WINO, MIŁOŚĆ, HEDONIZM, MIASTO I „ODGŁOS WIOSEŁ ŁODZI CHARONA”1. ŚWIAT POSŁAŃ I PIEŚNI CARLA MICHAELA BELLMANA

Abstract

In the satirical works mentioned above, Carl Michael Bellman shows an unscripted image of the world and man of the Enlightenment in Sweden. In fact, the author showed the difficult condition of mortality. In the collection of works analyzed in this essay, the Swedish poet repeatedly pointed out problems that are permanently embedded in the human condition and provoke various behaviors in order to survive in the space of powerlessness of the human experience of mortality. This entire realistic world of Bellman’s texts turns out to be extremely pessimistic, because it exposes the true condition of reality, which is defined by endless loneliness, sadness and death. The second half of the 18th century revealed the pathological nature of the Swedish city functioning in the era of “moral corruption, political decay, economic ruin and desperate revelries that helped to forget about the unbearable everyday life”. In the collection of his Epistles and Songs, the Swedish poet repeatedly pointed out problems that are permanently embedded in the human condition and provoke various behaviors in order to survive in the space of powerlessness of the human experience of mortality. Bellman’s clear aversion to predetermined social rules, conventions, internal models and patterns that limit personal freedom echoes the assumptions of Cyrenaic philosophy, according to which, apart from antipathy to the rules of social functioning, bodily pleasures are the most important and are a manifestation of pure good. The author does not avoid describing the disease and the disintegration of the body as a result of it (Epistle No. 30), and a meticulous description of the changing parts of the body affected by the disease and disintegration. According to the author, to alleviate this condition, the only consolation is a sip of wine and waiting for death in full reconciliation with the absolutely just laws of nature. The author lists representatives of various social classes, enumerates their merits, titles, wealth, and psychological types, in order to make it clear in the refrain that everyone, without exception, will face the same final act of existence – “one path written for us” – death.