ABSTRACT
If Søren Kierkegaard can be read as a kind of novelist, whose works often resemble those in the Bildungsroman tradition,1 then it follows that a number of characters populate his authorship-characters who are imbued with certain traits associating them with a particular idea or group. Perhaps one of the best known of these characters is Judge William, the pseudonymous author of the second part of Kierkegaard’s 1843 book, Either/Or. The Judge is a dedicated public official, whose letters to a younger friend, known only as “A,” constitute an argument on behalf of the ethical life. And yet, as a character, William does not merely tender a line of reasoning but, rather, personifies it. In peppering his letters with personal anecdotes, he establishes his own life as an embodiment of the ethical. Thus, for instance, he underscores the importance of “home” by appealing to the happiness of his marriage,2 or, in another place, he indicates the errors of mysticism by recalling an old friend, Ludvig Blackfeldt, whose mystical tendencies led to spiritual isolation and, finally, to suicide.3 With such details, Kierkegaard the novelist not only enriches William’s argument, but deepens the reader’s understanding of the Judge and of the viewpoint he represents.
