The Labyrinth of Solitude

According to Paz, a “dialectic of solitude” characterizes all human experience. It appears both in each individual life, as well as in the collective life of peoples or nations. It follows then that this dialectic shapes all human history and culture. In each of these spheres, human beings experience the sometimes painful and alienating experience of solitude and seek to realize some form of communion that will transcend this solitude.

The experience of solitude is a fundamental feature of human existence, insofar as we are self-conscious beings who can reflect on our own thought and actions (9). The experience of our solitude implies the loss of a state of unity and belonging that Paz calls “communion.” At the same time, the solitude signals the loss of communion, it gives rise to a hope that communion might be restored. Because solitude gives rise to the hope to regain lost communion in Paz’s view, it is “dialectical” in nature; one idea or experience necessarily gives rise to the other. “Solitude is both a sentence and an expiation. It is a punishment, but it is also a promise that our exile will end.