Nature

Emerson’s idea of solitude varies from the common understanding of the word, which is the basic state of being without other people. Instead, Emerson posits:

to go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society. I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me. But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and what he touches (17).

Thus, Emerson considers solitude to be synonymous with a place that is uninhabited by other humans. One can better find it in a contemplation of the stars than in a chamber populated with manmade objects such as books.

The motif of solitude is recurrent throughout Emerson’s essay, as he advocates that the reader should seek out places such as the woods where nature reigns supreme in order to escape the human din and make direct contact with God and his creation. Finding solitude chimes in with Emerson’s philosophy of individualism and self-reliance for one’s learning and spiritual enlightenment. It also ties into his praise of the solitary poet, who escapes from society to commune with nature and use it as a tool for his thoughts. However, Emerson’s ability to go out seeking solitude in nature is one of privilege, as he is a White, middle-class man with sufficient income and leisure time. A woman or a farm laborer may have found such an endeavor challenging. Emerson considers that “you cannot freely admire a noble landscape, if laborers are digging in the field hard by” (52). While he has previously stated that nature is open to everyone, it is clearer that the “you” addressed in this statement is not a laborer, who has no choice but to be working to extract commodities from nature. The laborers appear not as a human subjects, worthy of contemplating a noble landscape themselves, but as othered human irritants who are intruding on the solitude of contemplatives like Emerson.