English 5571 - American Transcendentalism
Jason Hudson
Dr.H--
English 5571
1 April 2003
Prospectus
I am interested in Nathaniel Hawthorne's handling of Ralph Waldo Emerson's idealism, particularly as it is carried to its logical end. Emerson spells this optimistic ideology in Cambridge during an address to the intellectuals of the next generation in 1837. This address, "The American Scholar" gives the young student an outline of three particular components of the successful scholar in 19th Century America. The student must first understand that the natural world around him holds the key to understanding his own spirit. In his short book, Nature, Emerson claims that natural facts are parallel to spiritual facts. By observing nature, one can better understand his own soul. Emerson argues that just as nature is "boundless," so one's spirit is an endless system. "Therein," reveals Emerson, "[nature] resembles his own spirit" (Emerson 60). Emerson also praises the use of books as a means of inspiration, but nothing more. It is good to glean strength from books, for "precisely in proportion to the depth of mind from which it issued, so high does it soar"" (61). In other words, the deeper the mind travels through the discovery by education, the higher the truth is revealed through the scholar. Too few people take the knowledge they receive from experience and education, and act upon it with reckless abandon. Emerson says that the scholar should not be intimidated by the genius minds of the past because that same genius is offered to every man within his own soul. The last thing Emerson asserts is that the scholar must act. One must look at the man of labor and emulate him to a degree. The scholar must show the practical man that "speculative men" can do something other than think (64). The proper order of life for the scholar, according to Emerson, is first to think, then to act.
Hawthorne takes Emerson's idealism to task in his short story , "The Artist of the Beautiful."" Hawthorne demonstrates the life of an artist whose soul is connected with nature, who is inspired by those moments in life that reveal truth, as in books, and takes action in order to create that which is beautiful. In my paper, I plan to explore how Hawthorne's American scholar deals with Emerson's philosophy. Ultimately, I look forward to see if the artist fails or succeeds.