존 키이츠의 『엔디미언』의 주제와 여성 = The Theme and the Women in Keats's Endymion

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Keats's Endymion is the longest narrative poem about a quest for romance composed of more than 4,000 lines. It is traditional to read the work as an allegory of the poet's desire for union with the spirit of ideal beauty. The critics who have stood for the allegorical view resolved the poem into stages of human development, beginning with the sensual love, leading to humane service and sympathy for fellow men, and ending with union with the ideal beauty which Cynthia symbolizes. Recently, however some critics attacked the allegorical interpretation of the poem because of the discursiveness and incoherence of the narratives. For them Endymion is an erotic love poem which reveals Keats's unconsciousness including his adolescent desires. But that Endymion is allegorical is apparent and the main problem is how to interpret the allegory.
In any interpretation of the allegory, Cynthia plays the important role as a symbol of ideal beauty. She is described attractive as an erotic love-object, and Endymion's lengthy quest was for the erotic love with Cynthia. The women in Endymion are beautiful with easiness of temper, compassion, kindness and submissiveness which were thought as virtues of ideal woman in the Romantic period. The concept of an ideal woman then who engaged in such behaviour would today called female masochism.
Without any historical survey of the concept of ideal woman in the age Keats lived, Endymion cannot function properly as an allegorical poem.
< Chongbuk National University >