MaryRose Donahue
Freud’s concept of love and death dubbed, “Eros” and “Thanatos” is incredibly poignant in John Keats’ poem, “Ode on a Grecian Urn”. Eros, or the concept of the life drive, instinct, or libido is concerned with the preservation of one’s life or species. Eros works to not only create life but to preserve an already existing life. Thanatos, Eros’ opposite, is the death drive and is commonly seen as aggressive and concerned with death, an inanimate state, or pushing a society to extinction. This dualistic approach and concern of life and death are directly reflected in, “Ode on a Grecian Urn”.
At its very base (or should I say vase), the poem concerns itself with the experience of life and the reflection of life in art. When incredible or perfect moments in life are experienced by people, Keats believes that they are temporal, or don’t truly last (Thanatos). However, Keats saw art or representations of life as an eternal, immortal reflection of life that will never die and be preserved through the ages (Eros). Keats writes in his final stanza,
“Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
Keats finds himself reflecting that one day old age will not only claim him, but everyone else in this world at some point. He is greatly affected by his brother's recent demise and the recognition of his own impending death. The images of the urn that he has come to care so dearly for are but representations of people who have already lost their lives and a society that has come to a close. This he struggles so deeply with, for he is astounded by its beauty but also by the fact that he is coming to terms with his own fragile mortality through observing another civilization lost to time, realizing that his own is destined to follow. This other society known to only characterized by the remnants left from a fallen civilization. His only consolation is that because the beauty of the urn is eternal and will be left for future civilizations to continue to learn from for long after he is dead.
The three scenes on the urn portray different parts of Eros and Thanatos. The three sides of the urn display the two terms very effectively. One side conveys a scene of women dancing, with a mention of “panting” (27) effectively eroticizing the event on the urn. This scene is one of youthful lovers, close to the scene of sexual conquest. This side of the urn reflects Eros with its sexualized themes, for sexual acts promote life, therefore promoting eros. The opposite side, the one conveying a bloody sacrifice conveys the Thanatos with the death of an individual, and to a greater extent the inevitable death of a society as a whole, as the image is reflecting a sacrifice, or an attempt to win the good favors of their gods.
While Freud argues that Eros and Thanatos are interwoven in his philosophical writings, Eros and Thanatos are also interwoven in John Keats’ poem, “Ode on a Grecian Urn”. The image of the women dancing, while connoting liveliness, fertility, and sexual desire, also holds that”little death” found at the climax of sexual connections. The sacrifice on the other hand may initially seem like a distinct loss of life, but as a sacrifice, it is in its essence is truly an attempt to preserve life and society, though it will inevitably fall like every society before and what we can assume to happen to every society after. Objects like the grecian urn working in a temporal space (the space of the artist) as well as the eternal space (the space of the onlooker) as well as the images use Eros as well as Thanatos together. They work in conglomeration with each other, each building on the opposite.
Interestingly enough, the poem itself is another example of a piece of artwork that works in a similar fashion to the urn. As the urn effectively helps reflect on the temporal and eternal, the poem is another example of the temporal and eternal as well. We gaze upon this poem similarly to the urn. As the urn made Keats consider his relation to the world, the poem does to the reader the same thing. As the urn helped Keats as well as other generations learn from the past, the poem also helps do the same as again new generations of readers will begin to self reflect and learn from the same poem.
Interestingly enough, the poem itself is another example of a piece of artwork that works in a similar fashion to the urn. As the urn effectively helps reflect on the temporal and eternal, the poem is another example of the temporal and eternal as well. We gaze upon this poem similarly to the urn. As the urn made Keats consider his relation to the world, the poem does to the reader the same thing. As the urn helped Keats as well as other generations learn from the past, the poem also helps do the same as again new generations of readers will begin to self reflect and learn from the same poem.
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