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“Character” is an essay written by American transcendentalist philosopher, essayist, and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1844. It picks up the recurring theme of Nature as in many of Emerson's essays, as there must be something in people of great personalities other than their reputation and work, namely a character. A character is something tied to a man of authority, a particular “indemonstrable force that guides the impulses”. He further defines it as a magnetism that represents more and is more trustworthy than it could possibly enact. “Character is this moral order seen through the medium of an individual nature.” The poem introducing the essay to the reader goes as follows:

Work of his hand

He nor commends nor grieves:

Pleads for itself the fact;

As unrepenting Nature leaves

Her every act.

In order to be able to enact your own will and genius and to avoid not being able to always see things from a higher perspective, he underlines the importance of owning a fine and aspiring character. Character is all-encompassing in all aspects of life. It is in direct connection to friendships, relations, politics, society, actions, and decisions.

Summary
The essay starts off by giving examples of representatives that have been important to history and politics.” Sir Phillip Sidney, the Earl of Essex, Sir Walter Raleigh, are men of great figure, and of few deeds.” The question arises of what in these seemingly great men is so great that it struck our attention and made us believe in them, though their reputation outran all their performance. Emerson believes strongly that these men own something called character. Everybody trying to resist this strong, incomparable force, will learn that resistance is wasted, as “nowhere are its emotions or opinions so instant and true as in them”. A character has insights into society's structures, and the habit of his mind inspires respect in many people. In that way, the character has the power to make his power trusted because he represents more than he objectively could take action.

Character is a force of nature, therefore Emerson gives the analogy of water. “Higher nature overpowers lower ones by affecting them with a certain sleep.” Nature cooperates with nature, thus the presence of a character will be felt by all others. A character represents the truth as it “is the summit of being: justice is the application of it to affairs.” No different from that, we can throw a stone in the air, but the law of gravity will always make it fall down to earth again. The manners of his soul will represent the potential of solving any issues with virtuous and respective behaviour. The character simply represents “the conscience of the society to which they belong ''. Thus, a character is a representation of nature in a society. Emerson further explains the bipolarity of nature. The female and the male coexist, as do the north and south, the positive and negative and the action and the will. The same concept of bipolarity applies to human actions as well. In comparison to hearing one's faults and worshipping events for gained perspective, profit and hurt of an action always exist. Power and victory are simply natural fruits of the insight character has into the bipolarity and divinity of nature. Therefore it is not smart to be in constant search for power and victory, but instead be a ethical human in order to get these byproducts.

We are always surrounded by ourselves because we are our own centrality. We only always see our own perspective, but what we see in others is always just a reflection of ourselves. We are thus encouraged by Emerson to take actions in accordance with our substance. There is always a way to serve up to our character a bit more. This is also why, “new actions are the only apologies and explanations of old ones”, as we should for instance not be friends with people that did us wrong and act as if nothing happened. What has to happen instead is that two people that know themselves and are able to communicate with each other, should withstand differences and disagreements. Values that friends will deliver us are grace, boldness and eloquence. These are not values of the ego, but of the soul. Emerson further explains that you cannot praise or insult a man of character because his ego will not be hurt or flattered by it anyway. The only thing that matters is to have a character in relation to nature, as “character is nature in its highest form”. A character cannot be emulated and it does not fancy intellect, though it is excited by it. As nature overpowers any other manly will or action, a character will do so too. A character has its own way, no laws, no pert sermons, no disciplines will contribute or take away from its wisdom. The question arises of how a character is born and how we believe in strong characters. Emerson's answer to that is that divine persons are character born and they always bring in the ingredient of a new way into the world because in nature no two men are alike. No character will be comparable to another one because it is in an unprecedented way and it needs room to develop its own way. Emerson is of the opinion that we are born believers in great men, so we hold on to ideals like gods. “The history of those gods and saints which the world has written, and then worshipped, are documents of character”. What we look for in divine persons is the character and the friend in one person.

To sum up, a character is a man that has no doubt, no misgiving, avoids no confrontation and knows his mission and how to serve in relation to nature. The friendship of two men that know their characters and that exchange knowledge, both virtuous, makes institutions like churches and politics cheap.

Insight
The essay offers a profound look at the need for individualism in society to be a person of own morals and understanding that institutions cannot determine your happiness. Mid-essay, Emerson explains:

The reason why we feel one man's presence, and do not feel another's, is as simple as gravity. Truth is the summit f being: justice is the application of it to affairs. All individual natures stand in a scale, according to the purity of this element in them. The will of the pure runs down from them into other natures, as water runs down from a higher into a lower vessel. This natural force is no more to be withstood, than any other natural force. We can drive a stone upward for a moment into the air, but it is yet true that all stones will forever fall; and whatever instances can be quoted of unpunished theft, or of a lie which somebody credited, justice must prevail, and it is the privilege of truth to make itself believed. Character is this moral order seen through the medium of an individual nature. An individual is an encloser. Time and space, liberty and necessity, truth and thought are left at large no longer. Now, the universe is a close or pound. All things exist in the man tinged with the manners of his soul.

Quotations
"The purest literary talent appears at one time great, at another time small, but character is of stellar and undiminishable greatness. What others effect by talent or by eloquence, this man accomplishes by some magnetism."

“Character is this moral order seen through the medium of an individual nature.”

"Character is centrality, the impossibility of being displaced or overset."

"Our action should rest mathematically on our substance. In nature, there are no false valuations. A pound of water in the ocean-tempest has no more gravity than in a midsummer pond. All things work exactly according to their quality, and according to their quantity; attempt nothing, they cannot do, except man only. He has pretension: he wishes and attempts things beyond his force."

"Character repudiated intellect, yet excites it; and character passes into thought, is published so, and then is ashamed before new flashes of moral worth."

"A divine person is the prophecy of the mind; a friend is the hope of the heart. Our beatitude waits for the fulfillment of these two in one."

Influences
“Character” was published in the second series of essays by Emerson. This series contains the essays:  "The Poet", "Experience", "Character", "Manners", "Gifts", "Nature", "Politics", "Nominalist and Realist" as well as "New England Reformers.

The essay “Character” is heavily influenced by the recurring theme of Emerson's essays, nature. Emerson seems to be inspired by the laws of gravity as well as other natural orders to explain the human being with strong metaphors and analogies to nature. As we are a part of nature, our beings are no different from natural laws than other natural phenomena. Society and institutions are corruptions to nature, which is why we need to think separately from them in order to be moral human beings.

Other influences are for example men like Sir Phillip Sidney, the Earl of Essex, Sir Walter Raleigh, Washington and Schiller, that serve as an example of mean of great character but small actions. This essay seems to be particularly influenced by greek philosophers and figures, as another example Emerson gives is for example Hercules, who he refers to in the beginning in the text, and also the gods, that humankind created to document the force of a character. Another quote of a Greek verse is for example: "The Gods are to each other not unknown.".