Charles K. Bellinger says
Either/Or,
Fear and Trembling and
Repetition are works of fiction, "novelistic" in character; they focus on the boundaries between different spheres of existence, such as the aesthetic and the ethical, and the ethical and the religious; they often focus on the subject of
marriage; they can be traced back to Kierkegaard's relationship with Regine." There is much in this work that is
autobiographical in nature. How much is left up to the reader. Kierkegaard explores the conscious choices this Young Man makes. Kierkegaard said "
Seneca has said that when a person has reached his thirtieth year he ought to know his
constitution so well that he can be his own
physician; I likewise believe that when a person has reached a certain age he ought to be able to be his own
pastor. Not as if I would in any way minimize participation in public worship and the guidance given there, but I do think one ought to have one’s view settled with regard to the most important relationships, which, furthermore, one seldom hears preached about in the stricter sense. To devotional books and printed sermons, I have an idiosyncratic aversion, that is why I resort to
Scripture when I cannot go to church." In
Repetition he followed his own advice and became his own
psychologist. == Structure ==