For Monday, let's focus on the first five chapters of Samuel Johnson's romance,
Rasselas, on pages 2680-87. In the first two chapters, the Happy Valley is described as a man-made paradise. Rasselas, a prince of Abyssinia, has everything anyone could desire. Or does he? Why do you think Rasselas wants to leave the Happy Valley?
In the Happy Valley ,"Every art was practiced to make them pleased with their own condition."Rasselas does not have everything anyone could desire;even in this "perfect" world."Thus they rose every morning and lay down at night,pleased with each other and with themselves all but Rasselas,who,in the twenty-sixth year of his age,began to withdraw himself from their pastimes and assemblies,and to delight in solitary walks and silent meditation."
ReplyDeleteRasselas goes on to say that every beast seems to be satisfied and ends up sleeping peacefully;however, he on the other hand says he is not satisfied with fullness.He seems to be more observant more so than the other sons and daughters,therefore he seems to live in fear.I see this when he says,"I fear pain even though I do not feel it."(page 2683)
Rasselas tries to escape pleasure because he says "pleasure has ceased too please;I am lonely because I am miserable,and am unwilling to cloud with my presence the happiness of others."(2684)
Rasselas doesn't seem content with the life he has been given.Rasselas wants to leave the Happy Valley because he feels that everyday is similar, and that he has nothing to desire.He is not even sure what to wish for because he doesn't know what would satisfy him.You see this when he says,"I find one day and one hour exactly like another,except that the latter is still more tedious than the former."
In Samuel Johnson’s, Rasselas, Abyssinia is a land that contains everything a human could desire. Although the prince, Rasselas, has anything a young man could ever want, he is not content. In the valley, “Every art was practised to make them pleased with their own condition. The sages who instructed them, told them of nothing but the miseries of public life, and described all beyond the mountains as regions of calamity, where discord was always raging, and where man preyed upon man.” The royal family was surrounded by every carnal pleasure. Johnson does a great job in highlighting the void every human has. No matter how much someone has in their life it is never enough and they always crave more. Rasselas’ unhappiness and discontent can be seen at the beginning of chapter 2 when Johnson says, “He often sat before tables covered with luxury, and forgot to taste the dainties that were placed before him: he rose abruptly in the midst of the song, and hastily retired beyond the sound of musick.” Rasselas’ void can also be seen at the end of chapter 2 when he relates his unceasing desires to the animals around him, “Every beast that strays beside me has the same corporal necessities with myself; he is hungry and crops the grass, he is thirsty and drinks the stream, his thirst and hunger are appeased, he is satisfied and sleeps; he rises again and is hungry, he is again fed and is at rest. I am hungry and thirsty like him, but when thirst and hunger cease I am not at rest; I am, like him, pained with want, but am not, like him, satisfied with fulness.” Rasselas reaches a stage in his life when he believes true happiness is not having everything you want. The reason Rasselas wants to leave Happy Valley is because he wants to see what makes other people in the world happy and try it for himself.
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with Redvelvet when he or she stated that Prince Rasselas wants to leave the land because everyday is similar and he has nothing to desire. I do believe that is why Rasselas wanted to leave the Happy Valley. Rasselas and his companions left Abyssinia in order to fulfill some desires distinct from sense which must be satisfied before they can be happy. They desire to find true happiness, and believe a change in geographical location, may provide them with greater happiness. They change locations several times, and in their travels, find many answers indicating the way to obtain happiness. Prince Rasselas lives a happy life in his kingdom of Abyssinia, an extremely fertile land where every human want is provided for with the least possible labor. However, despite the fact that he can have no wants, Rasselas grows bored with his life, and in the absence of any wants he begins to want a want. He says, "I likewise can call the lutanist and the singer, but the sounds that pleased me yesterday weary me today, and will grow yet more wearisome tomorrow."(Pg 2683)
ReplyDeleteHis chief desire is to get over the mountains that separate Abyssinia from the rest of the world, that he may learn about how other human beings live. He makes acquaintance with a scientist who is attempting to build a flying machine, but when that man tests the machine he crashes into a lake and nearly dies. Next, Rasselas becomes friends with the poet Imlac, who grew up outside of Abyssinia.
I agree with Miracle when he says that Rasselas wants to leave Happy Valley because he has nothing to desire. Happy Valley is a very routine place and has nothing to look forward too. Every day is exactly like the last and Resselas is growing bored of living the same life day to day. Resselas had "Many hours, both of the night and day, which he could spend without suspicion in solitary thought."(pg. 2683) This meaning Resselas was able to imagine and dream what the world outside of Happy Valley would be like without raising any growing suspicion of his unhappiness. He may have everything anyone could ever ask for when it comes to material items, but he is not free and independent like everyone else. He wants to leave Happy Valley so he can explore the world and face terrifying and exciting new things that come his way. I think one of the things that scares Rasselas the most is once he leaves, he may not be able to enter back into the gates of Happy Valley and the stories that have been told to him all of his life that discouraged him from leaving may also frighten him.
ReplyDeleteHis day to day routine events leave Rosselas in a bit of a rut and the nights drag on until the morning sun rises when he repeats the same things. With his new plan of getting out of Happy Valley, the time does not seem so long and at the end of chapter five, Rosselas is beginning to figure out a plan of how to get out of his own prison.
-Sunflower92
In this sense I agree with Red Velvet, Rasselas needed to go out and experience all of the beautiful things life has to offer. Rasselas wants to leave Happy Valley in search of happiness by examining and experiencing human suffering. It seems as if Rasselas had the perfect life. He was Prince of Abyssinia and would later be called to the throne. Rasselas became displeased with life in Happy Valley because everything was too happy and perfect. It was a paradise, but twenty-six years of paradise could become overwhelming and redundant. He needed a balance. Chapter two states, “…all but Rasselas, who, in the twenty-sixth year of his age, began to withdraw himself from their pastimes and assemblies, and to delight in solitary walks and silent meditation.” This phrase really encloses all of his desires and dreams about experiencing life outside of the palace.
ReplyDeleteToo much of anything, including happiness can smother a person and make them want to escape. He wants to escape a world that is too perfect, and experience a life that is not so one-sided. He wants to experience struggle and suffering so he can see what these emotions feel like. A great question was posed in Chapter 3; it states, “If you want nothing, how are you unhappy?” That is a great question and poses a great argument. How can someone who wants for nothing in particular be unhappy? To go through the same routine every single day and to go through absolutely no problems is too perfect. There has to be a little chaos in everyone’s life to make it interesting sometimes.
----Dream Big
Simply put, Rasselas wants to leave Happy Valley because he is bored. He has everything he could ever possibly need or desire at his fingertips and he tires of it. He finds “one day and one hour exactly like another, except that the latter is still more tedious than the former.” However, while Dream Big seems to frame this as a noble quest- “to escape a world that is too perfect” and seek firsthand experience of suffering and misery- I think it just seems self-indulgent. His entire speech in the third chapter absolutely reeks of a petulant child seeking attention: “I am lonely because I am miserable, and am unwilling to cloud with my presence the happiness of others.” He’s so bored of happiness that he’s driving himself to misery so that he can at least feel something. It’s not a healthy thought process- it’s self-destructive and stupid. Actively seeking out pain and misery and losing interest in everything that once were sources of pleasure are symptoms of depression and warning signs of suicide; the way it’s being romanticized as some quest for happiness is disgusting.
ReplyDeleteHe says that he longs “to see the miseries of the world, since the sight of them is necessary to happiness.” It’s just the kind of vague statement that seems profound and knowledgeable as long as you don’t actually try to think about it. In reality it’s just trite and meaningless. True pain doesn’t make you happier. No one ever thinks how glad they are they were raped or tortured or had to watch a family member die a meaningless death.
In Samuel Johnson's, Rasselas, Prince Rasselas is discontent with his world and reality. The city of Abysinnia is the gem of the world, where all things desirable and longed for is found. And in that, I agree with dirtybird11. For in Abysinnia, "Every art was practiced to make them pleased with their own condition." The book goes on to describe the amenities, every bird, all animals of the world, every flower from the corner of the earth, musicians, artists and more fill the scenery to distill the potential of boredom. He has everything in reach, in eyes of many, but the most important thing he does not have is diversity of view, diversity of content, diversity in perspective, the liberty to freely choose. Johnson uses Rasselas as the template for the unsatisfied individual amidst the grand lifestyle they live. Money, fame, or prestige can truly satisfy a person, for some reason many of us find ourselves discontent, even still after we get that "thing." For the prince, this lifestyle is a drag of repetition and perpetual punishment of things already seen, already foretasted. "I likewise can call the lutanist and the singer, but the sounds that pleased me yesterday weary me today, and will grow yet more wearisome tomorrow." His words describe the the pain of living in reiteration, for nothing is new. He then begins a hunger to extend his life past the mountain of Abysinnia to see what is out there, all that he does not know. For him, the thought of knowing something he does not know yet has become the greatest moment of his life. It burns in him until the idea comes into fruition with the help of a man named Imlac, and the quest begins.
ReplyDelete-Annie08