본 논문의 연구주제인 수사학과 커뮤니케이션 관련 연구는 의사소통적 비평에서 몇몇 서구 비평가들에 의해 다루어지고 있기는 하지만, 하나의 연구주제로서 수사학적 커뮤니케이션 연구에 시를 적용하는 예가 많지 않다. 그래서 말이든 글이든 그 문화 콘텐츠를 가지지 않고는 화자의 올바른 의도나 글의 메시지를 포착하기는 쉽지가 않는 것이 사실이다. 이런 점에서 17세기 영국시인인 존 던의 경우 커뮤니케이션 스타일리스트로서 그가 수사학적 장치를 사용하는 목적과 의도에 주목하는 일은 새로운 연구방식의 하나이다. 던의 시는 ｢갇힌 사랑｣이라는 주제를 통해 여성의 문제와 시대의 편견과 사랑의 문제를 오늘날 매우 중요한 글쓰기 매체로 접근하고 있다. 그의 시는 성과 사랑의 본질을 시대적으로 조명하고 있으면서도 동시에 여성과 관련된 도덕의 중요성을, 즉 성스러움에 가까운 자기희생을 처음부터 강조하고 있어 사랑의 종교적 의미가 크다고 하겠다.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the theme of The Only Jealousy of Emer, one of W. B. Yeats's 'Cuchulain plays'. The central action of the play is the struggle of three women—Emeer, Eithne Inguba and Fand—for possession of Cuchulain. Unlike Eithne Inguba's confused, cowardly action, Emer's behavior is brave as well as insightful. And as the chorus suggests, Fand's allurements are transitory. Fand's metallic allurement contrasts with Emer's passionate suffering. Fand wants to catch him to fulfill herself, not to aid in his salvation. Emer is more courageous than Eithne Inguba, more self-sacrificing than Fand, and more forgiving than Aoife. Emer's love for her husband transfigures her, whereas Aoife's vindictive hatred for Cuchulain costs them their only child. Emer is certainly a Yeatsian heroine who performs as nobly as Deirdre or Cuchulain. Yeats's most immediate source for his Cuchulain plays was Lady Gregory's Cuchulain of Muirthemne, but he significantly altered the source to serve his purposes. Emer's thwarted desire to attack Fand with her knife is one of the few links between Yeats's source and his much changed finished work of art. From this primitive tale of vengeance and jealousy, Yeats created a sophisticated drama of mental suffering and self-sacrifice. A second major change in the source involves Cuchulain's recollection of Fand's attempt to ensnare his soul. Both his fear upon awakening and his later praise of Emer for saving him suggest that he is glad of his deliverance, not despondent over the loss of Fand. Yeats's greatest modification came in his treatment of Emer's temperament. Instead of the jealous wife of seeking vengeance for herself, she is jealous only for her husband's well-being. By renouncing the love of the man she needs to end her loneliness, Emer proves herself superior to the source heroine. In the final version, Yeats dramatized, through Emer's hope for the return of Cuchulain's love for her, through her initial inability to give up her hope of winning back his love, and through her final renunciation of his love, the depth of her love and the extent of her sacrifice.