| Abstract |
Melancholy, or the melancholic mood, is one of the major themes in John Keats's
1819 odes. Many studies focus on the aesthetics of Keats's melancholy, but the
development of the poet's self-melancholizing mechanism in the odes and the
reconciliation between the poet and his lost object are less discussed. This thesis
approaches Keats's melancholy in psychoanalytic methods, probing into the texts to
investigate how the melancholic mood arrests the poet. Indeed, The poet, disturbed by
his dream-like vision with the three figures—Love, Poesy, and Ambition—begins his
quest for the lost indolence in the spring odes. From "Ode to Psyche," "Ode to a
Nightingale," to "Ode on a Grecian Urn," Keats pursues the three figures in their
corresponding odes, but in vain. The poet then even faces a death threat from his
imaginary urn-doppelganger. Unable to deal with the urn, the poet develops a
metaphorical language structure to defend himself against death with a series of
metaphors in "Ode on Melancholy." The metaphorical language, soon, overwhelms
the poet and drowns him in the illusions of eternal life. And therefore, in "Ode on
Indolence," the poet has failed to escape from the three figures, for they are the only
connections to the lost indolence and the easeful melancholic mood. However, in "To
Autumn," the poet frees himself from the melancholic mood. By personifying
Autumn, Keats confronts the enigmatic Other with his language, recovers the cause of
desire, and finally redeems himself from his melancholic mood that troubles him in
the first half year of 1819. |
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