Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of the most important figures in the history
of American literature. He lived through the age known as the ‘Flowering of
America’ He had the distinction of being the ‘Man thinking of the New England Renaissance’. He published his
essays in two different series: First and Second Series published in 1814 and
1844. Each of Emerson’s essays has a sense of rising intensity in both
meaning and form. As Matthew Arnold point out as,
“Emerson’s
essays are I think
as they
seemed to the wisest
English
critic of the nineteenth
century,
the most important
work done
in English prose
of that century.”
‘Self-reliance’
was first printed in the Essays, First Series, 1841. Emerson has prefaced a
motto to it, which explains its theme in pithy and trenchant terms. It gives
the philosophical and religious basis for his doctrine of self-reliance. It is
one of the most revolutionary as well as one of the most controversial essays
of Emerson. In the viewpoint of L. Lewisohn, the essay may be said to be in
“Successive Young Americans in search of a native tradition,”
According
to Walter Blair & Others, Emerson’s belief in self-reliance follows
as the logical result of his doctrine of the ‘over-soul’. According to
this doctrine, every man has something of the divine in his nature and is
capable of establishing a direct relationship with the universal spirit. Every
man is capable of perceiving the highest truth. ‘Trust thyself; every heart vibrates to that
iron string’, and ‘nothing can bring your peace but the triumph of principles
are the best examples of Emerson’s gift for expressing spiritual truth in
quotable form. In this ways, the essay has a high spiritual doctrine. Stewart
& Bethurum remarks,
“No
exalted doctrine has ever
been more
vulgarized, abused,
and
perverted than Emerson’s
self-reliance.
The self-indulgent
have
professed to believe that
it means
‘Do you as you please.”
Emerson
was an individualist, and this essay is extreme statement of the
individualist point of view. Just in beginning of the essays, he says Self-reliance
is the hall mark of genius. To believe that what is true for one is one’s private
heart is true for all men-that is genius. If a man expresses his inner
convictions, he will realize their universal important. Great and noble
achievement is possible only when one acts according to his own convictions.
Genius men are noble and don’t find fault in people. They are brave men of the
noblest minds. They are men in real sense who are afraid of nothing and act
with courage and determination.
A
self reliant man is independent thinking independently and gives own judgement.
He does not conform to anybody and doesn’t
care for the opinion of the world. Society never allows conformity as it’s a
joint company and all are interested in bread. But a man of real sense must be a
non-conformist. Nothing is scared except the integrity of one’s own mind. Emerson is against conformity to old tradition
and custom. It is blindness and wastes a man’s time and blurs the impression of
his character. Truth will never come out. According to Emerson
“This
conformity make them
false not
in a few particulars
but in
all particular. Their
very truth is not quite true.”
In
this ways, the world is deeply annoyed with non-conformity but a self reliant
man should be able to face the world’s displeasure bravely.
Emerson
stresses the need of the self reliant men. Only self confident and self
reliance leads any man to noble achievement. Every true man is a cause, a
country and an age. Men like Christ, Martin Luther, Caesar did it. A man like
this shouldn’t be afraid and act like a prince and win the world.
Intuition (voluntary acts): A self
reliant man always acts from within. He is voluntary in doing it is intuition
not tuition. This intuition comes from over soul, which is the source of all
life and all action and all thought. Man should allow the divine to speak
directly to his soul.
Gives
Freedom Self reliance means freedom from slavery relates to the past and
the future Age. The centuries are conspirators against the sanity and authority
of the soul. Man should tries to follow nature and live only in the present. He
can not be happy unless he lives above past and the future time.
Bring
Awareness of Self existence: Self awareness brings awareness of self
existence. Existence is higher reality than self reliance. Always self reliant
men live according to his expectation not of friends, society or the world.
Emerson points out that America needs such self reliant men. America is want of
them.
:
Emerson
says that a greater self-reliance should be so great as to bring about a
revolution in all the functions and relations of the people-in their
religion, in their education, in their pursuits, in their modes of living, in
their property. (1) Traditional mode of prayer is useless and false. Such
prayer is a disease of will and a intellect. (2) Wants of self-culture make man
superstition, and traveling is a fashionable superstition. “Traveling is a
fool’s paradise.” (3) The intellect is vagabond and our system of education
fosters restlessness. So one should insist on oneself, and never imitate other.
(4) Another error is to think that society can be improved. Society never
advances. It undergoes continual changes.
Society
is a wave; the wave
moves
onward, but the water
of which it is composed does not.
No
greater man is now than ever were. Not in time is the race progressive.
Reliance on Property or on governments is false. Fortune is a deceptive handmind.
Nothing can bring peace to us except reliance on ourselves. The essay
emphasizes to worth being self relient. Emerson
rightly said, “Nothing can bring you
peace but
yourself. Nothing
an bring
you peace but the
triumph
of principle.”
To
summing up, ‘Self-Reliance’ is
the corner-stone of Emerson’s thought. The doctrine of self-reliance is a
consequence of Protestantism inherited by Emerson. There is a perfect blend of
transcendentalism and practical realities of life. In a short, the essay has
been in the past, and perhaps is still, the best-known and most often quoted
essay in American literature. Finally to conclude in the words of Matthew
Arnold.
+‘“The lofty sentences of Self
Reliance, and a hundred others
like strain, I never have lost
out of may memory; I never
can lose them.”
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