This thesis aims to examine Johnson¡¦s writings and argue his happiness is a state of eternity in the afterlife which results mainly from God¡¦s mercy and human beings¡¦ obedience, repentance and virtue (or good works). To prove my thesis, I need to study the foundation and essence of Johnson¡¦s salvation alongside his moral and religious thoughts. I thus argue, in Chapter One, that Johnson¡¦s early life has great influence upon him and his well-known spiritual anxiety serves as the main cause of his fear of death and as an important index in the study of Johnson¡¦s conditional salvation. Before probing into Johnson¡¦s salvation, I attempt in Chapter Two to expound religion in eighteenth-century England, especially Johnson¡¦s role as a religious man and a moralist. Both identities play crucial roles in analyzing Johnson¡¦s happiness. Johnson¡¦s morality is surely profoundly conditioned by the climate of social, religious and moral experience shared by his contemporaries in eighteenth-century England and can hardly be dissolved despite great care. His religious and moral thoughts are so large questions to approach, not to mention to answer them. Therefore, the treatment is necessarily selective. I will focus on the connection between Johnson¡¦s morality and his own Christian belief shown in his sermons and other genres of writings. Though Johnson is noticeably ambivalent towards his moral instruction at times, he never jumps the track of the core of his moral thinking: his happiness is of after-life. In Chapter Three and Chapter Four, I will do a close reading on Johnson¡¦s frequent discussion of happiness in his periodical essays and Oriental tale Rasselas and on that of salvation, virtue and eternity respectively with intent to argue that Johnson¡¦s happiness is largely supported by his belief in Christian¡¦s ideas of salvation and eternity.
Samuel Johnson in Rasselas voices the essence of happiness through Nekayah after a series of adventures and pursuit of happiness: ¡§To me, the choice of life is become less important; I hope hereafter to think only on the choice of eternity¡¨ (Rasselas 418). This passage clearly marks that happiness of this life is unreliable and the quest will be not only aimless but endless. To assure everlasting happiness, one ought to aspire to the afterlife by strenuous efforts in this life for eternity. Furthermore, I will show evidence from Johnson¡¦s life and words to strengthen my presumption that eternity forwards the realization of happiness. The eternal state of afterlife pacifies Johnson¡¦s spiritual anxiety in this life and enhances the charm of the world coming after. This is quite at odds with Johnson¡¦s fear of death; however, it pinpoints how a devout Christian struggles for not merely salvation but rewards from God after death. As such, I conclude my thesis in Chapter Five by showing how the intertexture of Johnson¡¦s life, religion, morality and literature helps him accept his imperfection, physically wretched and mentally disturbed, and then strive for perfection, that is, an elevated state of life in another world.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0822107-014533 |
| Date | 22 August 2007 |
| Creators | Yang, Su-ling |
| Contributors | Professor Francis K. H. So, Professor Rudolphus Teeuwen, Professor Kuo-jung Chen |
| Publisher | NSYSU |
| Source Sets | NSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0822107-014533 |
| Rights | unrestricted, Copyright information available at source archive |
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