The cat and the moon

Materie:	Appunti
Categoria:	Lingue
Voto:	1 (2)
Download:	73
Data:	26.02.2001
Numero di pagine:	2
Formato di file:	.doc (Microsoft Word)

The cat and the moon

There is a similitude between the cat and the moon because:
- Maybe the cat goes out at night as well as the moon is seen at night
- In Yeats’ opinion the moon is like the eyes of the cat

The lunar month is made by 28 days→ time required to the moon to make a CICLE around the earth.

According to Yeats also human personality develops following the lunar cycle.

There are 3 important period:

1) GROWTH ⇒ WAXING CRESCENT
This time is characterised by objectivity because the man has not reached his own personality

2) MATURITY ⇒ FULL MOON
At this point human personality is complete and has found his own subjectivity

3) DECLINE ⇒ WANING MOON
Man gradually loses his subjectivity, because he becomes one with God

1° STANZA
the cat is the symbol of ordinary people.

Creep, look, stare, wonder, wail, trouble → give a sense of inquietude, feeling of anxiety
the cat is not happy, he lives a trouble life
Cold moon→ the moon is indifferent and far away

2° STANZA
Dance is the keyword, because symbolised the union of opposites, the perfect balance between objectivity and subjectivity.
This stanza corresponds to the phase of maturity

According to Yeats in the phase of maturity there is no time and no space, and this idea is expressed by the lack of simple past tense
1° Stanza → past tense
2° Stanza → present tense

3° STANZA
The moon has entered in a new phase called Decline.
The poet wonders whether the man is aware, conscious, of his own condition.

4° STANZA
Only 4 lines represent the human condition which is a continuos search for balance between contrasting forces.

For Yeats the MASK represents our antithetical self. Everyone should have is own mask and so, in this way, there is a tension between what he/she is and what he/she would like to be.
That is why the human condition is a tension between contrasting forces.