32 Thomas Carlyle
Dr. Neeru Tandon
CONTENTS
31.1 Learning Outcome
- Know the writer and his importance
- Understand Sartor Resartus
- Familiarize self with the The Everlasting Yea and No
- Read about his contribution to English Literature
31.2 Short Biography
Thomas Carlyle was a 19th. Century Scottish essayist, historian and satirical writer. He is known widely for his works like Sartor Resartus and The French Revolution. He was born on Dec. 4th. 1795, in Ecclefechan in the Galloway region of Scotland. Carlyle’s philosophies were greatly influenced by his father who was a stern Calvinist (those who believed that people are saved through God’s grace and not through their own merits). Carlyle joined the University of Edinburgh in his teens, in the year 1809 with the intention of becoming a minister (join the church) but instead chose to explore mathematics and teaching as a career. This too did not satisfy him and he finally settled down to become a full time writer. Carlyle was very well read and had a penchant for languages and through his life he learnt French, Latin, Greek, German, Italian, Spanish and Danish. He made consistent use of Bible in his writing and combined with his knowledge of languages his prose is difficult for many readers. He was interested in the philosophy of German writers, particularly in the works of Kant, Hegel, Novalis, Goethe, Fichte, Schelling, Schlegal and Richter, and in the mid 1820’s he translated Goethe’s novel ‘Wilhelm Meisters’ Apprenticeship’ into English.
In 1826 he married Jane Welsh, a fellow literary enthusiast of his time. The marriage was not a healthy one butthey remained married for nearly forty years till she died. Carlyle spent the last years of his life mourning his wife and he died on Feb. 5th. 1881, in London, England. He was buried in Scotland where his parents rested.
31.3 Works
Carlyle’s works can be divided into two periods – His early works and his later works. After abandoning the clergy as a career and a few other experiments at other careers Carlyle focused on writing full time.
Early works-
He tried writing his first fiction’ Cruthers and Jonson’ which was one of the several unsuccessful attempts in the writings. Then he translated Goethe’s ‘Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship’. After the translation he gave up the idea of writing realistic novels and devoted his time and attention at building a new form of fiction. Besides writing essays on German literature, he also made commentaries on modern culture in his essays like ‘Signs of Time’ and ‘Characteristics’. His first major work in this period was Sartor Resartus which was published in Frazer’s magazine between 1833 and 1834 as serial writing. In 1837 he published ‘The French Revolution: A History’ which was in three volumes. In the 1840’s he wrote about his thoughts on the importance of heroic leadership in his writings like ‘On Heroes’, ‘Hero worship’, ‘The Heroic in History’. All the essays are in the book which is based on the lectures he had delivered from 1837 to 1840. After the revolution of 1848 he again published a collection of essays called ‘Latter Day Pamphlets’ in 1850.
Later Works-
In his later works Carlyle’s essays and lectures were mainly based on discussing times which produced heroic leadership. In 1845 he wrote ‘The letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell’ putting Cromwell in a favorable light. In 1849 he wrote ‘Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question’ in which he argues that slavery should not have been abolished. In 1867 he adopted a dogmatic and rigid outlook in the essay “Shooting Niagara and After?’ The essay discusses the passing of the Electoral Reform Act of 1867. His last major work on the life of Frederick the Great was published in six volumes, the first two in 1858, the third in 1862, the fourth in 1864, and the last two in 1865. The work is based on the idea of how a leader can, with his heroism, bring together a state and be instrumental in bringing about a new moral culture among its people. At the end of his life he concentrated on writing short essays like ‘The Early Kings of Norway’ and ‘The Portraits of John Knox’.
31.4 SARTOR RESARTUS
Carlyle wrote Sartor Resartus as a novel which he used asa mouthpiece to speak out his criticism on the materialism and philosophical rationalism of his age. It is an indirect elucidation of a spiritual journey and quest. In the novel he uses a character, Diogenes Teufelsdrockh, the journey of his life and commentary on his philosophy form the main material of the book. Sartor Resartus is divided into three books of eleven, ten and twelve chapters. The title of the book means ‘The Tailor Retailored’. The novel is created by putting scraps of papers from diaries, journals and letters of Diogenes Teufelsdrockh, found and thrown randomly into large laundry bags. This is why the novel has a disjointed and loose plot. Carlyle uses a fictional editor to do this job who feels that to understand the philosophy of the German thinker it is necessary to know the man. When considered as a whole the book addresses the metaphor of Jonathan Swift’s question in the second book of ‘A Tale of Tub’ (1704) in which he asks: “What is Man himself but a Micro-coat, or rather a complete suite of cloths with all its trimmings?” Carlyle answers to this question in the book and says that religion, government and all the other institutional clothes with which human beings dress themselves are in reality unable to withstand the changing times and need retailoring. The story encompasses the process of transformation that comes in the life of Teufelsdrockh. The evolution takes place in three stages- the stage of negation followed by stage of indifference and finally to the stage of affirmation. It is a political satire on orthodoxy in society and religion and also on the quick growth of science and commerce in his time. Carlyle wishes to express that the clothes referred to in the novel symbolize the world of matter in which the spirit finds shape and manifests itself. It is upon man to make sense of the world. But this sense needs to be rectified as according to Carlyle it is distorted because of too many scientific explanations, religious preaching and impaired institutional bodies.
Book one:
The book opens with the views of an editor, the narrator in the book, who argues that the rational outlook has rendered the mysteries of creation to nothing and this rationalism does not take into account the ‘clothing’ which is the most important material for creation. The clothing is the social, political and religious entities which impair the vision of man and fail to show him the spiritual world. The narration continues through an in-depth discussion of German philosophy finding it capable of clearing doubts and anxieties brought on because of excessive rationalization. To rectify the distorted world view and share it with his fellow men he thinks of translating the works of a German philosopher, Diogenes Teufelsdrockh who he knows has addressed in his work the philosophies of clothes. To this end he feels he should know the life history of Teufelsdrockh as it will assist in the understanding of his philosophy. He manages to get hold of Teufelsdrockh’s writings but finds them stuffed in six paper bags each marked with a different zodiac sign. He understands that to know the man and his philosophy he will have to set aside his own problems of health. With determination he starts to shuffle through the papers to put them in order.
Book two:
In book two the papers reveal that Teufelsdrockh was found by Andreas and Gretchen Futteral at their doorstep with his birth certificate on him. Here the life of the child unfolds from infancy to adulthood. Teufelsdrockh reminisces that the name a person gets is his first garment and the second garment is the language he acquires from birth. His name through literal translation means ‘god born devil’s dung’ and this name leads him into life and utter dissatisfaction with it. He goes out into the world and meets its many challenges and finds that the profession of law fails to give him a purpose and he keeps looking for meaningful work and also becomes a professor of Allerley-Wissenschaft at the University of Weissnich two. The names actually mean nothing to signify the emptiness which leads a man into life if he cannot connect to his inner self. He undergoes many adventures in which he discovers and subverts the rational systems and cultural constructs. He negates the rationale of existence based on pure reason. He fails to find answers through pure logic and fights the long and losing battle between belief and skepticism. He feels insignificant before time and nature and faces hopelessness. This feeling of hopelessness leads him to derive his own philosophy. He realizes that happiness is not possible for human beings because its value rises and fades with demands for it and their fulfillment cannot always be met but he also realizes that man cannot exist on abstract musings alone. The universe is built for practical purposes and man must understand and get hold of what is practical in this world and carry on. Yet he should not get so involved with the practical that he fails to acknowledge the mystical presence of the infinite- the infinite which is hidden behind all the manifestations in the world.
Book Three-
This part of the book focuses on the philosophy of Teufelsdrockh. He reviews the various clothes men wear, the clothes that both hide the real man and reveal the way man wants to appear to other fellow beings. The clothes are also the myriad forms and appearance of the world under which is hidden the ultimate reality. To understand the man and see his true nature the clothes he wears need to be stripped off not literally but figuratively. In life if man has to realize the presence of God then he also has to fight the devil- the devil in form of clothes covering the reality within. This nature of the world can only be understood when the symbols around us give a glimpse of the higher truth and can be only found by the man who delves deep. Satire pervades the entire chapters where he discusses the wearer of peculiar clothes- clothes which are peculiar to the profession the person takes up. He takes the metaphor of clothes to show how man uses them to cover his naked state and so that he is not equated with savages but most of the time he gets so carried away with them that he fails to connect with his inner being. Such a man lives life superficially without realizing his potential of experiencing the essence of existence. That it is the spirit or soul which is permanent and not the body which embeds it. Clothes are created by man just the same way as God created the universe. Man needs to retailor his perception of the world to bring himself to perfection and realize the ultimate truth.
31.5 The Everlasting No-
(Book 2 Chapter 7)
Carlyle expresses in the ‘Everlasting No’ the spirit of unbelief in God because the age has brought on a mechanical way of thinking. In this chapter is rebellious and defiant negation of all values and convictions particularly those relating to manmade institutions and religion. Man looks for happiness everywhere and its loss or gain decides the meaningfulness of life for him. This search for happiness also leads the protagonist, Teufelsdrockh to understand (who goes through all the filth and foulness in life) that happiness is a relative term and is proportionate to what the individual demands from life. To his own question-“is there no God…..” he does not get an answer but an echo of something which goads him to go further in his search for something beyond what is obvious. For him the only hope which keeps his spirit alive in this valueless world is his intellectual thirst and desire to find answers to his riddles. He goes back to his childhood to reevaluate his experiences and finds that the mystery of the world grows more mysterious with each step, the people he had met had left no impressions, they were mere figures who he had encountered and all along he had ‘walked solitary’. He feels hopelessness and despair and in his heart a ‘sulphurous slow consuming fire’ which he feels would turn him to nothingness. Yet, to his surprise, religion sown by his mother keeps him together and away from death. As he moves further in life, his fear and sorrow changes to anger and rebelliousness- the state of protest against order and system. He feels that the order and system which are man- made are the cause of all evil in the world- this protest is the Everlasting No. This ‘everlasting no’ is no to the devil’s satanic school, the evil in this world which reigns supreme over all individuals. When the devil (who only knows the language of sarcasm) tells him he is an outcast Teufelsdrockh says he feels as if he has been released and now can choose his way of life and he tells the devil that he hates him and manages to extricate himself from his clutches. The statement brings a second birth of Teufelsdrockh and after he severs ties with the devil his destructive rebelliousness gets converted to a state of neutrality. He reaches a state which allows him to make philosophical speculation on history, continuity of the human race and daily human affairs. It is the ‘centre of indifference’ from where the idea of clothes emerges leading him to acknowledge the supremacy of the spiritual over the physical. The centre of indifference is the pivotal point between the negation and the affirmation. The Everlasting No is the process of character development following the second birth after the revelation, the culmination of which is yet to happen.
31.6 The Everlasting Yea
Book 2 Chapter 9
In the ‘Everlasting Yea’ Carlyle discusses his conversion from doubt to faith. It reflects not only a belief in the existence of God but also a lasting hopefulness in the existence of man. The negation of the Everlasting no becomes affirmation here. Man exists for a purpose and that purpose is different for each person. It is the philosopher who discovers the meaning of existence. Teufelsdrockh preaches that there is something higher than happiness, for happiness is too selfish. Man cannot be happy alone because happiness is relative. This something higher than happiness is blessedness, which can only come when the idea of self is obliterated. If one loves God then he believes in the world too. This belief is “borne aloft into the azure of eternity”. Teufelsdrockh speaks of his conversion in an exaggerated way-
“Es leuchtet mie ein, I see a glimpse of it…. there is in mana Higher than love of Happiness; he can do without happiness, and instead thereof find Blessedness! Was it not to preach forth this same Higher than Sages and Martyrs, the Poet and the Priest, in all times, have spoken and suffered; bearing testimony, through life and through death, of the Godlike there is Man, and how in the Godlike only has he Strength and Freedom? Which God-inspired Doctrine art thou also honoured to be taught; O Heavens! and broken with manifold merciful Afflictions, even till thou become contrite, and learn it! O, thank thy destinies for these; thankfully bear what yet remain: thou hadst need of them; the self in thee needed to be annihilated. By benignant fever-paroxysm in life rooting out the deep- seated chronic Disease, and triumphs over death. On the roaring billows of Time, thou are not engulfed, but borne aloft into the azure of Eternity. Love not pleasure; love God. This is the Everlasting Yea, wherein all contradictions solved: wherein who so walks and works, it is well with him.”
This discovery gives Teufelsdrockh a feeling of confidence in man’s life and future. The goal of human destiny, he says, is not any notion, however true, nor, is it happiness, however appealing. It is for practical purposes that the universe is built and whoever desires to be in time with the universe needs to be practical. He realizes that whatever man has created is for practical purpose alone and surrenders to the truth that what he had sought was already with him, it was just that he could not see it. He does not need to go from place to place seeking the thing which he always carried within him.
31.7 Narrative technique
Sartor Resartus is a complex book and even though falls in the genre of novel it is more of a philosophical treatise with speculation on sociology and history too. In studying its technique it is clear that it operates at two levels of narrative- one containing professor Teufelsdrockh’s musings- written on bits of paper and another carrying the editor’s critical commentary on the written matter of Teufelsdrockh. Both operate at the same level, one being a fragmented biography and the other a disjointed philosophy on clothes. Carlyle uses a disjointed narrative technique to show a disorganized picture of a disorganized reality. Carlyle does not use a direct narrative but everything in the novel is related indirectly so as to disguise his profoundness. Teufelsdrockh’s life is not told directly but narrated by the fictional editor who collects it through scraps of paper some of which are autobiographical, some investigative and some philosophical all put together haphazardly in paper bags. The editor with his sketchy understanding of the man creates the story of Teufelsdrockh, the elusive German philosopher. Thus the story is built out of biographical and autobiographical elements, essays, political and sociological discussions. All this creates a multilayered structure in the novel. The narrative, through the serious and comical, moves ahead telling the story of the philosopher Teufelsdrockh whose name and the university he is from suggest the meaninglessness of them in his life. The story follows the journey from his unsettled childhood to the self doubting youth and then to his evolution into a mature individual and final awakening to God and nature.
31.8 Notes-
Symbols are used in the book to make us decipher the deeper meaning of what Carlyle has discussed in the book. Symbols bring in the idea of the abstract into the concrete by relating it to something we can see or understand.
Clothes- First and foremost Carlyle says that nature is the ‘living garment of God’. The clothes are a symbol for symbols themselves. Man wears clothes to hide his real self and hence the clothes do not tell much about the wearer. Like he says Church clothes are as necessary as the other clothes of a dandy or a beggar. The church clothes signify religion and are necessary to keep society from collapse. One must remember that they are just clothes and be able to distinguish between appearance and reality. In this world of change the old or traditional clothes are discarded and new clothes come in place, clothes which suit the age. Clothes bring a semblance of order in society and keep the virtues of kinship, obedience and tradition intact.
The body is also a garment which cloaks the soul. The body dies making the soul invisible to us. Therefore the soul is the truth and the body an illusion. Body is a garment of flesh in which the soul resides and it at once hides and reveals the soul. It is useless to appreciate someone for his appearance and it is necessary to train oneself to look through the clothes to the soul hidden within. Similarly all science, law and systems operating in the outside world are mere materialistic things when they lose the ultimate sense of wonder and spirit.
Language- Language is a symbol of cognition and logic and has the power to reveal, hide or mislead ones intention and thoughts. Language is used to name things: Teufelsdrockh feels that the name one gets in infancy decides the future of the person like he feels happened in his life. Names are given to things of science, politics, poetry and societies and speech is directed at giving the right name to things. Carlyle advocates silence as the way to reach reality of existence, which can only come through imagination and not logic. In silence man learns to see the colour and phenomena of nature which will give him an idea of the divine.
31.9 His Contribution to English Literature
The Victorian era (1830-1901) was a period of drastic change for England. Industrialization was extending by leaps and bounds and centers of power were shifting from villages to cities, aristocrats to traders. Carlyle was one among many who did not see this change in a favorable light. He voiced his concerns through his fiction and non- fiction writing. Carlyle made a big impact upon many of his contemporaries and later writers. Dickens and Tennyson were particularly interested in his works which dealt with history and the spiritual crisis in man. He made important remarks on the emphasis of literature on the social and political condition of England. He went as far as to say that literature was replacing religion as a source of spiritual knowledge. He was convinced that a writer had a role of a prophet. He started the genre of the prophetic pattern of writing. Writings of Arnold and Ruskin show his impressions on them. Joyce, Eliot, Woolf and other modernist writers both reject and extend his philosophy. It was not only the writers whom he influenced but also scientists, politicians, religious heads, historians and other major figures of the day. What he said started the debate on the social condition of England and which elicited fiery responses. He brought the attention of Englishmen to German philosophy and literature. Carlyle became the ethical, moral and spiritual force in English Literature and his writings the possession of generations to come.
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