Ralph Waldo Emerson Essay: Friendship

What is a real friendship? Have you ever had one? Some people may have a different view of friendship and of what a friendship means to them but is there something that actually proves what a real friendship is? People feel as if Emerson’s philosophy on friendship was real idealistic and true. In Emerson’s essay, Friendship, he shows that friendship is two things, sincerity and tenderness.

Emerson’s philosophy of friendship is sincerity and tenderness and it is unforced. He starts of by saying, “A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere” (5). Emerson is stating that a true friend to him is someone who he can be sincere with and the true friend will be sincere with him also. Then Emerson says, “Sincerity is the luxury allowed, like diadems, and authority, only to the highest rank..” (5). Emerson here is stating that a friendship is not a right, it is a privilege, and saying that when a friend can tell the other the truth without being worried about hurting their feelings. Along with what a real friendship is to Emerson, he states, “My friend gives me entertainment without requiring any stipulation on my part” (5). A friendship should be unforced and spontaneous. Nothing should be boring because there is always something to talk about and do. A main thing to a friendship is sincerity.

My philosophy on friendship is also sincerity and bonding. Emerson says, “... may deal with him with him with the simplicity and wholeness with which one chemical atom meets another” (5). An atom is a basic chemical element. When atoms come together they form a molecule. Emerson uses this to show that a friendship comes together to make a natural bond with one another. In addition to this, Emerson states, “... undermost garments of dissimulation, courtesy, and second thought” (5). Undermost garments is used as a metaphor here to mean a mask. He is saying that a true friend can take of his mask that he uses for other people to see, so that he could be a real friend. Lastly,...