Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Structure And Meaning In Endymion, G. Brian Sullivan

Open Access Master's Theses (through 2010)

My interpretation is allegorical; it traces a consecutive quest through stages of human development to the attainment of an ideal. My approach is not, however, in the social or moral sphere but on the level of psychology.

When Endymion is read as a myth of individuation, a structural unity, a symbolic cohesion, and a thematic sameness are apparent which give the poem the organic quality that contributes to what I have called the unitary experience of the work of art. This can be defined as the aesthetic perception of an artistic phenomenon, produced consciously or unconsciously by the author with …