Either/Or Symbols, Allegory and Motifs

Either/Or Symbols, Allegory and Motifs

The allegorical value of person A

Although person A is named (Johannes Climacus), that doesn't mean that the reader is immune to his point of view. Person A represents the modern person. The modern young person has so much entertainment available to them that it's hard to consider that other people might not exist solely for their aesthetic appeal. Johannes makes this mistake by consistently breaking up with good girls because he needs the thrill of chasing a new girl. In a word, Climacus represents the systemic mistreatment of people as objects.

The allegorical value of person B

The value of person B is that he is a judge (literally, he is named The Judge). He represents a critical response to the boy's wanton mistreatment of women. This voice is the voice of a higher self who tries to teach the young bachelor that he is being judged for his performance, and it fights to remind the young boy that life is simply better once a person has made the sacrifices that it takes to be truly happy in life—including the sacrifice of his desire to be distracted and entertained all the time.

The motif of ethical wisdom

There is a strong motif present here, of ethical wisdom. By adding up all of The Judge's opinions, the reader is supposed to get a picture for what ethics really is. It is the process of facing one's fears so the person can maximize their potential. This process involves understanding the past, with all of its trauma and pain (because there is probably a specific reason for the boy's lack of commitment), but it also involves the future, because the boy is neglecting life's challenging, painful aspects. He is ignoring the fact that his future is simply better with a wife than without one, and that means he will have to sacrifice, but ethical wisdom is the voice that says, "So what if it isn't entertaining enough for you? If that's what it takes to maximize your potential, what does it matter?"

The allegory of marriage

The allegory of marriage is one that the young bachelor fails to recognize. This is the allegory hidden in the envelope that he keeps closed, because it's more entertaining to wonder what it says than to just open it and read it. The allegory of marriage is simply that when love stops being fun, that's when it becomes a sacrifice. But, a selfish person will often forget that marriage has value: By loving others, we can heal ourselves. Because ethics involves maximizing a person's potential, it must also involve healing, but because the boy never tries committing himself to a woman forever, the sacrificial aspect of love remains a mystery to him, and he stays locked in a hellish nightmare of self-service.

The allegory of the chase

The first version of love we are presented with is the young opinion of a bachelor who abuses women as a serial monogamist who dumps his girlfriends when they start to bore him. His version of love can be best described as a pattern of behavior that follows a simply allegory: Boy meets girl, boy wants the girl's approval, he plans a way to seduce her, it works, but then, once he feels (wrongfully) that he "owns her," he immediately gets bored and wants to pursue a new girl. This allegory represents the boy's fear of commitment.

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