The mythic world of William Butler Yeats is a composite whole of Christian, Celtic, Greek, and Roman myths as well as of Irish folklore. Under the influence of Nietzsche, Yeats introduces the form of drama into his mythical world, and discovers Cathleen in an attempt to enhance national culture and patriotism. Yeats also appropriates the thought of Plato, Plotinus, Heraclitus, Blake, Swedenborg, and Boehm, and channels their ideas into his own theory of representation. In this context, The Countess Cathleen has been understood as a play in which the gyres turn into a sphere, and the antinomies are resolved; where the contradictiories, through the very intensity of their opposition, call upon the unity which transcends them. The myths of redemption and natural love represent the binary opposition of good and evil, and Cathleen, who represents the good, sacrifices herself to control the evil and is rewarded for it. To conclude, The Countess Cathleen is a beautiful lyric poem in that Cathleen symbolizes Ireland. In the dramatic atmosphere of the final lines, she arrives at a moment of revelation, of passionate perception.

• 권경수(이대) | Kyungsoo Kwon