「蓬萊曲」に表れた虛無感と世紀末的虛無

Abstract

Many nihilistic feelings appear in the Play Horai. And it is similar to nihilism in Modernism. Hero’s passion to God and eternal life come from belief of Christianity but hero’s nihilistic feelings and tragic death in the end are influenced by nihilism in Modernism. Hero who search for God and eternal life make up his mind to leave this world. He decides to clime mountain Horai to abandon his body and get eternal life. But he meet Satan in place of God there. After that he decides to go to Hell. Until now researchers could not understand this changing of goal in this plot. Why hero change his aim to go to another world? Why he decided to go to Hell? Did he abandon himself to despair? Does he go to Hell to meet dead lover, Tuyuhime?But we can solve this problem by the idea of nihilism. The times when this Play was written was the end of 19th century. This was the time when western people who had kept christian belief fell into nihilism in europe. After the enlightenment movement of rationalism science developed rapidly and life of people became material. So many people in Europe came to doubt their Christian tradition. They lost belief to God and fell into nihilism. This kind of spirit is the typical character of 19th century in Europe. So we can say that the destruction of believer and the absence of God in the Play Horai is the influence of nihilism of Europe in the end of 19th century.