芥川龍之介の運命観-「西方の人」のヨハネとイエスをめぐって-

Abstract

.Although The Man of the West, written by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, can be regarded as “the chronicle of Akutagawa’s Jesus”, there are parts that mention about John the Baptist in the work. By focusing on them, this research has a purpose on contemplating and comparing Akutagawa’s notion on John with that on Jesus. John was born by the revelation of God, which is same as the process of Jesus’ birth. However, Akutagawa regards the way that John was born by the normal woman as <coincidence>, and by insisting this is identical to the case of Jesus, he considered it as a <coincidence> applied to the <destiny> of human’s life. Akutagawa also asserted that <inheritance, circumstance, coincidence> control human’s <destiny>. John was destined to live at wilderness with the gene revealed by God well before his birth. However, since Jesus’ gene was from the Holy Spirit, His father, His destiny was to be controlled by the Holy Spirit throughout His lifetime. Also, even though John was born in the family of high priest, he ascetically lived in the wilderness, like barbarian. However, at the moment of death, while John was dead by <cultural Salome>, Akutagawa thinks that <cultured> Jesus was <dead at the highest degree of savageness> by being crucified. After all, through the lives and deaths of John and Jesus, it seems that Akutagawa must have clearly realized that <inheri tance, circumstance, coincidence> control human’s <destiny>.