DISENGAGING THE TEXT

We now enter Either/Or, that enormous book edited by the pseudonymous Victor Eremita, comprising documents by a dissatisfied sybarite (known to us as “A”), a complete scoundrel (Johannes the Seducer), a happily married man (Judge William), and a nameless Jylland pastor. Kierkegaard published Either/Or in two contrasting volumes, or parts, the first containing essays by A, closing with the exploits of Johannes, the second “containing the papers of B [Judge William], letters to A” (EO, ii:1). The dichotomous form of the text suggests that the reader's choice is as stark as the title: choose one volume or the other. It is little wonder that readers have traditionally understood Kierkegaard to be prompting a decision between two disparate realms, between the aesthetic and the ethical, between ephemeral pleasure and resolute duty. Such is the most obvious interpretation of the text.

William's treatises in Part ii overtly support this reading.