The Night Thoreau Spent In Jail

464 Words1 Page

Analysis of “The Nightmare” in The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail         The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, by Robert Edwin Lee and Jerome Lawrence, is a play that speaks about Henry David Thoreau and a few events in his life that lead up to his arrest. The play speaks of David Thoreau’s very ideals and beliefs. His transcendentalist way of life, simplistic and explorative, and how these very same ideas came together sending him to spend a night in jail.  The play begins with the present, Thoreau already in jail. As the play continues there are flashbacks and past events that are told to us. One event, in particular, that was “The Nightmare” scene, where Thoreau had a nightmare filled with the very things he hated and found to be horrible. Including war and violence.         In Thoreau’s nightmare, we witness one of his greatest horrors, war. Along with war, we see those who are divided in it. The powerful and the weak. How it is played out in Thoreau’s nightmare is that those in no power were Emerson’s son, Edward, and Bailey. The two were forced into the war but in two different ways. Bailey was made to participate against his will, he was handed a weapon to use while fighting. Edward was killed from the war with a bullet. This to Thoreau represents unnecessary and preventable deaths. That once again …show more content…

Those in powerful positions include Ralph Waldo Emerson and Deacon Ball. Emerson is the President during this war. While Ball is general in command of the army in the war. Emerson is portrayed as an indecisive, somewhat weak leader. He cannot make a proper decision, instead, he appoints a committee to appoint another to make the decision for him. Deacon Ball is shown as a strict, tough, mean leader. He chooses and forces people into the war, to fight for him, while he waits in the sideline free from the harm and horrors in the war. These two characters representing power show they are also weak and caused harm to the

Open Document