Death as the Fulfillment of Love: On the Dialectic of Death and Love in Karol Wojtyła’s “Meditation on Death”

Zofia ZARĘBIANKA

Katedra Historii Literatury Polskiej XX Wieku, Wydział Polonistyki, Uniwersytet Jagielloński, ul. Gołębia 16-18, 30-007 Cracow, Poland , Poland

Abstract

This text aims to present an interpretation of the “Meditation on Death,” one of the most complex narrative poems by Karol Wojtyła. Death is considered by him not only as a biological category defining the end of a human life, but also as a theological one: the biological end marks the beginning of a new type of existence. The analysis of the poem brings out the strong connection between death and love, characteristic of Wojtyła’s understanding of death. The article encompasses considerations of Wojtyła’s concept of maturity and its relation to the category of death in the sense of the death of the ego.