Soren Kierkegaard’s Sickness unto Death may be read in two ways.

First, as an analysis of various types

of dread – a kind of diagnostic manual by which to understand different types of psyches. But it may also
be read as a description of how the human soul develops and comes to faith. Explain this second
reading in terms of the structure of the book.

The Sickness unto Death is split up into two parts. Part I (The Sickness unto Death is Despair)
introduces the notion of despair and examines the different psychological stages of the individual in
despair. Part II (Despair is Sin) re-examines the material of the first part under a religious aspect, adding
notions such as the God-man, the Offence, sin, and faith to the discussion. In doing so Kierkegaard
brings to light what in his mind is the only formula for the eradication of despair: that is, the absolute
necessity of faith.

Kierkegaard begins The Sickness unto Death with an introduction of a Biblical quote regarding
Lazarus: “The sickness is not unto death.” In doing so he provokes the reader into a curiosity of what the
‘sickness unto death’ might be, an inquiry he resolves immediately in the beginning of Part I. He then
defines various aspects of despair and brings to light how everyone, regardless of their awareness, on
some level lives in a state of despair.

Having convinced the reader at this point that they exist somewhere on this spectrum of
psychological development, Kierkegaard then defines the various forms of despair. The lowest level is
being ‘unconscious in despair of having a self,’ and thus only in regard to an imbalance in the syntheses
of the finite and infinite, possibility and necessity, and the temporal and eternal. Next comes ‘not
wanting in despair to be oneself,’ a level of despair that Kierkegaard associates with weakness and
femininity. This stage of psychological development can be further divided into two catalysts of despair:
the earthly and the eternal. One can be in despair over something earthly, living a life of immediacy with
or without much reflection on the life one is living. One can also be in despair of something eternal, a
much rarer condition often coincidental with reserve. The final form of despair is the defiant and
masculine ‘wanting in despair to be oneself,’ in which the individual desires to forge his or her own
identity instead of embracing and donning his own self.

It is important to note that in this section, Kierkegaard provides many examples and depictions
of individuals at each of these stages of despair, so that readers can sympathize and associate with
different levels of the psychological progression of despair. One might find one’s place on the spectrum
and consequentially begin to wonder where Kierkegaard is headed with his argument. Now that he has
described despair, what is the formula to eradicate this existential issue?

This question that Kierkegaard has implicitly built up throughout the entirety of Part I is
answered in Part II (Despair is Sin). In this section, the author re-examines the development of the soul
in the face of despair under a new light. Now instead of a purely psychological examination of the
modern individual, there is a certain theological quality to it: themes such as God, the Offence, sin, and
faith are introduced in order to propose the solution. Kierkegaard begins by defining sin as “before God,
or with the conception of God, in despair not wanting to be oneself, or wanting in despair to be
oneself.” In doing so he provokes the reader to completely reconsider the implications of part I in this
new religious light. Kierkegaard discusses the notion of the continuation of sin, further solidifying his
connection between despair and sin as both are states that persist regardless of one’s own awareness of
one’s condition. The sorry state of modern Christendom is also discussed, a theme developed more fully
in his following companion work, Practice in Christianity. Finally, different forms of despair are re-
discussed in this new light as well: despairing over one’s sin, despairing of the forgiveness of sins, and
the sin of declaring Christianity to be untrue are all discussed.

In this second half of The Sickness unto Death Kierkegaard finally arrives at what he has been
trying to get at all along: the only way to eradicate despair is to be grounded transparently in God
through faith. The Offence plays an important role in faith, as the paradox of the God-man presents the
individual with a choice between believing in the teachings of Christianity and being offended by them.
Kierkegaard argues that ultimately the only way to escape despair is to choose the former and humble
one’s self before God. This means not wanting to be someone else in weakness, and not wanting to
construct one’s own identity in defiance, but rather embracing one’s true self before God.

It is apparent that the structure of The Sickness unto Death plays a central role in the
introduction and development of Kierkegaard’s main point the necessity of faith. Part I intrigues and
draws in even non-religious readers with its purely psychological discussion of the forms of despair. As
one identifies his or her position on the spectrum, one begins to wonder about the proposed solution to
this universal problem. Part II gradually eases into a definition of the solution, now examining the
development of the human soul under a religious aspect and using the paradox of the God-man to reach
the central point of the work. Kierkegaard thus demonstrates the ultimate necessity of faith in living a
life completely free of the despair that comprises ‘the sickness unto death.’