Emerson, Thoreau, and Transcendentalism

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Emerson, Thoreau, and Transcendentalism
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Transcendental Beliefs

• A Universal Soul or Energy (Oversoul)
• Essential Goodness of Humans
• Corrupting nature of society
• Perfectionism and Optimism
• Symbolic aspect of nature

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Emersons Major Ideas

• Transparent Eyeball (Refers to the idea that one
  must empty oneself of previous ideas and
  experiences in order to see the proper nature
  of the universe.(Nature, 1836)
• Demand for original American thought and art.
  (The American Scholar, 1837)

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Emersons Ideas Cont.

• Rejection of traditional values and ideas, in
  favor of ones own empirical knowledge about the
  world. This includes religious beliefs.
  (Self-Reliance, The Divinity School Address)

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Symbol, Nature, and language

• Emersons dictum on the nature of nature and
  language. (Nature,1836)
• 1.Words are signs of natural facts
• 2.Particular natural facts are symbols of
  particular spiritual facts.
• 3.Nature is the symbol of the spirit
• How are these ideas the dominant philosophy in
  American Romantic writing?

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Henry David Thoreau Major Works and Ideas

• Civil Disobedience--States that the only law men
  are bound to is the law of their own conscience.
  Also states that citizens have the right to
  peacefully rebel against unjust laws.

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Works and Ideas Cont.

• Walden (1854)
• Themes
• Environmentalism
• Anti-materialism
• Self-reliance
• Critique of American Society

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Quotes about Thoreau

• Emerson "He was bred to no profession he never
  went to church he never voted he refused to pay
  a tax to the State he ate no flesh he drank no
  wine he never knew the use of tobacco and,
  though a naturalist, he used neither trap nor
  gun."

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Quotes about Thoreau

• James Russell Lowell "He was a Transcendentalist
  crackpot and phony who insisted on going back to
  flint and steel when he had a matchbox in his
  pocket a fellow to the loonies who thought bran
  or wearing of the substitution of hooks and eyes
  for buttons would save the world."