In high school my very favorite thing i studied in english was Transcendentalism. i still remember the excitement i my teacher instilled in me for the likes of Thoreau, emerson, and whitman. I frequently quote emerson and thoreau. one of the best books i ever read was "The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail". it is actually a short play. It is the fictional story of the night Thoreau was incarcerated for not paying a poll-tax.
This play is both entertaining and educational. At times the transcendentalist ideals were difficult for me to grasp but this play shows you how they fit into real life and practice. Several of the ideas that thoreau taught in Walden, and in this reading specifically are touched upon. some of the quotes i thought were applicable to this play are as follows: "I wished to live deliberately", “the government is best which governs not at all", "Unjust laws exist. Shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?", "Under a government which imprisons unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison." he takes this last one quite literally in the play. he is released and he is very upset about it. he would rather be in jail than out for the cause of not paying the tax.
i really recommend this short play for all those who want to better understand transcendentalism and the romantic roots beneath.
"Unjust laws exist..."
ReplyDeleteI love this quote. These kind of transcendentalist ideas should never die, they are relevant to every era.