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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 August 2011
Since the Enlightenment ennui and despair have been among the most dominant themes in western literature. In the twentieth century there scarcely exists a single major work of fiction which views man's nature and destiny under the aspect of hope or fulfillment. Why this should be so is the subject of interminable discussion which, generally speaking, locates the deeper cause in the breakdown of virtually all genuine religiousness with an attendant rise of meaninglessness and emptiness. This development in turn is linked to the various revolutions, particularly the Industrial, that have combined to undermine traditional occidental modes of thought and living. While some critics hold that it is merely a question of modern society becoming gradually accustomed to the blessings so precipitously conferred upon it by technology, thus comparing its present growing pains to those of an adolescent, few seem to disagree on the prevailing exhaustion and anxiety. In addition to the note of doom struck by the best intellectuals of our day — and its fashionableness is no argument against its truth — it would appear that the unreflecting masses independently of being exposed to this literature do not know how to redeem their leisure time, have lost a great deal of capacity for spontaneous participation, and seek despairingly if not eagerly for something vital to which they can relate themselves and through which find renewed structure in their lives.
1 Kierkegaard, Soren, The Sickness Unto Death in Fear and Trembling and The Sickness Unto Death, translated with introduction and notes by Lowrie, Walter (New York, 1955), p. 150.Google Scholar
2 Dostoevsky, Fyodor, Letters from the Underworld, translated with an introduction by Hogarth, C. J. (London, J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1913. Last reprinted 1953Google Scholar).
3 Sickness Unto Death, p. 206.
4 Dostoevsky, Letters from the Underworld, pp. 25–27.
5 Ibid., pp. 28–29.
6 Ibid., pp. 33–34.
7 Ibid., p. 45.
8 Cf. Kierkegaard, Sickness Unto Death, pp. 245 ff.
9 Cf. Sickness Unto Death, pp. 152 f.
10 Letters from the Underworld, p. 47.
11 All the headings to be used are taken from The Sickness Unto Death. Below each heading I shall cite parallel passages from it and Letters from the Underworld prior to following through on the analysis of the point up for discussion. The order in which the nature and forms of despair are considered here is also roughly Kierkegaard's own.
12 Letters from the Underworld, p. 149.
13 Sickness Unto Death, p. 155.
14 Cf. below.
15 Letters from the Underworld, p. 7.
16 Sickness Unto Death, p. 160.
17 Cf. below, p. 163.
18 Letters from the Underworld, p. 9.
19 Sickness Unto Death, p. 24.
20 Ibid., pp. 157–158.
21 The Underground Man stubbornly clings to his despair as if thereby he could assuage his disgust with the outside world and with himself. Instead of using his powers of observation and great sensitivity as means to a truer mode of existence he tries to consume himself in anger and bitterness. From the ethical point of view, certainly, his lingering in despair makes him progressively more unkind and malicious. There is an analogy between the potential for good and evil of a despairer and the responses of individuals to disaster. No doubt, as a general truth, the riot squads must be kept in readiness to prevent rape, looting, etc. But just as probable is the hypothesis that some individuals will find themselves in the course of such a crisis. For them if not vicariously for the rest of society the disaster turned out a blessing in disguise. Christianly speaking despair is the sickness unto death for which faith is the only cure, but Christianly speaking it may also be the cure of self-complacency and self-righteousness. This, I take it, is what Kierkegaard means by its dialectical nature.
22 Letters from the Underworld, p. 17.
23 Sickness Unto Death, pp. 169–171.
24 Ibid., pp. 166, 169.
25 Ibid., pp. 163 ff.
26 Letters from the Underground, p. 11.
27 Sickness Unto Death, p. 175.
28 Letters from the Underground, p. 6.
29 Sickness Unto Death, p. 185.
30 In Three Stages On Life's Way Kierkegaard speaks of “dethronement” which likewise means that no stage is ever entirely cancelled out.
31 Sickness Unto Death, pp. 149–150.
32 Letters from the Underworld, pp. 50–55.
33 Sickness Unto Death, p. 199.
34 Letters from the Underworld, pp. 64–67.
35 Sickness Unto Death, pp. 200–203.
36 Letters from the Underworld, pp. 9–10, 25.
37 Sickness Unto Death, pp. 220–221.
38 This limitation in Greek thought emerges with particular sharpness in Plato's conception of the ruling class in his Republic. How could he possibly assume that any group of men, select as they might be, could be trusted to act selflessly over a long period of time? To be sure, Plato entertained grave doubts about finding candidates for the job of philosopher-king. But this is only a preliminary problem. The real issue, Christianly speaking, consists in the sinfulness of all men however intelligent, well-trained, and detached they might be. Lord Acton's famous dictum on power is the prologomona to any Christian political philosophy. No form of government is a priori beyond suspicion which is not to say that one may not be superior to the rest. It is a question of deciding for the least potentially sinful kind. And here much though by no means every consideration favors democracy where checks and balances are imposed on the sinfulness of men in power. — Had Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky been understood when the twentieth century began some of the outrages perpetrated by civilized society if not prevented might at least have come as less of a surprise.
39 Letters from the Underworld, pp. 10–11.
40 Sickness Unto Death, pp. 207, 241.
41 Cf. p. 147 above.
42 Letters from the Underworld, pp. 140–141.
43 Sickness Unto Death, p. 200.
44 According to Kierkegaard it is for precisely this reason that God had to become flesh. Only the lowliest of men — most-powerful incognito — could effectively identify with publicans and sinners.
45 Sickness Unto Death, p. 217.
46 Letters from the Underworld, p. 144.
47 Sickness Unto Death, pp. 245–246.
48 Letters from the Underworld, p. 20.
