The Real and Ideal

These writings demonstrate the emergence of an increasingly distinct American personality. The roots of independence and freedom expressed in the writings of last week seem to have blossomed in transcendentalists such as Emerson and later Thoreau. I was intrigued by Emerson’s speech to university students. He continually emphasized the importance of living and collecting experiences. His idea of genius certainly deviates from the previous tradition of the Puritans, who highly respected and embraced the ideas of previous generations and books. Emerson passionately explained creativity and genius as creating something new rather than always rehashing something old. I loved his line: “Life is our dictionary.” Whitman’s poetry is rife with both the interconnectedness of self and the celebration of the link between all humanities and their experiences. Certainly Whitman’s sensuality and sometimes sexuality would have made many of the earlier writers turn red in the cheeks. There is more freedom in Whitman’s, Dickinson’s, and even Poe’s poetry than in earlier writers. Dickinson and Poe especially seem to take great advantage of rhythm and meter to add emotional intensity to their poems in an evolved way.

I was particularly intrigued by Hawthorne’s “The Birth-Mark.” Hawthorne seems to be struggling himself with the role science is to play in society. Should it be elevated to the level of a god, or will it prove itself to be less than expected or potentially destructive in unforeseen ways? Even more interesting was his introduction of the tension between the reality and the ideal. Aylmer (I wonder about the significance or meaning of this name) seems ever cursed to pursue perfection and thus to fail. Even his science experiments leave him lacking and more recklessly driven to finally achieve complete success. I wonder whether Hawthorne was commenting upon society’s ever-present drive to achieve more.

This ideal/real paradigm made me think of Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles. Although the novel was English and written later than Hawthorne’s works, Hardy was dealing with the same human struggle between the flesh and the ethereal, the real and the transcendent. Aylmer’s obsession with Georgiana reaching perfection reminded me greatly of Angel Clare’s rejection of Tess after he finds out she was been “spoiled” or is morally less than perfect. Clare professed himself to be socially progressive and beyond the moral conventions of the day, yet he acted traditionally. He found Tess’s moral “spot” repulsive, despite the purity of her character and the depth of her utter adoration and devotion to him. Similarly, Aylmer cannot appreciate the beauty of Georgiana with a spot of earthiness upon her. In many ways, Clare destroys Tess just as Aylmer destroys Georgiana. It seems both men are only capable of loving the ideal, the woman they have created in their own mind rather than the flesh and blood before them. Hawthorne has always intrigued me as an author with his subtleties and open-ended symbolism. It seems Hawthorne is issuing a warning against only desiring the ideal and thus sacrificing or overlooking the potential beauty of the current reality. I find it fascinating that two authors with such different backgrounds writing in different countries could write about such similar characters. I suppose it shows the universality of the human heart. It also shows a connectedness between America and the rest of Europe. Even while America was trying to distinguish herself as a individualistic nation, she too struggled with the same overarching issues of love and truth and beauty like the rest of the world.