예이츠는 ｢1913년 9월｣에서 중산층의 물질중시와 현실안주를 비난하면서, “낭만적 아일랜드”가 사라진 상황을 안타까워한다. 영웅적인 투사들은 목숨을 걸고 싸우다가 죽었지만, 그는 새로운 아일랜드 창조에 중산층과 강경한 민족주의자들을 오히려 방해요인으로 생각한다. 하지만 ‘낭만적 영웅심’이 사라지게 한 현 상황에 자신도 자유로울 수 없음을 인식하면서, 화자인 예이츠의 분열된 혼란스러움이 재현된다. ｢1916년 부활절｣에서도 부활절봉기에 대한 화자의 유동적인 마음이 잘 나타는데, 봉기에 수반된 폭력에 대한 찬사라기보다는 폭력에 대한 의구심을 드러낸 양가성을 확인할 수 있다. 이 시들에서 재현된 예이츠의 입장과 태도는 고정되거나 미결정의 상태로 끊임없이 출렁이는 이중성을 드러낸다.

W. B. Yeats in his whole life suffers from his introvert or passive self that hesitates to take action. In his agony, he creates his anti-self that boldly expresses his instinctive rage, and the anti-self is concretely established as a “fiery mask” in his poems. However, not oppressing the introvert and passive self completely, the fiery mask frequently conflicts and clashes with the passive self. Therefore, this paper explores how the fiery mask conflicts with the passive self in his “September 1913” and “Easter 1916,” and how in “Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop,” the fiery mask overcomes such a discord represented in the two previous poems. In the first poem, the poet is indignant at political Irish nationalists who are unable to appreciate the true valuable arts. Attacking the political nationalists through the fiery mask, however the poet reveals his hidden self that hangs back from taking action. In the second poem, such hidden self under the fiery mask becomes undisguised, and the conflict between the fiery mask and the passive self is exacerbated and maximized. Such conflict is dissolved through a female mask, crazy Jane in the third poem. Usually, mad woman’s angry voice makes a strong impact on society even though she does not take a proper act from asocial responsibility of her rage such as revenge. Therefore, the fiery mask of crazy Jane makes the poet escape from his duty to take action resulting in the solution of the conflict between the fiery mask and the passive self. Ironically, Yeats’s ideal anti-self is completed in the mad female mask, crazy Jane, not in the courageous male mask.