inner equilibrium of all dimensions (theological-philosophical, allegorical-historical,

moral-aesthetic etc). InNew Life collection, love is expressed as a concrete entity.. Following the

literary works of the three famous poets we may see the evolution of love in the following

processes: love as a principle-emotion (Guido Guinzelli) love as emotion-philosophy (Guido

Cavalcanti ), love as a concrete entity (Dante Alighieri).

In the works of the first two poets, the gradual development of love leads to the formation

of a principle which closely approaches the love boarder. Dante crosses this boarder, showing

love as a concrete entity , life style, where rather than being a concept and idea , it acts as life

itself. Dante doesn’t preach about love (although in his work there are several judgments about

love), rather he creates love as an independent entity, love is not incarnated in the mind but in

the heart, where it opens up its way toward heaven. In this way, the earthly suffering soul reaches

the supreme realm. Dante’s expression of love is completely in harmony with the concept of

Christian love, love is both a path, which human soul is supposed to cross and an initial energy

that by its multidimensional aspect sets the cosmos in to motion (by earthly and heavenly bodies,

suns, stars etc) and it functions as the ultimate destination where human soul wishes to reach

(“He, who escapes from God’s hand”). The earthly love (the love which is out of existence of

Christ) finds human heart, captures it, completely transforms it, and draws it toward itself

liberating it from the inferior world . It seems that the two masterpieces of Dante. i. e. New life

and Divine comedy are the two stages of reaching love.

The former, is the earthy love story of Dante and Beatrice (happening in Florence, where

Dante fell in love with Beatrice and after her death in 1290 he publishes his impressive love

confessions) and the later is the heavenly realm of love, the Paradise, where Beatrice lives

(Dante wrote the poem after being banished from Florence and he finishes it just before his death


in 1321). These two stages, on their epistemological level correspond to the two stages of human

life. The first half when man has an earthly existence and he commits certain mistakes, is

deluded, and the second half when man tries to liberate himself from all his faults. Dante begins

his Divine Comedy with this phrase ,“Midway upon the journey of our life ” 36 and he moves to

the second stage of his life and he attempts to liberate himself from all the faults of the first

stage. Dante has taken the theological-philosophical principle of the two worlds from Augustinus

Aurelius who had presented the same idea by symbolic image of the two cities (Rome and

Jerusalem). Rome, being the symbol of mistakes and delusions, Jerusalem presenting the idea of

liberation and salvation (the heavenly Jerusalem). Dante chooses two equivalents of Augustinu’s

choice of cities; Florence ( the symbol of the first half of life) and the Paradise ( the symbol of

the second half of life). Here we see the two aspects of love, Dante, acting as a human being

under the impression of different forces , yet through his free will being capable of choosing

(actually he is forced to choose) the right path. Beatrice, who has already crossed this path and

has become the embodiment of heavenly love, and she shows the right path to Dante from

heaven.

The two worlds as two individuals (lovers) are joined together by love, , therefore love is

the unique force that dominates over the earth as well as heaven. Although love originates from

the inaccessible heavenly spirit, but due to the choice and orientation of man, it incarnates within

human soul. In this sense, man’s free will is essential to give birth to love. . This is quite

different from the idea of love in antique art, when Eros’s arrow (the god of love) hits the

individual without asking him whether he wants it or not, so this is done quite blindly since the

spiritual aspect of love is not emphasized here. (for example the love of Paris and Helen cannot

be regarded as a spiritual love , although the divine element is so dominant there). This love is

not as tragic as the love of Tristan and Isolde since Beatrice as one side of this love relationship

appears as the emanation of heavenly love transferring the energy of love to Dante who is a

suffering and frustrated figure on earth yet he could not be regarded as a tragic figure because he

is inspired by heavenly love of Beatrice and he is waiting for salvation.

36. Divine Comedy- Inferno, Canto 1 , Line 1


The above and below, the upper and lower, the heaven (Beatrice) and earth (Dante) form

two opposing poles. . Here, the one who is above descends to save the one who is below, the one

who is below in turn ascends from the earth (hell) toward the supreme realm (heaven) to find

heavenly love and salvation . Dante ascends, since Beatrice descends. These opposite

movements are made because of one-another, they are related to each other, otherwise there

would be no movement and the meeting will not occur.

The mutual gravitation that occurs between the two spheres of heaven and earth influences

the endless wanderings of the deluded man in the dark forest and this motivates him to unveil the

hidden secrets of the heaven and earth. In this stageDante appears as the symbol of human values

and the embodiment of the spiritual-intellectual aptitudes. The cosmos runs and develops

between him and Beatrice. In order to reach Beatrice, Dante is forced to cross the whole

universe. Dante and Beatrice are located on the two poles of the universe, metaphorically

speaking they are standing on two banks of the river, so in order to reach each other they should

swim in the river. The power comes from the one side of the river (heaven) and the

determination from the other side (the earth). If man wants to get rid of the three allegorical

animals (the lion, the panther and the female wolf ) (man cannot save himself by relying on his

own efforts) this will be possible only if man is determined to be saved. Virgil (the symbol of

reason) guides Dante to reach Beatrice, but human reason and knowledge can only guide him up

to the doors of the salvation (the last floor of Purgatory, the Eden or heaven) that is, it can only

prepare him for salvation, but the real salvation comes from the upper realm, the love of

Beatrice, who is the embodiment of love and divine reason. By reaching Eden, Virgil ends his

mission and returns. Beatrice guides him from Eden to Paradise. The doors of salvation are

closed without the help of love. Some literary critics believe that these two stages symbolize the

idea of the two testaments. The Old Testament acting as the symbol of law, reason and mind

(Moses Abraham)_ and New Testament symbolizing the revelation of love (Christ) which

appears whenever the concepts of the Old Testament are established(as the descending of the

dove on Christ during his baptism in Jordan).

In the epistemological triangle of Dante-Virgil-Beatrice, if we follow Dante’s advice and

read The Divine Comedy using its hidden codes (Dante believes that the poem is composed of

three layers, while reading the poem we shouldn’t forget about the text’s inner layers) we may


see the three main dimensions of human existence: the body (man in nature) the soul (his

inseparable identity) – the spirit (the universal principle of existence, the origin of the other two)

“Look that from me thou be not separated” (“Purgatory” Canto XVI) where is the soul escaping?

Of course, it is running toward the body,( the nature-acting as the supreme form of the

embodiment of human soul) here man appears in the state of equilibrium, he starts to work and

ascend toward the spirit and there he finds the equilibrium that he had lost after entering the

dense layers of existence (nature). For the first time Dante’s poetry provides the possibility for

the man to stand on his own feet, to ascend, to grow and to enter the eternal domain, to join

heavenly love, to capture love (Beatrice) by the power of reason (Virgil) (Paradise Canto

XXXIII), to see the celestial aspect of trinity, where as Dante states “Now doth this man, who

from the lowest depth of the universe as far as here was seen” (Paradise, Canto XXXIII). In the

Middle Ages, the conception of Christ as a man was quite unusual but in Dante’s work Christ is

presented through its human aspect.

2

In western poetry, Beatrice is considered as the first feminine character (not to mention the

feminine characters of epic-poems and chivalry novels) and many literary critics specialized in

the study of Dante’s works have presented different interpretations in this regard, using different

approaches for analyzing her character as an image or as a symbol. Beatrice presents the

historical-psychological dimension of a specific milieu and a personality. As a sign (symbol) she

acts as the embodiment of a special spiritual meaning. In New Life the image of Beatrice is more

emphasized than inDivine Comedy, therefore the action of New life takes place on earth (in

Florence) (of course most of the action is internal rather than external which moves the plot

forward) and in spite of the spiritual-allegoric nature of the work, the relationship between the

symbolic representation and physical denotation of the character of Beatrice is preserved it

means in the former work Beatrice appears as a woman, and Dante finds the ultimate form of

spiritual beauty in her soul, in the later work she is a spiritual creature from heaven in whom

Dante finds his beloved woman. Considering both works in their totality , we may see that the

figure of Beatrice lies in a general state of equilibrium, and all the dramatic elements are in the


state of harmonic balance. This is closely related to the inner equilibrium of Dante’s work, the

exact mathematical architecture and above all-in the conformity and balance that exists between

the developing Man and God relation. When God doesn’t suppress human will, and Man

himself chooses the right path, he is motivated by the sense of responsibility and is directed by

the inner forces. This path leads to God, although the energy comes from the above but this

energy gives man a spiritual awareness to save himself from personal lusts, desires, sins,

mistakes and delusions. These are the things that Beatrice criticizes in Dante while she is in

heaven and she moves forward, toward God. Dante’s Apollonian love (to use Nietzsche s term)

creates a huge structure, where the borderlines between the physical and spiritual worlds vanish

creating a new universe, through which Man passes and upon whom all the beams of universe

are directed.

One aspect of the “Apollonian” harmonized structure is the character of Beatrice, in whom

the internal and external perfection of the structure is reflected. Her figure contains “the

metaphysics of light” (God has appeared on earth as Light). Dante meets Beatrice in Heaven; she

spreads her love from heaven upon the suffering of Man on earth. She remains as the

illuminating love symbol, who is able to enlighten the dark forest of life by her supreme

feminine features.

Laura between Heaven and Earth : Petrarch

In “Divine comedy” Beatrice is portrayed as a feminine figure in Heaven, her equilibrium

is the reflection of the absolute harmony and balance of Heaven. In New Life, as we have already

seen, Beatrice is a woman in whom Dante finds the spiritual meaning but in the Divine comedy

she is a spiritual meaning hiding under the mask of femininity. In Gnostic37 texts (Thomas’s

Bible) the soul has feminine nature. (“The soul is a Woman”). The mythological figure of

“Eternal Woman” of W. Goethe38 (The Eternal Woman awakens us\ “Faust” Part II) as well as

those found in the Russian literature of late nineteenth and early twentieth century (Vladimir

37. Gnostic science- a system of belief which combines the ideas driven from Greek mythology, Oriental mysticism

and Christianity stressing on salvation through gnosis(= knowledge, recognition) 38. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) – German writer, artist and politician


Slovyov39and Alexander Blok40) are closely related to this concept. Beatrice’s character contains

the three reflections of the spiritual meaning : Love- Soul- Woman ; as a key to eternal life. (In

Indo_ European language the initial meaning of woman is life, in Armenian “Kin - Kyan =

woman - life”). Beatrice is not identified by Holy Mary nor is she the pure reflection of her. She

preserves her own identity in Heaven, although the feminine aspect acts as mask for her but that

mask keeps her in feminine domain (not only the external aspect of mask but also its

commitment and spiritual significance) and gives her the possibility to be reincarnated on earth.

Dante’s look remains upward and he doesn’t look for that reincarnation on earth. “Here my

majestic apparition ends// but my unshakable love and will// and my great love has already

turned into motion // which leads the other suns and stars”. It seems that from New Life to

Divine Comedy, the depersonalization process of the woman takes place, the transition from

earth to heaven, from physical to spiritual, from time to eternity .Dante doesn’t show us the

opposite direction, that is the personalization process because it is out of his horizon. After

Dante, the gradual steps toward the personification of female figure occur in the work of

Boccaccio41 and Petrarch42.

Each of them had their own contribution in the development of feminine figure (the

movement from Heaven to Earth).

1

When Dante died in 1321, Petrarch was seventeen years old, although they belong to the

same era but Petrarch had different outlooks and it seemed that he had somehow set off against

Dante. Dante completed the millennial literature of Middle Ages, he led the literature of this

period toward perfection, and it seems as if he completed the construction of a Church where

God and Man live harmoniously and equally next to each other. We might say that he was the

39. Vladimir Slovyov (1853-1900)- Russian philosopher and poet 40. Alexander Blok (1880-1924) – Russian lyrical poet 41. Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375)- Italian author and poet 42. Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374)- Italian author and poet


last poet of an era, one of the unique poets of the world of literature whose tradition couldn’t be

continued by the creative attempts of the next generations.

The continuation of the tradition of poets like Dante is impossible, they don’t establish a

trend (or direction) to be followed (like Shakespeare or Goethe) it is not possible to be an

apprentice of their tradition. It is not possible to approach the poetic techniques of Dante and try

to learn about the secrets of his poetic craft, because his style is simply unrepeatable , we can

learn the secrets of spirit from him. Unlike Dante ,Petrarch is a pioneer (leading) poet, it means

he is the avanguard poet of a new artistic movement, and he is standing next to the origins of this

new movement and the immediate impact of his style could be traced in the works of the latter

poets.

There is no Danteian tradition but there is Petrarchian tradition which is observable in the

works of the latter poets (not only Italian poets, but also all European poets). Within the poetic

tradition of the national poets of each country there are pioneering and concluding poets, that no

matter how paradoxical they style might be, they cannot survive without one another. Petrarch

is the initiator of the European Lyricism. Conzoniere (Songbook) a collection of Petrarch’s

sonnets, is one single comprehensive volume serving as a model for the later poets.

Although each sonnet is categorized as an independent literary piece, but in a general

scale they are associated with one another. They share general ideas , poetic styles and the most

important of all they present the female character which appears from the first page to the last

page, passing the different developmental stages.

2

Petrarch, in his sonnets dedicated to Laura creates a female character that in spite of having

certain common features with Beatrice she possesses certain characteristics which makes her

somehow different from Beatrice . These are features like having a more intensified degree of

personalization and human features and having an individual destiny while “descending” on

earth and living there. Petrarch’s eyes are toward heaven, but his heart is on earth, this duality is

the basis of the duality of his character functioning as the initial cause of the work’s dynamism

and movement.

a. If Dante see Beatrice in heaven, Petrarch sees Laura between heaven and earth, a

semi personified feminine essence, who is not yet a woman but she is not a “soul” either, she is a


being, an existence on earth within whom the earthly and the heavenly sides coexist Laura is so

close to the figure of Beatrice in New Life, they share their earthly features, Beatrice and Laura

stand on two different poles of one spectrum..

Laura’s weightless beamlike soul although standing very close to earth but is associated

with the heaven, from which she could not be separated and she is the one whom the heaven will

call back. The Song book43 is made up of two parts “Sonnets written and dedicated to Madonna

Laura when she was alive” and “Sonnets written after Madonna Laura’s death”. It seems that on

its totality this work repeats the evolutionary line of New Life and Divine Comedy but on a

different scale.

b. It has been stated earlier that Dante found Beatrice in heaven, but Petrarch found the

heaven within Laura’s soul. Here they appear on two opposing positions, in the former

the heaven reveals Beatrice and in the later Laura reveals the heaven. Therefore, the

former will be impersonalized and the later personalized, consequently the Divine

Comedy will be constructed on the basis of epic poetry, while the other will be

considered as lyrical, where the presence of the individual is more obvious. The heaven

stands between Dante and Beatrice, while between Petrarch and heaven Laura stands.

In Dante’s poetry the heaven conceals Beatrice, because it has to call her back but in

Petrarch’s poems this is Laura who conceals the heaven. The heaven for Dante is transparent,

through which he sees the reflections of Beatrice, the same is true about Laura the outline of

heaven is observable in her soul. Here, the feminine figure moves a step forward, toward

personalization, but the process is not finished yet. Within Laura’s soul, Petrarch sees the

infinity of the heaven (its endlessness, its beauty, its power, which creates an overflow of

emotions and suffering in him). In Petrarch’s poetry the heaven could not be found in the

universe but within the human soul, therefore it should be brilliant, beautiful, virtuous like the

image of morning dew that he uses in his poetry upon which we can see the brilliant reflection of

the sun’s beam

c. Beatrice and Laura standing on two different levels simultaneously complete one

another and within the spiritual - scholastic features of Christianity they become the 43. Song book- Original name Il Canzoniere or Rerum Vulgarium Fragment )Fragments of the Common things)

collection of 366 poems by Petrarch.


same as the two levels of the same soul. (In Beatrice there is more of principle, in

Laura more of life).

The Elegy of Madonna Fiammetta :Boccaccio

The personalization of the feminine figure in the fourteen century, after Beatrice and Laura

reaches its climax in the works of Giovanni Boccaccio, where she appears on earth among real

people, being a part of real communications. Man and Woman relationship neither occurs in the

supreme realms of heaven, nor between heaven and earth (on the level of dream and

contemplation) but purely in the physical world, more specifically in the bedroom. Fiammetta,

Baccacciou’s heroine is a feminine figure, impersonalized in the dense layers of earthly

existence, she is a woman living on earth, being expelled in to the complex and unpredictable

world, and she has the urgent need to survive.

Boccaccious novel (The Elegy of Madonna Fiammetta) is the first psychological novel of

the Western world. The protagonist is a woman, and this could not be observed as a coincidence,

because the earthly impulse of existence originates from man- woman relationship, through

which man becomes fully aware of his existence on earth.

In Fiammetta, love descends from the heaven and assimilates (identifies) with Eros. That is

not the principle of love, but the love itself, desposed in human body. The movement of love

begins from the “above” and ends in “below”. Beatrice-Laura-Fiammetta are three levels of the

same mythological figure, the three faces of the same spirit. Beatrice lives in heavenly bliss,

higher than earthly life, nobody could touch or bother her (like the supreme idea of Plato which

has ended its journey on earth), Laura is an image of beauty, binds the heaven and earth together,

evoking Petrarch’s soul, who is lifeless , but he keeps her on the dynamic level of life (“from

there the energy is exerted upon me …”). Fiammetta looks for her own way of life on earth, she

finds it in love, but again while approaching pain and suffering, she loses it. From these three

figures, Fiammetta is tragic, since she has entered the earthly life all alone, without any

protection, standing against the alien forces of the external world that are ready to annihilate her.

The tragedy begins, when man enters the world, becomes the embodiment of the reality,

accepts the responsibilities that life has imposed upon him, starts communicating with other

people who do not always correspond to his own inner needs. Fiammetta is in love with Panfilo


but Panfilo after a certain time leaves her and moves from Naples to Florence (the novel has

some auto biographical indications)

a. Beatrice is an epic figure, Laura is lyric and Fiammetta is tragic. That’s why the

literary genre of the first is narrative poem, the second one is sonnet and the third one is novel.

Novel is the only new literary genre, that is capable of duplicating man’s everyday, earthly

actions, performing on two planes: the external (the social - historical) and internal (individual -

psychological). These two planes do not necessarily function on the same level.

b. Fimmetta falls in love with Panfilo, betrays her husband, becomes frustrated and

depressed, cries over the ruins of her lost love, but deep in her heart she clings to Christian

morality. The inner link between Fiammetta, Laura and Beatrice is never cut, she doesn’t plunge

into the world of immorality. A spiritual significance still remains in the tragedy. Although this

significance is weak in the characterization, but it still exists . Without this spiritual significance

there would be no tragedy. It serves as the basis of the tragedy, its informative center. It is the

pushing force of all tragedies, and this is what gives man energy to resist the blows of faith. The

man, lacking this aspect, cannot turn into tragic figure and no conception (idea) could be

constructed upon him, since the substance of the literary work by itself is not tragic (being tragic

is a specific category of understanding )

c. The suffering and the tragedy of Fiammetta is the cost that man pays for losing

the paradise of his soul. Fiammetta should suffer, because by descending to the earth she has

been separated from Beatrice (although Beatrice is present in her inner image as the spiritual

meaning ).The heavenly (spiritual) and earthy (erotic) connection of love is not guaranteed on

earth, it may be cut at any moment. By cutting this connection, the spiritual aspect will lose the

possibility of being incarnated (embodied) on earth and the erotic aspect will be cut off from its

origins and will vanish. (It will be incarnated in the animalistic world, not the human universe).

Man’s life moves on a two - edged sward. Fiametta can’t help loving, but she can’t love either,

she is ready to offer her love, but nobody is ready to accept it. Unable to solve this dichotomy,

Boccaccio moves to “Decameron”, the basis of which lies on the mockery of human situation,

with all its happy and unhappy incidents, like the curtain which falls on the stage concealing all

the realities that occur behind it. the whole prose of Western World originates from

“Decameron”.


The presence of spiritual meaning in human life, is the only way (path) which leads to

supreme realm and doesn’t let him to plunge into the depths of earthly miseries. That is the spot

where the doors of Dante’s Hell are opened. No matter how far he moves away from that

“meaning”, he consciously or subconsciously looks for way to return.

Literature is the projection of the conflict that exists between the inner desires of the

man. (attempts to reach the nostalgia of finding the spiritual meaning). While crossing the

dangerous roads of life, Man looks “back” (or up) trying to find the right path. Since thirteen and

fourteen century, the human facet of Christ has been emphasized in literature, it has developed

and reached its climax in Shakespear’s works.

II. The dichotomy: “Middle Ages - Eden”

vs. “Renaissance earthly World”

Tears of St. Peter


The revelation of Man’s essence on earth is portrayed in the poetry of the three dominant

poets of 13- 14 century (Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio). We see the evolution of Beatrice’s

character in Laura and Fiammetta, where she gains earthly, concrete features, place and time ,

enters the domain of human communications accepting all the consequences. This process

resembles the Fall of Adam and Eve from Eden, when Man having lost his Eden, finds himself a

world that is unknown, wild, full of danger and sufferings, standing all alone, helpless,

unprotected, doomed to act by his own choice and make judgments independently, ready to

suffer the consequences of his own free choiceand all those things that no one expect him is

going to feel responsible for.

Epistemologically, The Middle Ages corresponds the “Eden” appearing under the dazzling

light of God. This light is so intense that, Man while being banished on earth and losing his

independent shape and form becomes invisible under the shadow of it. In fourteen century, man

crossed the boarder between the two worlds and reveals a new reality for himself , creating two

epistemological directions

Middle Ages – Eden- the epistemological centers of these two conceptions (on an esoteric

religious - mythological level) have remarkable connections, which give us the possibility to see

them on the same informative level. These connections originate from the context of Man’s inner

orientation, position, form of understandings and the different directions of spiritual

development.

a. Man in Biblical Eden - The creator (God) is presented as the absolute existence and

Man as his emanation, lacking any essence, consequently, not having any possibility for

development. The tradition of the forbidden fruit of Adam and Eve is closely linked with

the concept of gaining essence, the ransom of which is losing Eden.

The transition from Eden to the world, doesn’t necessarily mean the transition from one

essence to another, rather it is the transition from the supreme forms of intuition to the

consciousness, from objective existence to subjective world. This transition functions as the axis

of the universe and at the same time as a viewpoint, without which the image of the world would

be closed for man. The universe could be observable from a special viewpoint, the capability of

seeing the universe, that is of possessing a viewpoint is solely dedicated to Man.


The angles, as the emanation of the supreme world, are simultaneously capable and

incapable of seeing the world. For Man, possessing the viewpoint is the same as gaining the

subjective “I”, angles and animals are deprived of having a viewpoint . Therefore, the

emanations of nature lacking the “I” simultaneously deprived of the possibility of seeing “Not I”.

Coming out of the Eden, the Man appears on the road of infinite development, he gains

rationality, consciousness, self consciousness and soul - consciousness of the world, which

means a return to the lost Eden (the path of Homer’s Odyssey. the return to the Holy homeland

of Ithaca. )

a. Man in the Middle Ages - Man disappears within the existence of God,

knowing and recognition begins from the “above” and Man being located in the zone of God’s

existence, is not able to see himself because of that dazzling light that comes from the above,

therefore the “below”, that is the earthly existence is hidden behind the darkness (the more

dazzling the above, the darker the below, that’s why one of the modifiers used for the Middle

Ages is dark ages, the light is above ,below is darkness).

For the Man who is located between these two zones, both of them are intangible: the

above because of its extreme brightness and the below because of its extreme darkness. For

recognizing these two zones, the intuitive knowledge is necessary, which appears in two

directions of mysticism (emotional) and scholasticism (intellectual). The weaker the dazzling

light becomes, the more the reflection of the concealed light becomes on earth.

The decline of one leads to the intensification of the other, since man finds himself, his

position, his body, his location among the objects, his distance orientation, his communicative

system and all those things which establishes his position on earth. The previous Silence, which

was related to the impossibility of the gaining verbal recognition and an expression the

existence of God, gives way to the word. (The light not only makes us blind but it also burns the

words, says Dante in the final section of paradise. The light looses its power, to let the man

achieve the freedom of expression, which is necessary for him to gain self recognition, to think

about and understand the world in which he is going to live, to develop the “I” and his self

consciousness and to approach and discover the mysteries of the world and the objects. Here,

the “above” starts to darken and the “below”, to illuminate. Fear and anxiety is created as the

result of this darkening and illumination.


The eternal (heaven) becomes dark and the temporary (earth) becomes illuminated. Now

Man is forced to solve the paradoxical problems in a state of absolute freedom, he feels

compulsive to follow the suspicious commands of human instinct and it seems that he has been

thrown in an unknown territory. All these sensations reminds us of Adam’s fall from the Eden,

when he was forced to rely on his dim and ill - defined self to survive. On the one hand, he enters

the human world, finds himself there, gains the capability of thinking and acting independently

and freely, dominates over his own personal destiny within the frame work of the corresponding

social reality, on the other hand he loses his trust in geocentric existence and the link which binds

him to the heaven and causes his elevation over Cosmos, as the son of God for whom God cares,.

On the one hand, he gains courage to speak, to open up his “heart”, to talk about his personal life

and biography; on the other hand, experiencing the silence of the Middle Ages creates a kind of

anxiety for him, which he regards as a mystical ecstasy which was created as a consequence of

experiencing the dazzling light of God.

The last accord of leaving “Eden” in Dante’s Divine Comedy is the last lines of the poem,

the conclusive statements being uttered by Man after closing the doors of heaven (/Now here the

supreme illusion ends/). After the illusionof the Middle Ages the infinity of the heliocentric

universe opens up for Man, the horror ,which acts as a compensation for the freedom of human

will.

In F. Rabelais44 novel, it has been written on the façade of Abbey of Theleme “ Do What

Thou Wilt” It seems that between Dante’s and Rabelais statements an invisible hyphen exists,

joining era to another.

It seems that they are the voices of two historical periods one ending, the other beginning.

Dante’s vision focuses upon illusion, which is the illusion of his own era either, the magnificence

of which makes him dumb. This illusion continues to survive with its metaphysical inertness in

the spiritual world of human beings (in his poem), while Rabelais, falls into ecstasy when he

experiences the allurement of the freedom of Man who has entered the world.

In the previous chapter, I have tried to show how Beatrice descends from Medieval heaven

through Petrarch’s Laura and Boccaccio’s Fiammetta, achieves earthly existence and enters the

44. Francois Rabelais (1490-1554) French Renaissance writer, doctor, monk


intricate web of human communication as a human .She is experiencing the pain of downfall and

is shocked to confront the harsh body of worldly realities. She is doomed to pass through the

purgatory of the incompatible emotions and situations all by herself , the rules and regulations of

which is still unknown for her.

In Boccaccio’s works in fourteen century, man becomes personified and experiences his

first contact with the real world, while facing its predetermined duality. The man has either an

elegiac/tragic nature (“Fiammetta”) or mocking /comic features (Decameron) but his

individuality has not yet fully developed. He hasn’t yet been separated from the general currant

of the existence and he has not yet cut off his ties with the reality.

He is a person but not an individual. (There are specific differences between the English

“individual” and Armenian ANHAD(person) words. The world “individual” emphasizes on a

specific level of consciousness and its distinctive quality while being compared with the general

mass. Here the focus is on the “nucleus” of the individuality in other words the inseparable

“energetic center” of each character.)

Fiammetta is more individualistic than Laura, Laura is more individualistic than Beatrice

who is the emanation of Heaven in Divine Comedy, and is deprived of individualistic traits. In

other words, within the three feminine characters of Middle Ages, the inner chiffre of the three

dimensional structure of human beings are reflected. Beatrice is the spirit, Laura is the soul and

Fiammetta is the body. They are the three dimensions of one single character. From Dante to

Shakespeare the three dimensional structure of human beings are merged and turn in to

inseparable entities.

In fifteen century, major attempts were made for the formation of a sense of awareness

about the individual destiny. It could be said that this movement was the most important step

that was made in Western Europe (and also it could be generalized to the whole world of

Christianity) culture and specifically in literature which led to the birth and arrival the New Man

in Modern World. He is the man who is separated from the mass, wondering all alone on earth,

searching for the meaning and value for his personal life, (unlike Middle Ages when he was

searching for the meaning and value of God), touching the bitterness and delights of his soul,

facing the collective tragedies and specific gaieties of the world by relying on his unique and

exceptional individuality.


Through his arrival a new era began, where the Christ - God is substituted by Christ - Man.

In the cultural domain of Middle Ages, the immediate impulses of Christ starts to beat in the

heart of the individual who is the upholder of his own destiny. Here, the first image (Christ -

God) gradually grows dim, until it becomes incomprehensible and unknown for the external

consciousness (although its signals never stop).

The dimmer the signals grow, the more he becomes alone, but free and independent , he

wants to become a man for whom the most important thing is his personal destiny.

When man as an independent “I” becomes his own “savor” and “victim”, the “judge” and

the “wrongdoer”, at the same time, the cause and the effect, the “murderer” and the “dead

person”.

The ransom that he pays for his freedom is his sufferings, the duality of his choices in the

world of objects, his losses, the downfalls and tragedies, his independent thinking, his desperate

attempts to judge and to make decisions, when the world runs through its course while he stays

out of that course, remaining passive and not attending the course of the external world.

This separation is defined as his individuality, the inner chiffre of his individual existence.

The important thing here is the movement, the path through which his life passes, While crossing

this path, he is the one who moves ahead, being supported by God.

Being departed from God but feeling his presence on his back, the man opens up his eyes

to other realities, that is the cruel side of life, just like a passenger who has accidently got off a

train, in an unknown station and he has to find his way all by himself without having any map,

any compass or any guide. Here, he is forced to rely on his own inner prompt and intuition and

predestined decisions of his own fate. Later, the inner impulses of all decisions that he makes

originate from the insight that he has gained about his individual freedom.

This insight functions as a new revelation, the revelation of the a man who has entered the

universe, trying to become personalized as an independent, free and egocentric being. The course

of development which would determine his position in the universe began in XV century and

continued up to the XIX to XX centuries. He will either be placed above or below. (Here above

and below are used in their epistemological sense not in the geometric sense.

Each individual should make his choices by his own free will, with full consciousness and

sense of responsibility, otherwise the connection between two worlds (heaven and earth ) might


not been established. The freedom is given to the man, he is the one who is supposed to choose

his path, not someone else (even God) he is departing in order to approach (or not to approach,

he is the one who is going to decide about this ) or he looses in order to find (or not to find).

Here, I will focus on the analysis of St. Peter’s character when he denies Christ three times

in Gethsemane garden on the night of Christ’s arrest. This incident is generally regarded as the

human weakness of Peter which is quite understandable (after all, all of us are humans with our

specific human characteristic), but in reality that episode of the Bible has a magnificent symbolic

connotation where we can find the reflection of the greatest spiritual meanings. Up to that

episode Peter was one of Christ’s disciples (and it could be said that he was one of the admired

ones) and he was under the absolute spiritual dominance and energetic center of his teacher.

“Simon, the son of John, do you love me ?” “ Yes my Lord45” was the reply. Was Peter (Simon)

lying to Christ ? Of course he wasn’t. He was ready to scarify himself for his teacher if he was

asked to. He was not lying, but after arresting Christ he denied him for three times and when the

rooster called he cried bitterly and painfully becoming aware of what he has done. By denying

Christ, he came out of the spiritual dominion of him, becomes independent, regains himself and

makes his choice as a free individual, consciously, not by inner push or any influence of a

superior being.

Peter’s choice is the choice of a free man, a conscious step, through which man

experiences a new Renaissance entering a new mystical system.

As Stefan Zweig46 says, that was indeed the “astronomical time” for mankind, the most

critical step that he has made that once and for all binds him with Christ. It is so difficult to

imagine that what would the destiny of mankind be if Peter didn’t re attains Christ. The step that

he had made ,determined the course of spiritual development of the whole Western World

starting from Renaissance period up to twentieth century, creating an existential situation for the

individual where he has to choose whether to turn upwards, toward a newer, more conscious and

balanced understanding of Christ, or to turn downwards toward chaotic forces, lacking any

structure, the world of instinct, being guided only by rational, pseudo - scientific teachings,

45. John21:15-17 46. Stefan Zweig (1881-1942)- Austrian novelist, playwright, journalist and biographer


having limited outlooks about life, which leads him toward a kind of false - freedom which is in

fact is real slavery.

Referring to that specific episode of Bible and having the whole Bible as the general

context, we might say that the Middle Ages reflects Peter’s situation in pre - crucification era,

when man feels the dazzling light of God upon himself which doesn’t let him recognize his own

individualistic existence.

The tears of St. Peter (… and Peter cried bitterly) is the soul cry of the self - determined

and lonesome man, being terrified of losing his spiritual center His tears are still falling, never in

the universe were the tears of anyone so determining, hopless and appealing as his was.

It could be said that for the first time man has truly and deep heartedly cried through Peter,

his voice is heard up to present time in the whole universe.

The Experience of the Individual Destiny: Villon47

The first voice indicating the arrival of the individual destiny was heard in fifteen century

European literature in the poetry of Francois Villon. He was the “single genius” of fifteen

century who attempted to break up with the cultural, moral - psychological, political - ideological

tradition of his time through his poetry, and to enter the external world of reality consciously.

His prominent Italian ancestors had already shown (in different levels and from different

moral - philosophical views) the departure of Man from Middle Ages, searching for his own

destiny in outlandish territories, where the invisible disguised forces function behind his

spiritual existence, organizing and developing the outlines and structures of his subjective

composition (the static structure undergoes certain internal dynamic processes due to its

intensively of the mutual cooperation of its structural components)

The Italian poets had showed the fall of man from Eden or his “Departure of Egypt” (the

epistemological parallels of Middle Ages - Renaissance) demonstrating his gradual evolution in

the world of objects, they talk about him, focusing their attention on his existence, but in

Francois Villon’s poetry, man comes out of his God centered framework of the Middle Ages

cover once and for all, finds his own self, speaks in his own words, by his own voice and

47. Francois Villon ( 1431-1463) – French poet and vagabond


intonation as a single entity and individual (inseparable I) who is different from others and who

encounters his own destiny all alone, with empty hands, not collapsing while encountering his

cruel face, being defeated by himself, by his irrational life finding his own self as it really is, not

as the one he wishes to be. He lives his own personal life, not the life of the masses which

dissolves and melts him away like snow, he is searching for himself not the universal concepts,

those things that belong to him not anyone else. In fact, nothing belongs to him except, the

bubbles of hope, aimless wonderings and sufferings. He spends his life on Paris’s floor, he is the

man of floor (earth), even when he appears in a prince’s palace for a certain period he still

remains the same. Displacement doesn’t make any changes for him, in his earthly existence he

doesn’t have any dependence upon anything, he is free, independent and dignified against the

predetermination of his destiny.

The external movements don’t make any changes in his destiny “Dignified is the one who

doesn’t get surprised when he moves from a hut to a castle” says S. Kierkegard. He knows the

real value of the objects, the passage of time, the inconsistent nature of the external world (when

it seems that nothing has changed), and he approaches all these things decisively, and he is

watching his own fate from a lyrical perspective. Within the instability of bohemic world and the

risky accidentally of the universe, the constructive totality of the consciousness functions, never

being defied by the harsh aspects of the reality, moreover, the vitality of the inner outlooks are

never dimed by the pains and the sufferings.

In F. Villon’s poetry, the destiny’s conflict is created as the result of the opposition of the

contradictory forces of Middle Ages and the Renaissance.. To be more precise, we might say

that the mentality of Middle Ages (Christ - God) is functioning on his back, while in an inner

level of “I” the Renaissance (Christ - Man) mentality is active. He is experiencing the first from

the viewpoint of the second, which is the general orientation of his soul, on the center of which

lies his personal essence which is the conflict zone . On the one hand the predetermination of the

earthly and heavenly forces is exerted upon him and on the other hand he is under the influence

of the freedom of his personal choices. The conflict is created as the result of the interference of

the later.

Here, the two stylistic levels of his poetic language emerge : the lyricism and the irony.

The former showing the wondering of the lonely soul, continuously avoiding the realities of life,


the later, showing the permanent presence and dominance of the conscious mind. The lyrical

expressions of the most significant concepts of life and death are presented on the colloquial

(street talk) level of language not the literal one.The Parisian slang language of fifteen century,

the language that was spoken in the dark corners of brothels,that is the language of the lower

classes of the society was used not only in Villon’s jargoned poems, but also in his ballads and

the lyrical poems, (In “The big Testament” either where the Parisian colloquial language

dominates). He was a resident of the street, spending his life not in the noble and aristocratic

societies , where the language becomes polished and elevated, meantime losing some essential

semantic nuances, the inner rhythms of subjective emotions generally referred to as the lively

vibration of the language , but in streets, beyond all the restrictions and boundaries, facing the

naked reality all alone, in the open spectacle of inner and outer associations when the energies of

“I” and “Not I” cross each other, keeping the man all alone facing the cruel world all alone,

unprotected, relying on himself, his inner voices, the happy or unhappy incidents that might

occur in his life , deviating their path and human destiny by their incomprehensible caprices.

The street is a place where man appears all alone, facing his own existence, and the

memory of these moments stay in his mind forever. His God is not an intangible transcendental

existence, like it was in Renaissance (Christ - God), but he is the Christ himself , standing too

close to him, tangible and touchable. “Your son, Jesus is the Lord of my soul” - man refers to

Holy Mary, this is not a mere prayer, but the last appeal of a lonely man who has been lost in

the world to an being which has a definite shape, lively sensation, human fate and is deprived

of the dazzling light. She is the one who instead of judging him has a sense of compassion and

mercy for him.

Villon addresses Man - Christ. The symbol of Medieval period is the church and the

clergymen, which is portrayed ironically in Villon’s works , since here Man (Man - Christ), his

personal life and destiny, and all those things that are of no interest neither to church nor to the

monarch( who is ready to punish him for the slightest mistake) and even not to society (who is

unable to understand him are absent) that’s why his fate is so similar to the fate of a lonely

candle which is burning under church vaults.

Only a small group of people who like Villon are banished from the general course of life

were able to understand him. These were the people who were living in the irrational physical


world and their bodies were tragically swinging on the gallows. Villon’s soul had a deep

awareness of the destiny of the individual, he moved far ahead from his own time. He lived in an

era which was still groping in the darkness of the past. (Although the light of God was burning

there, but this light didn’t illuminate his soul and warm up his existence). Love and Death are

the signals of the presence of this awareness through which the course of his life runs, a chaos

which starts with experiencing the social reality and ends in absurdity.

The first problem that the developing “I” faces is death. The “I” who has found his own

self is now scared of losing it again. The only way to overcome this fear is through irony, with

the help of which he tries to restrain death. In Villon’s creative works, death is not similar to the

images of death previously used in literature. For Dante, death was a delusion in the cosmetic

forest which becomes synonymous to sin and only through love man was able to overcome it.(the

impulse of Beatrice : which saves Dante from the sin with the help of love), for Petrarch death is

the same as losing love in the universe and breaking the inner tie with the Heaven. With the

power of love Laura holds the wandering poet on earth (/she rose to Heaven, naked and alive…

exerting her force upon me/…) but for Villon death is the logical conclusion of the absurd world.

The one who is approaching death has already experienced its chaos and the nonsensical nature

of the world and now the death itself seems to him merely a comic sketch or a tragi - comedy …

(/with a tight and strained rope // My neck will feel the weight of my corpse/). Death is the

hostility of the alien and inhospitable forces against the self - consciousness of man. By its very

essence death is destruction, collapse and calamity of the spirit and the man, it is a fate that man

doesn’t deserve it. The individual’s soul stands against the global absurdity and comic silence

(/Prince! do you know // what the soul does before yielding to God? //He drank the wine in one

breath // and then silently left this world. /). This is the first outcry of the retreating man, the first

poetical reverberation of the personal “I”, his first contact with “Not I” or the alienated reality.

In Villon’s Poem Drinking wine creates several linguistic as well as psychological

associations. First it presents the mysterious moment of death by using corresponding linguistic

devices (lowering of the intonation), then it draws our attention to the freedom of the soul. Here,

the wine does not contain the allegorical connotation of Christian sacrament (This is my


blood48…) rather it acts as the expression of his inner loneliness, his desperate soul struggling

with the unknown forces of the universe which may lead either to defeat or the victory. The dual

structure of his discourse (the inner tragedy and the external irony) is the manifestation of the

duality of his own personal experiences, when the external and internal realities of life do not

correspond each other. This duality in his writhing style becomes more palpable in his love

poems. In these poems he appears as an abandoned, alienated individual who is trying to

establish or demolish his life by his own hands, seeking love and compassion. A man who is

constantly being defeated by himself, his surrounding and his faith.

The love wondering of Villon is completely different from that of Dante’s, Petrarch’s and

Boccaccio’s’. His Plump Margo is neither Beatrice nor Laura or a suffering Fiammetta who has

been deserted by his beloved man. She is a common woman that we usually meet in streets, a

laundry woman, a housemaid, a bar woman, a hardworking Villonian feminine figure who is

trying to make the ends meet by her own personal efforts, she is so far - off from the metaphysic

of life, rather she acts as a Villonian concrete and tangible figure whom Villon loves and

appreciates. The comic spirit of fifteenth century and the awaking of personal faith becomes

manifested in the poetry of F. Villon. The manifestations of these concept were quite essential

for Renaissance period. By his life and creative work the talented F.Villon makes the realization

of this ideas possible.

Language and Character : Rabelais and Cervantes

The ascending development of Renaissance culture reaches its climax in the sixteenth and

early seventeenth century. In this period Man appears as the center of culture and the

“categorical - imperative” of the age, manifesting within himself the spirit of the age,

48. “This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for forgiveness of the sins “ Matthew 26:28


determining its form and content and becoming the ultimate goal and the dominant principle of

the era.

In literature, Renaissance is generally defined as the triumph of a new cultural system over

Middle Ages, the revelation of man and the dominance of the humanistic aspects, the age of

descending “heaven” to earth, a period of the formation of a new scientific - realistic outlook

about the world and an era of the downfall of dogmatisms and etc.

The paradox that exists between Renaissance and Middle Age culture , and their

incompatibility are emphasized in different ways. The criteria for judging about cultural values

are determined by the quality and nature of the relationship that this period established with

ancient times, whether these relationships are viewed as progressive or reactionary.

This principle becomes common from eighteen till twentieth century, when there was a

need to observe all this phenomenon in a much broader context, when it becomes obvious that a

kind of downfall process is occurring in Western cultureand it becomes essential to understand

the main causes and motives of such downfall (Nietzsche, Spengler etc) of course it is impossible

to act against the progression of this process.Middle Ages and Renaissance are two intellectual

systems acting against each other, those concepts that were situated in the background (The

Man), in Renaissance period appears as a foreground, and the foregrounded idea appears in the

background (we have already stated this point). The position of the primary and secondary or the

above and the below is reversed like two opposite systems that act as mirrors and reflect each

other. The dazzling light of Christ - God in the Middle Ages covers the image of Man, which

seems to remain out of the framework, and the dense entity of Christ - Man doesn’t permit the

background light to be viewed.

Nietzsche once wrote in “The Dawn” “Why man is not able to see the surrounding

objects?” “because his own shadow is falling upon those objects.”The real side of the objects,

the layout of his own self falls upon the objects and creates an image. This image is both similar

to the objects and is not, it looks like them (the Man) and it does not. If we substitute the word

“objects” in Nietzsche’s statement with God, then we will see that this is the image of God that is

covered by human shadow, the image of Man is covered by God’s light. (God doesn’t produce

shadows, because the origin of shadows is the physical body. God produces light, which falls

upon the observer and makes him blind). This Nietzschean concept, in the best way exemplifies


the cultural model of the western world (Christian world) in the last one hundred years, when

Man after seeing (recognizing) himself assumes the existence of a transcendental entity beyond

his ownshadow.Being unable to identify that entity, man uses different names for it, the most

unessential of which isnature, having the tributes of the Creator (sometimes people assign the

creation of something to nature, but is the nature, as we know it, able to create something ?

while we know that the act of creation requires previous thinking, planning and designing). It

seems that the paradoxical concepts of ‘Christ-God’ and ‘Christ-man’ dissolve in the Christ

figure, becoming the informative center of the two conception and the ultimate principle of the

cosmic equilibrium. In Renaissance culture, specially in the realm of literature, due to the degree

and intensity of incarnation of humanistic features in Christ figure, the disruption between these

two paradoxical conceptions gradually widens, however, a complete disconnection never occurs

became in that case the whole structure will collapse, like any other structure that will demolish

in the case of breaching its inner equilibrium.

If in F. Villon’s literature we find the manifestation of the idea of individual destiny as a

lyrical experience, in Rabelais49 novel, Pantagruel and Gargantua . the man appears as a

language element , encompassing within itself all dimensions of life, developing in all directions,

crossing the boundaries of myths and realities, animating all lifeless ideas, thoughts and

lifestyles, moving toward grotesque, parody and overstatement in order to express the

significance of the whole existence of mankind, his dignity and his ideas on freedom that could

be found in the Utopic structure of society.

Within the complex linguistic texture of the novel we may noticethe use of two different

styles:

1) The grotesque-hyperbolic parody which acts against the reality and the time, and due

to Rabelais idea are incapable of satisfying the ever growing human needs.

2) Rabelais personal Utopian idea about human life. Here the language abandons its

satiric features and turns into Utopian description of the world.

49. Francois Rabelais (1494-1553) – Major French writer, monk, humanist and Greek scholar


These two stylistic features of language act quite distinctively within the linguistic texture

of the novel, they are not organically connected with each other yet the enormous linguistic

energy of the writer joins them together and in this way the organic unity of the whole text is

preserved. It seems that here two linguistic principles are operating: the satiric character of

Olofern, who is a professor of southern university acts against the character of Panocrat, who

acts as the author’s voice. The former is interestingas a character and the later as a conception.

The author controls the theme development of the novel, each artistic feature, whether it is

related to the language, the general composition of the work or the characterization, acts

according to the intention of the author. On the one hand the overwhelming individuality of

Rabelais assigns all the components of the novel, forming one unified entity, preserving the

coherence and unity of the novel, on the other hand the permanent presence and dominance of

the author (whether obvious or hidden) ligers the internal progression and development of the

novel, the progression of the actions gains secondary importance and become static although

many events occur in the novel but non of them possess internal dynamism. These points are not

mentioned as deficiencies but as the characteristic of the novel, as the logical consequence of the

basic principle which lies as the foundation of the novel.

Bakhtin50 declares that this feature has carnavalistique quality. In the ideological level

that quality is referred to as the assertion of man in the new circumstances, in literature that

might be considered as the emergence of the evolving man experiencing the possibility of free

speech, which stands in sharp contrast with the medieval contemplative man who asserts his

existence in the universe by his silence. F. Rabelais by asserting himself on the linguistic level

overlooks the development of characterization, and even we might say that the element of

characterization is absent in his novel. It seems that Garantua and Pantagruel are not characters,

they lack any personal-individual features and appear as masks, behind which lie the concrete

intentions of the author. They stand too close to the mythological figures of late medieval period,

it seems that they are occupying an intermediary position between mythology and literature. As a

mythological figure they posses too many literary orientations and as literary figure they are too

much mythological. The other personages of the novel are not characters either; rather they act as

50. Michael Bakhtin (1895-1975)- Russian Philosopher and literary critic


allegorical figures. Those personages, who came out of their mythological shell, act as common

people. The people whom we meet in the streets who are the incarnation of the vital spirit of

reality are called characters. Panurg is the only personage in the novel who resembles a

character, even though being equipped with the solid and definite features of a character he

doesn’t ascend to the level of a character. His role is significant in the novel, but the narrative

center isn’t constructed around him, he is not an independent character, the central focus of the

novel is not based on the exploration of his inner world but of Pantagruel. Therefore he remains

on a “bridge” between myth and reality. This bridge has a central role in forming the inner

structure of the novel and without this concept the novel could no longer exist. here, on the one

hand we have the absence of mythology while facing the real world, on the other hand there

exists the vital energy of the reality which animates the myth by connecting it to a definite place

and time, and the myth in turn elevates the status of the reality helping it to ascend to the level of

symbolism. This character originates from Boccaccio’s Decameron, receives a new

personification in Rabelais novel, then it develops in Spanish picaresque novel losing the

mythological features and turns into the structural essential elements of Gargantua and

Pantagruel . Rabelais talent does not lie in his ability to create excellent characters but in his use

of language. The ultimate unity of his work is achieved through language not through

characterization. In fact, the language is the only unifying factor which is able to amalgamate the

various and rich components of the novel.

2.

Unlike F. Rabelais’ Pantagruel and Gargantua , M. Cervantes’sDon Quixote51 is built

upon one unified, coherent and comprehensive character. The sequence of the actions of the

play, the relationships, the characters, the artistic figures, the fantasies and the elaborate figures

of speech acquire their vigor and dynamism from Don Quixote himself, who is the core of the

novel, its zest and liveliness. Don Quixote is a human spirit, which is incarnated not within a

human body, but within an artistic context, he is born in the novel simultaneously giving birth to 51. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra – (1547-1616)- Spanish novelist, poet and playwright. His magnum opus Don

Quixote considered as the first modern European novel.


the novel itself. Although he works within the intentional framework of the author, yet he acts

quite independently from him. He lives his own life, acts according to his inner motivations and

possesses his own fate which begins from the first page of the novel and ends in the last page. In

early seventeen century, two magnificent characters appear in the realm of literature (Don

Quixote and Hamlet). These two figures appeared to finalize the perfect human figure which had

been originated from early Renaissance period, has passed through developmental stages and had

turned into the informative center of the post-medieval human-centered cultural system, the

inseparable epistemological nucleus and its inner bio-energetic force.

Don Quixote is a tragi-comedy, Hamlet is a tragedy therefore they belong to two different

genres, moreover each of them have their own life and destiny with quite opposing nature, but in

an inner level they may become unified with each other. (Maybe this could not be considered as

pure coincidence that the two works have been writhen at the same time, around 1602-1603. Don

Quixote was first published in 1605, and also it is not a case of pure chance that the two English

and Spanish geniuses died in the same year and even on the same day (1616. 23rd April).

By comparing Don Quixote and Hamlet with Rabelais novel we may find something like

an inner paradigm, consisting of three circles.

1- Rabelais novel is comic and possesses general satirical nature. It is basically

based upon the process of language development, but on the Utopian linguistic and structural

level, the language does not merge with the whole context of the novel. Remaining on the

ideological level, the novel is deprived of tragic or dramatic features.

2- Don Quixote is a tragi-comedy. Cervantes moves one step forward, combing the

tragic elements in comic milieu. As a result of this combination the character together with the

whole structure of the novel turns into tragi-comedy (in H. Hayne52 or A. Pushkin’s53 words it

turns into “a laughter among tears”), no where else these two elements are so merged with each

other than in this work.

3- Shakespeare’s Hamlet is the final circle of this three stage paradigm. It is totally

included within the zone of tragedy, lacking any comic features although in the play we come

across to certain comic elements. (this has been discussed in detail in literature). 52. Hanrish Hayne (1797-1856)- German journalist, essayist and literary critic 53. Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837)- Russian author of Romantic era


As we have seen, from mid sixteenth century to the early seventeen century in European

(Christian) literature the course of the incarnation of man (man as an integrated inseparable

substance, which appears as Christ-man to substitute the medieval Christ-God creating a new

epistemological-aesthetic system with all its parameters) possesses a certain type of ordinance

which finds its expression in the ascending direction of Rabelais- Cervantes- Shakespeare,

reaching its climax in Shakespeare works by the tragic figures (characters) that he creates.

As we have already stated, Rabelais appreciates the world and the history from a comic

perspective , mocking all those things that exist in the reality. F.Rabelais dominates over the

novel; all the incidents and characters of the novel depend upon his intention, his appreciation of

the reality and his method of rationalization. The “universal gap” between the reality and the

ideal instead of passing through characters, passes through the author, therefore the characters

turn into comic puppets lacking any personal dynamism and character development.

This dynamism functions between Rabelais and reality, acting as a comic element within

the language of the author. This comic element in the language mocks all the concepts that

originate from middle Ages it means that all Middle age traditions die for the sake of gaining a

new life. Those concepts that are not comic (the man and his new understanding) remains in

Rabelais focus of attention as a point of departure, an ideological principle which ultimately

causes the universe to loose its ultimate meaning turning into a huge grotesque and chaos.

If you remove the masks from Rabelais characters, you will see Rabelais himself, hiding

behind those masks in order to see the image of the world within the frigid appearance of death.

The only way to tear this frigid appearance is satire and the ironic literary devices that are used

by the talented Rabelais.

In other words, Rabelais is laughing through the tears. As it may sometimes seem he is not

feeling cheerful, rather, he cries and the tears that appear in his eyes are not tears of laughter but

tears of pain and sorrow. His benevolent characters are laughing and enjoying themselves, but

the author is weeping behind them, yet the reader does not notice this.

In Cervantence “Don Quixote”, the protagonist not the author carries the conflict within

himself, the conflict moves from the author to the protagonist, that’s why he is a character not a

mask. Don Quixote is a lively character that his existence passes through the whole novel

making the static, gloomy and frigid setting vivacious and dynamic. The author is hiding behind


the curtain, although his dynamic style sometimes unveils his presence, but the gap runs through

Don Quixote himself. This is analogous to the progressive, restless and dynamic figure of Man

who was lucky enough to appear within the universal gap that exists between the world and the

spirit, carrying the presence of the two incompatible forces within himself, always appearing in

dual circumstances, in comic circulations of fate, moving from one situation to the other, living

simultaneously in two worlds, but while existing in one world he keeps the image of the other as

an epistemological mental image (like the unlimited horizons that appear in Leonardo Da Vinci’s

paintings). On the one hand, Don Quixote emphasizes the fault that exists in the real world and

on the other hand he corrects the fault. On the one hand, he lives in a network of fault and on the

other hand he himself appears as the absolute truth, the beams of which are the external radiation

of eccentricity. As M. Unamuno54 points out, Don Quixote appearing as a man (individual)

gradually crosses the boundaries of|de humanization, it seems that he descends from the status of

man by becoming insane but in fact he appears above all humans. The same process is reflected

on two scales, the external reality lies out of Don Quixote and the internal reality lies within Don

Quixote. We see a man who is deceived by the fallacious appearances of reality and a man who

sees the reality as it is. Don Quixote answers the question “how is the world” neither by his

actions nor by words (as we may see) but through his own being, the being of which (the being

of the being) is something we can experience either, but it is quite incomprehensible for us. The

impossibility and incomprehensibility lies in the constant transition, conversion and

metamorphosis that occurs between the two scales: the commonplace ascends and reaches the

spiritual scale, and the spiritual descends and reaches the commonplace level: this ascending and

descending are co-related. One should descend so that the other one might ascend. The heaven

descends to let the earth ascend. Man ascends to let the spirit descend (to be incarnated in human

soul.)

Don Quixote is an essence which becomes incarnated within the soul of poor Alonso

Quijano and he becomes Don Quixote. He should be ready to accept that essence. Alonso

Quijano who is under the influence of the chivalric novels that he had read, is ready to accept

that essence. Although Cervantes had writhen Don Quixote as a parody of chivalric novels, but

54. Miguel de Unamuno – (1864-1936)-Spanish essayist, novelist, playwright and philosopher


the opposite result has been achieved (this is one of the greatest mysteries of art) through his

parody he has actually saved the chivalric spirit, by his efforts chivalry novels have entered a

new realm and they have been saved from stagnation and deterioration. Maybe Byron55 had

made a mistake in claiming that Cervantes had killed the chivalevic spirit by mocking it. In fact

Cervantes saved the chivalric spirit and provided the necessary requirements for its survival in

the new world by creating one of the greatest of all chivalric characters i. e Don Quixote.

Having double viewpoint in mind, Cervantes has created Don Quixote’s character;

therefore the character by violating all time boundaries appears in double scales: the inner scale

and the outer scale. In inner scale, other time measures are functioning that do not correspond to

the outer scale. Therefore, Don Quixote appears both within the time measure (in outer scale)

and out of time measure (in the inner scale). Don Quixote is not able to notice the external time

measure because his spiritual center is connected with the internal time measure, he is associated

with several time periods rather than one time. The inner scale, that is the inner time or inner

reality, could be personified and actualized with the help of outer scale, i. e with its interference

and guidance. The insanity of Don Quixote was the only channel through which the inner scale

could be opened up in to the outer world, otherwise the incarnation of Don Quixote in Alonso

Quixono could not happen. His humor is the only possibility through which incarnation could

occur. He is acting due to his own inner scale, but the people who live in the outer world are able

to apprehend the outer scale only, that is sometimes revealing itself and sometimes concealing

itself. The two scales of Don Quixote that find their expression in tragic and comic levels of the

novel are associated with the displacement of two cultural systems (the middle Ages and the

Renaissance) and its related epistemological – informative transformations that exist in the depth

of this displacement, i. e. when God –Christ figure is substituted by Man – Christ. As we have

stated earlier, man through his own existence obscures the God –Christ figure and turns it to a

subtext or background which lies under the shadow of man occasionally becoming invisible and

inaccessible.

Don Quixote’s voice comes from Middle Ages, where Christ – God figure was dominant,

but his dynamism (insanity) originates from Renaissance where Christ – Man figure was

55. George Gordon Byron (1788-1824)- English poet and a leading figure of Romantic movement


dominant. Therefore, the outer scale helps to personify the inner scale that is the comic aspect

leads to the revelation of tragic aspect; the same association exists between Christ – Man figure

and Christ – God figure the later sparkling in the deepest layers of the former illuminating and

signifying its whole existence. Therefore, the supreme spirit of the western culture with its two

manifestations: God and Man have been incarnated within the soul of Don Quixote, the first

acting in the inner scale the second in the outer scale. In such circumstances, one cannot survive

without the other, the second opens up the path which leads to incarnation (here, that is the

artistic features) simultaneously receiving its existential basis from the first one. The boundries

of the conception of “Man” extends to the first one, but they do not from an inseparable unity.

“God” incarnates within mans soul (within Alonso Quixano) and abandons him before death,

when Don Quixote consciousness rests upon his human basis. The sentence which is written on

his tombstone has a powerful metaphoric significance “he lives in madness, dies in wisdom”.

From another perspective the words “mad” and “wise” have changed their position and

significance. In fact he was “wise” when he seemed to be mad, and was “mad” when he seemed

to be sane. Here, “wisdom” has a human aspect (human wisdom, comparing with divine wisdom

is no longer a wisdom), but the divine “madness” is not accessible for humans (remember Platos

teachings about “divine madness” which was related to the heavenly inspiration in Ions

dialogue). “Abandoning” Don Quixote on death bed, the “Divine madness” doesn’t abandon the

world, which might give another attribute to the novel; rather it continues its existence within

Sancho Panza’s soul, which appears in the final pages of the novel as a new and unique Don

Quixote.

The divine madness which appears as an insanity in the external course of the universe,

once incarnated it is never interrupted and moves from one person to another, from one

consciousness to the other, awakening, reconstructing and defamiliarizing all the humans by his

touch.

In the novel, Don Quixote appears as an inner symbol, and Sancho as the embodiment of

the whole humanity as the substance, which possess the possibility of becoming spiritual. In fact

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza are two symbolic – allegoric figures, representing the

epistemological connotations of the soul and the substance, the above and below, poetry and

prose. In this sequence, the second concepts stand in sharp contrast with the first ones, gradually


conveying within itself the powerful impact of the first inclining toward them resigning

themselves to the inner energies of the first ones, like the inspiration energy of Plato, that he

compares with the magnet, stating that the magnetic metals are able to attract other metals either

(that is the readers)Dulcinea del Toboso incarnates the allegorical feature of glory, who turns

from a common peasant – woman to the symbol of glory as a result of Don Quixote spiritual

mirage. This glory is not the consequence of Don Quixote egoistic ambition; rather it is the

manifestation of the triumph of spirit over reality. Don Quixote, Sancho Panza and Dulcinea del

Toboso triangle in its inner scale has several epistemological significances.

1- Man (Don Quixote), Humanity (Sancho Panza) Glory, (Dulcinea del Toboso).

Man as an essence is higher then humanity (the upper scale – Platonic Eidos56) – Humanity as a

phenomenon (the lower scale – Platonic Menon57) – single individual changing in to plural)

stands against Man, (who is invisible as an Eidos, he is observable only in spiritual scale) accepts

its impact and constructs its From58 (Aristotelian concept of Form). Under this impact, the Glory

as a form of energy (Platonic concept of Eros, Aristotelian intellect and psyche) acts as the

source of action and determines its nature and purpose.

2- Spirit (Don Quixote) – Body (Sancho Panza) – Soul (Dulcinea Del Toboso).

Here Don Quixote is personalized but he does not act as an individual character. To talk in more

specific terms, its could be said that he is the spirit of chivalry incarnated within a concrete

character which helps him to ascend to the world of indefinite generalities and deprives him from

its individuality. Sancho Panza is the body. His materialized existence which has certain

relations with the figure of Don Quixote. Sancho is Don Quixote’s sword bearer; he helps him to

reach to the level of the realization of spirit. Dulcinea is the soul, the essence of the individuality,

the inner existence of Don Quixote, with the help of whom the spirit turns in to individuality.

56. Eidos- Greek term , meaning form, essence, type, species Plato in his “Theory of Forms” asserts that Eidos is the non-material abstract forms or ideas which possess the

highest and the most fundamental reality, not the material world of change known to us through sensation. 57.Menon is a Socratic dialogue written by Plato . It attempts to determine the nature of virtue or “arete” meaning

virtue in general, such as justice or temperament. 58. Example(According to Aristotelian theory) If a lump of bronze is shaped into statue , then bronze is the matter

which loses one form (that of a lump ) and gains a new form (that of a statue).Form includes complex qualia such as color, texture, shape etc.


3- Poetry (Don Quixote) – prose (Sancho Panza) – inspiration (Dulcinea) Don

Quixote is the symbol of poetry and poetical concepts which possesses its inner reality and lives

due to its own norms and conventions (image, rhythm, freedom), he is tall and thin, it seems that

he occupies no space on earth. He is like a gothic church, who strives for reaching the heaven, all

in motion and whirling away. Sancho Panza is the prose. short and fat, clinging to earth, heavy

and slow in his movements, lacking imagination, rhythm and freedom. Don Quixote descends

from poetry to the “wisdom” of prose, and the prose itself under the influence of poetry

transcends into the realms of poetry )|”don’t die, my Lord,” –Sancho addresses the dying Don

Quixote). Dulcinea is the inspiration, through her invisible existence, she is the one who is able

to induce energy in Don Quixote and to keep him within the poetic reality of herself.

The brilliance and the tragedy of

“The Ill-fated Awareness ”

Shakespeare

Talking about the masterpieces of the great authors Ernest Cassirer59declares: “These

works are not the sudden and spontaneous flashes of passionate emotions, rather they possess

a deep sense of unity and continuity. The great authors of tragedies and comedies such as

Euripides60 and Shakespeare, Cervantes and Moliere61 do not attempt to entertain us by

presenting individual sceneries of life. These sceneries are infact deceptive shadows by

themselves but while reading them, all at once beyond these shadows new realities emerge for

us.”62.The essential component, here is the unity (the continuity is related to the presentation of

sceneries in time sequence) beyond which appears the concealed reality and the “new reality”

which lies there. In Cervantes’s novel, man appears in a much unified form, he occupies the

central position of the novel, dominates over it, lives his own independent life without the

interference of the author, who instead of talking about the hero, dramatizes him as an

independent entity and then leaves him to lead his own life, facing all the consequences of this 59. Ernest Cassirer – (1874-1945) German philosopher, trained within Neo Kantian school 60. Euripides (c.408-406B.C)- was one of the three great tragedians of Classical Athens, the other two being

Aeschylus and Sophocles. 61.Jean Baptiste Moliere (1622-1673)- French playwright , considered as one of the greatest masters of comedy 62. Essay on Man written by Ernest Cassirer (1946)


independence. Cervantes’s novel is a novel of character unlike Gargantua and Pantagruel which

is a novel of language. The unity which exists between the novel and the character is based upon

the comic and tragic elements which constitute the inner contradictory structural components of

the work and the “new reality” is based upon the epistemological psychological as well as

structural – linguistic foundations of this contradiction. The novel is protected from the

destructive impact of time, from the danger of degeneration, and this occurs several times, when

the tragic turns into comic. The novel contains all these epistemological – psychological

transitions within itself. No matter how much Don Quixote starts to see the objective world as it

is in the second half of the novel (to put in L. Borges63 witty statement; “ In the second half of

the novel Don Quixote acts in a way that it seems that he has already read the first half”) but the

unity of the novel which is based upon the two primary foundation is observed up to end of the

novel. Cervantes has created the first universal character, which is not analogous to any other

character , although many writers of the next generation have made attempts to create similar

characters and therefore a certain tendency of Don Quixotism with a specified meaning and

significance had emerged in literature.

This duality of character no longer exists in Shakespeare’s masterpieces. Here man

appears as the axis of culture and the informative center of literature, from which all motives,

structures, styles and literary schools originate and reach to the climax as the Christ God figure

in Middle Ages. Since thirteenth century, with the formation of the new “sweet style”, Man

entered the realm of literature, he develops and reaches its climax of evolution in Shakespeare’s

works, as the final circle of Renaissances epistemological paradigm. F. Rabelais comedy was

followed by M. Cervantes tragi comedy, and this was followed by Shakespeare’s tragedy.

Shakespeare concludes this inner epistemological circle in a special way. He presents man in his

totality as a tragic figure. In other words, man who has reached the climax of the corporal

incarnation stands against the medieval God. (not in contradictory position, but as the second

equal half of Christ). This man is crucified in Shakespeare’s tragedies reviving the mystery of

Golgotha, i. e. restoring the literal, humanistic and individualistic aspect of Christ. If the climax

of the intellectual artistic development of medieval period was mystery plays (that we have

63. Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) Argentinean short story writer, essayist, poet and translator.


discussed earlier) then Shakespeare tragedy has the corresponding role in Renaissance. Here the

focus of our discussion is not on the artistic permanence of these works in the history of culture

such values are quite unstable and relative ) rather we want to emphasize on their role and

significance upon the spiritual – intellectual development of mankind. By its very nature, Middle

Ages have theological rather than artistic significance in the history of culture, while the

significance of Renaissance period is artistic and not theological. The theological aspect in the

Middle Ages had artistic function either and this is a point which becomes obvious when we

expand the boundaries of the literature to encompass other domains of intellectual activities,

which deal with human discourse as their medium of communication. (This is basically true

about theology and history. For example the Armenian historiography of fifth century was not

considered as a literary work due to the standards of his own time, but in medieval era that works

were categorized as literary pieces ). Literature in Renaissance period could have theological

sublayers within its inner informative center. Therefore, while discussing the Middle Ages, we

mainly focus on its theological aspect which was constructed around its informative nucleus

(God), meanwhile possessing artistic aspects to satisfy the aesthetic demands of medieval man.

On the other hand, when we analyze Renaissance period, we mainly focus on its literary – artistic

aspect (including fine arts and music which appeared later) in which man appears as its

informative nucleus and the theological aspect remains as its subtext, satisfying the spiritual

needs of the contemporary man. The search remains the same for man both in Middle Ages and

in Renaissances period (from the poetic “sweet style” of mid thirteen century to twentieth

century). The former stresses upon the theological and the later upon the literary artistic

mentality.

Because of its external dichotomy Renaissance art considers medieval period as culturally

unfavorable one where “no plants grow there” (this is a Hegelian attitude which stands in sharp

contrast with German Romanticism, who strives to gain the spiritual light of the medieval

period or the blue flower or the spiritual daytime as Novalis64 calls it. From the viewpoint of the

Middle Ages, the Renaissance man must have been appeared in the world as a bewildered,

absurd, pathetic creature, an “unmanageable barbarian who gives priority to the transient rather 64. Novalis (1772-1801)- was the pseudonym of George Philip Friedrich Freihern von Hardenberg, a poet, and

philosopher of early German Romanticism.


than eternal, because of his own stupidity. The dichotomy between the theological and the

literary artistic aspects, as we have already seen has an external dimension either, which is

related to the structural development of the culture. This dimension is closely related to the

transitional process which occurs between the two informative centers; however this transition

occurs within the same structural system as the two halves of the whole system, as the basis of

the whole macro system that is the two faces of Christ, Christ as God and Christ as Man. The

external paradox of God – Man merges into one within the existence of Christ himself forming

an inseparable unity (the ultimate purpose of Christian mystery).

The ultimate level of man’s evolution is presented in Shakespeare’s plays, similarly the

climax of the evolution of Christ –God figure is portrayed in mystery plays of Middle Ages.

Shakespearean tragedy follows Cervantes tragi – comedy which is the logical outcome and the

final circle of Rabelais comic drama Cervantes tragi – comedy and tragedy (of Shakespeare), the

culmination of man – centered paradigm of cultural studies. In a much broader scale it could be

concluded as follows: Dante (the heavenly realm of Beatrice) – Petrarch (the ideal realm of

Laura between heaven and earth) – Boccaccio (Fiammatta’s heavenly realm) – Villon (personal

destiny – the realm of “I”) Rabelais (comedy – the formation of linguistic – lexical structures) –

Cervantes (the tragi – comical status of man, containing within himself the presence of the two

paradoxical worlds) – Shakespeare (tragedy – as the sole possibility of the perfect man “Ill fated

awareness”).

In Shakespeare’s works man appears as an overall essence, an integrated inseperable

system and as the center of being, which had crossed the whole “geocentric” universe bearing all

consequences of this excursion. “Let us not assume this statement as paradoxical but in

Shakespeare’s creative works man occupies the same position as the earth does in Ptolemaic65

astrology” on the other hand the Copernican66 “heliocentric” universe functions within that

“geocentric” existence, and this process is carried out with such harmonic symmetry, that a kind

of invisible transition occurs from the one to the other, the two entities penetrate into one

65. Claudius Ptolemaeus (Ptolemy)- (c90AD- c.168AD) was a Greco-Roman writer known as mathematician and

astronomer. He presented the geocentric idea of the universe according to which the earth lies in the center of the universe and the sun and other planets revolve around it.

66. Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) – was a Renaissance mathematician and astronomer who formulated the “heliocentric” model of the universe which placed the sun rather than the earth in the center of the universe.


another and become transfigurated as one unified spiritual cosmos which possesses human

characteristics and human destiny. It seems impossible to find any extravagant exaggeration or

understatement in Shakespeare’s works while he is portraying any dimension of human

personality. This feature doesn’t appear while Shakespear is portraying human passions, motives,

and the moral – ethical as well as social – political tendencies of characters rather this feature is

noteworthy while he is presenting human beings as a single inseparable Platonic Idea, a from of

existence, an absolute soul image of Christianity upon which or within the boundaries of which

lie the personality traits of different characters, their tendencies and destinies, manifesting within

themselves the diverse invisible emanations of human beings and their inner conflicts. (like the

inclination of angles toward God). The difference is the fact that since the angles are the

emanations of divine existence they do not have conflicts with each other, they lack the concept

of “I”, and therefore they cannot possess egocentric tendencies (unlike luciferian creatures that

have been deviated from heavenly principles). The emanations of human soul appear on different

levels, with different moral and psychological features, as egocentric beings, deviating from their

own humanistic sources and significances. That’s why, the Shakespearean hero talks about the

perfection of man)(Hamlet to Horatio:)” What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason ,

How infinite in faculties …” 67Hamlet’s statements are not about any specific man, but the man,

whose presence he wishes to feel among all those who are surrounding him. What Hamlet sees in

around himself is so far – off from the real essence of mankind that he wishes to “to die, to sleep,

perchance to dream…”68 .The angles descending from heaven as emanations of God preserve

the God’s essence within their soul as “supreme beings” (R. M. Rilke)69 while human beings by

entering the realm of existence, throw that essence (which lies within his soul) and begin to

apprehend life from the viewpoint off their own personal arrogance and gradually plunges into

the darkness of the universe. Hamlet rationally rather than emotionally understands the nature of

man as a soul – image, and he is quite aware of the incarnation of this image in the universe and

the possible conflicts that this image is going have while facing the social reality. What specifies

67.“What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express

and admirable, in actions how like an angel , in apprehension how like a god” (Hamlet: 2.2:304-307) 68. Hamlet:3.1: 65-66 69. Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)- Bohemian Austrian poet and novelist. Known as one of the most lyrically

intense German language poets.


Hamlet from the other characters of Shakespeare is the fact that it was in Hamlet that the light of

awareness for the first time flourishes. After wandering and contemplating for long time he

reaches the genuine awareness and gains the intellectual enlightment. He notices the horrible

darkness where men are plunging into, all men experiencing it without exception intentionally or

unintentionally, the hell in the dark domain of which all inhabitants are joined to one another by

the same sin. “The time is out of joint70.” This idea of Hamlet dramatizes not only the holistic

concept of fall by contrasting the present with the past, as it might be seem in the first glance (the

criminal Claudius being the symbol of the present and Hamlet’s father of the past), (which

might seem as a shallow interpretation) but also the disharmony, asymmetry and fatal

discrepancy that exist between man’s soul and his earthly existence , consequently leading to his

downfall. Shakespearian hero experiences this discrepancy quite differently from Don Quixote.

Being similar to Don Quixote in its inner layer, Hamlet appears with completely different

characteristic, since unlike the Spanish hidalgo he is a tragic figure. Hamlet could be (or not to

be) characterized as anything except a comic figure. The domain of Shakespearean Hamlet has

nothing to do with comedy; the realm of awareness is quite different from the realm of comedy

(he who realizes his own statues as being comic is no more a comic figure). The tragic situation

appears whenever man gains insight and awareness (for example Othello becomes aware of the

fact that Desdemona was innocent after killing her). Within the ample Shakespearean character

gallery, where we meet almost all types of characters and temperaments only one character

seems to be absent and that, is Don Quixote who appeared in Cervantes’s novel, and that is the

place where he should appear. Don Quixote’s madness is not premeditated but Hamlet’s is.

Those who call Hamlet “mad” are in the state of doubt and bewilderment , they suppose to know

him but actually they don’t. The radiance of Hamlet’s light of awareness is so dazzling that his

own real image becomes obscured and all that remains for people is a mere masked image of

him, upon which they see odd and unusual signs which they interpret them as madness, since

they have no better word to name it. The masked madness of Hamlet is not Don Quixote’s

madness. For Don Quixote this madness is the only way of being, that is the only quality which

turns the honest hidalgo Alonso Quixote to Don Quixote. Hamlet’s madness protects him from

70. Hamlet 1.5:196


the outer world, he doesn’t experience the type of duality from which Don Quixote suffers. He is

the unified, inseparable, integrated man (“here is the man…” as Bible says), a new image of

man, in Latin it is called individum, the inner contradictions of whose are in fact the sigs of the

resiliency of his mental – psychological world, his dynamism, his strange capability in accepting

new dimensions and specifications which has nothing to do with his impersonality and

indecisiveness, rather this is considered as a sign or consequence of his humanistic integrity. His

dynamic unity and the ultimate level of his humanistic consciousness. It seems that what

happens to him as an inevitable determinism of his destiny, in Shakespeare’s play gains a

mystical significance and the real events occur beyond the curtains which are invisible for the

physical eye and inaccessible for human consciousness. Before death Hamlet asks his friend

Horacio to tell other people all that he has seen, all that he knows but he remains “silent” because

Horatio had not seen all that had occurred in Hamlet’s inner world, he didn’t knowwhat actually

had caused Hamlet to fall in to a tragic situation. Without knowing this , speaking about Hamlet

would turning to a distortion of the reality and a diversion from the main essence which means

the disturbance of the process of mystery. Othello asks the same thing from men of Venice

“Speak of me as I am ; nothing extenuate / Nor set down aught in malice71”. Each word that

deviates from the main context is a malicious act. Othello approaches it unconsciously while

Hamlet does it consciously. Othello’s tragedy is the tragedy of unconsciousness on the other

hand Hamlet’s tragedy is the tragedy of consciousness, while it is mainly rooted in

unconsciousness and occasionally it crosses the boarders of unconsciousness and reaches the

invisible realm of spirit. Crossing the borderline the ghost becomes visible. Hamlet’s

consciousness is ready to be encountered with the ghost. When Horatio informs him about the

appearance of the ghost, Hamlet after a short pause replies: “Very like, very like….72”.

If Hamlet believes in the existence of the ghost, it will become important for him to verify

its existence in the realm of consciousness. Hamlet doesn’t believe in the existence of his father’s

ghost, therefore he is obliged to consider this faith as a conscious one, this is the same thing that

Othello was supposed to do as his tragic merit, the illumination of the consciousness, which is

gained at the cost of shattering the unconscious forces. The origins of this illumination is not 71. Othello (Act 5 scene 2) 72. Hamlet (Act one , scene 2)


obvious in Hamlet’s case, it is not easy to say that when and where the illumination of Hamlet’s

consciousness begins. He appears along a spiritual path, he is carrying the torch of illumination

and he is able to see whatever other people are not able to see, he notices the inner psycho –

intellectual reflexes of the people around him, the chain of evil that joins them all to each other,

no matter what their real attitudes are.

All of them, even his beloved Ophelia are involved in Claudius’s crime, therefore by

killing Claudius that could be done for the sake of taking vengeance of him nothing will change

in the world, the chain of evil will still go on joining new people to each other. Christ, while

being crucified, addressed God and says: “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they

are doing”73. On a different level, Hamlet might repeat the same statement since those people

who are around him (or are crucifying him) are unaware of their own deeds either; they don’t

know that they are acting as puppets in the hands of evil forces. Polonius who doesn’t live his

own life but some of other’s (here with Claudius’s life) consequently dies not with his own life

but with other’s ( in stead of killing Claudius Hamlet kills him accidentally but it seems that

there was no accidentality at all). His mother, Gertrude who has married Claudius, the murderer,

unconsciously helps the murderer to reinforce his position. Ophelia, the most naïve character of

the play, who has not gained mental maturity yet and her intuition has not developed enough to

understand the mechanism of evil, Laertes who tries to take revenge of his dead sister and father

through his pseudo – attempts, the treacherous friends who slavishly serve the king trying to

demolish their friend, Horatio who loves Hamlet for his “exuberant behavior” (here exuberant is

used metaphorically, meaning decent, joyful and positive) are unable to penetrate deeply into the

essence of Hamlet’s tragic situation. Hamlet’s mystery and the evangelical Golgotha could form

equivalents on two different levels (celestial and earthly). In Golgotha Christ was crucified

through defeating the world (the “world” about which Christ had talked, means evil), in the

latter the man was crucified through acquiring tragic position and shining upon the mankind

and illuminating their souls. (in literature, no holy book as Gospels are written to illuminate

mans essence, rather the literary works are written to reveal man’s “inner thoughts ”, his

reflections and his spiritual construction.) Shakespeare’s masterpieces could be compared to

73. Luke 23:34


Gospels, but it is not the same as Gospels , since it deals with man not God, on the back of whom

(or within its soul) the heavenly forces are functioning (the Christ – God figure, which as

previously stated functions as an epistemological background for Renaissance period and Christ

– man figure re-interpreting his existence in the universe). Hamletian Golgotha is the

reincarnation of evangelical Golgotha on a human scale. Man’s crussification should offer him a

new chance to be restored for a new life. Tragedy induces great impulse to European mentality

opening the horizons of human intellect and soul. Here, the inevitable impact of Shakespearean

tragedies in forming the intellectual potentials of seventeen century man is inevitable. Here the

most significant and mysterical role belongs to Hamlet. The great spiritual energy which

originates from this tragedy is mysterical acting upon on a literary – artistic scale rather than a

spiritual one. Therefore, the whole creative work of Shakespeare should be regarded as play –

mystery which corresponds with the medieval mystery plays, the only difference being the fact

that the later acts on an earthly plan .

The existence of tragedy as a distinctive genre (not as a category) and its logical

development are justified due to the previously mentioned arguments. The Dionysusian tragedy

of Shakespeare (to use Nietzshean term) is in contrast with Apollonian tragedy of Dante as

theater – tragedy opposes poem – epic. Talking about Divine Comedy Mandelstam74 focuses on

the sculptural qualities of Dante’s art, which are manifested in his characters, their plasticity, the

metaphors, and other linguistic features of his language, and the possibility of watching its four

dimensions from outside as a total cumulative construction being unfolded in front of the eyes of

the poet. Shakespearean art doesn’t possess such sculptural qualities; its construction is not only

full of images but also possesses an imperative (literery-inspiritual) quality. This could be

characterized as a view from inside which is intricately connected with the inner energy and

dynamism of language.

Although Divine Comedy embraces a huge dynamism of images, characters and an intense

current of metaphors but on its totality it appears as static. Universe is a ready-made

phenomenon set before the man. He accepts the universe as it is offered to him as the reality and

he passes through it without changing its static (final and finished) construction. His own inner

74. Osip Emilyevich Mandelstam (1891-1938) – Russian poet and essayist


self undergoes certain changes, being reconstructed for the celestial world, while the world in its

totality (the Hell, Purgatory, Paradise and Dante’s world) remains the same as Ptolemaeusian

cosmos. In Shakespeare’s works, such a static and finalized universe does not exist. The world

moves on the circle of the endless reconstruction and changes. There is no ready-made reality

for Hamlet, he himself constructs everything, the distinctive feature of which is not the word but

silence (the phrase “words, words, words…” uttered by Hamlet shows how suspicious he is

toward the validity of human words) yet J. P. Sartre75 defines the silence as the climax of the

drama, its epistemological center or Hamletian “secret”. The scriptural and imaginative principle

could not be applied for Shakespearean dynamic, collapsible and reconstructive world. The basis

of this world is consciousness or in a much broader scale, the reason (intellect), which is the

only cause of man’s existence and the only principle of his spiritual dynamism and the only

prerequisite of his presence (man’s presence on earth is conditioned to his thinking).

Rationalizing is the individualized version of thinking, a kind of “personage” or “name” for

thinking. In Shakespeare’s play the construction and the destruction of the world corresponds

with the development and dynamism of Hamlet’s rationality when he observes the deflection of

the world from its rational path he exclaims “why I was born to correct it…?” does Hamlet

correct this deflection or not? Yes, Hamlet corrects it at the cost of falling in to a tragic situation;

his self sacrifice is the ransom that he pays to the known and unknown forces. This is an

intentional act and the imperative of the free will. On the borderline of the closed Ptolmaeusian

universe and the open Copernican universe the tragic act of Hamlet takes place that is the

“revelation” of the infinity of human awareness which creates an enormous upheaval on

different levels of human mind and spirit.

In literature, the most comprehensive image of man is presented by Shakespeare. Hamlet’s

indecisiveness and uncertainity are so huge that an illusion of the deficiency of characterization

is created, as Leo Tolstoy76 criticizes Shakespeare for his inability in creating a self-willed

character (this is the quality that Vygotsky77 specifies as the unique characteristic of Hamlet). In

fact, we couldn’t say that Shakespeare is unable to create a character with definite behavioral

75. Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1980)- French existentialist philosopher 76. Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)- Russian novelist and short story writer 77. Lev Vygotsky ( 1896-1934) – Russian psychologist, the founder of cultural historical psychology.


features and stable temperament, rather he creates such a multilayered characters possessing

different psycho-philosophical dimensions that corresponds with Copernican micro cosmic

structure. Therefore, from the viewpoint of modern man, Hamlet could be addressed as follows:

“here is the man… .” this is what Fortinbras does in the final section of the play, presenting a

new understanding of Hamlet, not from the moral-ethical but from an epistemological - comic

dimension.

It is not easy to specify different components of mans psychological being in Hamlet,

namely the spirit, the soul and the body, since these components from a totality in Hamlet and

none of them dominates over the other. As a spirit he doesn’t possess personal aims and

temptations, as a soul he is gifted with a lyrical world, as a body, Hamlet plays a leading and

active role in the hierarchical system of his community, while as a thoughtful individual he

strives to rationalize and regulate his activities (“Conscious doth make cowards of us all78…”).

The fundamental causes of Hamlet’s tragic situation could not be traced in his inner

incompatibility and disharmony rather it lays in the outer world, in the fatal predetermination of

the history. In Renaissance period this predeterministic sense ascended human beings to a

superior position and made them become identical with God, in more exact terms to become

Christ-Man which obscures Christ-God figure. Hamlet is gifted with a harmonious and balanced

mental world but he lives in a disharmonious and incompatible universe. Being disharmonious

and incompatible connotes the idea of the violation of Christ’s equilibrium and balance, when his

human aspect, as it happened in middle ages when the heavenly facet of Christ obscures the

earthly facet. With Shakespeare, Renaissance period reaches its pinnacle and gains its most

perfect structure, when man strives for his human identity and freedom and as declaring his

own will and purpose in life (this includes all those things that I had mentioned earlier about St.

Peter’s “denial” which provides the necessary cultural – epistemological background for the

emergence of symbolic – allegorical figure of Renaissance man).

He confronts a reality in which the social world stands in sharp contrast with his inner

world. Hamlet’s situation here has great affinities with St. Peter’s situation in Gethsemane79

garden, in the night when Christ was arrested when he felt absolutely “free” and started to cry 78. Hamlet (Act 3, scene 2) 79. A garden where Christ was arrested to be crucified


bitterly. Man finds his own self, but through his own self he conceals God. God’s absence

creates the fatal contradiction of modern man from which the set of human failures and tragedies

initiate. In Middle Ages man finds God and loses his own self, therefore the God that he finds is

a one dimensional God, through abandoning him he tries to find his own self, but what he finds

is the one-dimensional Man (Christ-Man) leaving the existence of God under its shadow as the

concealed existence of man during Middle Ages being obscured under the dazzling light of God.

The deepest and the most inaccessible epistemological basis of Shakespearean tragedies is

the inadequate presence of God among human souls and human communications, the dominion

of earthly passions over the heavenly love and all those features which leads human avarice to a

calamitous situation. Shakespearean heroes are suffering, and collapsing within a real world

where the presence of God is not sufficiently defined, and the great psychological energy, i. e.

human conscious which is the manifestation of God’s presence within human souls is absent.

Although as Shakespeare demonstrates human conscious never dies ( in his plays even the most

cruel murderer is aware of the deplorable nature of his criminal act and therefore experiences a

period of moral crises), but the dim rays of this conscious is not enough for embracing the full

presence of God. Shakespeare’s heroes are acting independently and self sufficiently, they are

acting without the intervention of the author within the framework of Bakhtin’s

“polyphony”80principle. Each character has his own voice, his own destiny and his choice and

his own sense of responsibility for making his choice. The insufficient presence of God leads to

the self-realization of the people living in a complex and chaotic circumstances and under the

dominion of different forces: some of them are guided toward criminal acts (Richard II,

Claudius, Macbeth, etc.), another group toward fatal pessimism (like Timon of Athens) who

doesn’t find, others toward love and the forceful quest for meaning who become collapsed in the

external world and on the course of the realization of their objectives (Romeo and Juliet and

Antony and Cleopatra), toward surrender and frustration against human vicious nature (Othello

and King Lear) or Hamletian “tragic awareness”. Sometimes these qualities are portrayed within

the framework of comedies with their delightful and jubilant features like (The Merchant of

Venice, Comedy of Manners, Twelfth Night, The Merry wives of Windsor etc) or the brilliant 80. Polyphony is a feature in narrative which includes a diversity of points of views and voices. Bakhtin claimed that

polyphony and heteroglossia are the defining features of novels and short stories


and delightful allegorical features of tragicomedies (the Tempest). Shakespeare’s heroes do not

search for God, this quest is the typical of Dionysian art, which deals with the innermost forces,

allowing them to act and speak with their self-determining intention and desire, but the motive of

their life and tragic situation on the individual-unconscious level is the inadequate presence of

God, the Hamletian “silence” which more or less includes not only Hamlet but also other heroes.

(Like King Lear who plunges into “silence” because of experiencing intense psychological

shocks and only talks to Cordelia’s dead body immediately before his death). This silence

encompasses all the characters, although they talk, soliloquize, think and express their ideas, but

their emotions and psychological conditions are so deep and multilevel that the words do not

suffice them, they talk(or communicate) by their silence. They live; act and die within the

boundaries of that “silence” and nobody except Hamlet is able to show the root cause of his

tragic situation. The quest for God is an initiative motive in Shakespeare’s works, his creative

experience and his characters experience it in an intuitive level. By leading a tragic life as the

only real aspect of the existence, where all his attempts to gain objectives are doomed to fail

(even the antagonist’s plunge into their evil acts as an evidence of this failure) Shakespeare’s

character reaches the level of the absolute appreciation of mankind and portrayed man as the

center of new culture and its “nucleus”. Shakespeare depicts man’s inner integrity and unity and

his manifestation in the universe, meanwhile he shows his failure, his collision and

disappearance in the socially disharmonized and imbalanced world. While man enters such a

world he finds nothing except tragedy therefore he retreats, feeling defeated in a world that offers

him no prospect and promise. In Shakespeare’s works man reaches the pinnacle of artistic

revelation, meanwhile by turning into a social man he becomes defeated, demolished and finally

disappears.

Post Shakespearean literature shows the complete breakdown and disintegration of man in

different levels and in various literary schools up to twentieth century where man reaches the

“final” phase of disintegration and turns into a structure, an “irrational” being who is governed

by the lowest forms of instincts, or a rational machine that has nothing to do with art, who has an

interesting but useless past.

Shakespeare’s works are the zenith and the turning point to which man has strived to

reach since the thirteenth century (especially in the form of Italian poetry). After reaching this


climax, the man gradually retreats and his process of disintegration begins, this process begins in

late classical period and then moving toward eighteenth century enlightment period, then

Romanticism, afterwards it appears in Dostoyevsky’s81, Franz Kafka’s 82 and finally the

Surrealist and Absurdist literature (especially Samuel Beckett83). Shakespeare’s works cannot

be categorized under any specific literary school. If we visualize Renaissance period in a much

broader scale, as a unified integrated cultural system (or macro-system) which encompasses

several subsystems in its apogee and perigee, we could say that Shakespeare’s works lie in the

focal point of this system. (since Dante, three centuries preceeding him and three centuries

following him up to the age of Modernism). This feature ( the impossibility of being categorized

under any literary school ) is also applicable to the structure of his whole artistic achievement as

well as his poetics which is impossible to evaluate by any definite criteria. Each literary direction

(movement) has its own dominant literary genre. i.e.: for Classicism , it is tragedy, for

Enlightment it is novel and for Romanticism it is poetry, while in the case of Shakespeare this is

not true. His creative world encompasses all genres (tragedy, comedy, lyrical poetry….) each

acting as the congruent components of the same system. His lyricism is elaborated not only in

his 154 sonnets, but also it constitutes the foundation of his creative thinking and the deep

structure of his other works either. Shakespeare’s language, regardless of the context in which it

appears preserves its extreme poetic –lyrical profoundness (in poetic sections, in prose sections

in soliloquies in his dialogues and in both his “high” and “low” styles) and his complex plot

structures resembles the form and structure of novel (for example King Lear possesses a complex

web of plots and subplots and the characters undergo a sophisticated developmental course). The

inner architectural construction of his plays possesses an accurate structure and an unfailing

theatrical essence. (these plays are written both for the purpose of reading and performing). After

Shakespeare , Poetics begins its process of disintegration (by Poetics we mean an unbreakable

unity that exists between form and content , a unified system of structural components) and each

newly appearing literary movement after Shakespeare focuses only on one aspect of Poetics , on

the other hand the same process of disintegration and separation occurs for human psyche either.

81. Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881)- Russian novelist and short story writer 82. Frantz Kafka (1883-1924)- German language writer of novels and short stories 83. Samuel Beckettt (1906-1989)- Irish avant guard playwright and novelist


Consequently after Shakespeare we see that the movement of New Classism focuses on Human

Spirit making “Tragedy” the dominant literary genre of the era, while for Enlightment the body

becomes the focal point leading to the appearance of “Novel” and Romantic period concentrated

upon Human Soul making “Lyricism “ the major genre.

In this general discussion Goethe occupies a specific position. For him the concept of

Man, the Unity of Life and the inner inseparable correlation between these two possesses a

significant meaning. In Faust we see the fatal duality that the Man faces. The only possibility of

overcoming this duality is through arduous struggle on a mental- spiritual level and this is

possible on heaven (where the soul of Gretchen becomes unified with Faust’s soul) not on earth

(Life is an empty mirage/The short earthly life. The heaven is the sole cradle of longings).

In Hamlet , where man is presented as the “crown of the universe” the audience witness

the early signs of the disintegration of the individual . This is a process which undergoes several

stages, the inner sides of human soul are shrunk, and the human integrity becomes shattered and

metamorphosed. Human soul abandons human body and it wanders aimlessly until in twentieth

century it reaches to a position that the Spanish philosopher- aesthetician Ortega- y- Gasset calls

it dehumanization. This is a period of human absence from the realm of culture and art. The

Spanish thinker had a sense of optimism toward this ‘ new art’ but it never become actualized

during the last decades especially after Second World War. The absence of the individual (or the

escape from individual as he calls it) was never substituted by a new meaning or content. As the

result of the absence of content or meaning (which constitutes the basis of human existence) the

culture, art and literature turns in to anti culture, anti art and anti literature with all their

manifestations and deceptive modifications until a new meaning and a new spiritual intellectual

meaning emerges.


III. The Indecisivness of Human Soul

(Classicism- Enlightment – Romanticism)

Aristocracy is originally linked with the past( the materialistic- spiritual heritage of the

previous generation as well as their educational system) therefore it receives a system of spiritual

values which has passed through historical stages and had become refined and polished.

Consequently, the mentality and the judgment of this social class are not similar to other social

classes who lack originality and are constantly seeking their identity in their daily life (including

their professional and social life). Being cut off from the past , they consider themselves as

spontaneous beings who are expected to establish their life opportunities with their own empty

hands, to rely upon the present time and to preserve it from the interference of the unknown and

suspicious forces and relations, to stick to their own personal life , to build their own personal

universe with their own efforts . For an individual who is deprived of the heritage of the previous

generation (i.e. the bourgeois) the present time is the only an opportunity where he is capable of

drawing the outline of his own existence, while for the aristocrat this outline lies in the past, in

history, functioning as an identity for him, a spiritual substance which he has inherited from his

ancestors. The present looks dim and hazy under the shadow of the past and it gradually

disappears. Therefore whatever lies in the past looks much more real than what he sees in the

present time. He receives his vital impulses from the past and he finds himself more in the past

than in the present. He seeks to receive his present identity from the past.

Here the poetic expression of Ovid84, the Roman poet and aristocrat ,gains significance.

He says “When I was bound in chains I wasn’t ashamed of myself, now that I am free

remembering the period that I was enchained makes me become ashamed of myself.” A

84.Publius Ovidius Naso – (43BC- 17AD) known as Ovid, Roman poet, traditionally ranked alongside

Virgil and Horace as one of the three canonic poets of Latin literature.


detained man doesn’t feel ashamed of himself , since his soul is free in spite of being entangled

in chains . On the level of subconsciousness , whenever the individual becomes liberated still he

finds himself being caught in chains. He draws a sketch of his own past in the present time and

makes judgments upon that sketch. Therefore the moral – spiritual aspect of his

subconsciousness becomes more emphasized . Here the element of Time acts as the basic

component of the individual’s subconsciousness in the process of his recognition and gaining

self identity. It means that “the present” (here and now) is understood as the incarnation of the

substance of Time. In other words, the individual’s connection with the past signifies his

existence in present and codifies his whole system of cognition. The more distant the past , the

more organized and codified his cognition becomes and the sooner he approaches his ultimate

goals. Here the tradition gains the dominant role, upon which the element of time functions and

the different generations gain the opportunity to leave their footprint in the course of its

development.

In the realm of literature , drama appears as the dominant genre of the seventeenth century

French Classicism functioning as the manifestation of human reason and action . Here drama is

functioning as a comprehensive literary genre and tragedy is the most significant dramatic form.

In this period , literature is based upon unshakable, stable and equivocal construction having the

Time substance as the motivating agent. Drama carries within itself the inner opposition of the

Time substance . The present time appears in a disguised shape which gradually dissolves. (as

the Platonic Menon85 – the shadow of the spirit). Here the present time appears within two

conflicting elements: that is, the light and the shadow , Nomenon and phenomenon ,

metaphysics and physics. The present time manifests itself within the construction of

consciousness, mind and creative process . At this point tragedy appears as the ultimate form of

the conflicting mind which creates insight and a deep appreciation of the period’s cultural

concepts. The purpose of tragedy is to create a spiritual harmony, a balanced agreement between

different concepts and to preserve the permanent moral- ethical values against the corruption of

time. Tragedy is the victory of extreme individualism , it moves along the path of the

dramatization.

85 Meno (also transliterated as Menon)- a Socratic dialogue written by Plato discussing human virtue.


The tragic figure turns toward the past, where his spiritual entity lies. There he finds his

identity and receives all necessary signals for acquiring moral- spiritual values and the

instructions that he needs to perform his role. Therefore the tragedy of the Classical period is

inclined toward the past, the dramatic actions took place in the past although they are inspired by

the present time and they are watched from the viewpoint of the present time. In other words the

present time has a hidden presence in the course of the action, acting as the motivating force of

the tragedy. Therefore two time references are functioning in the tragedy, one is observable (the

actual time of the play) and the other is non observable (the dramatist’s personal subjective

time). This means that the dramatist watches the present time from the viewpoint of the past.

While functioning within the first time reference, the dramatist looks for his spiritual center

in the past. There he finds his own inner existential self and the necessary inner impulses to

perform his acts. In the second case, the dramatist testifies his own absence . Here (in the

present time) his own self becomes alien and defamiliarized to him. This is a paradoxical quality

which is always present in the literature of classical period and because of this, the past is seen as

tragic and the present as comic.

On the one hand , the individual is searching for his spiritual entity in the past on the other

hand he lives in the present time but he doesn’t find anything to support his spiritual dignity yet

he has a sense of commitment and moral obligation toward the present situation. This creates a

tragic situation.

Tragedy is defined as the triumph of the individual over himself, the failure of tragic figure

is defined as a forward looking step toward spiritual evolution. In this process, his consciousness

becomes one part of the spirit and he strives to reach the totality of spirit. Going through the

process of triumph- failure , the individual regains the metaphysic ( or physics) of the past and in

this way he becomes dignified.

“The more tragic , the more real” , this is the basic assumption of classicism. The more

drama penetrates in the past, the more it becomes resurrected to appear in the present time. The

degree of plausibility (or realness) of the present is directly linked with the past. On a specific

level of consciousness , the present becomes the metamorphosed version of the past, carrying

upon itself all the images of the past. There is no tragedy without the past and there is no history

without a possible tragic situation. The dramatic action of classical dramas occurs in the past.


The present time has no tragedy. (It’s tragedy lies in the past). The themes, the heroes, the

conflicts and other dramatic elements are borrowed from the past. The heroes of P.Corneille86

or J. Racine87 are taken from historical events in spite of the fact that these heroes sometimes

have trans- historical essence , i.e they are functioning both within the history and out of the

history, within the language system and out of language system. (This feature is completely

different from Hamletian “silence” , here the impossibility of using language is concerned.) The

inner conformity of the heroes, their mental tunefulness and the consistency of their actions and

all other features make each of the characters turn into closed cosmos which corresponds with

the antique cosmos.

The closed cosmos possesses a specific sculptural quality: a plastic image based upon the

mathematical- geometrical definite rhythms. The image which is taken out of stone (as

Michelangelo says) is the gesture which sets the sculpture in to motion, functioning the same

way as the intonation in poetic language which vivifies the language by its musical – subjective

features. The sculptural gesture and the poetic intonation are the two aspects and expressive

devices of the same concept. That’s why we see that the seventeenth century poetry strives to

reach an architectural format (drama either due to the claim of the dramatists is defined as the

architectural arrangement of the words). This inclination of literature toward the sculptural –

architectural features is a reflection of the relationship that 17th century drama establishes with

the Antique world (or Antique Cosmos). The drama of this period attempts to incorporate this

feature within its inner semantic- informative as well as outer – structural constructions. The

concept of antique cosmos in the 17th century passes through the concept of Christian cosmos,

gains a new aesthetic dimension and finally becomes manifested within the genre of drama.

Within this new aesthetic construction (drama), the inner and outer constructions become tightly

interwoven due to the symmetrical principles and finally turn in to one giant unified bearer of

cosmic rhythm.

The ideological – psychological proportionality of drama (the unity of thought, emotions

and actions) becomes manifested within the language of drama. Striving for inner

proportionality is the same as the incarnation of cosmos within the soul of the hero. The other

86 Peire Corneille – (1606-1684)- French tragedian 87 Jean Racine – (1639-1699)- French dramatist


elements such as time, place and human relations act as anti- cosmic features, creating a kind of

deviation in the order of the cosmos. The hero moves forward, facing and overcoming all these

anti- cosmic obstacles. Here the inner – semantic construction of the literary work forms a unify

with the impersonalized “I” of the hero. The reflection of this unity could be found in the

architecturally balanced construction of the drama including the unity of action , the stylistic

features of the work and the metrical patterns and other musical features of drama.

Here, the drama acts as a closed, finished, symmetrical and rhythmic cosmos. This cosmos

acts differently now because it has passed through the filter of the Christian cosmos and now

appears in a new era. The past with all its conventions and traditions was an established cosmos.

There, the individual ( the classical poet or his hero) had the opportunity to find his true essence

and identity and to gain a spiritual entity . In the new era , the individual is forced to live as a

physical being which is in sharp contrast with his spiritual self (being) so the new situation

appears as an anti-cosmos.

The confrontation of cosmos with anti- cosmos leads to the birth of tragedy the focal point

of which is the “I” of the author with all its personalized and impersonalized dimensions. The

reference of tragedy is the past while the reference of comedy is the present. The past and the

tragic somehow become synonymous. The past becomes tragic because it has gained its true

essence by contrasting the present anti-cosmos . Here the tragic and the heroic act

interchangeably, their epistemological boarders match each other , therefore , there is no tragedy

without heroism and there is no heroism without tragedy. The point where the tragic and the

heroic meet each other is the past , the history, the blood of ancestors where the racial heritage is

preserved, the chiffre of the history or the code of aristocracy is safeguarded. If this connection

with the past and the blood of aristocracy is broken off for any reason, the hero will experience a

downfall and he will seize to exist as an individual. After the downfall and gaining an insight ,

when the hero takes a look at the present time (or situation) he finds it comic, here his true

spiritual self finds the opportunity to manifest itself. The present with all its dimensions from the

viewpoint of the aristocrats is seen as comic regardless of the fact that when, where and how its

course of the actions has taken place. The present appears comic because it functions as an anti-

cosmos lacking any heroic or tragic aspect. Although this is the cosmos of the 17th century man

but he is connected with it through a negative correlation.


Taking in to consideration the Three Directions of the Cultural Development, that is from

above to below, from heaven to earth and from spiritual- philosophical to earthly and physical,

we will see that the plays of the three dominant dramatists of the 17th century :i.e. P. Corneille,

J. Racine and J.B Moliere88 follow the same direction. In the works of the ancient Greek Drama

this direction was followed by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. The first one focuses on

religious- mythological aspect, the second on idealistic- heroic and the third on personal

psychological aspect. ( Aristotle in his Poetics talks about this issue). The above mentioned three

important French dramatists follow the same direction: Corneille’s works focuses upon the

governmental- political classicism which is similar to Aeschylus’ style, the psychological drama

of Racine with his heroes suppressing their desires and the triumph of “I” have affinities with

Sophocles’ heroes ( Phedre89, Benerice90 , Andromaque91 and Antigone) and Moliere’s

comedies portraying the downfall of aristocracy in a “materialistic society” (for example the

apparent immorality of Don Juan, which is the consequence of neglecting the past and the

degeneration of personal identity , the mental disability of Orgon92 and the false piety of

Tartuff93) corresponds with Euripides’ style although the former writes comedies while the later

writes tragedies. Euripides shows us how man is while Sophocles shows us how man should be.

On the other hand Moliere shows us how an aristocrat is nowadays while Racine shows us how

he should be. P.Corneilles’ and J. Racine’s tragedies portray the poetry of the soul (here the

noble character), the dramatic aestheticism of his spiritual- intellectual world while in Moliere’s

plays the miseries of losing noble blood and the prose of a man experiencing a moral

psychological downfall are presented. In 17th century, for the first time on an European stage the

present situation of the individual with all its comic and menial dimensions were portrayed, the

situation which was evaluated as scornful because it was in sharp contrast with the demands of

the 94poetic spirit of the past.

88 Jean Baptist Moliere (1622-1673)- French playwright.

90 Benerice- a five act tragedy by Jean Racine 91 Andromaque- a tragedy in five acts by Jean Racine 92 Orgon – one of the characters in Tartuff 93 Tartuff- A comedy written by Moliere 94 Phedre- a dramatic tragedy written in verse by Jean Racine


2.

Analyzing the concept of comedy, it is worth to focus on the idea of German great thinker

F. Schelling95 who says that “comedy stands between art and reality”. On the one hand, as far as

the structure, language, poetics and the craftsmanship of the work are concerned , comedy could

be categorized as art, on the other hand since comedy is directly related to real life and reality

itself posses certain qualities as the incapability of the street manners to be categorized under

any definite classification it couldn’t be categorized as art. Being tragic is synonymous to being

connected with the spirit (to use Schelling’s term to be connected with the Absolute), while

being comic means being associated with the crude body. Therefore comedy functions in the

zone of reality while tragedy functions in the realm of the ideal. The relationship between these

two resembles the relationship that exists between the body and the spirit. (although for tragedy

the tangible reality has a disguised concept which should be recreated, revealed and

reconstructed.) The comedy writer cannot write comedies just by being isolated from society and

by observing the real people and street life from his “room window”, it is necessary for him to

get involved with real life. On the other hand a tragedy writer writes the tragic work in silence

while sitting in his own room. Within this deep silence he is capable of exploring the whole

depth and magnitude of his own spirit. For a tragedy writer his own life experience is not that

important, rather the experience of his spirit plays a significant role in his writing process. In

other words, the spirit itself has a tragic nature, the deprivation of spirit is portrayed in comedy

and this is the comedy writer who notices the absence of spirit in the reality. J.B. Moliere lived in

mid 17th century French society where the dominant literary genre was tragedy, a genre which

was in absolute association with the heritage of aristocracy. He noticed that the basic substance

which he is looking for, the one that Racine had already found it in the heritage of the past no

more exists. Moliere attempts to remove the mask of the present and find the total emptiness

hidden under it. This emptiness and deprivation of spirit creates comic situation and laughter.

Racine does the same thing in a different direction, he removes the disguise of the past and finds

tragedy there as an ultimate expression of the spiritual heritage. In fact, the two talented authors

95 Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling – (1775-1854)- German philosopher


reach the same reality through different directions, i.e. the heritage of aristocracy no more exists

in the present, it used to be in the past, any attempt to find it in the present is synonymous to

opening up a “golden trunk” which is empty. Moliere does this , he turns his key and opens this

trunk up , surprisingly he sees that there is nothing inside. Comedy originates from the

contradictions that exists between the expectation (our expectation of seeing something in the

trunk) and the reality( the emptiness of the trunk). The term “Aristocracy” could not be merely

used for referring to a specific social class, rather , it is a system of values and lifestyles of

different social groups living in different historical periods ( in this sense the concept of

aristocracy still exists even in present time). That’s why even nowadays we may see the

reflection of Moliere’s comedies. If we move one step forward from Molierian drama , we will

see the tragedy of aristocracy, making a step backwards we may confront the “moaning drama”

of 18th century . The dramatic hero of the “moaning drama” is not the one who is looking inside

the golden trunk and not finding anything there starts to laugh, rather what he finds there is his

true self, his “inner image” which has been detained . The lock of this trunk should be opened

up and the inner image should be liberated and the true essence of the individual should be

revealed and enlightened.

In 18th century after the appearance of the three level system of Corneille , Racine and

Moliere , there appears the individual who has cut all his connections with the past , the

individual whose existence is merely defined in the present time, his consciousness and his inner

image is here under his feet. He finds the unity of his own existence and his system of values

merely within his own materialistic being. This third social class, namely called the bourgeois

has cut all his connections with the past, he is deprived of the ethnic originality of the ancestors,

lacks any Blood heritage and hasn’t inherited anything from the historical and intellectual

background of aristocracy. He finds the essence of his being within the structure of the present

materialistic world, all alone, relying upon his personal subjective energy beyond which there

lies nothing except the foggy, dull and chaotic nightmare of the history, acting as his rival and

opponent, something that suppresses and humiliates his honor and self esteem and restricts his

freedom. He separates the concept of time from the past and the future, puts it in parentheses,

then he focuses upon the content of parentheses and carefully observes its structural details and

tries to coordinate them with his own mentality and objective cognitive capabilities. The world


that lies in the parentheses is concrete, tangible but not inferential. Although this world is mixed

with human ignorance , insufficiency of vital energy and other aspects of social and communal

inequalities but if any illuminative sense of intellectuality is combined with this world , it will

turn into an interesting and acceptable concept. The individual isn’t interested in exploring the

metaphysical world , rather , he is eager to recognize the contemporary physical world. He

compresses the infinite essence of the aristocracy into one temporal and spatial point, which is

the existence itself from which his own intellectual and emotional being originates. The universe

expands in its spatial dimension , the new infinite Copernican universe becomes tangible for him

(which stands in sharp contrast with the former finite universe) . This infinite universe becomes

compressed in the present time the illuminative center of which stands in sharp contrast with the

darkness of the earlier periods. The intellectual outlook of eighteenth century is directed toward

the past. This outlook decodes the history, but it doesn’t become fixated in the past. For an

eighteenth century man , history is just like a textbook, he studies and analyzes this textbook and

learns many things from it but this textbook is not the whole life for him. The individual doesn’t

define his whole existence in the past, he just makes a short pause in the past and then moves

forward, searching for his new identity in the new materialistic world and rambling along the

outlandish roads of the universe. The individual doesn’t negate the existence of God (like

Voltaire) , he knows that he does this research without having any sufficient knowledge of

theology (Descartian Principle) and this might create certain problems in forming a true picture

of the world. The eighteenth century western man is the creator of his own self , he considers his

own being as a substance which has been offered by Divine forces (Providence) and he is

responsible to shape it into a new man. Since he doesn’t acquire anything from the past, he is

forced to focus upon himself, to create his own principles, therefore he needs education,

professionalism, definite and concrete communication with the outer world, a new ethical

outlook which not only functions as different but also acts in sharp contrast with the previous

(aristocratic) morality. For an individual who doesn’t have history, the present substitutes the

history and the materialistic substance gains spiritual significance. This substituted materialistic

substance creates an inverted image of the real (spiritual substance) which resembles to the

reflection of a mirror. The individual following this image gains a broad outlook, he becomes

virtuous but at the same time egoist, spiritual but at the same time atheist, contemplative yet


practical. The seventeenth century man occupies an unbalanced position in history while the

position of eighteenth century man is a balanced one. In eighteen century the hierarchical

significance of History and Nature changes. Nature appears in foreground, consequently the

Equality Principle gains preference. Nature appears as a meditative, sensitive and animated

organism. It represents a sort of unique atheistic divinity, which acts as the upholder of the secret

of creation. The qualities that are attributed to this divinity are the same as the qualities

attributed to God. If Nature becomes the Absolute then it should be capable of dissolving all

social and individual inequalities within itself since this is only God who is capable of dissolving

all inequalities within its own existence. This understanding of Nature creates a kind of

materialistic religion, an ideological anti-religion. This materialistic religion establishes a close

contact between man and the world and provides the necessary requirements for scientific

achievements. The 18th century philosophers believed that the idea of God may create

interference on the way of scientific development, therefore it should be discarded. The

calamitous consequences of this idea could be felt in 20th century either. It paralyzes the rational

capabilities of the individual, depriving him of the inner spiritual understandings and banishing

him in an incomprehensible infinite universe which acts as a big threat for his identity and

hinders his spiritual evolution.

The priority of the present era over the past, the presentation of the world as a concrete-

materialistic entity, the Rousseauan conception of Nature and the natural create a kind of false

theology in the aesthetic-philosophical perception of eighteenth century literature in which the

individual tries to find and actualize the illusion of equality. This illusionary idea was forcefully

actualized in the eighteenth century society during the dictatorial reign of Jacobean dynasty.

Equality is quested whenever it is absent, when it is established in a society it is often been

forgotten (the idea of actualizing social equality was practiced in a vulgar and brutal manner in

the twentieth century in Russia). Under such circumstances, the individual both finds himself as

being a part of the nature and being banished from nature. Living in urban areas or in civilized

communities, the individual finds himself being treated as an inferior being, surrounded by an

unnatural setting, being alien to civilization and all aspects of urban life. J.J Rousseau’s96 heroes

96 Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) – Genevan philosopher and writer


are willing to live in nature, in perfect harmony with it, in this way they find peace and get closer

to their own true nature. The cruel hand of the civilization hinders them from reaching this

possibility and creates a deep sense of frustration and dissatisfaction. In D. Diderot’s97 works (

like in his novels “La Religieuse” “ Jacques le fataliste” and also in his dramas “Le pere de

famille” “ Le Fils natural), the absence of the natural setting creates misfortune for the heroes. In

both cases we see that the individual is an ultra- natural being. It is not possible to impose

forcefully a natural or urban setting upon him.

In 18th century literature, the idea of presenting the individual as a unified and integrated

being became impossible. The more the individual strives to gain equality and freedom , the

more he attains inequality, subjection and dependence. The individual who has been plunged in

to the material world and external relation gradually becomes disinterested in them and strives to

gain something else, the man who lives in nature gradually becomes indifferent toward nature.

The same idea appears in 18th century British literature. Robinson Crusoe who lives in absolute

alienation, strives to live in civilized world but when he returns to the civilized world (England)

he dreams about the island. Being cut off from the past and thrown in to the world of the reality,

the individual becomes incapable of finding his way , therefore he starts to wander, rambling

between the two poles of existence which are in fact the two constituents of his bisected being.

The satirical image of the wandering man have been portrayed in J. Swift’s98 “Guillivers

Travels” and Voltair’s99 “Candid”. In both novels, the quest of man for finding an integrated

image of himself are portrayed, the image which has been irretrievably lost during the ages and

only its conceptual illusion has remained. This conceptual image which is incorporeal yet

animated is portrayed in The Golden City of El Dorado, glittering aimlessly in the southern

jungles of America or The Horse Island in the beautiful cornfields and grasslands in which the

“yahoo” gangs with their animalistic passions and frantic hunger are wandering, living in dirt

and disgraceful conditions ready to devour everything. Swift’s and Voltaire’s works clearly

demonstrate the positive and negative aspects of the eighteenth century man. The man who is

capable of shaping the world, developing his personal intellect and analytic mind, relying upon

97 Denis Diderot – (1713-1784)- French philosopher, art critic and writer 98 Francois-Marie Arouet (1694-1778)- French Enlightment writer, historian and philosopher 99 Johnoton Swift- (1667-1745)- Anglo Irish satirest and essayist


his own self and experience in understanding the possibilities and limitations of the materialistic

aspects of the world. He clearly understands the complexity and the deterministic nature of life

and he knows that only through enlightment of mind and intellect he may reach freedom. He

passes through the antique cosmos of classical period and arrives in the eighteenth century anti

cosmos of human relationship which is as deterministic and restraining as the mathematical

accuracy of classical period. The antique man is driven by the sense of duty, commitment and

impersonal self, he is more interested in the supreme realms of human soul searching the basic

components of the Spirit (transcendence/eminence) to find meaning and essence of life, while

the eighteenth century man has cut off all his connections with the past and his own personal

instincts, experiences and interests serve as the only guideline for him. He is even attempting to

find this meaning within the constructions of molecules and cells i.e. the physical and chemical

aspect of existence (such as D. Diderot’s in his “Le Reve D’Alembert” or the ideas of 18th

century French materialistic philosophers) supposing that human freedom (or the preliminary

necessity of human life as Stendhal puts it) could be achieved by the recognition and analysis of

those molecules and cells, that is through science and enlightment. Conclusively, he gains

nothing else than the mental image of freedom and the phantom of the equality, which falls as a

curtain over the unequal world, disguising its real face, and distracting the attention of man from

the real image.

The classical antique cosmos by approaching the modern era collides with the body of the

modern world and smashes into pieces, collapses as a structure meanwhile letting its musical

echoes to be heard from the past, creating a sense of melancholy, nostalgia and other

psychological torments within the soul of the eighteenth century man. These anguishes are

closely related to those inner losses that the 18 century man has experienced. He gains the

present time at the cost of losing his past (as it was earlier stated the aristocracy live in the past,

while the second class of bourgeois live in the present). He loses the history and gains the reality

(the present materialistic nature of the world). Of course through departing history, the history

itself makes a step forward. The Europeans by losing the historical aspect of life discover the

limited body of the world, this body retreats to find a new direction. Along the path of losing

history and facing the absence of real life the man experiences the sense of dissatisfaction and

bewilderment.


3

The complex, multidimensional and multilayer literature of 18 century which was

constructed over the tragic ruins left by the collapse of the antique cosmos in seventeenth

century, began its devastating process in the last decade of eighteenth century, and the man who

has appeared within this circumscribed area tries to cross the restricting boundaries and enter a

new world, which was called the romantic reality. Although the class conflict of aristocracy and

bourgeoise was supposed to have been resolved in earlier periods but on a psychological-

philosophical scale this conflict still existed in a disguised manner and from time to time it

found the opportunity to express itself within the structure, thematic structures and linguistic

features of literature, constructing its foundation over an absolutely paradoxical poetics. The

antique cosmos of classicism (of course it could be no longer be called antique because it has

only inherited a few principles concerning the concepts of harmony and symmetry from the

earlier period) becomes demolished by anti-cosmic concept of romantic era in eighteenth

century.

Romantic thought didn’t make any attempt to reach the beautiful which was the focal

point of classical period, rather, it strived to reach to the ethereal which is different from the

idea of the beautiful as far as its structural contrast is concerned. The ethereal acts as an antipode

of the beautiful, it takes a few essential elements (such as the quest for the lost cosmos) from the

former, therefore I call it anti-cosmos. On the one hand the ethereal is closed within itself,

recognizing the present time as the only real time (time is defined as a concept which is always

present), on the other hand it tries to come out of this enclosed zone and move toward the

spiritual cosmos (the Christian level of cosmos, which transfers the materialistic-spatial

construction into a spiritual-chronological system preserving its harmonic -musical quality. The

Christian cosmos changes the architectural into musical and creates a unique architectural music

or musical architecture. The abstract , stable , and plastic intellect of Descartes100 stands in sharp

100 Rene Descartes – (1596-1650)- French philosopher and mathematician – The founder of the Modern philosophy


contrast with Diderot’s concrete, developing and relative thought which was common in

Enlightment period. Nineteenth century Schopenhaurian irrational, destructive “will” smashes

the Descartian intellectual and closed cosmos which became the dominant mentality of

Enlightment period. ( The Descatrian I think, therefore I am assertion yields to

Schopenhauerian101 irrational assertion I am because I want to).

The consciousness of classicism is directed toward the past, it attempts to return to its

origin, the creation of the world, while eighteen century literature turns its face toward the

future, departs the past, perceives it as history. For classicism, only the past exists, and there is

no history (it seems that time has no history), for Enlightment, the history exists as an experience

and developmental process, but there is no past with its narrative, contemplative and

metaphysical significance acting as a philosophical-psychological value (whatever is out of

history is out of mind either). The irrational consciousness of the apocalypse and its tragic image

create restlessness and anxiety for the man, therefore as a self-defense mechanism man tries to

deflect the course of the history, to change the nature of things, to avoid the inevitability of

death, to create a new reality which is equally real and metaphysical. He creates a reality within

the reality, a surrealistic reality, the measures of which have the same level of exactness as the

geometrical precision.

Romanticism rejects the principles of Enlightment which sees human beings as the product

of nature and society, the offspring of the environment. This environment could be either the

nature as J.JRousseau points out or the society which forms and shapes human personality;

therefore in order to know the individual we must first analyses the environment which has

shaped his personality. Man issurrounded by his environment ; the previous tabula rasa becomes

unrecognizable since the environment imposes certain sign system upon human mind. That’s

why we don’t see and plausible and fully developed character in the eighteenth century French

literature, what we see as characters are in fact abstract concepts acting as characters. The

characters of Rousseau (New Heloise) ,Diderot’s “Rameau’s Nephew) “La Religieuse”, “Jaques

le fataliste”), and Voltaire’s characters act the same way. We see the same feature, in a much

101Arthur Schopenhauer – (1788-1860)- German philosopher . Best known for his book “The World as Will

and Representation”


elevated artistic form in the English literature of eighteenth century, although the origin of

English literature is closely linked with Spanish picaresque novel (and before the picaresque

novels, its origins goes back to Boccaccio’s Decameron as far as the humorous features of

characters and events are concerned), although English literature presents a much broader scope

of relationships and associations, (Swift, Defoe102, Fielding103, Stern104) but again in those

works the characters, are mingled with their setting and do not act independently. All genres of

Enlightment literature are conceptual. The characters acts as thinking masks under which the

social reality functions, the characters lack individuality, instead the social, official, ultra

personal and sometimes even ultra human factors act effectively in literary works and have a

dominant role in shaping individuals destiny. It seems that this feature is the demand and

necessity of eighteenth century, presenting individual as the outcome of the social reality, the

product of the external relationships.

Genealogically cut off from his origin, feeling all alone and defenseless against the

external forces and merely relying upon himself, the eighteenth century man turns into a faceless

mask, which is the consequence of the dominance of social reality. In this situation, the mask

itself is not important; rather the reality behind it with all its implications gains significance. The

Romantic Movement acts against such anti-individualism. This movement acts not as much

against classicism as the eighteenth century Enlightment movement, against its bare materialism

and fake piety, the narrow and restricted environment, that specific spot which acts as the

intersection of time and space upon which the human “I” is nailed and from which he attempts

to liberate himself and join to eternity. In Byron’s 105works (the “Pilgrimage of Child Harold”,

“Cain and Manfred” and “Oriental poems”) this conflict reaches its climax.

Byron’s insistence for liberation draws him near to classics (that’s why he calls himself a

classist) but instead of seeing the past he strives for something like cosmic time something like

the truth of mythological gods, demonic time that appear in his inspirations as freedom (free

from the injustice of the homeland, from the boundaries of materialistic world, and all the

102 Henry Fielding- (1707-1754)- English novelist and dramatist known for his rich humor 103 Daniel Defoe- (1660-1731)- English writer and journalist best known for his novel Robinson Crusoe 104 Laurence Stern- (1713-1768)- Anglo Irish novelist 105 George Gordon Byron – (1788-1824) – English poet and leading figure in Romantic movement


restrictions which leads to the collapse of the individuality) F.Hyudeolin takes refuge to the

Greek cosmos and Novalis into the Medieval Christianity, toward darkness (the enlightment of

soul). V.Hugo’s106 heroes are not bound to their environment, they are able to reconstruct their

environment and in most occasions they face a tragic ending in their attempts for stabilizing the

independence and the freedom of their will. Therefore the outlook of twentieth century

completely turns toward the individual. The individual becomes the basis, the fundamental

substance, the platonic idea and the whole universe appearing as shadow (non-existent), the

inferior reality, which cannot dominate over human soul. Romantic Movement, manifests human

soul with all its inner conversions and consequences. If we take the triple components of human

existence (spirit-body-soul), then we will notice that the seventeenth century classicism basically

relies on human spirit (the basic concepts of the unity of all time and the idea of universal

consciousness), the eighteenth century Enlightment, on the body (the presence of the individual

in the materialistic world stressing the social aspect of his being inhabited in specific time and

place) and the Romantic movement of early ninetieth century on human soul (the concept of the

individualistic “I”, his personal world, which cannot be settled within the restricted boundaries of

the materialistic world). The human psyche, acts like flames of fire which is striving to reach the

upper realms meanwhile illuminating its environment, searching for the lost Eden and finding it

either in tragic situation or within the lyrical mirages manifested in human soul. During the late

sixteenth century and early seventeenth century the unified and integrated image of the

individual presented in Shakespeare works was suddenly collapsed and divided into its basic

components (that is the soul, body and spirit) each serving as the basis of the three main literary

movements in history: Classicism, Enlightment and Romanticism. Each of these literary

movements while accepting the integrated and unified nature of the individual focuses on one

aspect of human existence. This movement foregrounds one or the other layer of the human

existence and considers them as the sub models of the original model which is the individual.

These sub models are closely related to each other, each of them to some extent functions as the

sub model of the other sub-model, and they find their expression in art and literature of the mid

nineteenth and early twentieth century.

106 Victor Hugo(1802-1885) – French poet and novelist and dramatist of Romantic age


IV. Literary Genres of Seventeen to

Nineteen Century

Some people possess a spatial107 individuality, while others are of the sequential 108 type.

Novalis argues that this difference accounts for the distinction that exists between heroes and

artists. It seems that the heroes are inclined toward being spatial while the artists toward the

sequential. The spiritual world of the artist find the opportunity to develop and become more

profound and polished within a certain time span. However the hero finds the opportunity to

approach the sequential through spaciousness and the artist succeeds to reach the spaciousness

through sequential concept, therefore they meet each other in a third world, where they do not

oppose each other, rather they form an integrated unity. In the basis of the spatial concept lies

the sequential concept and in the basis of the chronological concept lies the spatial concept,

therefore by approaching the one we can meet the other. In spite of this external contradiction,

Novalis himself finds an inner analogy between this two.. He says “Time is the inner space and

the space is the outer time”. Each body has its own time and each time has its own body. For an

artist the universe manifests itself first of all on a sequential plan, through which he finds the

opportunity to reach its spatial dimension either . Accepting time as a medium for spiritual

development (time as the essential feature of the soul, its setting , where it receives its energy

and mobility) the artist approaches the body and the soul and forms a unity between the two

(the idea of absolute unity of Schelling109). The more unlimited the time, the more endless the

distance (space) would be, the more restricted the space, the more restricted the time would be

however, the contradiction of the body and spirit finds its resolution in the soul. This

107 Spatial individuality or Spatial intelligence- Deals with spatial judgment and the ability to visualize things

with mind’s eye. Howard Gardner in his “Theory of Multiple Intelligence” mentions that people with spatial intelligence are more effective in solving problems related to the area of realistic, thing oriented and investigative occupations.

108Sequential individuality or Sequential intelligence- People who are more active in audio capabilities, like learning musing, learning language , abstract thinking etc.

109 Fredrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling – (1775-1854)- German idealist philosopher


contradiction is the unhappy consciousness110, to use Hegelian terminology, its inner disruption

which finds its resolution merely through finding the truth of the will.

“The most important thing is the direction ”, says Hegel. Following the path and the

direction which the literature of seventieth to nineteenth century has crossed, we may see how

the focus of the literature of the western world has changed from the dominance of the concept

of spirit in classic period to the concept of body in eighteenth century and finally it reaches to

the dominance of the concept of soul in romantic period. This movement is like a journey that

human consciousness has made in a three dimensional world, when the compass needle of his

consciousness stops at this or that point the horizons of a new world is opened up for him. In

romantic era, the human soul finds itself within a narrow boundaries of this world and it attempts

to liberate itself, but this attempt can not be defined as a retreat to history (something that we had

already seen in seventeenth century poetry) rather the movement is directed to ward the future

and eternity, where the limited space turns into eternal time. The changes that have occurred

within the deepest layers of meaning and worldview , later become manifested on the external

level, shaping a new literary form and structure and a new style for artistic expression.

At the first glance we may definitely notice the distinctive borderline that exists between

the literary genres that have appeared in this period, where the integrated image of man

(including his soul, body and spirit) is portrayed from different perspective.

By analyzing the changes that have occurred during this period of three hundred years,

from seventieth to twentieth century, we may notice that the general outlook toward existence

and the individual has constantly been changed, each period accepting the impact of the

dominant mentality of the age and its reverberation upon the subsequent literary movement (the

changes that occur in the content and structure of the literary from). In seventeenth century art

the focus is upon the spirit, man is located in an impersonal cosmos and the rational obligation of

life serves as a guideline for him, in eighteenth century Enlightment period the individual is

110 Unhappy consciousness for Hegel is associated with a stage in history of the development of the freedom of self consciousness . In this externalization of the good from human affairs we see forming what Hegel calls Unhappy Consciousness. This, Hegel associates with much of early Christian era when people turned away from the world through ascetic and monastic life and prayer. Of course for Hegel much of these stages is an attainment, the achievement of the unhappy consciousness is the truth of the will which has been nurtured through ascetic life.


viewed as a social being, he is located in a network of relationships and the origin of his

existence lies in the outer world, within the structure of the society, and finally the romantic

period considers man as the incarnation of the soul , as an individum (the ascending of the” I” in

the philosophy of Fichte 111in the late eighteenth century German philosophy). Trying to disclose

his inner soul, the romantic artist finds a deep discrepancy between the complex realms of the

spirit and the outer world. From spirit he receives the inner impulses, the emotional experiences ,

the image of beauty which he finds in his dreams (but is absent in his everyday life) and from

the external world he receives the tragic understanding .This understanding is created

whenever man searches for the spirit in the external world and he fails to find it and also while

searching for the spirit he fails to find the reflection of his own concrete existence there. The

two segments of the bisected ” I” are searching for one-another, since the soul itself is broken

up between the two (body and spirit) either. The spirit looks for that part of the soul which is

dissolved within the body, where the spirit itself is absent. In the other part, the soul looks for

the worldly foundations of his own existence within the spirit and he fails to find it , the bisected

“I” doesn’t look for the spirit within the realm of the spirit and the external world within the

realm of the external world. It stands on the junction of the opposing movements of the two

worlds, bearing upon itself certain psychological impact. While withdrawing itself in to the

depths of the soul the “I” rises in rebellion against both, (Byron’s “Cain” or “Manfred” ) equally

denying the spirit (in Cain the God) and the external world (the symbol of which is Abel).

Cutting off its connections from the spirit and body (the external world) , the soul remains all

alone and alienated, surviving as a self-soul. Upon the ruins of the shattered human

proportionality the soul moves toward the Lucifer and accepts the luciferian anti-soul impact

upon itself, finding anti-freedom instead of freedom of human soul.

Byron’s romanticism is the tragedy of the soul who has lost its ancient cosmos. This tragic

sense is expressed by lyrical elements regardless of its literary genre. That was not Byron’s

fault; rather that was his literary mission , through which in the early nineteenth century poetry

the elements and the worldview of the romanticism appear. Regardless of the content of romantic

111 Johann Gottleib Fichte – (1762-1814)- German philosopher. One of the leading figures of German

idealism.


literature, the basis of romantic thinking is lyricism , that’s why at a certain level the terms

“romantic” and “lyric” become synonymous. Even Romantic prose has lyrical tone. In Romantic

prose the language not only narrates but also expresses, and these two actions are performed in

a parallel manner (here the word parallel should be used cautiously, because these two features

are not exactly parallel, rather the expressive feature is interwoven with the structure of the

language acting as a meta language and not its parallel segment ), depicting the individual’s

inner emotional reflex, the deeper layers of silence, which finds its expression implicitly within

the language structure, affecting the whole system of the emotional perception of the readers,

creating unique emotional upheavals, activating the inner world of the individual silence or the

inner reality of the self. The discourse while being constructed around its informative center, (the

informative centre is the author’s inner self, the hidden principle of his existence, or the inner

reality of his own self) simultaneously relies upon its two axes, the narrative and the expressive

the first having an external essence and the second internal. The former corresponding to epical

principle and the later to the lyrical, moreover the latter encompasses within itself the former’s

realm of silence, being in a much closer contact with the informative center of the discourse

itself , while the former acts as a connecting link between the semantic and psychological levels

of language which in turn guarantees the incarnation of the author’ soul within the literary text.

Regardless of what the romantic poet writes about, in fact he is writing about himself or from the

perspective of his soul. The outer world penetrates so deeply into the poet’s inner mirages, that it

often becomes unnoticeable .

The spirit acts as the foreground upon which the subjective realities of the soul find the

opportunity to become elaborated. The basic principle joining these three worlds (soul, spirit and

body) to each other is the contrast or opposition, which appears either in three of them (one

against the other) or in the unity of two acting against the third one. (In Baryon’s,

Lermontov’112s and Duryan 113works, the external world appears as the adversary to the soul. In

lamentation poem, the soul and the spirit while overcoming their inner adversary join each other

112 Lermontov Mikhail- (1814-1841) Russian Romantic writer 113 Petros Duryan – (1851-1871) – a famous Western Armenian poet, playwright and actor.


and act against the nature “The world has already turned into God’s mockery114”. In spite of the

fact that the soul and the spirit by their very nature are intimately connected with each other (the

spirit is linked with the external world, and individual’s physical existence , through the soul)

and are standing against the external world, which could be overcome merely with the help of

love (love toward God, toward man and the whole universe, or through pantheism, through

which man can find the lost cosmos).During the Romantic Period the psychological

individualistic principle manifested in lyrical elements acts as a basis for all literary genres. The

epic genres turn into lyrical, the strict prose of eighteenth century turns into poetical, and in other

words the body turns into soul. The epic (specifically the novel) gets involved into the lyrical

realm, the external world associates with the internal, the incidents of the novel are entangled

with the psychological and personal realities (this relationship resembles the relationship

between body and shadow and the later is somehow associated with the Greek conception of the

shadow), the whole composition of the work internally is constructed around mythological

figures (the romantic concepts are closely associated with mythological themes, characters and

ideas). In this way the structural, poetic and semantic constructions of the literary works become

enriched by the metaphorical concepts which lie in the deepest layers of the language, moreover

the connotative implications of the words develop, in this sense the semantic pointer of the word

turns from the external aspect (word’s literal meaning) into the internal aspect (subjective-

psychological connotations ). The language becomes reconstructed around a lyrical basis, the

language structure becomes an equilibrium of the individual’s psychological aspect,

encompassing both the spirit and the body (body here means the associative realm of individual

and the objects which are closely linked with the emotions and actions) which are functioning

on the deepest informative layers, beyond the boundary of silence. This was the concept which

was Novalis’ focus of attention when he was writing the “fragments” :

“Poetry is in fact the absolute reality. That is the nucleus of my philosophy. The more

poetic, the more real. Here, the concept of poetical completely corresponds to the concept of the

lyrical, therefore the lyricism is the crown of all romantic literary genres, the genre of genres the

ultimate level of literature.”

114 A poem by Petros Duryan


Novalis the genius of the romantic writers also believes: the body, the soul and the spirit

are the basic elements of the existence as epic, lyric and drama are of poetry. Here the

(individual) poems are used as the whole concept of the poetry, and the second element of the

existence (the soul) corresponds to the second element of the poetry (lyrical), therefore all genres

of romantic literature possess a lyrical element. The same is true about drama, the soul strives for

the lyrical not dramatic, and therefore the drama encompasses the element of lyricism. Drama

wasn’t the literary genre of the period and it didn’t develop too much. What we have as drama in

Romantic period basically had a lyrical nature, the dramatic action on stage was more expressive

than dramatic . The dramatic action dominantly relied on the emotional expression of the heroes

rather than the external conflicts. (the overflow of emotions, the extended monologues which

sometimes turn into single lyrical extracts, the emotive motivation of the action, the romantic

search for the individual “I”, even the suicide or self sacrifice of the hero which was the ultimate

stage of self affirmation was more emotive than dramatic) it seems that Heinrich von

Kleist’s115 or Victor Hugo’s dramas cannot be categorized much as dramatic rather than poetical

masterpieces. Their great artistic value lies not it the dramatic structure of their works , rather it

lies in their poetical significance which is the outcome of the romantic spontanty (the quality

which is the unique specification of the poetry). If we compare Romantic Drama with that of

Shakespearean we would see that in Shakespeare tragedies the dramatic structure and the poetic

language (the ideal metaphorical-imaginative thought) are so tightly interwoven with each other

that it seems completely impossible even on a theoric-analytic basis to separate them from each

other. Romantic Drama lacks the unity and integrated nature of Shakespearean drama. In

Romantic Drama, the poetry has an autonomous nature, and it is somehow disjointed from

drama. This should not be considered as a kind of deficiency, rather, this is a sort of typological

merit, the spiritual-cultural outcome of post-Shakespearean era, the necessity of the age. The

process of individual’s disintegration which had already began in Shakespearean drama , leads

to seventeenth century Classicism emphasizing upon individual’s soul and later to eighteenth

century Enlighment period emphasizing upon the individual’s body and the aftermath of this

process is the is the appearance of Romantic literature, which emphasizes human soul. When

115 Heinrich von Kleist – (1777- 1811) – German poet , dramatist and novelist .


the soul becomes the focal point , the boundaries of individual’s existence become even more

restricted (this restriction occurs in characterization and the theme ) and the individual immerses

within his soul, within his individual “I” as a lyrical, psychological being, speaking

metaphorically he acts as a solo violin playing his concerto, here the violin is his individual soul,

the orchestra acts as the spirit and the audience which acts between these two is the external

world for whom the musician (here the symbolic “I”) plays the music.

If Romanticism is the poetry of the soul, then Classicism as stated earlier has spirit as its

focal point and its center of meaning is the supernatural world of the spirit which because of its

own nature stands in sharp contrast with the individual’s world, just like the spirit which acts in

opposition to the soul .However, in spite of this opposition these two are internally connected

with each other, since the spirit is directly linked with the soul. Here, the spirit and the soul,

according to Schelling’s idea from an absolute unity and within that absolute unity and

sameness the complex cluster of the relations and associations of Hegel function, where the soul

leaving the spirit attempts to return to the absolute self consciousness (self cognition), again

identifying itself with the spirit. Hegel calls the distance between these two as “unhappy

consciousness” which appears as the light of wisdom for Hamlet, and Faust perceives it as

“cosmic dichotomy” and on an individual-psychological level Byron calls it “cosmic pain”.

Hamlet notices the dichotomy of soul and spirit as the result of which the evil has entered the

world ( including Claudius and the other people around him are involved in the same evil act)

and experiences the tragedy as the only possibility or more specifically as the only entry to the

world of silence. It could be said that Byron is in fact Shakespeare’s Hamlet which has appeared

under the influence of luciferian forces, a quality which is missing is Hamlet (since his soul is

still connected with the spirit). These forces are dominant in Romantic literature and they have a

determining role for shaping the lyrical sensation of the Romantic poet. The dramatist is not so

much involved with the solitary soul since the soul itself is not dramatic rather the dramatic

features originate from the spirit, from its lost cosmos. As stated earlier the Romantic lyricism is

dramatic and its drama is lyrical. The Romanticism sets off against classicism, as the soul does to

the spirit (the opposition or contrast occurs in all realms: linguistic, poetical structural,

psychological, sociological, epistemological and etc.) however they are internally linked with


each other as absolute equivalents. Although the soul is scared of the spirit (Steiner116) because

the latter threatens to absorb the former (as the whole does to the particular) but in a much deeper

level the soul strives to reach the spirit. Here the love substitutes the fear. Tragedy in this sense

on the one hand shows the downfall of the hero in this world, and on the other hand the

resurrection of the soul, on the one hand the fear and on the other hand the love which are the

two balanced poles relying on the individual’s existence in this world. Whenever the spirit is

absent the tragedy is absent either, the frequency of the later depends on the frequency of the

former, therefore wherever the tragedy , we should look for the spirit which is the origin of the

tragedy.

Seventeenth century tragedy is the tragedy of the soul, it demonstrates the first stage of the

disintegration of individual’s three folded existence in post Shakespearean era consequently the

spirit upon the demolition of the inner symmetry of human existence demands its independence

from other two (soul and body) which are considered as more inferior beings. The noblest genre

of classical literature is tragedy, since the idea of demolition and disintegration connotes a

tragic sense, therefore the incarnation of classical soul can best be manifested in tragedy, the

other genres are not so capable of demonstrating this quality. In classical literature comedy

occupies an interesting position. Although the genre specifications of comedy stands in sharp

contrast with tragedy, nonetheless it bears too much upon tragedy. For example the three

comedies of Moliere (“Don Juan”, “Tartuffe” and the” Misanthrope” are quite different from

Shakespearean lively and cheerful comedies. The heavy and gloomy shadow of tragedy rests

upon these comedies. (By no means, Don Juan can be categorized as a purely comic character,

although he acts in comic circumstances, or Tartuffe who stands in sharp contrast with Orgon’s

naïve and foolish minded comic character, or the Misanthrope whose comic features are

extremely limited). The genre specifications of classical comedy is not absolute and inflexible ;

in fact the shadow of tragedy is spending over the comedy of this period, since all genres to some

extent are linked with the spirit. The main reason of the dominance of the genre of tragedy on

seventeenth century literature is the fact that the poetry of this period is primarily oriented

116 Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925)- Austrian philosopher, social reformer architect and esotericist.


toward the realm of spirit and it acts as a unifying element, joining the personal and public

features together. The personal features are valid as far as they correspond to public ones.

Each individual identifies himself as a single unit of the system, not more than that, his

individuality is verified within the framework of the system. Apart from the system he looses his

individuality looses his identity and turns into a zero-identity , an “I” within the “Not I”. The

active part of the conflict is the “Not I” which imposes his will upon the “I” and turns into the

will of “I”. The hero acts and makes decisions, but the initial motive of his acts lies in spirit. The

spirit acts as the origin of all forces and impulses and all those things which has a determining

role for the spirit itself. The spirit itself acts as a transmitter of the collective consciousness; it is

able to establish a dialogue with its environment. In a play, the dialogue is the means through

with the spirit asserts its presence, which reveals its dramatic and psychological conditions, its

thoughts and judgments. The play is constructed upon the dialogue. The monologues in

Hamletian style, through which the secret code of the hero is unfolded, are rare in drama of

classical period while through the dialogues this secret code remains invisible. While uttering

his monologues, Hamlet presents a dimension of his character which is quite dissimilar from the

time when he gets involved in a dialogue with one of the characters of the play. (according to

Baktin’s theory, a dialogue occurs between two equal subjects). The external world stands in

sharp contrast with Hamlet, and it doesn’t give him the chance to enter a dialogue, in classical

tragedy the opposite process occurs. It doesn’t give the hero the chance to is turn his face toward

the public (here, the soul) any to utter any monologue, therefore through the dialogue the inner

motivating force of his individuality is reveled. The basis of the tragedy is the presence of an

irresolvable conflict and the absence of individual fault. The hero faces a downfall without

committing any faulty acts. The fault (or flaw) comes from the outside and the only way of

correcting this fault is the occurrence of tragic act.

It seems that the tragic hero sacrifices himself to the superhuman forces that impose their

own will upon him without giving him any possibility for solving the conflict . Metaphorically

speaking, the soul dies within the spirit to restore the balance of the spiritual cosmos, the whole

elements of which are intricately connected with each other as an ideal structure and the slightest


digression from the main direction will create a shift and deviation in other sections leading to

the creation of the ultimate anti-movement, the ransom of which is the victory of the faulty act.

As mentioned earlier, the faulty act (flaw) comes from the outer world for the hero, that is

the preference of the individual “I” toward the spirit creates an imbalance in the spiritual cosmos

(as we know, the axis of the cosmos is the equilibrium, which consequently creates

proportionality, harmony and unity). In its overall construction the classical tragedy is closely

associated with antique tragedy and more specifically with Sophocles (Euripides works is

specifically associated with Romantic literature which in its emotive-psychological

expressiveness assimilates Euripides tragedy of passions). In the tragedies of Sophocles

(especially in his Oedipus the king and Antigone) the model of tragedy reaches its ultimate level

of perfection, an absolute structure. In his book “The phenomenology of the Mind” Hegel

presents an analysis of Antigone. In this book, Hegel argues that basis of tragedy is conflict that

that occurs between the two equal ethical systems which leads to the satisfaction of spirit arising

from the “reconciliation” . According to Hegel the conflict is not between good and evil but

between goods that are each making too exclusive a claim .

Classical tragedy is far from Sophocles’ impartial, passionless and objective approach to

human existence , his cold grandeur, according to which the individual appears as the medium

of the tragedy, in a setting where the fatal forces meet and the tragedy is formed as the result of

the clash that occurs between the cosmos and the individual (here the tragic hero) who is ready

to accept it. In other words, in antique tragedy the destiny is manifested in the individual while in

seventeenth century tragedy the individual is manifested in the destiny. In the former, the origin

and the ultimate purpose of tragedy is the spirit, while in the later it is the soul, although the two

present the same concept (spirit=soul) but the direction of the movement is different. In the

former, it starts from the spirit and then dissolves in the soul; in the later the soul itself arrives at

the spirit as a conscious step and the self sacrifices itself for the supreme powers. Creon’s soul

at the end of the tragedy becomes a companion of the spirit, while Antigone’s soul outgrows and

turns into spirit. This mutual interpenetration between the soul and spirit , the inner

transfiguration which occurs between the two is the ultimate metaphysical purpose of

Sophocles’ drama, his center of meaning. In P.Corneilles poems the soul recognizes within itself


the existence of the spirit, finds the basis of his own existence and approaches it, through

negating his own personal ” I” and accepting the supreme “I”. Its final purpose is reaching the

spirit . The soul opens up itself to the spirit and as we see the only way that the soul has the

possibility to express itself is through tragedy. The smallest deficiency that occurs in the soul

(selfishness , jealousy, offence etc) might lead to cosmic disturbance, to the malfunctioning of

the vital activity of the supreme system.

As stated earlier, the malfunctioning of one unit of the system, leads to the collapse of the

whole system , the only way of overcoming this difficulty is tragedy, functioning either as a

genre or as a basic principle. Unlike Sophocles, the basis of Racine’s’ or Corneille’s’ tragedies,

is the “flaw”, the personal guilt, the “subjective tendency” of the psyche. The hero challenges

with this flaw and at the end he either overcomes it (in Corneille’s play) or he is defeated and

faces death, considering his downfall as a “conscious act” (Racine). At this stage the tragic hero

portrays “the impossibility of love”, since in practice we see that by ignoring the spirit, the soul

cannot love another soul, their love becomes possible when its fundamental basis i.e. the spirit is

present . Without the presence of the spirit the love that the soul is searching for will turn into

selfishness and consequently to the disturbance of the cosmic rhythm and it will be doomed to

fail. In Corneille’s’ play the spirit is the same as the political-social consciousness, in Racine’s

the spirit functions as the moral-psychological system. The suffering of the soul which has the

consciousness of the spirit but is separated from the spirit and strives to form a unity with it is the

foundation upon which the basis of the classical tragedy lies. This idea is not expressed in the

chain of actions, rather in one single act which is the result of the hero’s own choice, the

consequence of his self-orientation (for example Racine’s’ Bérénice): Even one single act of the

hero is enough to show the conflict of soul and spirit (for example Titus’ decision to leave his

beloved woman for respecting the idea of Romans who don’t accept his marriage with a Jewish

woman). The lyric principle (the soul) follows the dramatic principle (the spirit); while in

Romanticism the dramatic principle follows the lyric. Their opposition is the basic conflict

between the two worlds (the soul and the spirit). This conflict on a cosmic level appears as a

harmonious act and on the worldly level as discrepancy.


In the Post-Shakespearean literature, along with the gradual disintegration of the

individual, each of the three components of the individual , that is the soul, spirit and body,

became the foundation of the newly appeared literary movements (while including the other two

within themselves ). The literary movement that is based upon the spirit is Classicism, the

second, relying upon the soul is the Romanticism, and the third relying upon the body is the

Enlightment. Each literary movement has its corresponding literary genre. In Classicism it is

drama, in Romanticism, lyric poetry and in Enlightment, epic literature. Spirit is not a

readymade entity, it is constructed gradually and continuously, immobility is a quality contrary

to its essence, therefore dynamism is its dominant feature . (“The Cunning nature of spirit lies in

its representation through oppositions” – Hegel). The soul , by its very nature is lyrical, which is

neither demonstrated nor narrated, rather it is expressed. (Like for example weeping, happiness

pain and etc). But the individual in the external world, while establishing social relations with

other people strives for narration and description of his situation (this concept is quite different

from what Lessing criticizes as description and interpretation, which he believes is the worst

enemy of the poetry, a concept which has been imposed upon literature by fine arts. Here the

description means the mobility of the essence and idea manifested on the external level of

language) therefore human body basically has an epical nature that’s why, the novel as the

dominant form of epic genre appears after Renaissance when the individual becomes completely

involved in the web of social relations and consequently the novel reaches its higher level of

development in the eighteenth century in England, which was the society of the dominance of

bourgeois class. (In France still the influence of Classicism was dominant therefore the

development of the genre of novel in France was postponed to twentieth century which was

called the Golden Age of French Novel. In Germany, the novel did not ever become as dominant

as the poetry. Beginning with Goethe, F. Schelling and Hoffman and the other remarkable

writers of Romantic period the novel had always been constructed upon the lyrical basis of the

philosophy or the illustration of the theoritical aspect of the philosophy). The European man who

has opened up the external world for himself and for whom the present time has revealed all his

dimensions, now is trying to measure the span of this world, to reveal the secrets of the social

reality and his environment, to throw himself into the whirlpool of the incidents, to touch,

recognize and study the limits of his body and soul, to weep or to feel joyous from experiencing


the real life, to reestablish himself, to create his own cosmos that although it differs from others,

but it belongs to him and he doesn’t wish to yield it to anybody else. Upon this extensive and

colorful canvas of existence, the tragedy loses its primary significance (the tragedies of Schiller

written at the end of eighteenth century were actually the manifestation of his philosophical

world view, where the philosophy does not appear as the outcome of the poetry but rather this is

the poetry which comes out of philosophy. In this period, drama substitutes tragedy (with the

attempts of Diderot in France and Lessing in Germany), the focus of which is upon the

“Common man” acting in the real world rather than the “noble man” who acts beyond the

everyday life, and the comedy turns into the comedy of manners. The “oblivion of the spirit” of

eighteenth century leads to the “withdrawal of the soul” in literature. No dominant works of

poetry appear in the literature of eighteenth century France, the same is true about English

literature and to some extent about German literature and the literature of the whole Europe.

Lyricism was not the outcome of the materialistic world view of eighteenth century. The shadow

of the decadent man appears so densely upon his total image that the dim lights of his soul and

spirit become completely obscured (in other words the shadow of man conceals “God”).

French materialism turns religion into mythology, the theology into moral philosophy,

and the philosophy into chemistry, biology and the science thrives to get rid of non-scientific

aspects providing the preliminary conditions for the appearance of nineteenth century positivism.

The external problems of man in everyday life become more important than his inner problems.

Thought and action become alien to each other, the thought is no more the action, and the action

is not the same as the thought itself. The “man of thought” is no longer the “man of action”; in

fact the individual has lost the immediate connection between soul and spirit. It seems that

Goethe’s statement “The action is the beginning of everything” (“Faust”) is not fully understood.

Here, the “action” encompasses the mentality of Logos with all its applications upon creative and

cognitive activities. The double understanding of the word action (thought and operation) runs

through the structure of novel since eighteenth century. These phenomena manifest the fact that a

huge irreversible process is taking place. The whole existence of man is collapsed into two parts.

One part of his existence ascends to the foreground (here, it is the physical aspect of his

existence along with his external relations) which induces great impulses to the epic genre


ultimately leading to the formation of the genre of Novel. In other words, the energies of the soul

and spirit are sparkling within the depths of the novel which acts as the body for the context.

Occasionally, on a surface level, these sparkling energies are falsely interpreted as instincts and

other physiological phenomenon,. The categorization of literary genres and movements and their

development during historical periods are deeply connected with the philosophical,

anthropological and psychological debates of each age .

It seems such specific technical discussions including the processes of the development

of literary genres, the rise and fall and evolution of each literary period and their general

dynamism have mere literary nature and are mainly concerned with poetical issues, while

apparently we see that they are mainly concerned with other forces and currents that are

invisible to objective cognitive capabilities, lying behind the “mask of spirit” internally

controlling the processes of mind, time and history. In fact these forces are connected with the

“inner realms” of the individual which are related to non equilibrated movement of individuals’

three dimensional world, and they possess no synchronous phenomenology where one of these

dimensions (spirit-body-soul) appear in the foreground and the other two remain in the shadow

of the former, until these three become completely separated from each other. This is a process

which appears in twentieth century art, when the integrity of the individual becomes completely

shattered.

After Shakespeare, the whole dramaturgy of the western world experienced an ultimate

synthesis of literary genres. In seventeenth century classical poetics, the tragedy (the drama of

spirit) becomes dominant, in eighteenth century Enlightment literature the prose and more

specifically the novel. In the early nineteenth century the principal genre was lyricism (the

principle of soul). In Romantic period the soul and spirit act against the body in a unified manner

and that’s why in the mid nineteenth century the unified structure of the individual became

disintegrated , the inner layers of his existence diverge from one other while acting against

each other. In this stage, symbolism and naturalism appear: the former as a musical-illusionary

experience deprived of the body and the later as a scientific-physiological observation missing

the soul, trying to find the essence and the mystery of individual by focusing upon his cellular

basis. The more the individual becomes immersed in the cells the more he becomes alien to the


mystery. (The novel turns in to an experiment, to use Zola’s words). Romanticism “dies” by the

hands of his two adopted children, the symbolism and the naturalism. The former chokes him by

deprivation of soul. In symbolism the language enters the musical realm of the “silence”,

appears within the “non materialistic” domain of the words, loses its “identity” and its main

“function” which is “to communicate”. It thrives to make a retrospective movement and return to

its origin, that is to the “world of ideas”, then it transforms these ideas with the help of the

energy which it has acquired from the musical realm of the “silence” producing the “free verse”

as the dominant form of versification in the early twentieth century functioning against the “anti-

language” language of symbolism. In the mid nineteenth century, after the downfall of the

Romantic movement and the widespread attitude of Skepticism along with the formation of new

positivist philosophy and the appearance of certain literary and artistic theories, the individual

appears as a psychologically disintegrated entity, searching for a new way of governing the

world, a new novel, which will be capable of creating a huge turning point in the artistic and

literary evolution of the western world by its new structure, new specifications of its genre and

its ethical-psychological perspective.

This was what Dostoyevsky did, in the worlds’ most “disorganized” country, in Russia,

where the individual had the most unprotected status. Russia was the most vulnerable and the

most tragic upholder of Christian faith among other countries.


V. The three levels of the Disintegration

Of the individual in the literature of

The second half of nineteenth and twentieth century

After the appearance of the individual’s perfect image in Shakespeare’s works and at the

same time his annihilation in the social world along with the emergence of the three important

literary movement following Shakespeare’s works (Classicism: the man of the spirit,

Enlightment: the social man and the Romanticism the soul man), the downfall and disintegration

of the individual passes through three stages: 1- The disintegration of the individual on

psychological level (Dostoyevsky) 2- The disintegration of man on the level of existence (Kafka)

3- The disintegration of man on the level of consciousness (Beckett). In order to make this idea

more apprehensible I have attempted to illustrate it in a diagram, of course this illustration is

highly arbitrary, only focusing upon a sort of religious-philosophical approach toward literature.

In a more specific terms it focuses upon the understanding of man of the unity and equilibrium of

the Christ figure (combination of its earthy and spiritual dimensions) in Christian culture,

specifically upon the system of significance of literature, its metrical and stylistic development

and transformations from one to the other, its historical and metaphysical dynamism (basically

the historical and the metaphysical aspects stand in sharp contrast, but here this contrast and

opposition act as the basis and the essence of this dynamism, without which this organism can no

longer exist).


The psychological disintegration of

The individual: Dostoyevsky

1.

In F. Dostoyevsky’s works, the individual is basically presented as an extremely

introverted psychological being in his utmost level of mental tension. He attempts hard to get rid

of those tensions and the conflicting inner forces, moreover he does his best to save himself

from that condition yet he continuously remains under the threat of mental collapse and

psychological breakdown . It seems that he is standing on a “borderline conjuncture”, on the

friction point of different self-denying forcing, on the verge of the impenetrable abyss of the

existence, each moment experiencing the threat of the downfall and ultimately he himself

chooses the path which leads to his downfall and then he hopelessly struggles to overcome it but

ultimately he collapses, the life becomes meaningless for him and appears in the depths of the

abyss. He struggles to reach the salvation, he attempts to understand the significance and the

inner mystery of life, but all that remains for him is the downfall, suffering and tragedy.

Therefore, Dostoyevsky could be considered as the initiator of one of the most important

intellectual movements of 20th century, i.e. existentialism, upon which he not only establishes

the structural foundation of his novel (specially his” Brothers Karamazov” novel which offers a

completely new viewpoint and structure in the development of novel, opening up a new universe

in the realm of narrative genre, with its specific conversions and a specifications) but also offers

a new epistemological approach for understanding the individual and creating a fresh outlook for

his characterization in the novel. In the realm of literary criticism, Dostoyevsky has the

significance of offering a new outlook in the “form” of the novel, while the concept of the “new

form” is related with the concept of the “new universe” which he has introduced in literature and

no dividing line could exist between these two. By “new universe”, we mean the new

psychological reality which Dostoyevsky had unveiled within human soul, it is the individual’s

“heart” which is struggling against the opposing forces (here the Satan struggles against God…).

His heroes, without any exception are attempting to assert themselves, to find their position and

their purpose in this life, they are attempting to reach the climax of spirit and again fall down,


each time hoping, suffering and collapsing again. All these, occur on a sociological plan, yet that

is only what we see on stage, the main reality occurs beyond that “stage”, behind the closed

doors of the psychological domain, the main cause of the tragedy is not the sociological injustice,

rather the psychological imbalance and injustice which leads to sociological injustice, the main

cause of his “deviation”, his mental breakdown , is the individual’s false appreciation of the

universe. Therefore, Dostoyevsky is searching the main causes of individual’s psychological

collapse which leads to the sociological breakdown. Therefore the two aspects of human

existence (the psychological and the sociological) have mutual interaction upon each other,

leading one another to downfall, which ultimately leads to the inner breakdown of the soul. (The

main reason of which is the imperfect relationship that has been established between the

individual and God and the individual’s faulty and one dimensional perception of God). The

inner darkness of human soul, his egoism, his self-oriented disposition, his unjustified aggressive

and beasty nature is the consequence of Gods’ negation and oblivion, the “negligence” of the

supernatural and heavenly forces of nature and the over estimation of earthy life. “If there is no

God, then everything is permitted”. But the God exists, says Dostoyevsky and the tragic point is

this that God exists but the individual has faded it into his oblivion. The existence of God and the

individual’s oblivion about it creates a tragic situation. The heavy burden of this oblivion

descends upon individual’s soul and demolishes his existence. Yet the presence of tragedy is a

sign of God’s existence. If there were no God, there wouldn’t be any tragedy, since tragedy is

directly related with consciousness. The tragedy begins whenever the concept of original sin

collides the human consciousness (here consciousness is used in a broad sense; it may include

the sub consciousness either). This collision occurs for all humans, regardless of their origin, sex,

social class and personality traits. The individual is not capable of struggling all alone, he needs

help and God offers his help, yet the individual should crave for help. The God’s help is his love,

the absence of which leads to human misery. As father Zosima states in his diary: “what is hell, I

often wonder, hell is the absence of love”. Love offers us the sole path which leads to the

recognition of God, the ultimate level of perception, the deprivation of which will lead to the

emergence of tragedy (the weaker the love, the stronger the tragedy of life becomes).


Dostoyevsky shows us that the more obscure the image of Christ in our soul becomes,

the possibility of experiencing the psychological breakdown increases . This is a fact which is

applicable not only for each individual person, but also for the entire human race. For each

individual who is entangled in the abyss of the original sin and has lost his spiritual support, his

inner fulcrum , the only immutable force, upon which his inner equilibrium rests. For an

individual who is striving for perfection the deep rooted notion of original sin creates lots of

contradictions in his soul which may lead to horrible psychological integrity. Is it possible for an

individual to reach the heavenly glory when all the people around him are deeply buried in the

ocean of the original sin? Evading mankind, avoiding the harsh realities of life, leading a solitary

life at home or in church, refraining from the external relations of the outer world, to enclose

oneself within the deceptive holiness of personal illusions and to deprive oneself from the

rational appreciation of life are not possible. In “Brothers Karamazov” Father Zosima (who is

not that much a character but a concept, the inner recitative of the novel) advices Alyosha to

enter the world, pass through the hell of existence, to experience the whole horror and sagacity of

human life barehanded, to approach the doors of the reality and thereafter make his decision. The

psychological sufferings of Man is the emblem of his existence, the evidence of his life, the only

possibility that God has offered to Man. To avoid it, may mean to evade the only possibility of

existence to refrain from the cup that God has offered to mankind that he is obliged to drink, to

retreat life and to accept God’s slap and cling to the falsity of reality. The whirlpool of the inner

and outer incidents of life lead Dostoyevsky’s hero to the same direction. Following different

courses they reach to the same destiny. Entering life, all heroes collapse while facing the evil

aspects of life. Prince Mishkin in the novel “The Idiot”, enters the real life, establishes

communication with the so called healthy people (here the two concepts of “health” and

“sickness” have metaphorical significance and shouldn’t be considered in a literal sense

otherwise they may have opposite meaning) plunges in to the life of healthy people and when his

doctor finds him next to the corpse of Nastassya Filippovna’s, after examining him, shakes his

head and says “he is an idiot”. Raskolnikov either enters the real life, follows the laws of life

while the laws of life and the laws of the soul do not necessarily correspond to reach other

(rather, they contradict each other). He is defeated by his own soul, by his own inner laws, this is

Raskolnikov and he cannot act in another way. While living among healthy people, Nastassya


Filippovna experiences a revival of soul when she meets the sick prince. This relationship

follows its paradoxical course of the destiny and consequently leads to the tragic downfall of

Nastassya Filippovna. Because of social injustice, Sonya Marmeladov and Grushinka have

dropped into the lowest level of existence while Raskolnikov’s and Dimitri Karamazov’s

banishment ascends their soul and leads to their salvation. The Poor People like Varvarah and

Makar Devooshkin are suffering from the social injustice, yet the core of their tragic situation

does not lie in the social injustice rather it lies within their soul, the beauty of their soul do not

correspond to the outer world, the tragedy lies in their non-equivalence. The protagonist of the

novella “The Double”, Golyadkin experiences a harsh defeat in life and the novella itself could

be considered as one of the early examples of absurd literature. The psychological disintegration

of the individual and his banishment from the world is best portrayed in “Notes from the

Underground” novella. (One of the Central themes and aesthetic notions of the world of

literature which undoubtfully begins with Dostoyevsky). The social injustice is a reflection of the

individual’s deficiency of soul, the distorted image of mankind after the original sin. Therefore

Dostoyevsky does not focus upon the disintegrated image of the individual on a sociological

level (it has already been portrayed in Shakespeare’s works, where the individual experiences a

downfall on a sociological plane while his psychological integrity is preserved) rather he

concentrated upon the psychological downfall of the individual, his withdrawal, his

disintegration and his disappearance on psychological level. The social world is a reflection of

the individual’s psychological world, his external alter ego, standing on the opposite direction

(like the image of the individual in mirror) which receives its shadow identity from the man, and

it imposes its false identity upon the individual making him a dependent entity like the evil

creature of Frankenstein upon whom the Frankenstein has no control. The man suffers from the

horrible mechanisms that he himself has created, he harvests what he has planted and he is

unable to liberate himself from the abyss which he himself has created , because the individual

himself gives power to it and develops its mechanism that is the individual annihilates himself.

In Dostoyevsky’s works, Shakespearean tragedy transfers into another level, the sociological

turns into psychological. The individuals become collapsed as psychological entities, who bear

the failure within themselves. They are defeated in life, yet by relying upon the inner lantern of

their soul vindicate their existence. Most often, the protagonists themselves accept their defeat


consciously, since failure in the outer world is synonymous to triumph in the inner world. For the

inhabitants of the inner world, that is not a defeat, the hero himself strives for failure, as

Raskolnikov does, therefore the crime transfigurates, recodifies, gains a new meaning and

signification and turns into a mystical action (as Hamlet’s life and death) It forces the hero to

encounter new realities, which was disguised and hidden till that time , a decisive act was

required to unveil the reality. The sick heroes of Dostoyevsky appear in this way while

encountering the false realities of life (like the fantastic Don Quixote or the crazy Hamlet). The

protagonist of “White nights”, the Dreamer, whose mental disorder might be diagnoized by

modern psychoanalysts as a case of extreme schizophrenia, or other psychological disorders as

depression, is in fact dwelling in another universe and is capable of perceiving much profound

realities than other people. “Two minute blissfulness for the entire life? Isn’t it enough?” he

writes for his beloved Nastenka. Are there any people who could claim that they have

experienced those two minutes of extreme blissfulness as the dreamer has? The dreamer’s

measure for happiness does not correspond to the measures of the present life. Ultra reality is the

main concern of Dostayevski “The individual is so broad, it should be narrowed down”: says

Dostoyevsky. The individual’s image has been dispensed in the entire universe, it should be

focused within its limits and should be guided toward the inner light which lies deep in the

individual’s soul and there, he would be able to see the presence of God, the Christ-God whose

negligence has led to the disintegration and downfall of the individual, experiencing the most

awful and complex psychological disorders, being unable to find the thing that has been offered

to him (by God) and clinging to those things that have been imposed upon him.

Of course during the history of literature many cases of psychological analysis have

appeared in different literary works such as in the novels of Balzac, Hugo, Stendhal and the

novelists of eighteenth century specifically in Richardson’s novels such as “Pamela” and

“Clarissa”, in the works of the German Romantic writers such as Schlegel’s works and in F.

Goethe’s “The Sorrows of young Werther”. The psychological analysis of the characters is only

one part of the process of artistic creation, which contributes to the plausible and authentic

presentation of characters. Psychological analysis of the character is not the ultimate purpose of

the literary work, rather it is one of the important imaginative stages of creating literary work, a


kind of inner backgrounds in the literary work, the element which creates a movement and a

humanistic/individualistic warmth in the literary work creating a more tangible and substantial

emotional experience for the readers. For Dostoyevsky, psychological analysis of the characters

is the central issue of his novels, with which his novels begin and end. In his novels, the human

soul breaks up, like an atom which is split apart in a laboratory, revealing its inner universe, its

micro-universe which is the reflection of the Universe in human soul. In “Crime and

Punishment” Raskolnikov’s act (murdering the old women) is not the central theme of the novel,

rather, it is a key to open up his inner world and to reveal its essence. After Dostoyevsky, (when

his works were translated into European languages) it became impossible for the authors to write

due to norms and standards of the earlier generation. In cruder terms, we could claim that

Dostoyevsky wrote the “quantum” novel, while Shakespeare was more concerned with

“Newtonian” drama (these two terms must be used in a highly metaphorical sense).

Dostoyevsky’s writing style was a huge innovation in the literature of the world.

The psychological domain of human existence just like the universe (cosmos) itself

possesses a structure and if the universe is constructed upon accurate mathematical and

architectural calculations which lead to a unified creation possessing a definite plot and purpose

as its fundamental basis (the ultimate purpose and intention of the world creation have been

concealed once and for all from the cognition of mankind as an irresolvable mystery) the same

principle applies to the psychological construction and inner architectonic of human beings.

All those incidents that occur in the non-subjective world (cosmos) occur in subjective

world either, where the opposing forces, such as love and hatred function. This idea is traceable

in the philosophy of Empedocles, the Greek philosopher, and the Zoroastrainian Ahura-Mazda

and Ahriman which connote the ideas of “the Above” and “The Below” above all things, the

Medieval God and Satan, the opposition of Heaven and Hell. On the one side we have the non

materialistic nature of Heaven and the Light and on the other hand the crude materiality of Hell

and the Darkness and above all of them the “enlighted eternity” of Emperia. The psychological

architectonic of the individual is the personalized architectonics of the Cosmos, its inner image

which is held in parenthesis, the other aspect of which is called social construction. The one is

being reflected in the other, and continues its existence within the existence of the other, it


transfigurates and becomes unrecognizable. Considering the individual as a complete Cosmos,

Dostoyevsky believes that the psychological cosmos of the individual is violated, disturbed and

cracked due to the interference of destructive forces, it is subject to the transfigurative currents of

the universe, where the “above” and the “below”, the “beautiful” and the “ugly”. The “real” and

the “fake” could change their positions, appear in different forms and acquire different

configurations (just like the Satan who appears to Ivan Karamazov and tries to convince him that

he has a real existence, and he can live like a real man, he can limp and feel pain). The human

soul in the mid nineteenth century appears as a devastating, smashing and anti-architectural

structure. The individual closes the door and the window of his soul, becomes alien and

frightened toward the outer world and the society which turn into hostile entities for him. He

turns inward, moves to the inner levels of his existence and hides all the external signs of his

existence, in other words he plunges in to the ruins of his psychological cosmos. In Shakespear’s

works, the individual demolishes on a sociological level yet he preserves his psychological

integrity (Hamlet, Othello), in Dostoyevsky’s works this demolition occurs on psychological

level (psychological cosmos) and the process of the withdrawal of the individual continues. Due

to the Renaissance perception of Christ as Man, the shadow of Christ figure as a Man conceals

the image of Christ as God and the more the individual searches for his identity the more he loses

it because of the violation that has occurred in the equilibrium of Christ figure as God and as

Man.


2.

Focusing upon the two dominant features of Renaissance culture and more specifically

Renaissance literature, that is the concepts of the ascending and the descending, the

interrelationship that exists between God and the Universe, it seems inevitable to emphasize

upon the nature of the basic principal of this period, since they seem to have a deep impact upon

the formation of the western theological, philosophical and literary-aesthetic mentality.

a)Dante-Ptolemaeusian Cosmos- Limited world (human world) – unlimited emperia

(heavenly world). The transition of man from the limited (Antique Cosmos) to the unlimited

world (the time of resurrection and salvation)

b)Shakespeare-Copernican Cosmos- The infinity of the materialistic universe portrayed

as the sign system of spiritual infinity. Man in the universe (Hamletian situation).

c)Dostoyevsky-the universe inside the Man- The soul functioning as the universe. The

psychological dimension functioning as a “domain” for inserting the mutual impact of the

Copernican and Ptolemaeusian unequal forces. The tragedy appearing as a form of freedom, as

the consequence of the inevitable clash which occurs between the individual and the heaven (the

attempt of the individual for gaining independence at the cost of negating God and reaching to

the stage of psychological collapse)

a) In Dante’s “Divine Comedy” the Hell is a materialistic world which has been banished

from the rhythm of time and the possibility of development. It is a concealed dead chaos; from

which nothing originates in contrast with the initial chaos from which cosmos was generated.

Darkness, gloom and deprivation from Cosmos (the sign of which is Light and the presence of

sun) are the signs of chaos. The sun is the physical manifestation of the spiritual sun, the beams

of which touch the physical world and create the shadow. “The Sun which was glittering behind

me/ Leaning against my opaque body/Extended my shadow before me”. (Purgatory – Dante)

Shadow is the sign of substantial entity and so are the beams of light. Therefore the

substantial world is called “The world of shadows” (Plato). The shadow is not present in the

darkness of Hell, the fires of Hell do not produce shadows. No shadow could be formed from the


contact of dark souls and lifeless fire. In “Purgatory” the sun touches the “non-transparent body”

of Dante and produces shadow which astonishes the souls of the “Purgatory”. In “Paradiso” the

light glitters not from one side, but from all sides, consequently, once again, no shadow could be

formed. (The opposite of hell). The more Dante ascends the spheres of the Paradise, the more the

space is defeated (the first hypostasis of the substantial world), till he reaches to Emperia which

is higher than the Paradise.

In the focal point of the unlimited infinity the image of Man is opened up for Dante (I saw

in its depth the image of Man- Paradiso Canto XXXIII). The greatest mystery is this: “How come

that the frame and its image are blended” (the infinity and the image, the frame which apparently

contradict each other). Emperia begins here, where the time and space end. Here, the word begin

has a metaphorical sense. We cannot ask “how does God begin?” This could be asked only in a

metaphorical sense; therefore the answer would be metaphorical either.

In 15-16 century the individual left the closed universe and entered the open universe.

Copernicus cut the boundaries of the close universe and the individual appeared in infinity,

within the open universe. Shakespeare’s Hamlet is the man of open universe, who sees the

inhabitants of the closed universe standing very close to “Hell”; their faces are burning with the

reflection of the blazing flames of the inferior world, they cause death and stagnation among

people. They manifest themselves within human souls as sins, transgressions, instinctual desires

and tendencies selfishness, greed, aspiration to power (like the allegorical beasts of Dante)

dimming the natural light within the human soul, falsifying the words, misinterpreting the

concepts, urging people to do meaningless and aimless actions. Ultimately, all these actions are

connected with the cruel and inhuman political mechanisms, which gradually become more

complicated constantly suppressing people’s will and freedom, merely enslaving them and

turning them into impersonalized masks. Hegel in his book “The philosophy of history” says:

“Napoleon during a friendly discussion with Goethe says that during the recent times the nature

of tragedy has fundamentally changed, since what we know as “destiny” which causes the

downfall of the individual no longer exists, and the function of the so called “old” destiny has

been transferred to politics: a set of obligatory circumstances which are impossible to overcome,

therefore the individual is forced to surrender to these circumstances”. This political mechanism


in the twentieth century gains such a monstrous power and it becomes able to exert the maximum

amount of pressure upon the individual. In this situation the man stops being tragic (in the

classical sense of the word when man is functioning as a struggling and meditative being),

depriving life from its meaning and purpose, and hurling him into the abyss of absurdity and

meaninglessness, trying to annihilate the power of thinking and the ability of struggling within

his soul.

Plunging into the deepest layers of the widespread tragic situation, even the literature

looses its significance and all its possibilities become exhausted. Under the light of the

spirituality, none of the individual’s acts gain significance and seem purposeful, since the inner

motif of all those acts are darkness and ignorance. Hamlet is able to see the evil acts of other

people while standing close to Hell. Discretion is the capability of seeing the true nature and

value of deeds, therefore the deeds are initially been judged by reason in order not to produce the

reverse result. (From this point Hamlet’s indecisiveness begins). Dante’s Emperia is manifested

in Hamlet’s silence, that is a sign of inner universe “About those things which are impossible to

talk about we should remain silent”.( L. Wittgenstein).

In Dostoyevsky’s works the universe is portrayed within human soul, he turns his

“telescope” inward. The word psychology has the associations of movement, relation, dynamism

in itself, in other words it connotes the idea of soul within its vital process. The defeated

individual of Shakespearean tragedies now appears in the psychological universe of

Dostoyevsky. He struggles with the evil forces that are surrounding him (and also are located

within his soul), he is attempting to stabilize his own norms and values (regardless of their

ethical-psychological merit) and ultimately he becomes defeated by those forces which appear in

their uttermost variety, wearing numerous masks and having different shapes. In “Crime and

Punishment” Raskolnikov commits an act (kills the old pawnbroker who was accumulating

money, whose existence due to Raskolnikov’s idea was completely superfluous) and then falls

into a complex psychological tension which ultimately cause his downfall.

The most mysterious character of the novel is perhaps Svidrigailova (a morally suspicious

character from whom all his friends are avoiding) after achieving his goal, which is the physical

possession of Dounia, when Dounia was compelled to submit her body to him; he unexpectedly


returned the keys to her and during a damp and foggy St Petersburgian morning and then

committed suicide. (The final act elucidates another dimension of his complex and multilayered

character which is the distinctive feature of Dostoyevsky’s characters). Prince Myshkin in

“Idiot” before entering the Moscowian community used to suffer from epileptic attacks

(Dostoyevsky himself was suffering from the same ailment either). Each time during the

intervals of epileptic attacks he experienced “heavenly light” and afterwards he entered the

earthly community quite unintentionally (he was attracted to Nastassya Filippovna with whom he

established a “spiritual and mystical” relationship). There again he was withdrawn as an “idiot”

or outsider. (here associating the idea of a person who is absent from earthly life). Brothers

Karamazov had the same fortune either. Ivan the man of thought, Dimitri the man of action and

Alyosha the man of spirit and Smerdiakov the primitive man. (the Indian Tammas). All of them

experience downfall not because of some “flaw” or “false judgment” as it could be conclude on

a surface level, rather all these characters are carrying the burden of the original sin of all human

race upon their shoulder. Their downfall occurs on a psychological level and all of them

experience a psychological collapse. The alien and hostile forces (Dostoyevsky talks about these

forces while describing Raskolnikov’s nightmares in exile) ramify their spirits, but something

like a supernatural force saves them (“…suddenly something like a force throws him toward

Sonya’s feet) and retains their existence in the universe. A flash glows in their life in this

ubiquitous darkness (like the sole light gleaming in Dante’s “dusky forest”) offering life a certain

meaning and purpose. The deep and multilayered religious-philosophical conceptions of

Dostoyevsky have thought having the idea of Christ as God in its focal point as the sole spiritual

fulcrum for recognizing and appreciating the universe). In the realm of literature, the idea of the

annihilation of the individual as an existential entity from the universe appeared in twentieth

century in the works of Franz Kafka. In his works the individual is basically banished from

universe and he ceases to exist as an existential entity, turning in to a mask of an absent person

beyond which only his consciousness functions and who is no more allowed to enter the

universe.

The psychological breakdown of the individual which was dominantly portrayed in

Dostoyevsky’s works in the second half of nineteenth century was closely related to a set of


incidents and circumstances which appeared in the realm of European literature demonstrating

the withdrawal of signification and meaning from literature and turning it into a symbol (in

symbolist thought) or a physiological unit(in naturalistic thought) which dominantly appear after

Romantic period as the outcome of the individual’s disintegration. In Romantic period the ideas

of heaven and earth were separated from each other, becoming alien to each other and turning

into independent directions opposing one another (the former considered the individual as a

symbol of the other world which lacks any concrete and tangible substance, the later as an

physiological object, a combination of biochemical substance lacking any spiritual

aspect).Nietzsche was the first thinker who formulated this situation in his famous statement that

“God is dead117”.

If we substitute the word “God “ with “Man” then everything would become clear and

understandable (especially if we consider his other statement “God is something that must be

overcome”118).R.Steiner 119believes that Nietzsche is the dominant philosopher of the twentieth

century. It should be added that Neitzsche is not only the dominant philosopher of the age but

also the greatest critic of the Man. The man who is experiencing downfall and is gradually

collapsing until he reaches the twentieth century and here he allows him to read his merciless

verdict. On the other hand, if we consider the statement of “God is dead” literally, then we will

notice that here the death of Christ figure as God is the main intention of the statement. Along

with the annihilation of the heavenly aspect of Christ, the impenetrable shadow of the earthy

facet of Christ (Christ as Man) stretches out. The more impenetrable the shadow grows, the

dimmer the image of God becomes and the more inevitable the downfall of Man becomes.The

violation of this equilibrium (the absolute equilibrium of Christ) in the late nineteenth and early

twentieth century leads to the disappearance of Man in the world.If in Dostoyevsky’s works the

individual experiences downfall on psychological level, yet his existential foundation remains

unchangeable. While in Kafka’s woks the individual vanishes as an existential entity, he retreats

from the world, loses all his directions, turns in to a physiological substance which could easily

turn to anything except human being.

84. Fredrick Nietzsche , The Gay Science 1882 (Sections 108,125 and 343) 85. Fredrick Nietzsche , Thus Spoke Zarathustra , 1885 (Part 1) 86. Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925)- Austrian philosopher and reformist


In the realm of literature, Kafka epitomizes those concepts which had already been

presented in Nietzsche’s philosophy (the defeat of the individual).The only difference is that in

Kafka’s works the defeat has positive connotation (it is related with the notion of overcoming) in

spite of the fact that the notion of defeat has been observed from a much superior view point

according to which, as Nietzsche point out, Man is seen as an “ape” (the Man who is deprived of

the presence of God turns into an “ape”.)

In Kafka’s works such an opposition between these two lives inspiring myths , (that is the

God and the Man) doesn’t exist. He believes that the former (God) is absent and the latter (man)

is absent either due to the absence of the former. Kafka doesn’t criticize the individual as

Nietzsche does. It seems quite senseless and absurd to criticize something that doesn’t exist; an

entity from which the animating substance is removed and what remains is an empty framework

which will possibly be vanished at every moment.

The enormous absurdity of the external world, the senseless and purposeless nature of life,

the absence of any thought or purpose, the disguised presence of evil forces create a mythical

atmosphere where the individual is present as avictim, an outsider whose every attempts and each

step to liberate himself from this situation are doomed to fail because he has initially been

condemned to annihilation.

Kafka himself is going through the same nightmarish experiences of his heroes , his fake

objectivity and the cold and senseless intonation, the extreme accuracy of the details which

produces the reverse effect , treacherously reveals those evil sufferings and inner Hell that Kafka

himself is experiencing beyond the curtain and beyond his words and sentences.

He knows something that his heroes don’t, this thing is never articulated, and this is the

point where his stories begin.

Kafka remains absolutely silent and everything occurs in pure silence. What Kafka sees in

the world is so appalling that it is quite impossible to say something about it; he becomes

tetrified while encountering the image of “Hell” he falls into deep silence like Dante when he

confronts the Imperia.Dante and Kafka are standing in the two poles of the universe, Dante in the

zenith and Kafka in the nadir and between those two points the universe flows. For Dante, this

flow acts as a pure catharsis, a spiritual purification. For Kafka the flow acts as a downfall, an


absurd movement.Dante sees the sinners in hell; Kafka sees the hell in existence, where there are

no sinners and no punishment.

The existence itself is the punishment , the punishment is connected with the crime.

(Dostoyevsky’s “crime and punishment”), yet Kafka’s heroes are punished without committing

any crime, none of his characters are sinners or criminals yet all of them are punished. There is

no crime but there is the punishment .In Dostoyevsky’s works we see the presence of crime yet

there is no punishment for it.

The absent punishment of Dostoyevsky’s works appears several decades later in Kafka’s

works. The subconscious aspect of Kafka’s mind perceives the distorted image of the world. He

doesn’t ask why such distortion has occurred, because that question has no definite answer. What

we see and perceive is the effect, there is no cause. The negative forces are operating in an

invisible plan. We are not able to see them yet their consequences (effects) are quite observable.

Any attempt for recognizing the nature of those forces is as absurd as the pointlessness of the

reality.

Kafka doesn’t yield to the temptation for finding the nature of these forces. He just

demonstrates the situation: the effect of those destructive forces upon human life that is neither a

moral psychological nor an ethical issue; rather it is an existential problem. The individual

becomes alien toward the existence and all his attempts for attaining the reality lead to digression

from reality. In his novel The castle, the castle itself that the land surveyor struggles to gain

access is nothing except the existence itself, the doors of which are closed for the individual, and

it is occupied by other forces. For the individual, the castle has turned into an impenetrable zone,

an inaccessible area. Conforting the extreme state of absurdity and incongruity while attending in

front of the closed doors, the land surveyor makes vain attempts to enter the castle (the absurd

point here is that he himself has received an invitation from the inhabitants of the castle, but he

is not allowed to enter)

The land surveyor preserves his humanistic features, and above all his sense of reasoning ,

yet in that specific case it seems quite impossible forhim to enter the castle (which here signifies

the existence).In absurd situation, the acceptance of any idea or principle becomes impossible

(like those unfortunate sisters who were not able to enter the castle, because they had preserved

their humanistic features).


The world is the scene of absurdity, a proper setting for the dominance of chaotic forces,

where the rationality is permanently absent. The individual is banished from this world; his

dwelling place is his inner world although. The individuals inner world is attempting to resist

against these forces but he is initially doomed to fail, because the individual himself is his

rationality, therefore he himself is doomed to banishment and annihilation.

The individual merely exists within his own mental world, and he just relies upon it, his

closed essence but as we know the “essence hasn’t yet turned into existence”. In The trial,

Joseph K. is step by step driven out of the world and loses the chance of dwelling in the world

just like the land surveyor who strives to enter the existence but he doesn’t succeed. Someone

tries to achieve those things that the other one has lost and apparently there is no difference

between these two people.

The law court where Joseph K’s case is supposed to be examined , extravagantly

symbolizes the pseudo community where the protagonist lives , the closed and self-contained

universe which has gained a mystical and supernatural energy , a specifies Imperia which stands

in sharp contrast with Dante’s Imperia. Castle in Kafka’s works is synonymous to the Law court

the doors of which are closed for the individual and it might not be opened during his whole life.

The law which has been separated from the individual has turned into a monstrous mechanism, a

supernatural evil force which is incarnated in the punitive community, the torturing machine, a

hellish machine which has been invented by satanic imagination containing within itself the

ruthless rationality of the absurd world , its senseless cruelty. Kafka has created three principle

grotesque symbols castle-law-torturing machine which are internally related to each other as the

three components and counterparts of the same conception. The Castle generally symbolizes the

existence , from which the individual is absent, the “law” symbolizes the mental-logical structure

which has abandoned the individual and therefore it has turned into opposition against him,

“torturing machine” symbolizes governmental mechanism which demolishes man if it notices

any sign of rationality , thought or vitality within human soul. In all of the mentioned instances

man vanishes like a bubble , the wind of oblivion and absurdity blows upon him and he

disappears from the plan of existence and through his disappearance everything becomes

possible. Here we may use Dostoyevsky’s statement: “If God does not exist then everything is


permitted”120 in another metaphovical sense: If Man is absent then everything becomes absurd.”

Here we may face this question which one is the consequence of the other?

Is the disappearance of man the consequence of absurdity? Or the absurdity is the out come

of Man’s disappearance? Kafka doesn’t set forth this question; he doesn’t make any attempt to

find any resolution for this “dichotomy” which most probably will require a close analysis of the

whole human history. (the history of human spirit, if such a history exists) yet such an analysis is

not the main concern of literary analysis.

Everything becomes possible because the man who is the upholder the spiritual fulcrum no

longer exists. In stead of the cosmos the chaos invades human existence , depriving him from all

aspects of being. In the state in chaos everything is possible (meanwhile nothing is possible) .

The hero of ‘Metamorphosis” Gregor Samsa (Samsa in Czech language means “I myself”

with whom Kafka identifies himself) wakes up one morning and finds himself transformed into

a gigantic inset like creature. None of the family members of Samsa are surprised by witnessing

this horrible fact. They accept the present situation as it is, getting involved in all worries and

anxieties that this situation creates apparently disturbing the smooth progression of their daily

life. The transformation of Gregor adds to the worries of Gregors family who have already had

many things to concern. (the exact reason and nature of these concerns are unknown to us).

Everything basically originates from the extreme abyss of absurality, nobody could ask

why such a thing happens? That’s how it is and that’s all.

What Grego’rs parents and sister are concerned is not his problem; rather, they are mainly

worried about how they are going to manage their own life after this incident.

It could be inferred that Gregor’s situation is so horrible and insoluble that his family feels

desperate and frustrated, being unable to offer any solution. They no more have any sense of love

or sympathy toward their miserable son. It means that the man could be loved only in the case

that he remains within the domain of human relations, within a definite plan of existence

otherwise he is doomed to be ignored.

Beyond these limits he turns into an alien, incomprehensible, menacing creature who is no

more capable of being loved and people should get rid of him as soon as possible. The

87. Ivan Karamazov in the early chapters of Brothers Karamazov written by F. Dostoyevsky in 1880


transformation of Gregor creates a disturbance both within his mind and in his relations with his

family members. His family is associated with him only on existentional level, not an emotional

one; nothing is able to establish a communication between him and his family members. the only

force which is able to establish communication, between people isLove, but love is absent here .

Gregors parents and sister didn’t love him even before his transformation; therefore they

wouldn’t love him after the transformation either. There is no love within the chaos; chaos and

love are two opposite forces. Where ever absurdity dominates, love vanishes.

Love cannot be flourished in absurd situation , therefore if life is absurd, Love will

become impossible . His family members were not able to love him either before or after trans

formation , they had actually became alien to each other . If Gregor has turned into an insect

physically (on an existential level) then his family members have turned into insects spiritually

(on a metaphysical level) in both cases Kafka presents the absolute disintegration of man, his

disappearance and his absence on the level of existence.

Vanishing from the external world as an existential entity, Gregor preserves his being as a

cognitive entity. His sense of cognition functions faultlessly up to the end; his transformation

doesn’t influence his cognitive sense. The two levels of existence (the external and the internal)

are notinterconnected; they are separated from each other as independent entities. The external

level without the internal one (cognition) functioning as a senseless and absurd reality, the

internal without the external (existence) as an entity which has not been manifested. In both

cases we notice two separated and eminent worlds which are incarnated within human soul , each

negating the other , creating a permanent existential situation for the man where in he both

exists (on the internal plan) and he doesn’t exist(on the external plan).

In Kafka’s works cognition and awareness never reach the state of disintegration and

demolition; it doesn’t get dissolved in absurdity. In all instances it remains as the sole upholder

of human existence the only domain upon which the absurdity couldn’t manipulate. Gregor

Samsa who once and for all has been banished from the external plan of existence, during the

final moments of his life “thinks about his family with great love and tenderness”. Kafka’s

heroes are striving to attain an existence analogous to their cognition, to reach to a state of

equilibrium but all their stlempts lead to their further withdrawal. The ultimate downfall of the

individual occurs in the early twentieth century in the works of Kafka. Kafka has the great


capability of seeing those conclusive and prominent changes that have occurred in human

destiny. This capability is not his own subjective appreciation of the world, rather this is the

objective reality itself, and it is Kafka who possesses the ill-fate of grasping it. Kafka’s mystical

world along with all useless attempts that he makes for interpreting the existence are doomed to

fail . Having certain biographical information about Kafka’s personal life such as his bad

relationship with his dominating father, his unsuccessful attempts for marriage, his illness or his

Jewish origin (he was completely indifferent toward his Jewish origin) did not contribute for

understanding and interpreting the complicated codes and symbols of his works. This objective

reality was what he had inherited from the previous generation of writers : from psychological

novel of Dostoyevsky in mid nineteenth century , from Nietzsche who emphasized on the

downfall of man in the realm of philosophy, and in the early twentieth century Kafka himself

observed the disintegration of man on existential plan .He was the initiator of a new literary

direction in twentieth century which later became known as Kafkaian attitude , leaving a deep

impact on the literature of the western world. Kafka’s literature is a major turning point in the

western world, After “Metamorphosis “or “The trial” it is impossible to create literary works

without being effected from these works.

The progressive curse of literary movements in the twentieth century verifies Kafka’s

philosophical worldview : man has entered an alien and absurd world , finding himself caught in

the absolute reign of fear and anxiety .

In order to get rid of these tensions he has relied upon the fake instinctual defense

mechanisms, yet the more he relies upon these mechanisms the more he finds himself helpless

and abandoned being thrown into the baseless absurdity and chaotic world. The absurd literature

creates a world without the presence of man.Man has ceased to exist, this is the central theme of

absurd literature. In literature the idea of the disintegration and disappearance of man on

existential plan functioning as the dominant theme of literary works semantically acting as a

“secret code “, appeared not only in Kafka’s works (in Kafka’s works it is much more dominant)

but also in the literary works of several other authors. The three dominant literary directions of

Western Europe (Austria-German, English and French) in spite of possessing many

discrepancies in their psycholinguistic features (intonation history, ethnic psychological

structure, native characteristics and etc) share certain attributions in the collective system of


signification of their languages (the center of meaning), functioning as the proportionate

upholders of the same semantic system and sharing the immediate impact of the same energetic

center of spirituality. There fore the deconstruction or disintegration of meaning occurs

simultaneously (not gradually) within the three literary directions of the Western World (in the

early twentieth century the Western European literature was deeply influenced by Russian

literature specially the works of Dostoyevsky).

Therefore the dominant changesrelated to the translocation and transfiguration of the center

of meaning and the concept of the individual occur simultaneously in the from, content and

aesthetic-philosophical viewpoints of the avan-guard literature of Western world, demonstrating

the comprehensive unity and dominance of Christian culture over Western literature.

A) within the tradition of English literature the works of James Joyce121, (although he had

Irish origin which had an inherent role upon his literary works) specially his Ulysses (as well as

his Finnegan’s wake) demonstrates the dimming, internally devastating and fainting image of

western culture. Furthermore it vividly portrays the “stumbling” image of the individual who has

broken off all his connections with other people and is floating in the subjective world of sub

consciousness. If in Ulysses , Joyce demonstrates the overall downfall of western culture (as

T.S.Eliot122 does in the “Waste Land”), sarcastically showing the agonizing disintegration of the

western “myths” (originated from Greek myths), the ostracizing of the individual from the

current world of realities , where he appears not as the initiating agent but as the consequent

effect of certain circumstances , a lifeless “mask”a dead “spirit” , and life appears as a “ fatal

coincidence” , meaningless nightmare or chaotic incident appearing in Marion’s stream of

unconsciousness (the final section of Ulysses) , then Finnegans Wake demonstrates the

demolition of the individual’s subjective world and his “microcosm” , the evanescence of the

individual within the complex and irrational “vacuum” of his apparitions, nightmares and

metamorphosis , where completely different symbols and measures gain significance , when the

time sequence, and chronological order constantly becomes violated then any progressive

movement and prospect of development become impossible , therefore the only thing that

remains is the inner chaos of the individual, the constant appearance and disappearance of the 88. James Joyce (1882-1941) Irish novelist and poet 89. T.S Eliot (Thomas Stern Eliot) (1888-1965) American poet and essayist and playwright


unconscious images, the constant repetition of the subjective spiritual myths , and his quasi-real

hallucinations. Finnegan’s wake, one of Joyce’s most puzzling and mystical novels, which has

not yet been fully interpreted begins from the point where Ulysses end, from Marion’s stream of

unconsciousness, where the external man (Bloom’s Dublinian daily life) at the end of the day

retreats into the internal world of unconscious realities and afterwards moves toward Finnegan’s

wake’s complex, inaccessible and irretrievable mythological world.

Joyce skillfully portrays the protagonists’ complex metamorphic courses which are full of

epiphanies ultimately leading to his disappearance. (Due to Umberto Eco’s123 interpretation

Finnegan’s=Finne+gone)

B) In the first decade of twentieth centuryMarcel Proust124 in his work along with Joyce

and Kafka the three leading figures of twentieth century novel made unique attempts to challenge

the reliability of the concepts of time, distance and human relations.

He proved that these concepts are not reliable and the existential reality should be

investigated in other realms, where these concepts are looked upon from other perspective,

beyond the concrete concept of time and within the metaphysical concept of time mixing with

emotional impulses, imaginations, subjective ideas and the transparent, unstable and mercuric

stream of memories. In this case the sketch of a new reality will be outlined where everything

exists as it looks.

Proust is dwelling in a world, where the present is missing from the concept of time and

the world has retreated in to the past which covers the whole span of time. (present and future).

For Proust the present has significance only in the case that it turns into the past.

Due to Proust , existence moves from the unreliable state of present to the reliable state of

the past ,where everything gains a metaphysical essence and real existence. If present is a

relative concept due to its spatial-chronological dimensions , then the past is an absolute concept

due to its permanent mental-metaphysical nature. The individual doesn’t live in a relative world,

rather his existence is fixated in the absolute world, and his existence is there not here. Therefore

the real existence is :there not here , therefore the shift from here to there creates a unique

Platonic world , in which the object which has external existence turns into non-existent 90. Umberto Eco (1932)- Italian semiotician, essayist, literary critic and novelist. 91. Marcel Proust (1871-1922) – French novelist, critic and essayist


(Menon125 ) while the non-existent turns into existence (Eidos)126 memory is the domain where

the conception of the past become manifested ,that is his spiritual fulcrum, his inner energetic

center, therefore the man survives as long as he remembers, in other words the individual is the

memory itself. Within the realm of memory, Proust doesn’t evoke the past, rather he himself

resides in the past, yet it is not possible to evoke the present because it has completely been

dissolved in the memories of the past. Only through memory, one can overcome the evanescence

of time and time manifests itself in the language. The individual remembers through the medium

of language, with words. For Proust the language is the only net that he throws in the river of

language and catches the reality. For Proust language is his reality, he lives in the past and brings

it into the language.He narrates the past, reconstructing it in the language, the discourse and the

world of the lexicon, where he strives to hunt the deceptive body of time, revive it, to approach

its soul and to be united with it. In other words Language is the resurrection of the past, the only

shelter and protector of time, the only island within the ocean of chaosthat the individual could

take refuge.

The individual is embodied in language, he doesn’t exist outside of the language.

Silence is the absence of language, within the vacancy of which the individual regains himself,

becomes reincarnated as memory and disappears in the context of the language.

C) Anti-utopian literature appeared in twentieth century but its origin could be tranced

back as a reaction against the utopian literature of Thomas More127, Campanella128 and Rabelais

eighteenth century materialism, nineteenth century positivism and Marxism.

The idea of Utopia (the word has a Greek origin: basically meaning “nowhere”) was

negated in twentieth century not from the viewpoint of ideology but from the viewpoint of

practicality, basically demonstrating the disappearance of man in the “ ultra fortunate” society in

the future , his complete annihilation in the vacuum world , heaven without man , existence

without meaning .

92. Greek word meaning idea 93. Greek word meaning form, essence 94. Thomas More (1478-1535)- English lawyer, social philosopher author and noted Renaissance humanist. 95. Tommaso Campanella (1568-1639)-Italian philosopher, theologian and poet.


From the different anti-utopist works, I would like to focus on Aldous Huxelys129Brave

New World and George Orwell’s1301984. It is needless to say that the best anti-utopist literary

works should have been written in England, since England is the cradle of utopian thoughts.

The above mentioned novels are written based on two different principles.

1-Psychological-philosophical (Alduos Huxley)

2-Govermental-political (George Orwell)

In Huxley’s novel, the individual is portrayed as completely deprived of all spiritual

values, cut off from the humanistic features and turning into mere physio-technological

mechanism, he has solved the metaphysical problems of birth and death, liberated love from the

moral and spiritual superannuated ideas, turning it into mere instinctual desires. The science has

become deprived of its ethical principles and has turned in to a course of mere technological

progression which is deprived of any human values. Huxley has created an absolute

technological society, a perfect image of the future (twenty third century) technological society

where man is absent.

John, the protagonist of the novel, is a young man who wasborn by mistake, he loves

Shakespeare’s works and carries a dog eared volume of Shakespear’s works with himself as the

only solace of his life. The well-known scientist of the Brave New World with a mocking grin

criticizes him, calling him old-fashioned.

Huxley’s novel is a forewarning about the fact that searching human happinessby merely

focusing upon scientific technological developments and neglecting his psychological and

spiritual aspect will ultimately lead to the downfall and annihilation of man.

In George Orwell’s novel, 1984 another aspect of anti-utopia society is portrayed. here,

Orwell shows the monstrous growth of governmental -political mechanisms which leads to the

total obliteration of the individual, the dominance of alien and tyrant forces over the world, the

widespread turning of the whole community into idiots, the consequence of which is the

appearance of the man who is playing chess with himself (the game of chess in T.S Eliot’s Waste

Land which symbolizes the infertility of the culture).

96. Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) - English writer 97. George Orwell – (1903-1950) - English novelist and journalist


The French writer, Pierre Boulles, The planet of the Apes is another anti-utopian novel

which portrays modern man as a being who avoids thinking and imitates the apes (as the

monkeys that imitate man)

Man as a Voice

Samuel Beckett

One of the distinctive features of the absurd literature is the absence of tragedy .Tragedy

is absent (and its occurrence is impossible) not only as a genre but also as a from of

understanding, a special intonation which could demonstrate any symptom of human rationality

. The individual is the prerequisite requirement for the formation of tragedy , therefore since the

individual is nonexistent the possibility of the occurrence of tragic situation will become

meaningless and absurd , because this is the individual who is the bearer of the tragedy .

In spite of the fact that absurd literature demonstrates a much greater tragic idea that is the

disintegration and eradication of the individual, yet such a tragic understanding doesn’t find the

possibility of manifesting itself in the framework of characterization, thematic structures and

stylistic features of the literary work.It is impossible to find any trace of tragedy in the actions,

dialogues and communication of the characters of an absurd work, although there occurs the

most prominent tragedy of the whole human history, something that hasn’t yet appeared in

literature.

The tragic understanding lies in the viewpoint and attitude of the author not in the mind of

the characters who are devoid of any understanding. What we see on stage is irrelevant,

meaningless and banished from existence, a mere gesture which desperately shows theloss of

self consciousness, like the final SoS signal of a sinking ship that we hear telling us there is no

hope for being rescued, since even the idea of being rescued is absurd and meaningless.


If life, with its full measure is drawn in absurdity , then from which domain we might

receive help? Which area of existence lies out of absurdity .The disappearance of individual

leads to disappearance of tragedy which could be considered as the distinctive feature of

twentieth century literature. The basis of Kafka’s works is the appreciation of tragedy, since his

heroes still possess the sense of cognition and understanding. They disappear as existential entity

but preserve their being as cognitive entity. Kafka’s heroes do not exist as being (existence) they

merely exist as cognition. (like in Metamorphoses) Tragedy occurs as the result of the inner clash

that occurs between these two oppositions. In Joyce’s’ work the individual appears as an

epiphany (for example in his famous short story The Dead) or as a mythological mask (in his

novel Ulysses) while in Marcel Proust’s works the existence (the reality) resides in language,

which he considers both as an epiphany, as cognition and as mythological mask. (namely as

archetypal mask). The theater of absurd moves beyond these three conceptions.. The individual

is neither a cognition, nor an epiphery, nor a language. He is a shadow which is incapable of

meaning anything, a gesture devoid of meaning and purpose, a discourse lacking signification, a

voice, a reflective response to an external stimuli. IN theater of absurd Tragi-comedy is formed:

a tragedy without the Man. Tragedy is the climax of the authors’ understanding and appreciation

of the world, where the painful process of Man’s annihilation from the universe occurs, while

the comedy is the meaningless chaos of man’s consciousness, when Man disappears but the

situation remains. For the disappearance of the individual it is necessary to create a proper

situation and for the creation of a proper situation the disappearance of the individual is

required.None of them precedes the other, they are created simultaneously, they are not created

by one another, rather both of them are created in the mind of the author spontaneously, as a self-

conceiving image, objective reality, the inner layers of which are opened up for authors’ mental

world creating a special from of reality, a metaphysical world where everything is possible to

happen but actually nothing happens, the author remains behind the scene . yet, the total absence

of the author connotes his full presence.

What happens actually happens within human soul. The death of cognition actually

happens within his mind. The human insight and understanding do not become weak and

vulnerable (as one may suppose) rather it becomes much stronger, and here lies the significance

of the theater of absurd: the maturity of human understanding. Watching an absurd drama (or


reading it) the audience shares the principle notions of the author; he becomes liberated from

absurdity of life since he gains the opportunity to recognize the absurdity. Here the Aristotelian

catharsis works based on other principles rather than creating fear and pity which is applicable to

classic drama. Absurd drama is incapable of creating fear and pity, since the upholder of these

sensations, that is the individual is absent, and if the individual is absent then no psychological

connection could be established between the actor (individual) and the audience, which is the

prerequisite condition for catharsis. The situation could be recognized and understood but it is

impossible to reincarnate it.

This situation functions on a ultra human level, it is not related with human actions or his

flaw (the quality of classical drama), and it is totally functioning on the level of eminent realties.

the characters are passive shadows, they are not the initiator or the cause of any action, nothing

begins with them and nothing ends in them. There is no plot and theme, since the characters are

purposeless and aimless, they are incapable of producing any effect upon the objects, they

themselves are subject to objects and incidents. The plot lacks any structure, there is no

beginning, no development and no end. If man is absent, then no logical development is possible,

in absurd drama there is no difference between the beginning and the end.

Everything happens. the situation which has been separated from the individual expands in

the same way, nothing develops, nothing changes, everything is just being repeated, it appears

and again disappears without any reason or without producing any effect, without meaning or

purpose. The lenses of the author’s telescope are not focused on individual but upon the

widespread chaos of his unconsciousness where the final rays of rationality are extinguished, and

the only light that remains is the light which is reflected from the author’s lenses which

penetrates into deep darkness. That is the insight that the reader receives from the author, the

only stable and reliable island in the ocean of chaos.

The philosophical basis of this idea could be found in Albert Camus’131 essay The Rebel

the illustration of which could be found in his literary works (especially in his two novels The

Plague” and The stranger). In Eugene Ionesco’s132 works either this idea was developed. In his

works surrealistic situation is not portrayed as a pure stylistic and poetic method of expression 98. Albert Camus (1913-1960)- French writer, journalist and philosopher 99. Eugene Ionesco (1909- 1994)- Romanian playwright who mostly wrote in French


but as of a mere reality, the reality which manifests itself in his cold and “indifferent”

objectivism. Here the reality is surreal not the drama. the perfect example of this surreal

situations could be found in Samuel Beckett’s works (Happy Days, Endgame). Waiting for

Godot the tragi- comedy which could be regarded as the Bible of absurd literature, which signals

the ultimate disintegration of individual in literature. It could be said that Beakett’s works in

twentieth century is the chronicle of the ultimate annihilation of man, his obituary notice and he

once and for all dissolves in the austral heaven. His voice is the only thing which remains from

his being in which he can still reside. In Happy Days, we find his characters still living in the

joyful memories of the past while gradually immersing in the trashbin, and finally dropping out

of sight and we only hear the voice which is the only symptom of their existence, no other sign

of existence is left from them. InKrapp’s last Tape the individual turns into a recorded voice of a

tape recorder, the echo of the past which is much more real than the man who is listening to the

tape (Krapp).

The voice is more real because it has been liberated from the confines of the flow of time,

the fake pretence of the objects therefore it doesn’t undergo death or demolition. The past

becomes resurrected in the recorded voice and as we know something which is once resurrected

never dies again, there fore the one who is sitting all alone in his room and is listening to his own

voice of the past, is infact communicating with his own immortality and it seems that he is

preparing himself for death.

His inner unity becomes decomposed, his own self is divided into two parts: the voice ,

which is the upholder of his being and the body which finds itself reincarnated in the voice ,

turning into mere sounds the meanings of which are not so important. He resides between two

universes, the Platonic dual worlds.The individual who has turned into object either hears his

own voice from the world of ideas as the inner chiffer, the code of his existence, which he has

already forgotten it and what has remained for him is his emotional world which is agitating him.

It seems that he has been transferred into another world , he himself has turned into the recorded

voice which is being played and he is not actually in the room where the voice is being played

(although we notice his physical presence)

Due to Beckett’s psycho philosophical worldview, the individual has abandoned the world,

but if he has, then where is henow? Does any specific spot exist in the universe where we could


suppose that he is residing there? Becketl simply finds some traces of him but he himself is still

lost. An impassable abyss is separating him from uswhere units of measuring time and human

understanding (thought and logic) are not functioning. Within this open space the mythological

darkness is dominating where it is completely impossible to specify the distinctive features of the

two worlds, the souls and the humans, it becomes impossible to specify the borderline that exists

between these two. Samuel Beckettarrives at this conclusion that the world is a vacuum, a

vacuum inside the individuals , and the individuals are residing in vacuum , there fore the human

cognition (which is the leaning point of Kafka) is incapable of functioning as before , it becomes

disintegrated and gradually vanishes not being able to dissolve the empty interval (the time

vacuumed) within itself .

Waiting for Godot one of the most important works of Beckett’s dramaturgy is the best

illustration of the above mentioned statement . In the play , the four characters are presented in

pairs : Vladimir and Estragon , and Pozzo and Lucky demonstrating two epistemological

concepts (the symbolic presentation of two realities ) . The first pair , are actually two destitute ,

lacking any origin or specific dwelling place in the world , we don’t know who they are and

where do they come from , they look like a pair of ghosts , although we may guess some thing

about their past , maybe they are two poor , miserable and desolate creatures (when one of them

wants to hang himself by his belt from the there , it is so worn out that it suddenly cuts off ) .

The setting of the play is a barren deserted area, with a leafless mythological tree in the

middle where Vladimir and Estragon meet and wait for Godot (the “ savior “ disguised in

mystical veil, who is supposed to help them ). That leafless mythological tree is an allusion to the

dried fig tree in the Bible (the symbol of the old tradition which was denied by Christ) which is

incapable of providing shade or helping them to hang themselves ( referring to their unsuccessful

attempt to hang themselves ).

The belt , with the help of which the tramp wants to hang himself is the reference to the old

tradition , which is no more capable of saving them. Godot has promised them to come but he

didn’t . Instead of Godot his messenger comes everyday and announced that Godot couldn’t

come today and he promised to come tomorrow . Here an ironic comparison could be made

between this messenger and the Biblical angle who notifies the second coming of Christ or the


prediction of other prophets about Christ’s coming for whom the vagabond human race are

waiting .

Waiting has paralyzed them and they are incapable of performing any action , to put it in

other words waiting is the consequence of inactivity . within this universal waiting situation the

only thing that they are able to do is talking . Talking is the only way to assert their being , they

don’t have any other option to prove their existence . They talk endlessly . Talking connotes the

idea of communicating and conveying information , but here talking has another meaning

theydo not communicate , their words are devoid of meaning , conceptual development ,and

mental act . Here the words are deprived of any significance.

During the performance of his plays , Beckett asked the actors not to pronounce the worlds

clearly . The voice , was important for him to be heard not the words . maybe another reason of

Beckett’s sense of alienation toward language could be traced in the fact that he wrote the play in

French which was his second language. It is more appropriate to express the sense of alienation

in second language rather than the mother tongue upon which the whole emotional and spiritual

world of the individual is built . The language which has been spoken since childhood always

remainssacred , and it is almost impossible to insert the qualities of alienation within that

language . The heroes speak without saying anything , there is no idea or thought in their

language , there is only the voice , the sound , the idea is not important . Through the voice they

assert their presence , their existence in the world , without the voice they cease to exist and this

creates fear and anxiety , they are intuitively scared of silence . For them , silence means

deathand voice means life . They are begging each other to speak, to say something , to utter a

sound otherwise they will vanish . In the play Beckett uses lots of pauses and silence which

create a sense of fear and anxiety . The other forms of existence are abolished , the individual’s

existence has been reduced to mere voice . The characters exist as long as they speak , existence

lies within the limits of voice . Beckett’s play is a prolonged voice , without presenting any

meaning . What is dominant in Beckett’s plays is the specific quality of the language and the

sound patterns that the characters use in their speech . These sound signals and rhythmic patterns

serve as the cornerstone of Becketls poetics .

This quality of language is most observable in Lucky’s monologue (if it could be

considered as a monologue ) . He thinks within the limits of his own words , for him silence is


the interruption of thinking and appearance of the pair of Lucky/Pozzo on stage is the

demonstration of loss of rationality which leads to the universal absurdity of mankind . The

master (Pozzo) and the slave (Lucky) are equal on the level of existence although the rope of

slavery is tied around Lucky’s neck and Pozzo is holding it , and he is the one who is imposing

his will upon him.“Think” !! Pozzo orders and Lucky starts to “speak” (it is better to say he starts

“to talk deliriously”). The relationship between Lucky and Pozzo is not the Hegelian slavery

relationship , where the slave submits his sense of reasoning to the master considering him as a

possesser of a higher from of rationality . In Beckett’s play the master is deprived of rationality

either therefore their relationship is constructed upon absurdity . Ordering is the essence of

Pozzo and surrendering is the essence of Lucky apart from possessing these two qualities they

are on the same level of existence .

If they change their position nothing will happen and the orientation of their setting will

remain the same. Beckett is striving to find some traces of humanity , for example the tears of

Lucky and the sympathy of Estragon with him , the tears and the sympathy are sign of humanity .

Estragon is trying to wipe Luckys tears but he kicks him . Lucky is inhibited within his own

cosmos (actually the chaos which has turned to cosmos for him) he doesn’t let anybody enter this

cosmos and disturb the order “absurdity “ .

Pozzo and Lucky are not subjects (subjects are capable of establishing interactive

relationships ) rather it seems that these two are just like two broken pieces flying into different

directions after a massive eruption . The individual who is dwelling in absolute metaphysical

isolation , crossing all boundaries of language , accepts the chaos as the cosmosand the absurdity

as a regular from of existence . He ceases to exist , the language through which Beckett’s

characters communicate is an anti-language and the individual who trusts upon that language is

doomed to vanish . Beckett demonstrates individual’s annihilation , his disappearance from

universe , the downfall of Renaissance man , the signification and energetic nucleus of which is

exhausted and it is unable to convey energy to its orbiting electrons . The play and its

performance on stage have a mystical meaning :the transfiguration of man into voice . If in

Proust’s novel language functions as the semantic epistemological system of mans existence in

Beckett’s works , (especially in “Waiting for Godot”) the language ceases to have such function ,

it merely exists as a succession of sounds , man’s voice acts as the only evidence of his


existence apart from which he is nothing . This is not only the final stage of mans disintegration

but also the demolition of the cultural system the nucleus of which is man , therefore Beckett’s

works (and absurd literature in general) is the annihilates Renaissance man , it is final accord of

Man’s evolution which has reached its climax in the early seventeenth century in Shakespeare’s

works and then it gradually descends until we notice its complete disappearance in the realm of

art and literature . From Dante to Shakespeare the movement is upwards , then it takes the

downward trend. (this doesn’t apply to the aesthetic value of the literary works , a literary work

might have a high aesthetic value and considered as a masterpiece while the content of the work

might demonstrate the downfall of Man) .

In Shakespeare’s works we see the ultimate degree of the individual’s perfection and

integration which functions as the nucleus of cultural system , experiencing a downfall on a

sociological plan while preserving his psychological intellectual (philosophical) integrity . In

classic period the three dimensional structure of the individuals existence(soul, body, spirit) is

shattered , foregrounding the spirit and considering it as the most dominant aspect of human

existence which receives its inspirations from the ancient period (the development of tragedy).

During the Enlightment period the physical aspect (body) of human existence in present time

receives great emphasis (that is the individual in constant interaction with the social reality, and

his existential status in the materialistic world which leads to the the development of Novel),

while the Romanticism relies upon human spirit aiming to reach eternity which finds the sources

of inspiration either in antique period (Holderlin133 ) or in Middle Ages ( Novalis ) or in

Bayronian “demonic” period (the unspecified period of time) .

In Dostoyevsky’s works the individual becomes beheaded on a psychological level yet

preserving his existential foundations on the universe. Kafka presents the individuals attempts to

remain on existential plan and yet he disappears from the universe as an existential entity (the

fate of Gregor Samsa) and finally in Beckett’s works (and in absurd theater in general) the

rationality becomes disintegrated and demolished , the psychological and intellectual aspect of

language are broken down and the individual turns into a “voice” , and his words (utterances)

100. Johann Christian Friedrich Holderlin (1770-1843)- German Lyric poet of Romanticism.


turn into silence and his silence into a succession of meaningless words and noises. (Lucky’s

thinking).

It is impossible and therefore meaningless to go back and start from the beginning

“Everything that needs to be said has already been said” (Hegel). The semantic significance of

the Renaissance man , acting as the center of meaning and rationality , and the source of vitality

and energy nourishing the molecules of culture has been exhausted.

Twentieth century culture (and the art and literature acting as the crown of cultural

heritage) is a system in which the human being and all the features attributed to human beings

are absent. Ortega _y_Gasset 134was the first theorist who presented this worldview in his

famous treatise The Dehumanization of Art. This could be vividly illustrated in twentieth century

painting , where the man no longer exists on canvas . The cubism has transformed the man in to

geometrical shapes trying to reach the third dimension, surrealism accepts the realm of

unconsciousness as the spiritual center of the individualwhere the universe is understood with

other worldly measures and relations, moving away from intellectual mentality. For surrealist

artist the great paradox of the universe does not lie in the world of unconsciousness but in the

distortion and degeneration of rationality which is being portrayed as the revelation of

unconsciousness .

In Abstract painting the individual ceases to appear as the origin and object of painting ,

turning into an absolute association of colors similar to the transformation of the individual into

the sound and voice in absurd theater. The abstract painter separates the order and arrangement

of colors from the objects and attributes a special quality of “demiurge” to the colors (Gothe’s

color theory - according to which the color is the basis of the world , its autonomous, creating an

energy upon which the Nature and the whole image of the universe are constructed)

The colors are perceived as other worldly (transcendental) entities , the heaven descending

upon the earth, the object originates from earth but the color from heaven , therefore the color

contains within itself other worldly information, the chiffre interpretation of which is of great

importance for man. The abstract painters believe that the descendingcolors have not yetreached

the earth , they are floating in a vacuum, the world of the objects have disappeared , the objects

101. Ortega –y- Gasset (1883-1955)- Spanish liberal philosopher and essayist


are absent. Within the great variety of colors the disjointed Light either has not yet reaches the

earth or has abandoned the earth . The artist is dwelling in a world the toponym of which is

unknown to him , he has only got a map yet he doesn’t know how to read it, he moves forward

simply by relying upon his intuitive faculties , each moment expecting to tumble down in the

mirages of the enchanting colors . That is a queer desert , nobody lives there , as the German

romantic writer claims :”This is not the man who has lost his shadow, rather, this is the shadow

that has lost the man”. Ortega _y_Gasset considers this as the absolute liberation of art from the

humans, its autonomous Kingdom and its independence from the human and nature.

Basically accepting the idea of the Spanish writer, I should say that this is not the art that

has liberated itself from man , rather the man has been exhausted within the world of art . His

function as the essence of artistic activity is ended, he doesn’t interest art anymore, and he has

turned into a shadow, color, voice and a sing system in art. Now as a human ,(as he used tobe) he

is as an uninvited guest in the domain of art and if he succeed to enter art castle (like

Kafka’s castle), then the secondary role is offered to him , or a mask is given to him to make

him unrecognizable, otherwise the doors of the castle would be closed for him. He can enter as

an unknown person, a disguised character, a stranger (the protagonist of Camus’ Novel)

avoiding the influence of art.

A substantial transfiguration should occur within his soul and body , he is no more

accepted and welcomed with his old appearance . The vivacious , breathing and ideal man of

Shakespearean period in twentieth century literature turns into a structure , a combination of sign

systems which has the capability of turning into different shapes and versions and each version

then turns into a character lacking any individuality. Therefore the man is not important as an

individual , he is important as a structure.

Restoring what has already been finished and to repeat what has already occurred is

senseless , it is impossible to search for any meaning in what has already finished . From

Shakespeare to Beckett (from Rafael to Picasso as well) , the man gradually abandons his

spiritual center , he dissolves into other components (body ,soul,spirit) of his own being , he

becomes decomposed and again restructured in a new circumstances , turning into a structural

objectwhich requires a new interpretation by summing up and combining its divided components

and creating a new image.


R .Steiner believes that in the “austral universe” Shakespeare’s characters are alive ,

Goethe’s characters are semi alive but Schiller characters are dead . In Post- Shakespearean

literature the human paradigm moves from life to death , descends from the aboveto the below,

from the concept of the integrated ”I” he reachesthe idea(Plato’s Eidos) , and the idea (or

thought or rationality) becomes reincarnated in the from of the structure.

Therefore the appearance of structure is synonymous to the disappearance (the death )of

man (specially emphasized in Modernist and Postmodernist literature) and the resurrection of his

idea , therefore making strict judgment about the two concepts of man and idea is not correct

Hamlet (or Othello) lives and thinks about man (his Eidss) while Beckett’s characters are

the structure of the same Eidos itself , they getvery close to Eidos but they don’t turn in to

individum (Man exists in the universe as individum). The idea could die within the individum,

and the individum could die in idea as well. Beckett’s characters are dead as individums but they

are alive as the resurrected ideas (Eidos).

In a paradoxical manner, man has disappeared in the idea , yet he has got too close to the

spiritual center of the idea, and the dim light of this center is reflected upon his face

demonstrating the concealed spiritual essence of Man . That is his Spiritual Light , which he has

already abandoned it, and he has been enclosed within himself yet he once again starts

approaching it although he has already abandoned it . In other words , the Christ Man figure of

Renaissance period , already abandoning the Christ God figure of Middle ages reaches to the

borderline of downfall in twentieth century and ceases to exist as a center of meaning , a

thematic feature , a content and the “metaphysicalnucleus” of cultural system , therefore the art

being deprived of the above mentioned qualities appears in a barren field(like T.S.Eliot’s\

Wasteland) loses its inner spiritual energy, engages himself in meaningless activities which leads

him to nothingness (the fate of the art in the late 20th and early 21st century).

The End


Documents

Henrik Edoyan, A Religius Philosophical Critical Approach 2015