The occasion and content
In Either/Or, the reader discovers a compelling narrative-essay about accepting personal responsibility and finding a suitable marriage. Ironically, the author wrote the book after abandoning his commitment to his fiancée. The emotional turmoil of departing from one's responsibility led Kierkegaard to categorize the feelings of responsibility and guilt into this book. One should remember this irony when examining the arguments from the book.
The problem of pleasure
Many philosophers have written about the problem of pain, sometimes called "Theodicy," because pain seems antithetical to the prospect of a loving God. But in this book, we see the religious philosopher analyzing the inverse problem. This theodicy is not asking why God allows pain, but rather why pleasure is such a dooming fate. To pursue pleasure on this earth leads to emotional turmoil and conflict within one's self that verges on hell. The young aesthetician is addicted to pleasure and fascination.
Patience and art
The question of repetition is examined quite closely in this book. There is an ironic value to hearing the same theme played twice. Although the young man seeks novelty and new experience, the book suggests that there is a secret value in repetition, patience, and true change. To put it simply, the irony goes like this: Without patience, change is external, because the same entity runs from fascination to fascination. With patience, change becomes internal, because through the meditative practice of committing to less intriguing works of art, one finds deep wells of meaning in one's own mind. This is the central theme of David Foster Wallace's tome about depression and entertainment, Infinite Jest.
Boredom
Speaking of Infinite Jest, another important theme from that book finds its source in this ethical essay: the question of boredom. What exactly makes boredom so unpleasant? Kierkegaard and Wallace agree that it is something from which the human mind runs at full speed. Kierkegaard answers this question with a poignant use of dramatic irony. What is it that the student avoids by never reading the letter addressed to him? It is literally God. Boredom brings about questions of one's own existence, and for fear of God, the young man prefers the gripping experiences of reality which fade in time to produce horror as responsibility creeps up on him.
The judgment of salvation
What will happen when one day Climacus cedes to fate and allows the painful wave of responsibility to wash over him? The truth is that his judgment is not punishment, but salvation. First, the irony points to inevitability. The boy experiences fear and horror for no reason; he believes boredom and responsibility will kill him, but they will transfigure him into a fully bloomed soul. The Judge wants to raise the inept aesthetician to true art appreciation. Ironically, the Judge is making the art-craving boy aware of what boredom has hidden from him; that he himself is a work of art embedded in divine artwork.
