A Description and Analysis of the Elements of 'Death and Loneliness' in Persian Epic Poems: A Case Study of Vis and Ramin, Khosrow and Shirin, and Leili and Majnoon

When it comes to dealing with the concept of love and romantic relationships in Persian literature, the elements of death and loneliness also come into view. Being somehow masochistic, passionately in need of love and in pain and suffering, the lover"s character in Persian literature often feels lonely and dies from the sorrow of love at the end of the story; either committing suicide or being killed. These two items also play a key role in story development of romantic epic poems, by some means paving the way for the manifestation of poetic imagery. The present research examines the elements of death and loneliness in three main well known romantic epic poems in Persian literature: Vis and Ramin by Fakhruddin As"ad Gurgani, Khosrow and Shirin and Leili and Majnoon by Nizami Ganjavi. It aims to analyze and describe the abovementioned elements in these poems with the consideration of psychological, fictional, cultural, literal points and the like.

This research uses a library-based descriptive-analytical method.

In Persian romantic epic poems, "love" provides a foundation for different dimensions of the element of "death" and "loneliness". In fact, these two elements are directly related to the ups and downs of romantic relationships.

The dimensions of loneliness in these works include "loneliness as a result of the separation from the beloved", "loneliness as result of betrayal by one side of a romantic relationship", "voluntary loneliness and solitude as a result of failure in reaching the beloved", "preferring loneliness to unlawfully reaching the beloved" and "loneliness because of unrequited love". The dimensions and causes of death in these works can also be summarized into "wishing for death because of separation or failure", "committing suicide for the sake of love or the beloved"s death", "death from the conspiracy of the opponent in a love triangle" and "death from old age".