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Articles

Volume 06, Number 2 (1981)

"Alastor": The Spirit of Under the Volcano

  • Marilyn Chapman
Submitted
May 22, 2008
Published
1981-06-06

Abstract

Although Malcolm Lowry has linked the Consul's travels on the last day of his life to the movements of Ixion, Faust, and Adam, none of these figures provides a completely satisfactory poetic analogue for the agonies inherent in the Consul's journey. However, if we look behind Under the Volcano's twentieth-century dialogue and behind its ironic almost self-mocking tone to its deeply serious poetic centre, we find a work remarkably similar in characterization, imagery, diction, and structure to Shelley's "Alastor."