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  • Essay / True Nature and Corruption in Jean Jacques Rousseau "Emile"

    In Rousseau's Emile, all naturally created things are intrinsically good. Rousseau asserts that man and society are what corrupt his Love (or innate and valid self-love), transforming it into Love proper (or self-love under social pressure). To be a good man, you just have to stay true to nature. This process manifests itself when the guardian, Jean-Jacques, isolates Emile from society when he was a child. A moral man, however, is different from a good man: when faced with an unnatural problem such as the causes of self-esteem, a moral man can maintain his goodness. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The tutor tests and cultivates Émile's imagination and morality by channeling these qualities toward loving others and guiding him through his courtship and eventual marriage. by Sophie. Emile transforms from a “moral man” to a “good man” through this process by facing several problems during his courtship, which could have corrupted him. Jean-Jacques knows that the emergence of self-esteem is inevitable. About love, he says: "As soon as a man needs a companion, he is no longer an isolated being. His heart is no longer alone... His first passion soon ferments the others " (214). To be loved, one must be “...more lovable than another... it is the source of emulation, rivalries and jealousy” (214). This jealousy manifests itself when Emile observes the way Sophie treats the young male guests who visit her. However, instead of hating and destroying his rivals, Émile makes himself more desirable by “...[redoubling] his efforts to make himself lovable” (431). His method of surpassing his rivals is the result of the Tutor's efforts to guide Emile's imagination toward good things rather than toward things beyond his achievable limits, as shown earlier in the book when the Tutor says, " Don't stifle his imagination. . Talk to him about love, about women, about pleasures" (325). By pointing Emile in the right direction, he channels Emile's imagination toward love and self-improvement rather than toward the repression of impulses. In a way, the tutor manages to get Emile to transform his self-esteem into self-love, because his desire for Sophie's love and approval leads him to improve himself in order to achieve something. romantic objective. The tutor's cultivation of Emile's imagination begins when he allows Emile to feel pity toward other men and creatures. “other beings suffer too. To see it without feeling it is not to know it” (222). to be moved by their complaints and to suffer from their pain... Thus pity is born, the first relative feeling that affects humans. heart” (222). The guardian wants pity and its derived emotions to be the result of imagination, and wants to exclude bad emotions like envy, lust, and hatred. For this, says Jean-Jacques: "To excite and nourish this [imagination]... what else can we do than offer the young man objects on which the expansive force of his heart can act - objects which inflate the heart". , which extend it to other beings” (223). For Emile, this object is love, for Sophie, and for other human beings. Emile imagines his life with Sophie, and feels pity and compassion towards the most unfortunate people like the injured man he sees when going to see Sophie. As Emile says to Sophie, "...don't hope to make me forget the rights of humanity. They are ;.