The Virtual Coffeehouse

After re-reading various sections of the text as well as re-reading already posted responses, I still remain quite confused. After just reading the first page of Sartor Resartus you can see how pessimistic the protagonist's view of religion and life is. This was shown through a quote that stood out to me where he says "to me the universe was all void of life, of purpose, of volition, even of hostility...". I wonder to myself if the universe is truly purposeless why do questions of happiness vs blessidness even arise and if it is void of life why is he feeling emotions such as fear over death?

The other part that stood out to me was when he reaches his "spiritual newbirth" and he is given strength he has never experienced before. I believe that facing your faces head on and admitting there is fear can do a lot for an individual and thus begins your transformation.

i meant to say fears not faces haha sry

After reading what Lauren wrote about Tuefelsdrockh's religious questioning, I picked up on one of his philosophical questions that has a somewhat angry, and what Lauren said, pessimistic tone. Tuefelsdrockh seems to be asking in the opening pages of Sartor Resartus, "what is the role of God in modern society?"

Tuefelsdrockh answers his question by asking the reader to consider what God's present role is in the universe. He says, "'is there no God, then; but at best an absentee God, sitting idle, ever since the first Sabbath, at the outside of his universe and seeing it go? Has the word Duty no meaning...'" (1007). What Tuefelsdrockh is saying is, "where has God been and what has he been doing since he created the Earth?" By asking this quesiton, it seems implicit that the answer would be not much, according to Tuefelsdrockh. Tuefelsdrockh implies that God has an obligation to humanity, but has not fulfilled this. Therefore, Tuefelsdrockh's religious questions about the role of God in everyday life indicate an anger that He has not done more.

I agree with your assessment of Carlyle’s answer in that he does seem to indicate an absent God who has left mankind. For me the modern philosophy of existentialism comes to mind. Existentialism’s key philosophy is that God is absent in a sense, and mankind is left alone in the world. In other words, man/woman is responsible for his or her own actions without a spiritual force intervening. For me, this reminds me of the class discussion we had last time we met on Thursday about historical periods/movements. While the philosophy of existentialism is attributed to twentieth century philosophers such as Nietzsche, I am left wondering the impact of this earlier work on later existential writing. Are the ideas expressed in this work actually considered to be existentialist or are they merely similar to the more modern view of the philosophy?

i agree with the previous post, and got the same feeling from the reading. i felt that the entire story begins very pessimistic, and continues with this woe-as-me tone. also i think that most of the anger the professor feels comes from this woe-as-me idea; he states numerous times that the world and universe is out to get him and make his life miserable. Also as stated before, he seems to think that God is an idol figure just watching his creation through life without helping them, and thus allowing more destruction and pain to exist.

I, too, agree with the previous posts. I got the impression that in the beginning Teufelsdrockh had a very pessimistic outlook on life, religion, and the world in general. Then at one point, he has an epiphany and comes to question his fear. He comes to the realization that his fear, like religion, isn't tangible and therefore his fears are unfounded. ("Having no hope, neither had I any definite fear, were it of Man or of Devil: nay, I often felt as if it might be solacing, could the Arch-Devil himself, though in Tartarean terrors, but rise to me, that I might tell him a little of my mind" p1010) In this quote Carlyle is commenting on people blindly accepting religion and living their lives in fear because of it.