Summary and Comments for the Vanity of Human Wishes
Summary: The poem begins by introducing its main proposition: that human beings—endowed by God with infinite will—can never satisfy their lofty desires. The poem can then be divided into four main sections, each of which illustrate the vanity and folly resulting from one specific type of desire. Thomas Wolsey, a member of Henry VIII’s court, is cited as an example of the folly of the quest for political power; while he did achieve some success, he eventually fell out of favor and died a miserable death. Secondly, a young scholar is profiled. Through his use of reason the scholar has managed to overcome most of the traditional human vices, but this does not result in happiness. Several scholars who died in miserable circumstances are cited (including Galileo) and the meager rewards for such a life (a “tardy bust”) hardly make up for the injuries one will suffer. Thirdly, Johnson profiles the quest for military power by Charles, King of Sweden. While he achieved many early victories, Charles was eventually defeated in his attempt to conquer Russia and died a far from heroic death, probably shot by one of his own men (I’m reminded here of Thomas Hobbes’ political philosophy, which is based around the premise that any one man can kill any other man, as Johnson illustrates, even if that man has a great deal of political power). Finally, Johnson outlines the results of long life and beauty, neither of which turns out well. For Johnson, an extended life only means greater opportunity to experience life’s various miseries, and beauty causes one to avoid substantial knowledge and courts ill fame and ruin.
The poem ends by proposing the one solution that exists in this world: Christianity. Human beings will be continuously tortured by their own infinite will until they resign that will to God. Only through this resignation will a human being achieve true happiness.
Key Passages: Rather than try and pull the poem apart and highlight how each key theme appears within it, I think I’ll pull out a few key couplets and briefly state how they work within the poem’s larger argument.
When vengeance listens to the fool’s request
Fate wings with every wish th’ afflictive dart.
The metaphor here is that of an arrow; like the feathers that keep an arrow’s flight straight, fate makes sure to punish foolhardiness. I think this is a very interesting aspect of Johnson’s theology; while one might expect him to be a little more mystical about how God punishes those who aren’t good Christians, this couplet seems to argue for a strangely tit-for-tat-type system of rewards and punishments. However, one can easily view the source of the punishment not as a deus ex machina, but as the inevitable consequence of the vices that are highlighted in the poem.
Wealth heaped on wealth, nor truth nor safety buys,
The dangers gather as the treasures rise.
This couplet illustrates just that point, that far from bringing happiness, riches actually make one more vulnerable to violence because the acquisition of wealth seems, necessarily, to come with a higher profile. While “Vanity…” is far from a pastoral, it seems that the people who toil away on farms and such avoid much of the misery that the more ambitious folk encounter.
Delusive Fortune hears th’ incessant call,
They mount, they shine, evaporate, and fall.
This is one of my favorite images in the poem, in which “Delusive Fortune” is compared with fireworks. I think it’s a wonderful comparison: fireworks are bright, flashy and captivating, but they are also short-lived and completely useless.
Grief aides disease, remembered folly stings,
And his last sighs reproach the faith of kings.
This couplet recounts the death of Thomas Wolsey, a favorite in Henry VII’s court, doing a great job of illustrating the snowball effect of misery. However, the end of Wolsey’s life is not only embroiled in the current miseries he undergoes, he also regrets the actions of his earlier life, thus negating whatever pleasures he might have felt along the way.
O’er Bodley’s dome his future labours spread,
And Bacon’s mansion trembles o’er his head.
Another one of my favorite bits of imagery in the poem, this refers to two landmarks on the campus of Oxford University. The first referes to Bodley library, in which the scholar’s future works will be catalogued, and the second a structure on Folly Bridge supposedly inhabited by medeival scholar Roger Bacon; legend has it that when a scholar greater than Bacon passes under the bridge, it will collapse. I love the way these two monuments to the academy loom overhead, just as the works of previous scholars loom over the young scholar who wants desperately to say something new and exciting. The trembling mansion, then, makes one think that the weight of past scholarship could, at any moment, collapse on the young scholar, completely suffocating him.
See nations slowly wise, and meanly just,
To buried merit raise the tardy bust.
A beautiful couplet highlighting the unlikelihood of the truly brilliant scholar’s ideas ever being popularly appreciated during his lifetime.
Around his tomb let Art and Genius weep,
But hear his death, ye blockheads, hear and sleep.
Another great one on the theme above.
Hides himself from his state, and shuns to know,
That life protracted is protracted woe.
This couplet describes the man who asks for eternal life, and its point is pretty obvious.
With listless eyes the dotard views the store,
He views, and wonders they please no more;
Now pall the tasteless meats and joyless wines,
And Luxury with sighs her slave resigns.
Not only does the old person’s senility cause pain, but it actually takes away life’s pleasures. In fact, I’m tempted to read this more generally, that even without senility human beings require novelty and, hence, one can only get so much pleasure from material things before they are no longer exciting and luxurious, but merely mundane.
Who frown with vanity, who smile with art,
And ask the latest fashion of the heart.
This passage comes during the description of the beautiful young woman, and in it Johnson seems to deplore the way that real emotion seems to slide off of fashionable society as if it were teflon-coated. When one concentrates so much energy on erecting the type of artificial facade required by fashionable society, inevitably what’s behind the facade seems to evaporate. When you follow the “fashion of the heart,” you lose the real joys of the heart. One can certainly see this theme at work in novels like Evelina, Betsy Thoughtless and even Emma.
Pour forth thy fervours for a healthful mind,
Obedient passions, and a will resigned.
While keeping one’s passions in check is certainly useful, I think the really important part of the Christian-themed conclusion of the poem is the resignation of the will. Most seventeenth and eighteenth-century philosophers acknowledged the infinite nature of human will, as well as the impossibility of our limited power ever fulfilling the demands of the will. What a modern reader might be tempted to interpret as a “flaw” in human nature (a concept inconsistent with Christian theology, as God is perfect and could not make an imperfect creation), Johnson seems to cast as a sort of test. Because our will is infinite it is the way in which human beings most resemble God. Only when we give this—what is perhaps our greatest gift from God—back to him can we be truly happy.
Tags:
Fatal error: Call to undefined function: the_post_keytags() in /usr/home/deepfry/public_html/18cblog/wp-content/themes/desert_theme/index.php on line 22