Short Essay on Man

The Essay on Man is a philosophical poem written by Alexander Pope in eighteenth century. It is expressed and formulated in four epistles.

Alexander Pope started working over the poem in 1729 and completed it by the year 1731. But it was in the year 1734 when first three epistles of the poem was published. The fourth epistle was published in the year 1735.

Until, 1735 Pope did not own the authorship and the poem was known to be an anonymous work. It is also thought that the published part is just a fragment of a larger work which left uncompleted due to death of Pope. It is known by various other names like ‘Ethic Epistles’ and ‘Moral Essays’.

The essay is addressed to Lord Bolingbroke and to some extent is influenced by his philosophical writings also. The poem has been written in heroic couplets. It met enormous adulation throughout Europe and other parts of the world. Voltaire, Kant, and Rousseau are some of the significant names who critically acclaimed the poem and called it as one of the most beautiful piece of literature ever written in any part of the world.

Pope tried to justify the John Milton’s view expressed in ‘Paradise Lost’. Milton tried to vindicate the ways of God to man. Pope’s work had instilled a positive philosophy that reigned over England and rest of the Europe till date. Essay on man is an attempt to define the larger perspective of the cosmos. Pope was an ardent believer in the existence of God. According to him, everything in existence is a part of well articulated plan.

The misery and complainant behaviour show cased by man is a result of his limited vision. God has placed each and every person in right meaning. Questioning or doubting about his motives is useless since a man is such a small entity in this large creation. He emphasises to broaden the vision and mind set so as to understand the god’s creation. His first epistle ends with the most famous lines, “Whatever Is, is Right”. This work signifies the importance of everything in existence and futility of all the complaints.

In his second epistle, he emphasises that a person is driven by his reason and passion. According to Pope, reason is a ‘weak queen’ and passion plays the lead role of ‘king’ in defining a man’s behaviour. He criticizes envy and ambition. On the same hand, he refers to self-love and says that all men should be respected and no one should be criticized on the basis of the choices he made.

In his third epistle Pope again emphasises on nature and the position of man in nature. He also refers to instinct as an ‘unerring guide’. Pope says that good administration should be the central point of all kind of governance. And it is trading among various countries that bring them closer and tradition helps them to bind together.

In his last epistle, Pope talks about happiness. He says that there could be various reasons and passions that grant happiness to man. But in the end it is only nature where he finds the final solace. He also states that man should avoid extremes. This is the only way to remain happy. According to Pope, the man tries to change everything he finds. He is always striving for a ‘perfect’ situation, which is unable to occur. This, according to him is the reason of all miseries. Accepting the things as they are is the key to happiness.