The Six Elements Of Transcendentalism In Dead Poets Society

Many philosophers studied long and hard focusing on transcendentalism. Transcendentalism is the process of transcending the material world, and paving your own path through life as an individual. The idea was started by Ralph Waldo Emerson, and latter continued with his student Henry David Thoreau, and then Walt Whitman. Along with these men, transcendentalism had a main role in the events of Dead Poets Society directed by Peter Weir. These three men, and movie all follow the six elements of transcendentalism. The six elements are, intuition, optimism, simplicity, individualism, civil disobedience, and soul. When someone has intuition it means that when they are encountered with a question or decision they know the answer instantly and or go with their gut. Emerson has an example of intuition in his essay titled Self- Reliance. In this essay he writes, "Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string." (Emerson, 1841) In this sentence he is literally saying to trust your instincts because your instincts are right. While Henry David Thoreau lived two years of his life in the woods on his own he was also practicing self reliance. To survive in the woods he relied on his instincts …show more content…
Emerson was disobedient in a way that he taught you have to go against society to transcend. Thoreau was also disobedient because he moved to the woods along out of choice, "For I’d rather be thy child And pupil, in the forest wild, Than be the king of men elsewhere." (Thoreau, 1836). Many people would not chose to move into the woods, let alone with only the bare necessities. Whitman was by far the most disobedient author. Not only did he write about disobedience, but he lived it. Whitman was believed to be a homosexual, which at the time was not understood or common. The boys in Dead Poets Society were also very disobedient, reviving the dead poets society even when they were told not