While originally published in 1759, The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia, has continuously inspired contemporary criticisms and has been considered by many to be the most preeminent work of author and moralist Samuel Johnson. Upon their escape from the Happy Valley, Rasselas and his companions are relentlessly afflicted by the fundamental absurdity of the human condition, and in seeking the right ‘choice of life,’ they set out on a quest in search of happiness.
Although the pursuit of happiness motivates essentially every conversation and scene in the novel, obtaining it is eventually understood to be something much different than what the characters first expect. Thus, the aimless and ultimately unavailing quest narrative highlights the central irony of Rasselas that is, “in seeking a choice of life you neglect to live. ” Though nothing is accomplished from Rasselas’ extensive travels, readers finish the novel with the realization of the inherent hollowness of terms such as ‘happiness’ and ‘choice of life,’ as it is in vain that humans attempt to define or obtain the intrinsic meaning of anything.
Unlike a traditional novel, the narrative of Rasselas comes across as disengaged since Johnson provides little substance in details of action and place, nor even a comprehensive plot line. In consideration of the novel’s underdeveloped characters and its inconclusive ending, the repetitive structure of the text is only emphasized. As the characters observe, compare, and speculate different ‘choices of life’ along their travels, they are met by one disappointment after another since h’appiness in actuality, is an impossible end.
However, because Rasselas naively presumes happiness to be something that one can elect as a goal and achieve once one accomplishes the right ‘choice of life,’ the travelers are disillusioned while searching for happiness and the meaning of life, and are ultimately lead back to Abissinia where they originally had first escaped. Considering Rasselas’ circular narrative, the story’s trivial plot loop exemplifies Johnson’s suggestion that “the pursuit of happiness will often involve change but no real progress, or will simply hit a brick wall” (Johnson xxiii).
Likewise, the philosopher-poet Imlac’s life experience both reflects and foreshadows Rasselas’ own outlook at the end of his journey, as Rasselas follows in his footsteps almost exactly. Like Imlac, Rasselas too desired to escape the kind of instant gratification he found in the Happy Valley and yearned for variety and knowledge of life. Too like Imlac, Rasselas eventually returns to Abissinia. By rendering the two men’s experiences as reflections of one another, Johnson calls attention to the failure of happiness as a desired teleological end (Clingham & Smallwood 44).
Ultimately, it can be attributed to the human mind’s inability to grasp complex concepts such as the nature of happiness, that each survey of the ‘choices of life’ yields unsatisfying results for Rasselas and his sister. Like the causes of good and evil, Imlac explains to the prince that the circumstances of life are “so various and uncertain, so often entangled with each other, so diversified by various relations, and so much subject to accidents which cannot be foreseen, that he who would fix his condition upon incontestable reasons of preference, must live and die inquiring and deliberating” (Johnson 42).
In this regard, there is no tangible substance to the word ‘happiness’ since the infinite variables of life inhibit such a term from having any definitive meaning. Therefore, Rasselas’ greatest folly may be that he believes the circumstances of a man’s life are chosen by the man himself, but fails to consider that a man’s way of life may, in reality, be determined by how he reacts to such circumstances. In the beginning of the work, a brooding Rasselas surmises that the difference between men and the rest of all animal creation is that men, unlike beasts, are not guaranteed to be satisfied once all corporal necessities are met.
In dissatisfaction Rasselas remarks, “I am hungry and thirsty like him, but when thirst and hunger cease I am not at rest; I am, like him, pained with want, but I am not, like him, satisfied with fullness” (Johnson 11). Because he has possession of all he wants while living in the Happy Valley, Rasselas comes to realize that the constant gratification of his desires conversely makes him feel ungratified. His wish to have something to desire while already in an Edenesque setting speaks to the restlessness of human desire, as human beings seem always to be in a state of want for something.
However, as mentioned above, Rasselas’ shortcomings are contingent upon his naive expectation that “happiness is permanent and unchanging, not transitory and largely outside of human control” (Clingham & Smallwood 98). Consequently, the contradictory juxtaposition of expectation against realization in Rasselas reveals the fault in the characters’ methodology as they search for the optimal ‘choice of life. Obviously, life is not subject to such definitive choices of life as the experienced human existence is constantly in flux, rendering it useless for Rasselas to search for such a ‘choice of life,” as each variant will always fall short of his idealized notion of happiness. In light of such futile and aimless wanderings, Imlac appropriately mentions to Rasselas, “while you are making the choice of life, you are neglecting to live” (Johnson 66). Here, it seems that Imlac is the most insightful character in the novel, as he even warns Rasselas early on in their travels that, “Very few live by choice.
Every man is placed in his present condition by causes which acted without his foresight, and with which he did not always willingly cooperate” (Johnson 42). It appears that although he already understands the senselessness of the prince and princess’s search, as he had already lived it himself, Imlac goes along with them anyhow. Likewise, he seems to be the only character who recognizes that happiness is not an end, but rather a means involved within the process of life. Along with the search for the meaning of life and the quest for happiness, the danger of solitude is another prevalent theme within the novel.
Boredom, or rather the discontentedness with boredom, seems to be the diving force of action within Rasselas. When one is bored with the repetitive routine of life, one begins to struggle with existential dilemmas, as disengagement and prolonged solitude is conducive to experiencing metaphysical despair. When Rasselas consults a hermit on his ‘choice of life’ the hermit tells the wanderers, “my mind is disturbed with a thousand perplexities of doubt, and vanities of imagination, which hourly prevail upon me, because I have no opportunities of relaxation or diversion” (Johnson 50).
The astronomer the group encounters equally demonstrates the problems of solitude, as he had gone crazy as a result of his protracted withdrawal from the world. Because the characters experience the type of boredom that challenges moral purpose, the narrative of Rasselas is largely associated with the ideals of existentialism and the absurd. In his commentary upon Rasselas criticisms, Tomarken suggests that Rasselas can be compared to the works of absurdist philosopher Albert Camus considering that, “both advance the belief that although life is largely misery, commitment to an active life helps combat suffering” (Tomarken 78).
Whereas Camus uses allegorical structures while Johnson employs oriental furnishings, both authors encourage activity rather than passive despair when confronted with the largely meaningless condition of life. When consoling Nekayah after the abduction of her friend Pekuah, Imlac advises the princess, “Do not suffer life to stagnate; it will grow muddy for want of motion: commit yourself again to the current of the world” (Johnson 77). Here again, it becomes evident how Johnson uses Imlac as a mouthpiece throughout the novel as a means to voice his own opinions and convictions.
Congruent with Rasselas’ speculation, “the more we enquire, the less we can resolve,” Johnson raises more philosophical questions and comes to less conclusions as the narrative progresses (Johnson 59). Nevertheless, it is intriguing to examine how and why Johnson had chosen to appropriate traditional elements of the oriental tale to present his stoic and moralistic philosophizing. Considering how oriental fiction had been extremely popular during the 18th century, perhaps Johnson wanted to exploit the marketability of the genre in order to relate his metaphysical and ethical reflections.
Using exotic ornamentations to dress up his abstract musings, “Rasselas is typical in its philosophic quality and one-dimensional figures, but the oriental is of little intrinsic importance” (Tomarken 70). Although the novel is exotic in the sense of its African settings and protagonists, it hardly propagates oriental stereotypes, nor did Johnson ever present colonial adventure as a route to happiness. Alternatively, the exotic elements of the novel become less prominent once the main characters leave Abissinia, escaping from the oriental tropes of the prison-paradise, Happy Valley (Tomarken 39).
Despite the depiction of African characters as intelligent and civilized, it is difficult to determine whether or not Johnson intended to be Eurocentric considering that the characters within the novel are almost virtually indistinguishable from Europeans in their dispositions and discourse. Although this may have been a practical choice if Johnson did not want to confuse his European audience with extraneous African customs, certain chapters of include discussions on Europeans, rendering them wiser and superior from African characters’ perspective.
When Imlac tells Rasselas of his past and travels he claims that the European nations are “in possession of all power and knowledge; whose armies are irresistible, and whose fleets command the remotest parts of the globe” (Johnson 29). When Rasselas asks why they are so much more powerful Imlac answers, “because they are wiser; knowledge will always predominate over ignorance, as man governs the other animals.
But why their knowledge is more than ours, I know not what reason can be given, but the unsearchable will of the Supreme Being” (Johnson 30). Although Johnson had noticeably structured Rasselas in imitation of the Arabian Nights– perhaps the most recognizable collection of oriental tales– employing its series of stories-within-a-story technique, when considering the indistinct relation between the African characters, the West, and their positionality as the ‘Other,’ Rasselas may not appropriately fit into such a genre.
Despite how Rasselas’ failure to find the right ‘choice of life’ mirrors Johnson’s own belief that human endeavors and life choices are unlikely to result in true and lasting happiness, in some ways Rasselas is about how one must deal with this fact and respond with activeness and engagement so as not to be powerless and accepting of existential depression. A few weeks after publishing Rasselas, Johnson wrote in Idler 58 that, “hope itself is happiness, and its frustrations, however frequent, are yet less dreadful than its extinction” (Johnson 116).
Although, as seen through the story of Rasselas, no choice can guarantee happiness, nor the attainment of such an empty term, as Rasselas understands it to be, one should not evaluate the inconclusive ending with despondent pessimism. Rather, in the face of such a tragic sense of life, Johnson urges readers to explore the relationship between variety and happiness and to combat the absurdity of the human condition with commitment to an active and diverse ‘choice of life. ’