“Finding yourself” is a common enough term today. I would
say most people are interested in introspective pondering and working to figure
out what makes them feel content and fulfilled. This type of thinking also abounded
in the Renaissance. Rather than think only what they were told to think and do
what they had to do to survive, people in the Renaissance began to think about
the world and themselves in different ways than ever before.
 |
| Michel de Montaigne, the first essayist. |
A leader in this art was the writer Montaigne. He wrote about his daily life, musing about one topic or another, basically recording his thoughts on paper. These writings he coined “essais” after the French word “essayer,” meaning “to try.” Montaigne’s musings were attempts to understand himself and his world, and they often delved into ideas that were deeper than their titles.
People read Montaigne’s essays and were amazed to see the
situations they had experienced and feelings they had felt written so
brilliantly. A line from We Taste Nothing
Purely reads “In sadness there is some alloy of pleasure.” I know exactly the
feeling he is talking about, but I would never have even thought to put it into
words. His essays also opened people’s minds to new ideas, which was an
integral aspect of the Renaissance. On
Cannibals, for example, explores the idea that the cannibals Montaigne met
in Brazil could be more moral than the “civilized” people of Europe.
The desire to put everyday thoughts and experiences into
words never died out; Montaigne has influenced writers for centuries. Personal
essays of today still exhibit that humanistic exploration of self. Joyas Voladoras, written in 2004 by the
late Brian Doyle, contemplates the heart. “We are utterly open with no one in
the end—not mother and father, not wife or husband, not lover, not child, not
friend. We open windows to each but we live alone in the house of the heart.
Perhaps we must.”
It’s certainly a testament to humanist ideals that, after
all this time of people exploring what it means to be human, we’re still trying
to figure it out.
Image credit: Portrait of Michel de Montaigne, circa unknown by unknown author is in the public domain.
I think it is a very common thing to want to put ones thoughts and feelings into words. It is often quite difficult to do this effectively. Often our language betrays us and we can't adequately portray what our emotions or thoughts truly mean. It makes it even more beautiful and impressive when a writer or thinker expresses something so eloquently.
ReplyDeleteI think we know what it means to be human. Everyone somewhere has an innate sense of what humanity means. I think what we're really looking for is the right way to say it. We want to be able to express our humanity. From this desire stems all the paintings and books and plays and art that have ever been created. Knowing what humanity is for ourselves is not enough. We have to be able to tell someone else. We have to be able to share. And what's more human than that?
ReplyDeleteAlyssa, I'm not sure that we all do know what it means to be human. That is why reading these essays that reveal some part of our nature that we hadn't realized, or call up some feelings that we haven't felt before are so popular. They show us our humanity, like Haley is trying to say
ReplyDeleteI love how you talk about Montaigne's ability to put emotions into words. I have had many times in life where I have read or heard something that descibes perfectly what I feel. I think to be human is to have simple experiences like this, because we discover that others feel similar things, and even found a way to tell us what we can't understand about ourselves. To be human we have to rely on each other!
ReplyDelete