Thomas_Carlyle_and_Existentialism

Thomas Carlyle and Existentialism Thomas Carlyle, though a Victorian author exhibits some facets of existentialism in his work “Sartor Resartus”. Though the term existentialism was not coined until well into the 20th century when such French authors as Camus, Sartre and DeBeauvoir began writing. Basic concepts within the school of existentialist thought include the rejection of God as a higher power in place of Self; Self being the ultimate power within one’s own life. Without the inclusion and asserting of Self the world becomes more absurd. By living and reacting to one’s own decisions one’s life can have some meaning, without exercising your right as a human being to choose your own life then you really aren’t living, but simply existing. Some Victorian literature has a taste of existentialism in it. The rejection and uncertainty of the concept of religion and God, the general dread and anguish expressed by the characters and the concept of the importance of Self above society all factor into both Carlyle’s work and the later existentialist pieces. Some chapters in general encompass the very core of existentialism “The everlasting No” “Centre of Indifference” and then “the Everlasting Yea” all have an element of existentialism. “The everlasting No” and then “the Everlasting Yea” contradict one another, the absurdity of the piece is shown right there. Absurdity and the absurdity of the human life is an element of the school of existentialism. There however are some great differences between the Victorian Literature of Thomas Carlyle and the true existentialist of the 20th Century. The differences and similarities within the pieces will be examined. In Carlyle’s piece Sartor Resartus the main character Professor Diogenes Teufelsdröckh as well as the fictitious Editor are almost an extension of Carlyle himself and therefore this work can almost be seen as an autobiography of sorts. The importance of Self or the concept of Self was a thought just emerging in the late 19th century. While some authors struggled with the foundation of what did Self mean, Carlyle embraced the concept of Self-importance and started to stress it in a few of his chapters. Phrases such as “me being” “my ME” and “my whole ME” each exhibit a concept not really fathomed until the Victorian age. His capitalization of the word ‘me’ stresses that relationship with one’s Self. John Stuart Mill is another Victorian author who along with Carlyle began to exercise the concept of Self in his piece “On Liberty” For once the concept of ‘know thyself’ really began to mean something to people. God and existentialism is something of a contradiction in terms, a true existentialist does not believe there is a God, a higher power who is pulling the strings of your life and created you. They believe strongly in the choices that one makes, and they believe that one must live with the outcome of their choices, whether good or bad. One has no one else to blame for their lives save themselves as their lives are simply a measure of their choices and how they have dealt and lived with the choice made. Carlyle seems to contradict himself within the chapters examined. At first he almost denounces God, in fact it seems as though he has a loathing and deep distaste for “God” but then does a turnabout and embraces God. His lack of faith in a higher power figure demonstrates the existential thinking. He is so uncertain of the reality of God; he doesn’t know what to believe, whether God is there or whether an awful lot of people have been fooling themselves for an awful long time. In “the Everlasting No” Carlyle as the editor in Sartor Resartus hammers into the reader that Teufelsdröckh has lost his sense of faith. Alas, shut-out from Hope, in a deeper sense then we yet dream of! For now as he wanders wearisomely through this world, he has now lost all tidings of another and higher. Full of religion, or at least religiosity, as out Friend has since exhibited himself, he hides not that, in those days, he was wholly irreligious: “Doubt has darkened into Unbelief,” … Teufelsdröckh is stricken with a lack of faith or rather a lack of belief in faith. He tries to shake it in this chapter but cannot. He in the later chapters finds a sense of God, such as in ‘the Everlasting Yea’ Teufelsdröckh find his God. “Love not Pleasure; love God” which is a far cry from what he was saying in “the Everlasting No” That statement also contradicts the existentialist hero of Albert Camus’ novel “L’Étranger”. Camus’ main character Meursault does the opposite of Teufelsdröckh, he denies God in favor of physical pleasure. In fact the few times in which Meursault reacts in any way to anything is a simple reaction to physical pleasure. His reaction to the sun and the water at the beach is extraordinary as nothing has made him state whether he was pleased or displeased, including the death of his own mother. “ I was concentrating on feeling the sun doing me good. The sand was beginning to get hot underfoot. I denied myself the water for a bit longer, but I ended up saying to Masson, ‘Let’s go.’ I dived in… The water was cold and I was glad to be swimming.” His reaction to the sun and water at the beach as well as his physical reaction to his quasi girlfriend Marie are the only things that Meursault actually shows any sort of reaction to. Like his (Meursault) reaction to the sun and water like his reaction to Marie is purely physical “We swam a few strokes and she (Marie) clung on to me. I felt her legs round mine and I wanted her.” Whereas when he is asked whether he loves her he responds “I replied as I had done once already, that it didn’t mean anything but that I probably didn’t” He has no consciousness of emotions but has a simply physical existence. His life consists literally of floating from experience to experience with very little reaction. The fact that he does not react to anything else essentially condemns him to his death in the end of the novel. Teufelsdröckh’s denial of pleasure in the pursuit of God is one major difference between Carlyle and existentialism. This can be attributed to the attitudes and the circumstances of the time periods in question. With Victorian writers they still grasp their religiousness and prize (especially someone like Carlyle who was brought up a Calvinist) whereas those in the 20th century begin to question everything, almost as though the 20th century began to wake up and there was an enlightenment of sorts. Victorians still struggled with the industrial era and God was a figurehead in almost every home. In the 20th century especially about the time that Albert Camus, Simone DeBeauvoir and Jean Paul Sartre people were becoming jaded with the reality of life. They had lived through two world wars and even more industrial and social revolution then the Victorians would have ever dreamed of. However, Sartor Resartus has one element of existentialism that runs throughout the entire text studied. The feeling of anguish and dread can be picked out throughout the text. His overall feeling of anguish not only for himself but for the world in which he lives and is a part of. “Alas shut out from hope, in a deeper sense then we yet dream” The deep feeling of anguish within that sentence mixed with the dread that it portrays, shows that Teufelsdröckh and by extension Carlyle is having a difficult time dealing with his society and his life. He is struggling with issues that he just can’t get by. The editor points out in the preceding paragraph that Teufelsdröckh had previously mention that “Man is, properly speaking, based upon Hope, he has no other possession but Hope…” and then wonders “What, then, was our Professors possession'” Indeed what was the professors possession if he had lost his Hope' He also exhibits a certain disdain for the world around him “Worldlings puke-up their sick existence, by suicide, in the midst of luxury.” This can be taken as a social comment of the time. People running around bored of their own lives, making themselves sick and complaining about the condition of their lives, all surrounded by every luxury available to them at the time. All the while those who don’t have the very things that the privileged whine about suffer in the conditions of the Victorian and Industrial age. This seems to make Teufelsdröckh feel wretched and essentially he dreads living in the society in which he exists. Teufelsdröckh and the fictitious editor that Carlyle created with his work Sartor Resartus was something of a social comment. His tendencies towards existentialism are obvious as soon as you’ve read it. He works with not only the appreciation of Self (a major concept within existentialism) but with the dread of the world around him. His wavering belief in the higher power of God has an existentialist flavor to it however he doesn’t go completely existentialist as he does keep hold of his faith in God, even if he doesn’t think he does. He evoke the name of God, as well as Satan and Heaven more than a few times within the piece, which would lead one to believe that his faith in God and religion remains an influence on his life. Carlyle was a male Victorian author who wrote about the effects of his society had on him, the same can be said for the likes of Camus, and the very same can be said of any author. It seems as though as authors get closer to our present day, the concept of Self seems to become more prominent, not at the expense of a higher power per se but God is definitely questioned, not only questioned as to His existence, but which God is the right God' All in all Carlyle’s Victorian piece Sartor Resartus has exhibited tendencies towards 20th century existentialism, his (unintentional) rejection of certain concepts within the school of existentialism simply is a reflection of the social structure of the time in question, the Victorian era. Though Camus and Sartre have long been looked at as pessimists for their views, I have seen the affirmation of the belief in Self to be a positive influence, the same can be said for Carlyle. He has told his readers to believe in themselves as they are important, he has asked the reader to question things that have never been question, like God and has also asked the reader to take a good long hard look around at their world. Granted both Camus and Carlyle sound rather pessimistic and depressing, but look deeper and you see something that makes one feel good about themselves, that their life and their choices can have an effect and measure in the society in which they exist. They both cry out to live, really live your life, not just exist.