미친 제인 연작시의 마지막 시는 그의 문학적 스승의 철학인 ‘육체적인 사랑은 영적인 미움에 근거한다’(‘sexual love is founded upon spiritual hate’)로 축약 되는 블레이크의 철학을 바탕으로 쓰였다. 이 철학이 잘 반영된 시가 바로 블레이크의 영적여행자이다. 이 시를 읽어보면 블레이크의 철학적 사유는 동양의 음양 이원론과 상당히 유사한 점이 많다는 점을 발견하게 된다. 늙은 미친 제인은 예이츠 버전의 정신적 여행자이며 그의 문학적 스승의 사유를 자신의 연작시의 결론으로 차용함으로써 연작시 주제의 확장을 의도한다. 즉 이 연작시의 주요 요소인 사랑과 죽음을 여섯번 째 시에서는 존재의 통합(Unity of Being)에 필요한 서로 상반된 두 요소로 보지만 마지막 시에서는 사랑과 죽음을 두 개의 얼굴을 가진 한 몸으로 인식한다.

모던 예술가들은 메두사가 지닌 성적으로 매력적이면서도 죽음을 연상케 하는 기괴한 모습에 사랑에 빠졌다. 이 이중적인 이미지에서 심미적인 힘뿐만 아니라 우리의 관습을 타파시킬 수 있는 잠재력을 발견했기 때문이다. 본 논문은 예이츠의 미친 제인이 바로 이 메두사의 디앤에이를 계승하고 있다고 주장한다. 그녀는 메두사 처럼 성적인 면과 폭력적인 면을 섞어 혁명적인 변화의 상징 역할을 한다. 이런 미친 제인은 예이츠는 그가 반대하는 방향으로 나갔던 아일랜드의 정치적 종교적 기득권 세력에게 던지는 질문이다. 누가 진짜 미쳤는가?

예이츠의 후기시를 이해함에 있어 여성이미지는 매우 중요한 요소이다. 시인은 대표적인 여성이미지로서 모드 곤과 크레이지 제인을 제시하여 아일랜드인의 개인적, 역사적, 민족적 정체성에 대한 상징으로 삼아왔다. 특히 상류계층의 양심적 지 식인의 대표인 초기시의 모드 곤과 달리 후기시에서 큰 비중을 차지한 창녀 크레이지 제인의 상징적 역할은, 궁극적으로 시인이 거칠고 조악하지만 적나라한 삶의 이중성을 가감 없이 수용하는 아일랜드 민중의 지혜에 대한 신뢰를 드러낸다. 그러나 예이츠는 여기에 그치지 않고 모드 곤과 크레이지 제인의 한계를 극복하고 동시에 그들의 상징 성을 통합하는 여성이미지를 꾸준히 제시하고자 노력하는 데 바로 댄서이미지가 그것 이다. 예이츠에게서 댄서란 앞서 두 여인의 이미지가 상징하는 양심적 지성과 민중적 삶의 지혜를 연결하는 동시에 각각이 지니는 한계를 극복하는 이미지로서 예이츠 후 기시의 궁극적인 여성이미지이면서 민족적 구원을 약속하는 상징이다.

크레이지 제인은 예이츠 후기시의 퍼소나를 논할 때면 어김없이 비평의 초점이 되어 왔다. 소스연구, 페미니즘적 분석, 정신분석학적 해석, 전기적 사실분석, 후기식민사관적 연구 등 다양한 접근이 잇었으나 크레이지 제인의 초상은 대체로 세 가지로 분류되는 바, 예이츠의 객관적 마스크로서, 예이츠의 타자를 표현하는 양성적 목소리이자 성역할전도의 주체로서, 그리고 전통적인 성역할에 대한 예이츠의 수정이 자 아일랜드라는 국가적 아이덴티티로서이다. 본 논문의 초점은, 크레이지 제인이 이 세 가지 초상의 결합체인 동시에, 더 중요하게는 단순한 결합을 넘어 선/악으로 대비 되는 모든 대비적인 것의 구원적 통합이라는 것이다.

This paper aims at exploring the postcolonial aspects of William Butler Yeats’s poetry, especially the ‘Crazy Jane Poems’ written approximately from 1929 to 193l. The term ‘postcolonial’ means ‘anti-colonial.’ In Ireland, during the colonial state and the partially postcolonial state, Yeats’s involvement with Irish politics had never been static, straightforward, or comfortable. Whereas most critics see these poems from the feminist perspective, I regard them as the attempts to decolonialize Ireland from the British colonialists as well as the bitter critical insight on the rigid ethics of Irish Catholicism. 'Crazy Jane' resembles the Cailleach Bhearra, the goddess who serves not only as historian of the land and teacher of the farmers but also as bearer of sovereignty. Therefore her challenge to the colonial legacy is identified with the newly formed Irish state. What are the most abject of British stereotypes of Ireland － recklessness, vagrancy, violence and so on - ironically transform themselves through 'Crazy Jane' into the antithetical values of passion, earthiness, and exuberance. Overthrowing the preconditions of British and Church authorities, she criticizes both the Irish Catholic Church and the British authority which has appropriated Ireland. In addition, by using the ballad form, Yeats consolidates the nationalist intent of these poems. Therefore, 'Crazy Jane' may be identified with Yeats' alter ego, the personality that represents Yeats' various ideological positions. Subverting the British colonialists on the same stereotypes that British colonialists used to exploit the Irish people, she denounces both the stiff ethics of Irish Catholicism and the prevailing Irish patriarchy. Therefore, we can conclude that 'Crazy Jane' resembles a cubist icon that superimposes the double aspects of the Irish postcolonial state.

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.

Crazy Jane is the name of the woman speaker in a sequence of poems which Yeats wrote in the years from 1929 to 1931, and are collected in “Words for Music Perhaps” section of The Winding Stair and Other Poems. Her words and deeds in the poems show that she is a very interesting and impressive woman. This paper is an attempt to understand this “crazy,” old, and wild woman, and to relate her to Yeats the poet and to Ireland. The first and introductory part of the paper begins by reading “Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop,” the most famous poem of the Crazy Jane sequence. In Jane's talk with the bishop in this poem, not only in what she says, but also in the manner of her speech, we can quite clearly see what kind of person she is, and what kind of life she is living. Such understanding prepares us for the reading of the whole poems in the next part. Finding many of the poems difficult to understand, and interpretations of them different from critic to critic, the present writer tries to read the poems as closely as possible. Based upon the close reading of the poems in the second part, the third and last part of this paper considers some aspects of Crazy Jane’s personality and life, and their implications to Yeats and Ireland. First, the paper considers the possibility that Jane's free and bold expression of her sexual desire and love in the poems can be understood as the awareness and affirmation of feminine sexuality and love, and the critique of the repressive sexual morality and culture of the Irish society, especially the Catholic Church. Next, this paper relates Crazy Jane to Yeats the poet and to Ireland, and discusses the ways in which she can be read as Yeats’s other self or mask, or as the image of Ireland.

It is generally accepted in Yeats criticism that Crazy Jane series poems in his Words for Music Perhaps are the poet’s Mad Songs originated from his obsession with sexual passion in his old age. And a number of critics have found Crazy Jane poems to be a work of heroic tragedy. But there is no tragedy for Crazy Jane, nor can she be tragic in herself. Even if she is a crazy old witch, cursing a moralizing Bishop, she can be seen as a poetic persona for Yeats to criticize his contemporary Ireland culture. As an ex-Senator of “sixty-year-old smiling public man” Yeats would not be at ease in criticizing on his country’s agonizing preoccupations with its “Irishness.” However, Yeats had a long career of attacking his contemporary Ireland. So for Yeats in Ireland’s 1920s and 30s self definition processes, it would be natural to publish his opposing views on the several censorship laws and general trends towards cultural exclusions in which the Catholic social teachings dominated the major discussions on sexual and gender questions, excluding the other secular arguments. Yeats had always been fascinated by the unity of the opposites. His Crazy Jane represents Yeats’s concept on unity-in metaphysical meaning and in cultural level as well- through her arguments on love and body. Crazy Jane suggests that the energy of bodily desire is essential element in life and it may be originated from the interplay of the dirty and the pure, the sacred and the secular, and then it can urge human being make the greatest effort to affirm the physical fullness of reality. His contemporary Ireland Catholicism, in his view, excludes the body and soul. So in individual and in nation as well, “nothing can be sole or whole that has not been rent” for Yeats.