솔 벨로우의 『죽음보다 더한 실연』에 나타난 사랑의 추구

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the pursuit of the true love through self-awareness of the heroes in Saul Bellow's More Die of Heartbreak. It especially emphasises that Kenneth Trachtenberg's recognition of true love and self-awareness by tracing the love affairs as well as those of Uncle Benn. Kenneth is impressed by the mysticism of M. Yermelov, a mystic insisting that true love should be based on the warmth of the soul. So, even though Kenneth regards himself as the victim of sexual games with women such as Treckie, he feels a new level of familiarity and warm attachment through Dita, his new partner. And his spiritual world is especially influenced by Swedenborg's idea of ideal love. According to the mystic, love and thought are completed between man and woman in the human pair, and something like an exchange of souls takes place, according to the divine plan. Under the influence of the mysticism, Kenneth is skeptical about his father's sexuality. Kenneth's perception of love is changed by watching Benn's love affairs. Kenneth, having grown up in Paris, came to America to be near his uncle, Benn, a distinguished botanist. Benn is a plant mystic with plant clairvoyant power. He watches Benn is physically attetched to Matilda and escape from her in the end. He thought love without communication with the soul is meaningless. He also realizes that he enjoyed sexual love with Treckie though he thought love is an exchange between souls. Bellow shows us the contemporary unethical vision of the breakdown of the traditional family system and the corruption of erotic, physical culture. He also criticizes the tragic collapse of family through the lives that Rudi Trachtenberg, Kenneth Trachtenberg, and Benn Crader show. He continues to insist that we should keep human morality and noble ethical values wherever we are. He has always warned the moral corruption of sexual profligacy. He is afraid that traditional morality and the family system may be broken down because of the absence of sexual morality in our age. In conclusion, Bellow expresses that true love should be based on the harmony of mind and body with spiritual rapport and mutual understanding, and it seems to be a true self-awareness and the pursuit of the ideal self.