Wordsworthian Reflection of Rousseau’s Nature

Abstract

Tracing Emile or Education, this paper examines the relationship between Rousseau and Wordsworth. It elaborates how Rousseau’s contents are reflected in Wordsworth’s poetry. Wordsworth’s early poems dealing with his childhood show Rousseau’s influence upon him in various parts. In the course of examining these influences, this paper explores the ideological core of the views of children, nature and education that Rousseau and Wordsworth show. Based upon the view that human nature is fundamentally good, they pay deep regard to nature and children. They believe that the human nature is good, and the good nature of human beings comes from nature. Suggesting that it is important to keep this nature well, they also emphasize the importance of emotion and the education of nature. They hold that the purpose of education to be completed when human beings are young is to foster emotion. This is because the education of nature is related to the ability and sensory organs that are latent in human beings. Wordsworth demonstrates through his poetry that nature and human spirit are in perfect harmony. The human mind obtains a sense of strengthening the power of harmony through the process of giving meaning to nature and grasping the meaning inherent in nature. After further observation of nature, he proves Rousseau’s ideas in an easy-to-understand fashion through the process of forming an intuitive sense of the order or rule of nature hidden behind the phenomenon, and apprehending the existence of strange and extraordinary transcendent powers.