More Notes on Rasselas
From T’s class:
Johnson was deeply religious and troubled by religion. There was the sense of his being unworthy, with an emphasis on his fear of God. He also had an overwhelming fear of losing control, of going mad and losing control of his imagination.
He was admired for his prose style: latinate, balanced, etc.
In Rasselas, the action and characters are subordinated to ideas. The plot is a vehicle for philosophical discussion.
Despite the fact that the characters seem thing and interchangable they seem infused with issues of anxiety, desire, needs, drives. They seem remarkably modern: “give me something to desire.” The characters are invested with psychological states.
The needs in the text seem to exist in contradiction to the simplicity of the ideas.
The plot is predictable: fall from a world of innocence into a world of experience, working through the goals of life and rejecting them, finally accepting the will of God and goal of salvation.
The tale is symmetrical: it begins and ends with the flooding of the nile.
The good life has been exemplified but it is not acknowledged. When they are caring for the astronomer they form a community, caring for a man who is lost. It’s passed over in the commentary but you’re supposed to see it. The good life is living and caring for others. At this point the characters have achieved a certain maturity, doing the right things rather than simply searching for the right idea. There is a remarkably homely little more in this grandly philosophical tale.
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