Transcendentalism In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Old Manse

In “The Old Manse,” Nathaniel Hawthorne criticizes Emerson and the Transcendentalists, rendering the entire movement dispensable. Hawthorne writes, “Never was a poor little country village infested with such a variety of queer, strangely dressed, oddly behaved mortals, most of whom took upon themselves to be important agents of the world’s destiny,” showing his general dislike for the Emerson and his followers. Using words such as “infested” and “queer” that typically occupy a negative connotation and are not words of admiration, Hawthorne demonstrates this dislike through, for all intensive purposes, calling the Transcendentalists odd and peculiar. Additionally, Hawthorne writes, “Such, I imagine, is the invariable character of persons who crowd so closely about an original thinker...and thus become imbued with a false originality,” exhibiting how he views the Transcendentalist movement as a group of people who, following “an original thinker” or Emerson, gain false and unoriginal ideas.

Furthermore, Hawthorne writes, “[P]ray that the world may be petrified and rendered immovable, in precisely the worst moral and physical state that it ever yet arrived at, rather than be benefitted by such schemes of such philosophers,” demonstrating his complete disapproval of Transcendentalism. In fact, Hawthorne even goes to the extent to say that the world would be better off “petrified and rendered immovable,” than advanced by the teachings of Transcendentalists. His utter dislike and condemnation of Transcendentalism in this instance signifies how he feels the world would be better off without it and that its presence may corrupt the morals of the world. Therefore, Hawthorne deeply criticizes Emerson and his followers by demonstrating that Transcendentalism is superfluous and threatening if it impacted the