Critical Analysis of ‘El Dorado’ – R.L. Stevenson

Introduction

El Dorado is a thought provoking essay of R.L. Stevenson. Stevenson closely monitored life and justified his thoughts with various examples. This essay ponders on human psychology that if we don’t have any targets or if targets are achieved then what happens? In short unattainable goals is centre of the essay.

Main Ideas

1. Scope in Life – Writer starts essay with describing scope in life in terms of achievement. He says despite hurdles like marriage and battles we could have achieved many things. A person who is onward looking always finds news goals in life and he is so enthusiastic that he sets inaccessible goals like reaching to stars.
2. Garnered Happiness – Stevenson with his philosophy explained how happiness can be achieved. He says we should focus on taking first step towards a goal and enjoy the journey rather than end of it. Similarly we can achieve happiness by pondering on what we want rather than what we have. This philosophy works on two things firstly, end of a goal will end the happiness as if you get the target then the value of that target will be reduced in your life and if it isn’t achieved then disappointment will be incurred and in both cases happiness will be reduced. Similarly if we focus on what we want then we will attempt to get that and enjoy the journey to reach the target, it will make us happy but if we are centred on what we have then it will end up in boredom as value of those things will get diminished in future for us.
3. Importance of Aspiration – ‘An Aspiration is a joy forever’ is what Stevenson says. This statement is inspired from Keats’. Aspiration gives joy to a person as a ‘landed estate’ gives revenue year after year. Aspiration springs out fountains of happiness wondering about achieving something dear to us. Lack of Aspiration makes this world like arrangement of colors only.
4. Desire and Curiosity – Writer states that Desire and Curiosity are two amulets which saves a person from boredom in life. These two keep interest and adventure alive in life. They present life in enchanted colors. It is virtue of them that ‘make women beautiful and fossil interesting’. Even if a person squander all his estate and wealth still in the world of happiness he will be considered rich if having these two in life.
5. Importance of unattainable targets – Stevenson now starts explaining how el dorado is important in life. He puts readers into thinking if we eat all the desired food in a go or have all the knowledge of the world in a sight won’t that make us poor in terms of happiness in future ?  Certainly as we won’t be able to enjoy the journey of that goal anymore. He explains it by giving example of a reader having collection of books of Carlyle. When he read all the books of writer Carlyle he was dismayed about the possibility of remaining on daily newspapers now. Similarly when Alexander the great realised that he had no more lands to win he started weeping bitterly. These instances shows that when we have achieved something it won’t be that valuable to us and it won’t give us any more joy in life. Hence unattainable targets like El Dorado keeps our interest and joy alive in life. Stevenson further explores this theme of unattainable goals by explaining journey of life in which one problem leads to another and keeps us occupied in life. From birth of children to the birth of children’s children we keep concerning about their health and different related issues. In this manner life never becomes free of concerns. In marriage also there is an unattainable goal i.e. becoming a perfect couple living like a single entity. But truth is that they are two and being two they have their different thought process, desires, curiosity etc. and they can’t be one in the life. But on the basis of wisdom and cooperation they can enjoy their life together.
6. Books are source of continuous joy – Writer through a statement explains that book writing is never ending. Hence it will keep giving joy. There is no end of getting knowledge or acquire wealth hence these goals keep one interested and busy throughout life.
7. Nothing can be attained perfectly – Stevenson very beautiful mentions that we make our dreams so perfect that we always fall short in reality. We are never able to make the statue as beautiful as we imagined that.
8. Death is only perfectly attainable – Then Stevenson comes to the end of the essay and explains that only the Death in life can be attained perfectly. There is nothing to fall short in this. It is not possible for a person to die imperfectly or incompletely.
9. Our Chimaeras – Stevenson at the end of the essay states that we keep enduring and moving forward indefatigablely towards our unattainable goals i.e. Chimaeras. Even if we live for hundreds of years and endowed with powers of God we won’t be a step nearer to our El Dorado. We may have perception for a while that we can see the target but very soon it comes to realisation that we are not. Hence ‘to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour’.

Writing style of R.L. Stevenson

Stevenson has used many idiomatic terms and phrases which makes the essay a bit complex. Even his aphoristic style where writing few words or lines he goes into deep meanings makes essay  for critical minds.  Lines like ‘An aspiration is a joy for ever’, ‘Desire and Curiosity are two amulets’, ‘to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour’ etc. are proofs good enough of his Aphoristic or epigrammatic style. Stevenson has used analytical and descriptive methodologies to explain his thoughts. For which he has compared different things and given lot of examples.

Importance of Title

There is nothing to do with El Dorado i.e. imaginary city of gold in the essay. But it’s symbolic meaning is significant. It helps the readers to understand the concepts and ideas of the writer. He wants us to understand importance of unattainable goals in life which keep our Desire and Curiosity alive. Hence title of El Dorado is appropriate.

Conclusion

El Dorado is a beautiful essay of R.L. Stevenson which keeps us engaged and explores thoughts of the writers about unattainable goals in life and how they keep us engaged. What happens if we don’t have any targets in life or once we achieve our targets we become prey of boredom. Stevenson has dexterously explained his all thoughts and given us a never ending joy by giving this literary piece.

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