Rousseau's Early Life: Tragedy and Its Impact

The Impact of Rousseau’s Early Life

The childhood of Jean-Jacques Rousseau was one of great tragedy and abandonment. This should especially be taken into account whenever discussing Rousseau’s views on civilization and outlook on humanity as a whole. From the death of his mother to his father abandoning him and his brother, his young life consisted of numerous disappointments and rejections at the hands of his few remaining family figures. It is important to see and consider how these events affected his works and mental health in his later years.

To be able to understand Rousseau’s standpoints and later health, it is important to first have an understanding of his early life.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born June 28, 1712 in Geneva, Switzerland.

With this new opportunity, Rousseau began to study philosophy, music, and math. While Rousseau greatly benefitted from her wealth and connections, he continued to be uncomfortable in their three person relationship and their relationship shortly dissolved, her leaving him like most important figures in his life had.

It was not until his later life that Rousseau, as James Delaney says, “met a linen-maid named Therese Levasseur, who would become his lifelong companion (they eventually married in 1768). They had five children together, all of whom were left at the Paris orphanage.” She became one of the few major figures in his life to stay with him. This revolving door of parental figures as well as betrayal by family members and even his first wife is most likely to have established within Rousseau a basic distrust of people in general, which can be seen in his writings. It is also likely to have influenced his works’ emphasis on self-reliancy due to his childhood not allowing him to rely on other, especially parental figures, for long. You can also view the impact of Rousseau’s childhood in his concept of what would create a perfect world. He distinctly says that a perfect world would be one without civilization, promoting self-reliance as opposed to the interdependence of modern