43 pages • 1 hour read
Jerome Lawrence, Robert E. LeeThe Night Thoreau Spent In Jail
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1970A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Philosophical Context: Transcendentalism and the Relationship Between Emerson and Thoreau
American Transcendentalism emerged in the early 1800s. The philosophy promoted self-reliance and the appreciation of nature, as well as emotional, intuitive spiritual experience over logic and religious tradition. Transcendentalists believed that individuals could have direct experiences with God without intermediaries, that humans are essentially good, and that modern materialism and conformity mislead people, distracting them from what is truly important.
The Transcendental Club convened in 1836 when Ralph Waldo Emerson and three ministers—all Harvard alumni—met to discuss the increasingly conservative and rationalist Unitarian Church. Four years before, Emerson gave up his position as a Unitarian minister; The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail mentions this event. Emerson chose to do this because he felt “increasingly at odds with the church and its philosophy” (Walsh, Colleen. “When Religion Turned Inward.” The Harvard Gazette, 16 Feb. 2012). Around the same time that the Transcendental Club began meeting, Emerson published Nature, outlining Transcendentalism’s main ideas. He traveled frequently between Europe and America, lecturing and conversing with other thought leaders. He believed the world was comprised of soul and nature and that “People […] have knowledge about themselves and the world around them that ‘transcends’ or goes beyond what they can see, hear, taste, touch or feel” (“Transcendentalism, An American Philosophy.” US History). People’s wisdom and knowledge come not from the data they collect through their senses but, rather, from their intuition. Emerson believed people can grow this intuition by rejecting conformity and materialism, spending time in nature, and becoming self-reliant. He said each individual possesses a spark of the divine that connects all people with each other, nature, and God; he referred to this entity as the Over-Soul. Emerson is considered to be the “first truly ‘American’ thinker” (“Transcendentalism, An American Philosophy”), and his ideas were particularly inspiring to Henry David Thoreau.
Emerson and Thoreau met in 1836, when Emerson was around 33 and Thoreau was just 19. Struck by Emerson’s engaging manner and new ideas, Thoreau became a devotee. Soon, Emerson returned his admiration: “Emerson advocated on behalf of Thoreau in the early days of their relationship and then came to admire Thoreau as a greater talent than himself” (Marmo O’Brien, Cynthia-Marie. “Review: The Remarkable Friendship of Emerson and Thoreau.” America, 1 Jan. 2020). Later, however, Thoreau began to question their friendship, though Emerson continued to admire him, writing: “Thoreau gives me, in flesh and blood and pertinacious Saxon belief, my own ethics. He is far more real, and daily practically obeying them, than I” (Manzari, Alireza. “Nature in American Transcendentalism.” English Language and Literature Studies, 2012, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 61-68). Their changing relationship is reflected throughout the play, in which Thoreau refers to Emerson by his middle name, Waldo. Young Henry tells his brother about Waldo, saying, “I got more from one man […] than I learned in four years of academic droning and snorting at Cambridge” (7). By the end of Act I, however, Henry raises his voice at Waldo “Defiantly, [while] pointing accusingly” at Waldo for paying his tax, since it is a move that supports the Mexican war and the expansion of enslavement (67). Finally, Waldo describes Henry as his “walking ethic” while Henry accuses his one-time mentor of “singing […] spineless benedictions” instead of using his influence to produce real social change (87). In the play, Waldo knows that Henry lives by Transcendental philosophy to a greater extent than he does, just as the real-life Emerson knew that Thoreau embodied the philosophy much more fully than he could.
Historical Context: Mid-19th Century America
In 1840s America, several problems concerned transcendentalists like Henry David Thoreau. Industrialization threatened the environment, the Mexican American War compromised American values, and legal enslavement persisted. This historical context is important to the play’s events and themes.
Thoreau is widely credited as being one of the first conservationists. He railed against rampant materialism and social conformity and “articulated a philosophy based on environmental and social responsibility, resource efficiency, and living simply” (“It’s Easy Being Green.” Center for American Progress, 13 July 2011). In the play, when Henry takes Ellen Sewell out in the boat, he laments the deforestation around the pond, asking, “What’s the use of a house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?” (34). With the decline of agriculture and the rise of industry, Thoreau was deeply concerned that modern materialism would have devastating environmental consequences; likewise, in the play, Henry says that people are “poisoning paradise” (33). The play is set during the time in which Henry David Thoreau resided at Walden Pond, seeking to live as simply as possible. He resided in his tiny cabin, grew most of his food, and refused common expenses like new clothes, unless absolutely necessary.
At the time, President James Polk initiated the Mexican American War in 1846 by falsely claiming that Mexican soldiers attacked Americans on American soil. In truth, the border between Texas and Mexico was long disputed, and when Texas gained statehood in 1845, the U.S. got dragged into the conflict. Many Northerners opposed the war, believing that annexing land adjacent to states where enslavement was legal would lead to the expansion of enslavement. Some Southerners also opposed the war, believing such disputes would tear the country apart. In 1848, “the House of Representatives […] passed a resolution pronouncing the war ‘unnecessarily and unconstitutionally begun’ because Polk had deliberately induced it” (Waxman, Matthew. “The Mexican-American War and Constitutional War Powers.” Lawfare, 2 Feb. 2020).
In the play, Sam Staples alludes to the war when he explains why he must serve Henry with a court order. Sam says, “The government gets persnickety about taxes when we got a war goin’” (60). Henry refuses to contribute his money, claiming he “will not pay one copper penny to an unjust government” that uses the money to fund the war—especially one begun on false pretenses that resulted in the killing of thousands of Mexicans on their own land, and that would likely extend enslavement. Henry continues, telling Sam, “If I don’t approve the way [my] dollar’s being spent, you’re not going to get it!” (63). Likewise, in Thoreau’s essay “Resistance to Civil Government (1849), he writes, “It is not a man’s duty […] to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous wrong; […] but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and […] not to give it practically his support” (Thoreau, Henry David. “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience.” Project Gutenberg). Thoreau argued that without money, the war effort would starve, and if all honest people refused their financial support, the war would have to end. Similarly, in the play, Henry claims it would be “criminal” of him to pay, knowing how his money will be used.
This is why Henry is furious in the play when Waldo pays his tax, which dramatizes Thoreau’s concerns with Emerson’s commitment to his principles. Henry says to Waldo: “You cast your ballot with your right hand—but has your left hand killed Henry Williams, running to be free!” (87). Though Waldo voted for a candidate who opposes enslavement and the war, he gives the government money that is used to support these institutions. In Henry’s view, Waldo’s vote is far less effective than the financial support Waldo provides via his taxes. Likewise, in his famous essay on civil disobedience, Thoreau asks:
What is the price-current of an honest man and patriot today? They hesitate, and they regret, and sometimes they petition; but they do nothing in earnest and with effect. They will wait, well disposed, for others to remedy the evil, that they may no longer have it to regret. At most, they give only a cheap vote (Thoreau, Henry David. “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience”).
Ultimately, Henry’s disillusionment with Waldo in the play echoes the real-life Thoreau’s doubts about men like Emerson who espouse nonconformity while enjoying the benefits of conformity and who profess to hate enslavement while financially supporting a government that sanctions it. Thoreau’s disappointment in his community’s materialism is evident in Henry’s desire to live simply and his grief over the lost cedars on Walden’s banks. The very real problems that plagued 19th century America repeatedly surface in The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail.
