Stages on Life's WayStages on Life's Way, the sequel to Either/Or, is an intensely poetic example of Kierkegaard's vision of the three stages, or spheres, of existence: the esthetic, the ethical, and the religious. With characteristic love for mystification, he presents the work as a bundle of documents fallen by chance into the hands of "Hilarius Bookbinder," who prepared them for printing. The book begins with a banquet scene patterned on Plato's Symposium. (George Brandes maintained that "one must recognize with amazement that it holds its own in this comparison.") Next is a discourse by "Judge William" in praise of marriage "in answer to objections." The remainder of the volume, almost two-thirds of the whole, is the diary of a young man, discovered by "Frater Taciturnus," who was deeply in love but felt compelled to break his engagement. The work closes with a letter to the reader from Taciturnus on the three "existence-spheres" represented by the three parts of the book. |
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able aesthetic Aladdin Aristophanes banquet beautiful become behold believe blissful bookbinder Christianshavn comic Concept of Dread Copenhagen dare death deceived dialectic Diogenes Laertius dreadful Either/Or erotic essentially eternity ethical everything existence experiment expression eyes fact faith fear Fear and Trembling feel girl give hand happy hence hero hold honor idea ideality imagination immediacy individual infinite instant Kierkegaard laugh learned lovable lover marriage married married couple means melancholy Midnight misunderstanding never one's oneself pain passion perceive perhaps Periander person Philosophical Fragments poet poetic poetry possible Postscript precisely pseudonymous quidam quiet reality reason recollection reflection regard relationship religious repentance resolution seducer sense situation Socrates sorrow sort soul speak spirit Stages STAGES ON LIFE'S suffering suppose surely sympathy talk thee thing thou thought tion tragic true understand unhappy love uttered Walter Lowrie whole wife wish woman wonder word Xanthippe young youth