셸리의 이상주의에 관한 연구

Abstract

Abstract

This paper explores Shelley's idealism mainly through his poem Prometheus Unbound. Shelley who wanted human beings to enjoy a happy life saw social systems and customs that impeded human happiness as enemies to struggle against. Though Shelley was born into the aristocratic class and raised in accordance with conventional and traditional beliefs of high society, he came to have radical ideas. He was also an excessive equalitarian who felt shame in that his privilege inevitably requires the sufferings of the lower class. Shelley thought that social evils could be removed by poetry and tried this idea in his works. Shelley's poetry Prometheus Unbound begins with the situation Prometheus is bound by chains, and tries to solve social problems to achieve freedom through his nonviolent resistance. Prometheus gives Jupiter his own power to let the humans free but Jupiter rules them by tyranny, not by love. Prometheus's protest against Jupiter's tyranny is not to try to achieve his independence from Jupiter by violent struggle or revenge but to make the change in his recognition and see the circumstance rightly. By gaining right recognition he can recover his morality, and finally he can be completely free from Jupiter's rule. In this way this paper examines Shelley's humanism and his efforts to construct an ideal world in Prometheus Unbound. It goes on to suggest the freedom of those equipped with right recognition change would never be deprived by an external force.