Emerson, Hawthorne & Thoreau

Clearly, the issue of conformity vs. nonconformity is crucial to the question of politics. An individual who does not think for himself or herself is not truly an individual at all. If the society is made up primarily of such conformists, then the political reality of that society will be dreary indeed. The political status of such a conformist--of whatever race, gender, or socioeconomic class--is no status at all, because he or she is simply one small part in a social and political machine which exists in large part to intimidate and crush the will and spirit of the individual nonconformist. In addition, although he directly espouses no political stand as such, his philosophy of self-reliance would today instantly be classified as conservative Republican, or, at the very least, Libertarian.

Emerson only touches upon issues of race, gender and class. He uses these categories not for their own sake but to shed light on the more significant catego

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die--and yet continue his mad game in order to see if she truly loved him. He is apparently without compassion. Could a woman who loved her husband do the same as Wakefield, leave him suddenly and without warning, live for twenty years a black away, watching his life drain out of his week after week, year after year, and feel nothing for him but a lingering curiosity about his state of mind and heart? If we see Hawthorne's study of Wakefield as a study of man, as opposed to woman, then the issue of gender becomes one almost of good and evil. What is it that makes Wakefield evil, if that is Hawthorne's message about what lurks in the soul of one such as Wakefield? It is man's "quiet selfishness," "a peculiar sort of vanity," "a disposition to craft," "the keeping of petty secrets" (291). Hawthorne cannot help several times bursting forth from the author's guise and calling Wakefield "Fool!" (295) and telling him "You are mad!" (296). The author notes at one point that "A morbid vanity, therefore, lies nearest the bottom of the affair" (293). This is the foolishness, the madness, the morbid vanity of a man, a man who for some reason, perhaps evil reason, does not believe that his wife truly loves him, that he is worthy of her love
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2564
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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