In this fourth section, Emerson discusses the relationship between nature and language: Words represent objects in nature; these individual objects signify spiritual realities; and nature symbolizes spirituality. To explain how words represent natural objects, Emerson uses etymology — the origin and development of words — to illustrate that abstract terms […]
Read more Summary and Analysis of Nature Chapter 4 – LanguageSummary and Analysis of Nature Chapter 3 – Beauty
This section introduces the idea that beauty is a part of nature that serves our needs. Following the chapter on commodity (a “physical necessity”), this discussion makes clear the notion that beauty is a nobler want of humanity than commodity, which everyone must have to survive. Beauty is not necessary […]
Read more Summary and Analysis of Nature Chapter 3 – BeautySummary and Analysis of Nature Chapter 2 – Commodity
For Emerson, the word “commodity” means a physical necessity. Using this definition, he discusses briefly how nature supports our earthly existence. Different elements, ranging from resources like metals, plants, and animals to the basic elements of earth, air, fire, and water, nourish earth’s inhabitants. This process furthers the essay’s theme […]
Read more Summary and Analysis of Nature Chapter 2 – CommoditySummary and Analysis of Nature Chapter 1 – Nature
Concerned initially with how we reflect on solitude, the stars, and the grandeur of nature, this chapter turns from the universal world, symbolized in the stars that Emerson views at night, and focuses on how we perceive objects around us. Emerson speaks of the landscape in which he walks and […]
Read more Summary and Analysis of Nature Chapter 1 – NatureSummary and Analysis of Nature Introduction
Laying out the problem that he will attempt to solve in the essay, Emerson states that our energy and excitement in creating something new has been lost because we try to understand the world around us by using only theories and histories about nature rather than personally observing it. One […]
Read more Summary and Analysis of Nature IntroductionSummary and Analysis of Nature About Nature
Emerson’s earliest reference to an essay on nature occurs in his journal for 1833. Three years later, in 1836, he anonymously published his now-famous Nature. It was his first major work, and it continues to be his best known. The essay met with good critical reception but with little support […]
Read more Summary and Analysis of Nature About NatureRalph Waldo Emerson Biography
Life and Background Ralph Waldo Emerson was born on May 25, 1803, to the Reverend William and Ruth Haskins Emerson. His father, pastor of the First Unitarian Church of Boston, chaplain of the Massachusetts Senate, and an editor of Monthly Anthology, a literary review, once described two-year-old son Waldo as […]
Read more Ralph Waldo Emerson Biography