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Coleridge 의 Ancient Mariner에 관한 질문.
Harold Bloom은 이 작품이 Demonic - vitalism crossed by the social image of man in revolt - a violence that yet confirms individual existence and so averts an absolute despair of self 라는 일정한 전통을 따르고 있다고 했는데, 이것이 정확히 이 작품에 어떤 식으로 적용되는 것인지 잘 이해가 되지 않습니다. 발췌문으로 제시된 세 부분이 각각의 단계를 상징하는 내용인 것인가요?
답: 이것은 수업시간에 자세히 설명하지 못한 부분입니다. Demonic Vitalism이라는 것은 Blake가 The Marriage of Heaven and Hell에서 “The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels and God, and at liberty when of Devils and Hell, is because he was a true Poet and of the Devil's party without knowing it.”이라고 말한 것처럼 Satan을 기독교적 도덕률 안에서 사악함으로만 묘사한 것이 아니라 인간적인 어떤 면, 기독교에는 없는 어떤 생동감을 가진 것처럼 묘사하는 것입니다. Coleridge 자신도 1816년에 쓴 The Statesman's Manual에서 같은 취지로 다음과 같이 말한 적이 있습니다.
But in its utmost abstraction and consequent state of reprobation, the will becomes Satanic pride and rebellious self-idolatry in the relations of the spirit to itself, and remorseless despotism relatively to others; the more hopeless as the more obdurate by its subjugation of sensual impulses, by its superiority to toil and pain and pleasure; in short, by the fearful resolve to find in itself alone the one absolute motive of action, under which all other motives from within and from without must be either subordinated or crushed. This is the character which Milton has so philosophically as well as sublimely embodied in the Satan of his Paradise Lost. Alas! too often has it been embodied in real life. Too often has it given a dark and savage grandeur to the historic page. And wherever it has appeared, under whatever circumstances of time and country, the same ingredients have gone to its composition; and it has been identified by the same attributes. Hope in which there is no cheerfulness; steadfastness within and immovable resolve, with outward restlessness and whirling activity; violence with guile; temerity with cunning; and, as the result of all, interminableness of object with perfect indifference of means; these are the qualities that have constituted the commanding genius; these are the marks that have characterized the masters of mischief, the liberticides, and mighty hunters of mankind, from Nimrod to Bonaparte. And from inattention to the possibility of such a character as well as from ignorance of its elements, even men of honest intentions too frequently become fascinated. Nay, whole nations have been so far duped bv this want of insight and reflection as to regard with palliative admiration, instead of wonder and abhorrence, the Molochs of human nature, who are indebted for the larger portion of their meteoric success to their total want of principle, and who surpass the generality of their fellow creatures in one act of courage, only that of daring to say with their whole heart, "Evil, be thou my good!"
두 번째 질문의 취지는 정확하게는 잘 모르겠지만, 발췌문은 작품의 중요한 단계를 보여주는 곳이라 발췌한 것입니다.
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