ŽELJA I SMRT U ROMANU „RAVELŠTAJN“ SOLA BELOUA

Abstract

The paper deals with the topic of mortality in the novel Ravelstein, in which the protagonist Chick contemplates the metaphysical nature of human frailty and whether longing, particularly the one of romantic nature, can erase the misery caused by the prospect of death. In his dialogues with his friend Abe Ravelstein, Chick realizes that desire, with love as its ultimate variation, is what both connects humans to the essence of reality and facilitates their articulation of the mystic experience. Desire, as Chick comes to understand, aims at the union of love-bound people, and this apotheosis of human life may be the one certain symbol of immortality. Thus life, short and fragile as it may be, offers people the possibility to explore and exercise their will not to yield to laws of fate. Ravelstein’s illness and death as well as Chick’s own ensuing fight for recovery further make his pondering crystallize. The author of the study corroborates his thesis relying on the existentialist teachings of Jacques Lacan and Martin Heidegger.