Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The Confessions

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background to see how he forged himself and understand what he became. With that self-observation done, the Genevan philosopher promoted a concept of self-knowledge. Through that self-knowledge, Rousseau described himself as the person he feels like being. As a philosopher, he didn’t omit to also take other people into consideration. Therefore, he made sure to objectively write about himself for other people as well. Without any cover for himself he claimed to be an observer, not a moralist. It means that he’s going to analyze all the traits of his personality for himself and others. More importantly, he exposed that personality to also send a message to other philosophers who he believed instigated a plot against his person.

In The Confessions, Rousseau said: “Since my name is fated to live, I must endeavor to transmit with it the memory of that unfortunate man who bore it, as he actually was and not as his unjust enemies unremittingly endeavor to paint him”(Rousseau 373). Originally Jean Jacques had vowed to remain silent up until some critics were made about his person. For that reason, he confessed about his personality of being an observer in answer to his “enemies”. That silence was a strategy and writing about him was the answer. He explains that he was “surrounded by impenetrable darkness” in which the tricks of his enemies are always concealed. At this point we have to understand that he would refute all of them just as all philosophers do regarding theirs pairs thoughts. Rousseau committed to refute all the accusations against him with an honest account of his person in The Confessions.

Johnston Guillemette in the article Representation, poeticity, and reading in the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau states that Rousseau was “concerned not with writing, but with a broadly defined act of reading that involves direct response and recognition rather than acquisition of knowledge”. That direct response is for the other philosophers of his era to whom Rousseau had to answer. In fact, as he became famous all of a sudden Jean Jacques was the target of several attacks from his readings to salons and different audiences. Reading the book, we feel some type of fear from the author regarding his image and a willingness to communicate to his audience where he is coming from. The self-analysis that Rousseau is doing in this autobiography is definitely centralized in his person, but the messages he sends are also responsive to his fear to not have his name tarnished. James Delaney of Niagara University also analyzed this manuscript the same way comparing it to The Reveries of Jean Jacques Rousseau. He conveys, “this self-examination makes two major claims. First, like the Reveries, it makes clearly evident the fact that Rousseau felt victimized and betrayed, and shows perhaps even more so than the Reveries, Rousseau’s growing paranoia”.

Consequently, we understand better how Rousseau saw The Confessions as an opportunity to fix his image and justify himself against all the plots and attacks as well as all the misunderstandings of his philosophy. His philosophy was being bad mouthed by his pairs and we can name Voltaire as one of the main opponents of Rousseau. To better understand the reason why Jean Jacques had to fix his image it helps to know the background and how that conflict started between two famous philosophers of their era.

Weidhorn Manfred wrote an article about the rivalry between the philosophers. He declared that:

The differences between Voltaire and Rousseau were at first philosophical and then personal, and bitterly so at last. Voltaire, the older man, was the monarch of European culture, and the ambitious Rousseau had initially to cope with an awesome father figure. Voltaire was, moreover, urbane and witty, his irony never long in abeyance; Rousseau, by contrast, was ill at ease in society, humorless, devoid of wit. If Voltaire quarreled with authority figures, Rousseau, who was partly paranoid, quarreled with everyone.

That analysis made Rousseau look like a paranoid. However, when we read The Confessions, we understand that people were really out to get the Genevan born philosopher. This also explains the reasons why Rousseau had to also go out there and fix his image and clear all the accusations against his person. There was a need for him then to confess leaving his children at an orphanage for example and justify why he did that because people like Voltaire were using that against his person.

Finally, Jean Jacques took advantage of this autobiography to communicate his audience his identity. From his childhood and some experiences that he had in his early life, he tried to establish a new form of literature based on the self. The Confessions also helped Rousseau face the opposition with the Enlightenment era philosophers and write back about plots, mockery and attacks he was victim of. Throughout his autobiography Rousseau discusses some embarrassing experiences in his life and in the last parts of the autobiography his fear of persecution is dominant. That fear after he published most of his philosophical works is expressed through his answers to the others philosophers and writers. The Confessions reached well beyond philosophy as it started another genre of autobiography. It means that Rousseau achieved his goal to launch something that no one has tried before. He did revolutionize the techniques of autobiography as he announced himself and stand different as he mentioned, “I am made unlike any one I have ever met; I’ll even venture to say that I am like no one in the whole world” (Rousseau 17). Plus he raised his voice to confirm the authenticity of his work and story as he concludes: “I have told the truth” (Rousseau 605).