American Romanticism
1800 - 1860
“…I went into the woods
because I wished to live
deliberately, to front
only the essential facts
of life, and see if I could
not learn what it had to
teach, and not, when I
came to die, discover
that I had not lived.”
Henry David Thoreau
Early Historical Milestones
• Washington D.C.
becomes the capital –
1800
• Thomas Jefferson
negotiates the
Louisiana Purchase –
1803
• Thomas Jefferson and
John Adams both die
on July 4, 1826.
Latter Influences of Romanticism
• Underground Railroad
is formed 1830.
• Brook Farm
undertakes experiment
in cooperative living
1841 – 1847.
• Abraham Lincoln and
Stephen Douglas hold
a series of seven
debates.
Prior to 1830
The Frenchman Alexis
deTocqueville wrote,
“America has produced
very few writers of
distinction…[the
literature of England]
still darts its rays into
the forests of the New
World.”
By 1870
America had produced many
“writers of distinction” :
Washington Irving
James Fennimore Cooper
William Cullen Bryant
Edgar Allan Poe
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Henry David Thoreau
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Herman Melville
Emily Dickinson
Walt Whitman
Romanticism vs. Rationalism
Celebrating the Imagination
Imagination is able to
apprehend truths that the
rational mind cannot reach.
The imagination,
spontaneity, individual
feelings, and wild nature are
of greater value than logic,
reason, planning, and
cultivation.
A Romantic’s View of Life
• Places faith in inner experience and the
power of imagination
• Shuns the artificiality of civilization and seeks
unspoiled nature
• Finds truth and beauty in exotic locales, the
supernatural realm, and the inner world of
the imagination.
• Sees poetry as the highest expression of the
imagination
As a Romantic writer, Edgar Allan Poe once
called science a “vulture” with wings of “dull
realities” preying on the hearts of poets.
Emerson Took Romanticism One
Step Further to
Transcendentalism (Period 1*)
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Emerson was the best-known Transcendentalist. He
•was a highly influential writer,
lecturer, and social reformer
•lectured and wrote extensively on
Transcendental ideas
•was admired by and influenced
other writers and artists, including
Henry David Thoreau and Walt
Whitman
The Roots of Transcendentalism
A
B CD
2000
1900
1800
1700
1600
0
400 B.C.
A. Idealism (Greece, 4th century B.C.)- Socrates/Plato
B. Puritanism (North America, 17th century)
C. Romanticism (Europe and North America, late 18th
century through mid-19th century)
D. Transcendentalism (North America, 19th century)
Idealism
© 2003-2004 clipart.com
Idealism was a philosophy explained by the Greek philosopher
Plato in the 4th century B.C. Idealists believed that true reality
could be found in ideas rather than in the physical world.
Idealism and Transcendentalism
Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson claimed that
Transcendentalism was simply Idealism rediscovered and
applied to the nineteenth-century world.
•Transcendentalists shared Plato’s belief in an allencompassing spiritual reality.
•They applied Idealist ideas to human life, believing in
human perfectibility and working to achieve that goal.
******
As a Transcendentalist Emerson
Taught:
• Everything in the
world, including
humans, is a reflection
of the Divine Oversoul
“We but half express
ourselves, and are
ashamed of that divine
idea which each of us
represents.”
• The physical facts
of the natural world
are a doorway to the
spiritual or ideal
world.
“The invariable
mark of wisdom is
to see the
miraculous in the
common.”
People can use their
intuition to behold
God’s spirit revealed in
nature or their own
souls.
“The eye is placed where
one ray should fall,
that it might testify of
that particular ray. We
but half express
ourselves, and are
ashamed of that divine
idea which each of us
represents.”
• Self-reliance and
individualism must
outweigh external
authority and blind
conformity to custom
and tradition. The
individual is more
important than society.
He must be self-reliant.
“Trust Thyself: every
heart vibrates to that
iron sting.”
Spontaneous feelings and intuition are
superior to deliberate intellectualism and
rationality.
“With consistency a great soul has simply
nothing to do. He may as well concern
himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak
what you think now in hard words and
tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in
hard words again, though it contradict
everything you said today.”
• Live every moment
of one’s life with
intensity.
“To be great is to be
misunderstood.”
Transcendentalism is not a religion,
philosophy, or literary theory. Rather it is
the view that the basic truths of the universe
lie beyond the knowledge we obtain from
our sense. This knowledge transcends or
goes beyond what we hear or see or learn
from books. It is through “intuition” that we
come to “know” life.
H.W.-From“ Nature”
Read Emerson’s 2
page essay entitled
from “Nature” on
page 190.
Next, choose one quote that captivates Emerson’s
beliefs. Then, visually depict the quote with an
illustration, picture or collage. Be ready to discuss
what your quote means to you in class. Include the
typed quote and picture on the same page. (examples on
next two slides)
Words from Emerson’s Nature
“In the woods, too, a
man casts off his
years, as the snake his
slough, and at what
period soever of life is
always a child.”
“In the woods is
perpetual youth.”
“In the woods we return
to reason and faith.”
“Standing on the bare ground
– my head bathed by the
blithe air and uplifted into
infinite space – all mean
egotism vanishes. I become
a transparent eyeball; I am
nothing; I see all; the
currents of the Universal
Being circulate through me;
I am part or parcel of God.”
Emerson Nature
“I am the lover of
uncontained and immortal
beauty. In the wilderness,
I find something more dear
and connate than in the
streets or villages. In
tranquil landscape… man
beholds somewhat as
beautiful as his own
nature…Yet it is certain
that the power to produce
this delight does not reside
in nature, but in man, or in
a harmony of both.”
The Dark Romantics
• Dark Romantics are also known as
Anti-Transcendentalist
• Believed that there was both a good
side and a bad side to human nature
• They explored the psychological
effects of guilt and sin, madness,
derangement in the human psyche
• They saw the blankness and the
horror of evil.
• They believed in mystical and
melancholy occurrences.
Differences Between
Transcendentalists and Dark
Romantics
Transcendentalists
Dark Romantics
Saw divine goodness and
beauty beneath everyday
reality
Believed spiritual truths may
be ugly or frightening
Embraced the mystical and
idealistic elements of Puritan
thought
Reintroduced the dark side of
Puritan beliefs: the idea of
Original Sin and the human
potential for evil
Similarities Between
Transcendentalists and Dark
Romantics
Transcendentalists
Dark Romantics
True reality is spiritual.
Intuition is superior to logic
or reason.
Human events contain signs
and symbols of spiritual
truths.
The Dark Romantics
Use vivid imagery
mood
atmosphere
symbolism
themes of:
guilt
shame
insanity
spiritual darkness
The Dark Romantics
“During the whole of a dull, dark, and
soundless day in the autumn of the year,
when the clouds hung oppressively low in
the heavens, I had been passing alone, on
horseback, through the singularly dreary
tract of country, and at length found myself,
as the shades of evening drew on, within
view of the melancholy House of Usher.”
Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”
Poe’s Single Effect Theory
Poe uses Gothic details
– to create a single
effect, a mood or
atmosphere, of dread
and menace – building
to one powerful,
sinister, overwhelming
effect on the reader.
Gothic Tale
Definition: A style of literature style
emphasizing the grotesque, mysterious, and
desolate.
Characteristics of a Gothic Tale
• gloomy and very strong architecture
• bad, nasty, evil, controlling, dominating villain
• Supernatural events occur
• Omens or visions—often the story is based on a prophecy
(and in more modern versions often contains one
concerning society beyond the story)
• evokes terror through the depiction of physical and, more
often, psychological violence
• explores the nightmares under the surface of the
“civilized” mind and/or unusual psychological states
The Grotesque
• From a literary standpoint, this term implies
a mutation of the characters, plants and/or
animals. This mutation transforms the
normal features and/or behaviors into
veritable extremes that are meant to be
frightening and/or disturbingly comic.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
“…Mr. Hooper had as ascended the stairs, and
showed himself in the pulpit, face to face
with his congregation, except the black veil.
That mysterious emblem never once
withdrawn… while he prayed, the veil lay
heavily on his uplifted countenance. Did he
seek to hide it from the dread Being whom
he was addressing?”
Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil”