Abstract:
The poem “Erlkönig” written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe exhibits his originality
and eccentric style in producing literary works incorporating human life,
psychological aspects and mythological beliefs. The plot develops as a dialogue
between a father, his child and the Erlkönig (Alder King), a malicious spirit who
carries children towards death. Based on the poem and its dramatic plot, the study
focused on analyzing the depiction of sane and unstable psychological statuses of
mortal beings. Goethe’s involvement with natural images, psychological portrayals,
and mythological representations were addressed throughout the textual analysis. The
findings reveal that the images of sanity and hallucination are particularly depicted
by involving human characters in the poem, while the non-human becomes the basis
of the conflict. The poet equally involves the child as an individual subject to
demonstrate the oscillation between extremes, where the child shifts his mentality
from sanity to hallucination. Goethe similarly refers to rationality, maturity and
mythology in the portrayal of the two psychological extremes. Rationality and
maturity are implicated through the father in contrast to the child’s continuous
reference to the mythological creature. The engagement of natural elements and
mythological allusions are juxtaposed in depicting sanity and mental disparity.
Moreover, the ambiguous denouement of the poem’s plot presents a vagueness to the
reader in deciding whether the child has died because of a physical disorder or of the
continuous sinister intrusions of the Erlkönig, laying the foundation for an oscillation
in the reader’s mind as well: the oscillation between reality and mythology.
