Matthew Arnold s Balder Dead: Unraveling His Deployment of Balder, Odin, and Lok

• 발행기관: 한국영미어문학회
• 저자명: 유지애(Jie-Ae Yu)
• 간행물 정보: 『영미어문학』영미어문학 제143호, 277~296쪽, 전체 20쪽
• 주제분류: 어문학 > 영어와문학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2021.12.31

영문 초록

This article examines how Matthew Arnold embodies diverse figures in his epic narrative poem Balder Dead (1855). It argues that Arnold’s awareness of Norse mythology plays a key part in characterizing the protagonist Balder, along with Odin and Lok, who reveal allegorical significances amidst Victorian contexts of religious chaos and dilemmas. Arnold s chief characters implicate man’s irresistible realm of death, the problem of faith in confronting this aspect, and questions about immortality of spirit and divine justice. The paper explores the writer s dynamic construction of characters in its link with plot development and his religious and ethical issues prevalent during the Victorian era. It suggests that Balder Dead foreshadows Arnold’s further elaborations on the aforementioned subjects, which he embeds in his later oeuvre of poetry and prose, composed from the late 1850s to 80s.

키워드

Arnold Balder Dead Balder Odin Lok