"The Confessions"

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses Rousseau's "The Confessions", an autobiographical account of the author's personal experiences and his development as an individual. The paper notes that Rousseau confesses his deeds, both good and bad, his impetuous and passionate thoughts and acts, and his love affairs, with all the incriminatory details. The paper further discusses that the story is not told in repentance but with the rare delight and satisfaction that the artist takes in the aesthetic qualities of his own life. The paper also notes that while the modern reader is struck by the passionate character and intelligence of the narrator, to his contemporaries Rousseau was a controversial and even heretic figure.

From the Paper:

"This fact is evident in Rousseau's love affairs, all of which are recounted faithfully in his book. His quarrel with religion becomes even more obvious when he confesses that he was inspired by lust and passion when he first became acquainted with the devout Madame de Warrens: "a religion preached by such missionaries must lead to paradise!" It should not be concluded that Rousseau was in any way an atheist, as he himself declares that he was not entirely devoid of religion. His quarrel was not with the Supreme Being as such, but with the over-dogmatic Catholicism that inspired him with a sense of awe because of its idolatry and its blind submission to the dogmas: "I had that particular aversion our city entertains for Catholicism, which is represented there as the most monstrous idolatry, and whose clergy are painted in the blackest colors." Rousseau feels entrapped by the strict code of Catholicism. The witty comparison that he makes between the bells that called him to mass and those that called him to breakfast, i.e. to partake of the pleasures of life, is very telling: "If the bells of the viaticum alarmed me, the chiming for mass or vespers called me to a breakfast, a collation, to the pleasure of regaling on fresh butter, fruits, or milk."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Rousseau, Jean Jacques. "The Confessions". New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

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