Topic > True Nature and Corruption in Jean Jacques Rousseau's "Emile"

In Rousseau's Emile, all things created naturally are intrinsically good. Rousseau claims that man and society are what corrupt Amour de son (or self-love that is innate and useful), transforming it into Amour proper (or self-love under social pressure). To be a good man, just stay true to nature. This process is shown when the tutor, Jean-Jacques, isolates Emile from society as a child. A moral man, however, is different from a good man: when faced with a non-natural question such as the causes of self-love, a moral man can maintain his goodness. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The tutor tests and cultivates Emile's imagination and morality by channeling these qualities into love for others and guiding him through his courtship and eventual marriage to Sofia. Emile transforms himself into a "moral man" from 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-love is inevitable. Regarding 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... this is a source of emulation, rivalry 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, Emile makes himself more desirable by "...[by] redoubling his efforts to make himself lovable" (431). His method of surpassing his rivals is the result of the tutor's efforts in guiding Emile's imagination towards good things rather than towards things beyond his achievable limit, as shown earlier in the book when the tutor says, "I don't stifle his imagination… Talk to him about love, about women, about pleasures” (325). Pointing Emile in the right direction, he channels Emile's imagination towards love and self-improvement rather than towards the repression of others. love impulses. In a way, the tutor manages to make Emile transform his self-love into amour de soi, as his desire for Sophie's love and approval leads him to improve himself to achieve a romantic goal . The tutor's cultivation of Emile's imagination begins when he allows Emile to feel pity towards other men and creatures. At first, "...[Emile] hardly knows that other beings also suffer. To see it without feeling it is not knowing it" (222). With the first emergence of the imagination, "...[Emile] begins to feel in his fellow men, to be moved by their complaints and to suffer for their pains... Thus he is born pity, the first relative feeling that touches the human being. "heart" (222). The tutor wants pity and the emotions that derive from it to be the result of the imagination and wants to exclude evil emotions such as envy, greed and hatred. To do this, says Jean-Jacques: "To excite and nourish this [imagination]... what is there to do other than offer the young person objects on which the expansive force of his heart can act - objects that dilate the heart? , who 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 while visiting Sophie. As Emile says to Sophie, "...do not hope to make me forget the rights of humanity. To me they are more sacred than yours. I will never give them up for you" (441).;.