Self-Reliance

The mood of the essay matches the loftiness of this purpose. As he outlines the ways that he would like readers to live, Emerson makes frequent appeals to religion, nature, and the universe. These pleas give the essay a quality of grand, sweeping importance, as readers’ personal habits are placed into the context of such significant forces. Metaphors like “imitation is suicide” explicitly add life and death to Emerson’s argument, raising the stakes even higher and creating a feeling of urgency. Additionally, Emerson’s emphasis on great men adds to the intellectual seriousness of the mood: 

Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.

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References like these ground Emerson’s argument in historical lineage, invoking a sense of reverence and solemnity in the reader. Pythagoras, Socrates, Jesus, Martin Luther, and Copernicus are all figures of great importance—across mathematics, religion, philosophy, and astronomy. Here, each of them is notable not so much for their own individual accomplishments, but for the awe that their name inspires. By frequently mentioning people like these men, Emerson reminds readers of humanity’s potential for greatness, adding to the weightiness of the mood.