Written in 1970, The Night Thoreau Spent In Jail focuses on a man named Henry David Thoreau. Henry is a very well educated Harvard man that lives his life according to Transcendentalism “the belief that man can go beyond his senses”. He refuses to give into society’s terms and as a result is thrown in jail. Henry befriends a man named Bailey who shares the cell with him. In Lawrence and Lee’s The Night Thoreau Spent In Jail, is the belief transcendentalism of which plays an active role in the play. Seen throughout the play are aspects of self-reliance, free thought, and the importance of nature which form the main ideals of transcendentalism. First of all, self-reliance of which many examples can be found throughout the play. For example, Henry …show more content…
For example, Henry has strong feelings about sticking to what you believe in and with this being said, he is currently refusing to pay taxes that would help a war that is currently going on. He’s walking in the town square and is approached by a government official named Sam Staples. He explains to Henry how he needs to pay his taxes and if he doesn’t he would face being sent to jail. Henry refuses and then is arrested (Lawrence and Lee 59-63). With Henry showing this demonstration in front of the public, not only does he show his determination but shows that he’s not going to think as others do and will stick to his beliefs. Likewise, Henry doesn’t only show his free thought there but shows his in other situations to. Henry has a job a school master and while teaching, the Deacon enters and some of Henry’s students start to be disrespectful. Henry is told by the Deacon that he must discipline them but refuses to (Lawrence and Lee 20-22). Henry show free thought through this situation because not only is he standing up to one of his superiors and risk losing his job, but also is showing it for the children. In conclusion, free thought is a main character trait that can be found in Henry giving him that ability to fight for his thoughts on …show more content…
As Henry is working for Waldo, he will take care of Edward who’s his son. After doing so one day, Henry is placed a very uncomfortable situation where Edward asks his mother Lydian if Henry could be his new father. Lydian then starts to want Henry gone but wants to do so by finding him a nice woman to settle down with. She tells him that and he says “you want to be a matchmaker, Lydian? Find me something innocent and uncomplicated. A shrub-oak. A cloud. A leaf lost in the snow” (Lawrence and Lee 78). By saying this Henry’s showing how he favors nature and its beauty. Adding to that, the teachings that Henrys share with others show the importance of nature. This is seen when Henry is trying to get Emily to see the fact that there’s more to Transcendentalism than being a tree-hugger and to look at nature to see its beauty. He explains this to her by telling her “what is a house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on? Did you know that trees cry out in pain when they’re cut? I’ve heard them” (Lawrence and Lee 34). With this being said, Henrys explaining that in order to have a nice place to live, nature has to be taken care of. Overall, The Night Thoreau Spent In Jail focuses on the importance of
In conclusion, the play The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail focuses on the character and historic transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau. During Act I, Henry and Ellen Sewell share multiple interactions in which each character has their own intentions. Henry desires to teach Ellen how to be an individual and also to make Ellen genuinely happy. Ellen, on the other hand, desires to learn from Henry’s lifestyle and beliefs to become a better educated woman but does not intend more than that. Therefore, Ellen and Henry do not share mutual intentions which leads to the failure of their
Two men, similar in their transcendentalist beliefs and yet so different in their methods of expressing their beliefs on handling the issues of society, were major voices in the anti-slavery movement. While their focuses are more on the subjects of morality and individual choice, they still reflect on how slavery should be addressed by the American people, American referring to the free whites who actually make the decisions. Ralph Waldo Emerson is highly regarded for his views on Transcendentalism during what some of deemed the “American Renaissance.” Emerson establishes his place in history by expressing his liberal agenda through his beliefs that truth is based on intuition and law should be based on individual reflection. He believes that the only way one could truly learn about life is by ignoring knowledge from outside sources and relying on one’s internal voice; he incorporates this belief into the convincing rhetoric of “Last of the Anti-Slavery Lectures.” While Emerson asserts his views on self reliance, he is really trying to sway the views of his audience. This makes us ask the question: Is he really right, or is he only convincing us that he is right? Henry David Thoreau, however, serves as both a complement and a foil for Emerson; while he also expresses his transcendental beliefs, he converges on a split between these beliefs and reason. He articulates his ideas in “Slavery in Massachusetts,” a piece that illustrates how Thoreau separates himself from his own state because of his “contempt for her courts” (1991). While some would argue that Thoreau is somewhat of a better writer than Emerson, it cannot be denied that one cannot reach...
The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, by Robert Edwin Lee and Jerome Lawrence, is a play that speaks about Henry David Thoreau and a few events in his life that lead up to his arrest. The play speaks of David Thoreau’s very ideals and beliefs. His transcendentalist way of life, simplistic and explorative, and how these very same ideas came together sending him to spend a night in jail. The play begins with the present, Thoreau already in jail. As the play continues there are flashbacks and past events that are told to us. One event, in particular, that was “The Nightmare” scene, where Thoreau had a nightmare filled with the very things he hated and found to be horrible. Including war and violence.
leader. Therefore, they should have a right to choose whether they want to support a war
Emerson created maxims, which are short statements expressing a general truth, to express his way of Transcendental conduct and what he believed applied to mankind. His Transcendental way of thought consisted of showing conviction of individual thinking and looking towards nature for organic feeling. These maxims appear throughout the play, "The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail", as the story unfolds around the life of main character Henry and his ordeals that arise resulting from following his own path. Emerson's maxim "Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind" speaks the importance of acting out as one deems fit instead of doing what others want. This comes from Emerson’s essay “Self-Reliance” in which he retells a story from
Henry David Thoreau along with a select group of people propelled the short movement of transcendentalism during the 1830s to the 1850s and was later brought up during the Vietnam War. Many of the transcendentalist ideas came from student who attended Harvard University during this time period. Henry David Thoreau’s individualistic anarchist views on society were developed throughout his early life and later refined in his years of solitude; these views on society and government are directly expressed in much of his work.
Henry David Thoreau is among many other early American transcendentalist thinkers, including Ralph Waldo Emerson. Thoreau wrote many pieces and accomplished much in his lifetime; including the time he spent in the wilderness near the Walden Pond observing only the essential facts of life to further understand life as a whole. Many would quote him for his tremendous contributions to early American thought and his outstanding thoughts, “Even to call him a Transcendentalist is to underplay the carefully observed and circumstantial style of much of his writing and the sense of physical participation on which the style is based,” (Dougherty). One of the many things that Thoreau did and journalized in his famous writing Walden was his adventure from
...ing Henry David Thoreau into a prominent American Romantic writer. Such elements include his writings about life in Nature having great solitude; he became friends with the surrounding plants and animals. Secondly, he wrote about what was occurring day to day at Walden’s Pond which showed him as being individualistic. Moreover, there was the idea that God can only be found in nature, and pantheism was constant idea in his book. Finally, Thoreau wrote about intuition as a means of obtaining knowledge, and his use of senses as a tool for building intuition. These ideas time and time again show the various aspects of Thoreau being portrayed as an American Romantic which has lead to a great historical achievement as a writer that he well deserves.
In “Civil Disobedience” Thoreau emphasizes the need for self-reliance (“Clendenning”). This statement is fitting because Thoreau was one of the most self-reliant men of his time period. He was an individual and enjoyed nature. Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) is closely related to the Transcendentalism movement, which lasted a mere ten years in the 1830s and 1840s. Transcendentalism is the belief of self-reliance, individuality, social reform, and relying on reason. Henry David Thoreau’s love of nature, languages, and contemporary English, as well as the growth of Transcendentalism greatly influenced the life of this great American Author.
After seeing the film, Dead Poets Society, the watcher will easily pick up on Transcendental idea’s whether they know it or not. If the viewer is watching this movie for educational purposes or entertainment, it overall demonstrates to the audience many strong ideas that these common writers emphasizes greatly throughout their writing through Mr. Keatings methods of teaching. Lesson’s of three common Transcendental writers, Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman are taught both directly and subtly by the influential teacher, Mr. Keating. The lessons taught not only impact the boys during the film, but it changes their mindset for the rest of their lives and the audiences. Keating was prosperous in establishing the theories of the writers inside the boys minds which impacted all aspects of their lives for the better.
Henry Thoreau uses specific rhetorical strategies in Walden to emanate his attitude towards life. With the use of many strategies Thoreau shows that life should be centered around Nature. People live their lives not ever taking a second glance of what Nature does and has done for humanity and Thoreau is trying to prove his point. Humanity owes Nature everything for without it humans would be nothing.
Henry David Thoreau once stated, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived” (Thoreau 906). However, Thoreau believes that living in nature is the only true way to live. Thoreau’s writings have produced generations of readers to view their duty to society, nature, and themselves. However, Thoreau wrote a novel called Walden. Thoreau is known for transcendentalism and simple living.
At first, the idea of escaping into nature was cumbersome. Meandering aimlessly concerned me. My mind was stained with negative thoughts of solitude and being alone first felt demoralizing, but slowly my earlier assumption dissipated, fully disappearing from the subconscious once I broke the boundary and stepped into nature. Emerson notes, “In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, - no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair” (8). I too believe what Emerson says. In my own rush to “fit in” I dismissed my own morals accepted others as if they were my own. I put my energy into modeling myself according to the contemplation of others, all the while ignoring principles
The opening paragraph is an incredibly vivid account of nights spent by “the stony shore” of Walden Pond. His description of the animals around the pond, the cool temperature, and the gentle sounds of lapping waves and rustling leaves all serve to remove the idea that nature is a wild and unkempt world of its own, and instead makes it seem much more serene and graceful. Any who thought of Thoreau as an insane outdoorsmen may have even found themselves repulsed by the monotony and constant bustle of city life and longing for the serenity felt by Thoreau. This
Henry David Thoreau implies that simplicity and nature are valuable to a person’s happiness in “Why I Went to the Woods”. An overall theme used in his work was the connection to one’s spiritual self. Thoreau believed that by being secluded in nature and away from society would allow one to connect with their inner self. Wordsworth and Thoreau imply the same idea that the simple pleasures in life are easily overlooked or ignored. Seeing the true beauty of nature allows oneself to rejuvenate their mentality and desires. When one allows, they can become closer to their spiritual selves. One of William Wordsworth’s popular pieces, “Tintern Abbey”, discusses the beauty and tranquility of nature. Wordsworth believed that when people