Document Type

Thesis - University Access Only

Award Date

2006

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department / School

English

Abstract

This study investigates the connection with and influence of Carlyle on selected works of Thoreau, principally Walden. While the trans-Atlantic connection between Carlyle and the leading American transcendentalist Emerson has long been recognized and noted, little has been written on Thoreau's response to Carlyle. Henry Salt within 30 years of Thoreau's death noted this influence in his biography The Life of Henry David Thoreau but provided no extensive analysis of that influence and especially of Thoreau's appropriation of the concept of hero and heroworship. According to Robert D. Richardson, Jr., one of the few modern critics who explores Thoreau's concept of heroism, Thoreau analyzed the "problem of how to live a heroic life in the unheroic modern world n (69). While at Harvard, Thoreau studied Carlyle, and one of the few books he took with him to Walden Pond was Carlyle's Complete Works. While there, he wrote a lengthy essay "Thomas Carlyle and His Works" in which he lauds Carlyle's style and specifically addresses Carlyle's On Heroes, HeroWorship and the Heroic in History. Yet in spite of his obvious study of and interest in Carlyle, no full investigation of Thoreau's integration of Carlylean concepts of heroism in Walden has been done. Thoreau was aware that many Americans considered leaders of movements as cult heroes and even referred to Transcendental thinkers like Emerson as "heroic," but this concept of heroism Thoreau never embraced. Rather, the heroic American for Thoreau harkens back to Carlyle's models of: hero as divinity, prophet, poet, priest, man of letters, and king. But, Thoreau does not hesitate to alter those models to reflect more fully his contemporary American culture. Like Emerson, Thoreau never wanted to be a "cult hero" for the transcendentalists, but he recognized and embraced some aspects of Carlyle's concept of heroism, Americanizing it to reflect the cultural values of his world. Drawing upon Carlyle's three principal virtues that the hero demonstrates-valor, sincerity, discernment of Truth-Thoreau brings these into an American context, applying them to heroic abolitionists, the passive resistor, the naturalist, nature itself, and even the industrial expansionist.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Thoreau, Henry David, 1817-1862 -- Criticism and interpretation

Carlyle, Thomas, 1795-1881 -- Influence

Heroes

Format

application/pdf

Number of Pages

120

Publisher

South Dakota State University

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