The essay self Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson
What were the influences for Emerson?
A series of tragic events in his early years force Emerson to look for self Reliance within himself. The first tragedy struck when his father - a unitarian priest who died when Emerson was just eight years old, tragedy struck him second time when his first wife died of tuberculosis, he also lost his son to Scarlet fever. These persons losses made him explore other domains in life. These influences were seen through British like S.T. Coleridge where his work ‘Aids of Reflection’ gave him better understanding about religion and the reality of life. Even Thomas Carlyle the British historian helped him to combine Philosophy and Theology with literature. On the other hand Immanuel Kant the German philosopher taught him the importance of intuition. While William Wordsworth the British romantic poet helps him to understand nature better, does the company of these pioneers revolutionized Emerson greatly. He has done his graduation from Harvard University and then went to Harvard School of divinity. After completing his education, he settled in Concord where he established the transcendentalist group
Did the transcendentalist group have a publication of their own?
Yes, it was ‘the Dial’ and Margaret Fuller was the first editor of this magazine. Later this was followed by Emersion.
Do you know the first essay Emersion wrote, well it was titled ‘Nature’ an anonymous publication in the year 1836.
Self Reliance by Emerson let’s start with the very first question
How does Emerson start the essay?
Emerson uses mottos and these mottos that are all together three in number, state the major themes in the essay. The first Motto has been taken from the work ‘Satires’ written and these lines translate into English as ‘Do not seek yourself outside yourself’ what do you mean by these lines, the meaning of the motto is that ‘man is complete in himself so you do not have to meditate elsewhere the focus is on you just like you sit and meditate and focus on your breath that is the only thing that you need to focus on yourself’.
The second motto has been taken from the work written by the Elizabethan writers Beamount and Fletcher, the work is ‘Honest Man’s fortune’. The lines are “Man is his own star and the soul that can perfect man
“Commands all light, all influences, all fate
Nothing to him false early or too late
Our acts our angels are, or good or ill
Our fatal shadows that walk by us still”
These lines are indicative of another aspect in this essay which is the internal strength is the voice of conscience, so one has to always focus on the voice that you are having from within, there is no need to look out for direction as the true star is within you and that is going to direct you to the things that you want to achieve in life.
“The last motto is Emerson’s own expression
Cast the bantling on the rocks
Suckle him with the sea-wolf’s teeth;
Wintered with the hawk and fox,
Power and speed be hands and feet”
If you are from the 90s, sure you can relate with this because this expression definitely does relate with the tale of the jungle boy Mowgli from Rudyard Kipling’s ‘the Jungle book’. This child was raised in the wild, suckled by the sea-wolves, while wintered to the hawk and the foxes, and thus he is able to imbibe the power and speed of the animals that he was in proximity of, so the meaning of the last motto is the external strength of the body is through adaptation.
How has Emerson exemplified the qualities of strong individuals?
He has exemplified the qualities with the help of three strong examples from three different spheres of life these include Moses, Plato and John Milton. When Moses has written the first five books of the Old Testament in Bible Plato has written his book on philosophy called Republic and John Milton has created an epic in Literature called Paradise Lost, but the question is what is common in the three individuals from three different fields. This common trait is their spontaneous impressions are all there gave importance to their inner voice and then the voice of the society.
Where Moses as a guide instills hope mountain is in pressure as all three give importance to their inner voice of Moses was the voice of God that enabled him to lead his people out of slavery to the Promised Land.
On the other hand the Plato is a benefactor for the invention of new ideas, his inner voice helps him to invent or create the theory of forms. This theory helped to emphasize the importance of pure reason in life. Hence one should not blindly follow the beliefs of the society.
Lastly Milton as a Muse [guide] shows the path of redemption. Despite his blindness he was able to write an inspirational epic like Paradise lost where in his work helped the mankind to understand the wrong act of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Thus providing humanity, the knowledge of the consequences of wrong actions.
How is a coward or ignorant and different from a great man?
There are two chief characteristics of an ignorant man. The first is that an ignorant man is always trying to imitate others. Every youngster loves to follow their latest fashion trends of the favorite stars but this imitation is suicide but why because you lose your authentic self.
The second characteristic that Emerson state is ‘envy is ignorance’ most people feel jealous of others progress but the truth is that your ignorance is due to the lack of thirst for knowledge so you will never feel jealous or envious of others if you are constantly working on yourself and competing with yourself and that is why Emerson states that envy is ignorance.
Now according to Emerson which age group is the most self-reliant and why?
It is the younger age group but why does he called them so. ‘As their mind being whole’ what does he mean by these lines, that young child his mind is whole because he is so occupied with his own creative inspiration and thoughts that you cannot make him do anything. He is so occupied with his own creativity, he only listen to the stories that he feels interesting, meets his taste and thought process. They cannot be influenced by the dictates of the adults in fact it is the adults who have to listen and given to their demands. So this is why their mind is being called as ‘whole’.
The next fact that Emerson talks about is that the ‘eye is yet unconquered’. The eyes are yet unconquered because again, they have not understood the controlled lifestyle of the mature adults, which is the reason why this child is unaffected, unbiased, untreatable and unafraid. He would do whatever he wants to do because he has not understood the human mature world till now which is the reason why he appreciates this age group the most.
Why is the society against the belief of self-reliance?
The society is against the belief of self-reliance because they have a desire for Conformity.
What is conformity?
Conformity means following the rules and regulations constructed by the society this Conformity restricts self-reliance. That is the reason why Conformity helps Society to maintain control on individuals and this control can be established with the help of two important components. The first is customs and the second is name.
Let us first understand the first characteristic which is the Customs. What do we mean by Customs?
Customs are the past traditions and cultures that you have been practicing for a very long time and these cultures and traditions have been able to control the conscience of the individual. These Customs have been passed on through history if a person does not get her to the customs and traditions of the society then he made even be branded as a devil. Now in these customs and traditions there is a very important practice that we all follow no matter what be our religion which is the act of pray. Emerson has also commented on the way and the manner in which you should pray.
So that brings us to our next question, which is how is society failing in the act of Prayer?
The biggest problem that the society has in this practice is that the society constantly keeps begging. And they are begging and asking for help mainly to achieve and promote aspects of self-interest. So what is the correct way to promote dedication to God. The correct way to do it is learn to give time to you by isolating yourself from the world.
Because the true God resides within you but how do prayers in isolation benefit the individual?
The benefit to you in lot many ways but most importantly prayers that you do in solitude help you to resist temptation that have been constructed by the society and they help you to promote spiritual energy within yourself and because of this you are able to promote honesty which is the true representation of love for humanity and dedication to God. So that is the reason why Emerson states that ‘Be myself’. This is how you are going to be a better human be Emerson also has something to say regarding societies desire to explore and travel. That brings us to our next question.
Why is Emerson against society’s desire for travel?
He's against this genuine behavior because the true inspiration again can only come from within and if you want to trigger that inspiration, you have to do it by putting your body at rest. That is when your mind will start traveling. So keep yourself in a meditative position in a still position where your focus should only be your book and your body should be at rest. That is how you'll explode more. By traveling you are not going to gain anything. That is the reason why he describes travel as a Fool's Paradise. Because what you do is just look around but the true inspiration is when you read these books and then your mind starts exploring. It was only when Emerson started reading the books of various people did he learn something Travel was just an escape, but it was not at all providing him. Any enrichment and enrichment only comes when you read things explore things that are all provided in your books. And this is why Emerson states that inspiration can be productive. When body is at rest as that is the only time a mind travels
Now, let us look at the second aspect about how Conformity helps Society to maintain control on individuals?
That is through name. What do you mean by name, society uses hypocrisy to control the emotional Sentiments of the individuals? And this is done by acts of philanthropy by the established and the well-known organization. Thus the society promotes such acts for appreciation and need. This has been further elaborated with the reference to William Shakespeare's play ‘The Taming of the Shrew’. We're in the society teaches a simple individual like Christopher Sly for bar-driven positions. This can be noticed in the play as the Duke tries to fool this poor man, who is a drunkard by changing the clothes of this drunkard while he's asleep. So the moment he wakes up. He is made to believe that he is a Duke. This act of fooling this poor man indicates that the society always aspires for bar-driven positions. They're not interested in the story of a common man. They only want to hear the stories of kings and queens.
This shows that by restricting the lifestyle of a common man you do not let that simple man to know the kind of qualities and aspiration, he holds within himself because the moment he does realize that he can also make a change for him and also for the society. Now which metaphor does Emerson use where individuals are easily controlled by Society? He uses the metaphor of a Parlor Soldier.
Why does he use this metaphor?
Because such individuals avoid fight against feet they lack in a strength because of which they look like mannequins who seem to be like soldiers, but they are really having no functionality with which they can do something purposeful in their life. The act of repetition is a continuous cycle. That's society promotes Emerson describes this continuous cycle as the hobgoblin of little Minds. As they indulge in routine acts that lack innovation in reality such acts reflect the society's vulnerability as it feels threatened by the self-reliant or the non conformist individuals who have to strong independent voices of their own.
That brings us to our next question which is how are the great individuals different from the society?
They are different from the society because of two chief characteristics the first characteristic is that they accept change. In this regard Emerson refers to the biblical character Joseph who willingly accepted and adapted to all the changes around him. But the society doesn't prefer this attitude in an individual.
The second characteristic is a great individual will always have Innovative thoughts in this regard Emerson refers to many characters. The first is Socrates the Greek philosopher who is known for his innovative ideas. But how did Society treat him? Well, believe it or not. Socrates was given poison because the society thought he was corrupting the youth with his innovative ideas.
The second example, is that of Jesus Christ who was the savior of the Mankind and how was he treated? Jesus Christ was crucified for showing the rightist path to humanity.
Yet another Innovative individual is Martin Luther. Martin Luther was a German monk who was excommunicated for starting the spirit of reformation in Germany where he spoke against the act of selling indulgences.
On the other hand Copernicus and Galileo were both against the teachings of the church as they supported the theory that the sun was at the center of the universe and that doesn't end there. We also have Isaac Newton from the 18th century. Why you noticed that many of his colleagues in the Royal Society where jealous of Newton's innovative ideas and criticized his theories. Hence this shows that the society initially never promotes innovative ideas of individuals.
The next aspect that you get to see is why does Emerson describe the society metaphorically as a wave?
Why because Society always forgets its previous strength to acquire new Strength. Look around you who don’t have a cell phone today. These cell phones have brought the world in your palm, but they have also increased your dependence on them. The world would come to a standstill without them today. And that is exactly why Emerson called ‘The Society of wave’ because every state of advancement makes the present-day man, forget the ancient skills learnt by his ancestors. We do not feel the need to learn them. And that is the reason why society as being described as a wave.
Now, the next question is why does Emerson prefer Nature over society?
This is interesting because nature always focuses on the present. Emerson States nature suffers nothing to remain in her kingdoms. That means nature will never compromise unlike the society. It will accept the things for what they are today. It will never try to glorify about its past. Have you ever seen a rose saying you should have seen my mother she was very prettier. No the rose will always glorify its present Beauty. And that is what nature is teaching you.
The second quality that nature teaches us is that nature is self-sufficing and self relying soul. That means that no matter. How adverse the conditions may look for that tree in front of you that is going through adverse weather calamities. It does not look for external support it will stand up on its own without any help once the wind has stopped blowing. This is the reason why nature is always helpful to mankind because it teaches mankind to focus and promote the primary wisdom that is your instinct. Which is why in the words of the Rene Descartes? ‘I think I am’ you start thinking about your potential only when you are focusing on your instinctive drives and nature helps you and facilitates you with this idea. Don't you forget that even the Romantics were having the same inclination in them? Wordsworth did feel the creative inspiration when he saw the daffodils. This is the reason why nature is always facilitating your instinctive energy. And this energy will help you to think out of the box as there'll be nobody to control you. You will have freedom of your idea. You will not mug and cram things the way Society wants you to learn the traditions and the norms, the culture. No, there is no route learning that the society always promotes that you need to learn about the culture, tradition and practice know all this sort of knowledge that you are learning, mugging up is the secondary wisdom.
So nobody is tutoring about all this information, you're not learning it on your own. Because the knowledge that you learn on your own is only from the drive within you which is why Emerson States ‘when a man lives with God his voice shall be as sweet as the murmur of the brook and the rustle of the corn’ and this is the reason why nature is the source for the medium by which man can improve his instinctive energy and come closer to God. So why does Emerson advocate private space. He advocates it and he has described about this aspect with the example of a work written by Beamount and Fletcher called ‘Bonduca’ in which the commander of a queen tells the queen about the true way of achieving victory in the battle field. He says that is hidden meanings lies in our endeavors our values are our best Gods. That means that God only honors our dedication towards our work even in Hindu culture in the Epic Mahabharata Lord Krishna has also stated that ‘karma is Dharma’ with this we come to the end of the essay self-reliance by Emerson.
I hope it has taught you that success only comes to those who believe in themselves
Comments
Post a Comment