Comparison and Contrast of Emerson and Hawthorne

The transcendental period of American writing was a very important time for American literature. It produced many of the most famous authors in America’s history. Webster’s dictionary defines transcendentalism as a philosophy that asserts the primacy of the spiritual and transcendental over the material. What that means is that spirituality was more important than material possessions. Two very famous authors of this time were Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Emerson was a transcendentalist and in his writings are many characteristics of this time period. Three of those characteristics are nature, the goodness of mankind, and individualism. Hawthorne, on the other hand was a non-transcendentalist. In his writings, the way he dealt with the same three characteristics shows why he is a non-transcendentalist. Nature was a very important subject of transcendental writing.

Emerson quite frequently wrote about a oneness with nature. Two very good examples of his opinion of nature are found in his essay “Nature” and in his poem “The Rhodora” In “The Rhodora” he writes “This charm is wasted on earth and sky,” what he is saying in that line is how something as simple as a flower is to beautiful and to wonderful to be wasted on earth. He is saying that this flower has a kind of beauty that goes beyond reality and that by simply observing this flower a person understands the universe better. Emerson believed that nature should be observed but not disturbed and by observing nature we are learning more about ourselves. In his essay “Nature” he writes “I am a transparent eyeball; I am nothing: I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part and parcel of God.” What he means there is that he is simply meant to observe everything that he can about nature and about the universe without interfering. His being a “transparent eyeball” makes it possible for him to watch and learn without being noticed and without doing anything to harm or interfere with nature.

It is next to impossible to miss Emerson’s frequent references to nature in these and many other of his works. He writes in such a way that makes it very easy to understand his thoughts and feelings about the magnificence of nature. Hawthorne, however, had a different view of nature. In his writings nature is seen as an evil place where bad things happen. In The Scarlet Letter the forest is a place where many evil things occur. Mistress Hibbins frequently goes into the woods where the devil is. On a few separate occasions she asks Hester to go into the woods with her. Hester refuses because she has her daughter to keep her away from further sin. Hawthorne also showed a dislike of nature in his life. There was a short period of time when he tried to live in the Utopian community of Brooke Farm. He hated it and left after only a few short months. He very obviously did not like nature. Which is a very big non-transcendental view. The goodness of mankind is another characteristic of transcendental writing.

Emerson, like other transcendentalists, believed that mankind was basically good even though they did bad things. In is essay “Self Reliance” he talks about how man is good and should be striving towards perfection and being the best person that they can be. Hawthorne’s opinion was exactly the opposite. In many of his stories he writes about hidden sins and he many times gave his characters some kind of symbol that represented their sin. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne was forced to wear the letter “A” on her chest because she refused to tell who the other sinner had been. Her sin was not a secret but the sin of Arthur Dimmesdale, the an she had committed adultery with, was. Hester also kept the identity of her husband, Roger Chillingworth a secret while he secretly plotted revenge against Dimmesdale. The townspeople are portrayed as hypocrites who judge Hester when they have also sinned and therefore are just as bad as the main characters. The only good character in the whole story is little Pearl, Hester’s daughter, who is portrayed as an innocent victim. A third characteristic of this time period is the emphasis on individuality and self reliance.

Emerson believed that people should self reliant. His essay ” Self Reliance” talks about how being and individual and standing up for what you believe in leads to true greatness. He talks about how sometimes a person has to go against the crowd to achieve greatness. In this essay he wrote ” speak what you believe today in words as hard as cannon balls and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said today.” That means that he believes people should always say what they believe and that they should say it with every ounce of strength in them. If they change their minds about something they should still say what they believe and not be afraid of changing their mind or of what other people might think about them. He believed that people should not be afraid to be wrong because there is always time to change your mind. Hawthorne was definitely not a people person. He took being an individual to an extreme. There was a time in his life when he kept himself locked up alone in a room in his house that he called the “dismal chamber” for twelve years. He stayed there until he felt that he had learned how to write fiction well.

The characters in many of his stories were also kept secluded from society. In The Scarlet Letter Hester was forced to seclude herself from society as a part of her punishment. People only associated with her when they had to. When people saw her they started whispering and gossiping. The children made fun of her daughter. She was by all means an outcast. Dimmesdale kept himself seclude from society also. He did this out of shame ad guilt. He was to scared to admit to the crime that he had committed so her punished himself. Exactly how he did this is never really made clear in the story. When he did go out in public people noticed that his health was failing but they thought it was because he cared so very much about the ministry but it was put of fear and guilt.

Transcendentalism Chillingworht also kept himself secluded. He spent all of his time plotting revenge on Dimmesdale for damaging his name when no one even knew that he was Hester’s husband. Ralph Waldo Emerson was very much a transcendentalist and Nathaniel Hawthorne was very much a non-transcendentalist. Emerson wrote about the beauty of nature while Hawthorne wrote about it as an evil place. Emerson believed that man was good and Hawthorne believed that man was bad. Emerson thought that people should be individuals and be self reliant but Hawthorne took that idea to an extreme and turned it into seclusion. These are he reasons that these two men fit into their time period on opposite ends of the transcendental spectrum.