Abstract

An explication of Kierkegaard's concept of dread provides insight into the life and mind of one of the first existentialists noted for giving particular attention to the subjective individual. His view of dread shows it to be much deeper and more complex than anxiety by invoking an awesome expanse of freedom and possibility. This awesomeness is frequently an overwhelming state of being contrasted to becoming and further still to the eternity of non-being. These terms became the essential topics of later existentialist writers. Selected quotations from Kierkegaard show him to be insightful about the human psyche and unafraid to expose his personal thoughts and feelings to public view. Kierkegaard's irony, satire, and disjointed method of communication hinder an initial reading until his unique style of expression becomes clearer to the reader. Successive reading shows Kierkegaard to be a dutiful student of Socrates, his literary mentor.

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