“The Burden of the Mystery”: Keats’s Reflections on Religion and Death

Fatimah Alotaibi

Abstract


Long time has passed since John Keats died but still his literary heritage continues to inspire numerous researchers. The reason of such interest in Keats’s personality is the universality of themes that he encapsulated in his poetry. Keats’s works incorporate the fears and strivings to grasp all mysteries of the universe illustrating impermanence of life and strength of human spirit. Especially the poet explored the topics of death and religion creating his works “On Death”, “To Autumn”, “Written in Disgust of Vulgar Superstition”, “God of Meridian”, Why Did I Laugh Tonight?” and “When I Have Fears That I May Cease to be”. Keats is also known for his progressive ideas of personality and process of individuation, which can be compared to the works of Carl Jung. The current research implements analytical analysis of several poems in the implementation of the Jung’s theory of individuality in order to explore the topics of religion and death more accurately. The study aimed to reveal the connection between the ideas applied in Keats’s works and Jung’s framework of individuation. The research made the conclusion that Keats was ahead of his contemporaries fostering the ideas of freedom of the individual from the restrictions of religious superstitions and promoting the power of spirituality and intellectual development.


Keywords


Carl Jung; Enlightenment; Individuality; John Keats; Spirituality

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/7660

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