盛行於十九世紀前期的美國超越主義強調自世俗世界中解放、人與自然的親密關係，以及一個自給自足、豐富心靈的理想生活。在超越主義者當中，亨利‧大衛‧梭羅的特別之處在於他不僅有卓越的超越主義思想，他的實踐精神更讓他獨樹一幟。有別於許多只提出崇高理想卻鮮少實踐理想的超越主義者，梭羅不僅親自展現該如何過一個理想的生活，並且鉅細靡遺地將L理想生活的實踐情況記錄在其文學作品中，尤其是在《湖濱散記》這部作品裡頭。
雖然梭羅極力推廣他的超越主義理想，實際上，這些理想的可行性和適用性並不高。透過深入的分析我們可以發現：這些理想的低可行性其實是由於梭羅的構想本身不夠完善所造成的。更確切地說，潛藏的問題包括了：梭羅理想的簡樸生活之實踐方式過於嚴峻，以及梭羅忽略了一些人們固有的需求和天性。當他強調人類與自然互動及充實精神生活的同時，他卻忽略了心理、經濟和社會等層面在人類生活中的價值。這可能也是造成人們對梭羅提倡的理想生活卻步的原因之一。事實上，梭羅理想生活的低可行性也許和他無法在理想與現實之間拿捏得當有相當關連。因此，本論文旨在檢視梭羅理想生活中的潛在問題及弱點並加以探討其理想生活之可行性。
第一章除了介紹梭羅如何實踐他的理想生活之外，也詳盡探討他如何將實際經驗呈現在文學作品之中。比較梭羅的實踐經驗和文學呈現，我們得以發現兩者之間的明顯差異。第二章探討梭羅在理想生活中對於社會、自然及精神生活的態度。對梭羅而言，過一個簡樸的生活必須與社會維持相當距離、與大自然親近並陶冶精神生活。第三章指出梭羅的理想生活忽視了人類的情感需求，特別是來自於朋友、情人和家人的慰藉和支持，並且探討這樣的忽視會如何降低此種生活實踐的可行性。第四章進一步分析梭羅理想生活的可行性、發掘此種生活中的問題和限制、並檢視梭羅及其他嘗試實踐此種生活者不盡理想的實行結果。最後，第五章說明理想與現實間的落差常被梭羅這樣的超越主義者忽略，這也是為什麼超越主義理想經常難以落實在現實生活中的原因。此外，梭羅晚年在態度上的轉變也間接衝擊了他提出理想的可行性，因為他與超越主義思想似乎漸行漸遠。這麼看來，雖然某些超越主義的理念依舊蛪磽頂靋?A但實際上卻和我們的現實生活相距甚遠，這是相當可惜的憾事。所以，我們該讓生活多一點變通，並在理想與現實之間取得平衡，如此才能讓生活更多元、更豐富。

American transcendentalism, which was dominant mainly in the first half of the nineteenth century, emphasizes emancipation from the mundane world, men’s close relationship with nature, and an ideal life of self-reliance as well as spiritual abundance. Among the transcendentalists, Henry David Thoreau is worth much of our attention, not merely for his great transcendental thoughts but also for his empirical spirit and personal practice of his ideals. Unlike many of the transcendentalists who merely propose grand ideals but scarcely attempt to carry them out, Thoreau not only demonstrates in person to the world how to lead an ideal life but also presents in detail his practice of it in his works, particularly Walden.
Despite Thoreau’s endeavor to promote his transcendental ideals, evidence shows their low practicability as well as low applicability. In fact, through an in-depth analysis, we will find that the infeasibility of Thoreau’s ideals results largely from his problematic conception of them, which, more specifically, refers to the austerity in Thoreau’s ideal mode of simple life and his neglect of people’s common needs and tendencies. While he emphasizes so much the necessity of men’s interaction with nature and the enrichment of spiritual life, he misses certain values in psychological, economic and social life. Thoreau’s neglect makes people reluctant to take up the ideal life. We may even say that the low applicability of Thoreau’s ideal life, actually, has something to do with his inability to make some compromise between his ideals and realities. Thus, this thesis aims to discuss the feasibility of Thoreau’s ideal life by examining the latent problems and weaknesses in his proposal.
Chapter one introduces Thoreau’s practice of his ideal life and elucidates the process of his transcribing his experimental experience into literary works. By comparing his real experience with his literary presentation, the discrepancy and the contradiction between them are made manifest. Chapter two clarifies Thoreau’s attitudes toward social, natural and spiritual life in his ideal proposal. In his view, to lead a simple life, one should keep a certain distance from society, develop intimacy with nature and cultivate one’s spiritual life. Chapter three points out the negligence of men’s emotional needs, especially the comfort and support from friends, lovers and family, in Thoreau’s ideal life and discusses how it might greatly limit the realization of the kind of life. Chapter four analyzes the feasibility of Thoreau’s ideal life. It reveals the problems and limits in the ideal life and examines the unsatisfactory results of both Thoreau’s and other followers’ actual practices of it, which may lower its practicability. In the end, chapter five concludes that the discrepancies between ideals and realities are often ignored by transcendentalists like Thoreau and usually make transcendental ideals unfeasible in our real world. Furthermore, Thoreau’s change of attitude in his late years, which implies his gradual estrangement from transcendental thoughts, challenges the feasibility of his own ideals. Thus, as some transcendental ideas remain very valuable yet get quite far away from reality, it is necessary for us to have more flexibility and keep on balancing ideals and realities so as to make our life dynamic.

Chapter One Introduction…………………………………………………………………1
Chapter Two Thoreau’s Treatment of Society, Nature and Spirit ……………………….13
Chapter Three Neglect of Human Relationships………………………………………….29
Chapter Four The Practicability of Thoreau’s Ideals…………………………………….57
Chapter Five Conclusion…………………………………………………………………91
Works Cited.…………………………..……………………………………………………101

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