American Romanticism1800-1860

Bell-ringer #1

What comes to your mind when you hear the word “romantic”?

Stories CoveredTranscendentalism:

“Self Reliance” Emerson

“Walden” Thoreau

Darkness:

“The Devil and Tom Walker” Irving

“The Minister’s Black Veil” Hawthorne

“The Raven” Poe

“The Purloined Letter” Poe

“Ligeia” Poe

“The Lottery” Shirley Jackson

The American Romantic Period

Stems from a break from the lack of fantastical and creative artistry of the Puritans

Reflects the still innocent, pre-Civil War United States

Prominent Romantics: Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Washington Irving, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau

Characteristics of Romantic work:

Focus on a love of nature

Focus on the individual

Focus on truth as a universal concept

Imaginative, fantastical settings

Highly symbolic

Features elements of the supernatural

Favors emotion over intellect

Development of national pride

Big IdeasOptimism and Individualism: Optimism is the belief that the world around us is always improving. Some American Romantics presented an optimistic view of human progress.

Kinship with Nature: Many American Romantics believed in the beneficial effects of a close link link between humanity and nature.

The Power of Darkness: There was a dark underside to American Romanticism. It took a variety of forms, including fascination with disease, madness, death, evil, the supernatural, and the destructive aspects of nature.

1. Optimism and Individualism

Main author: Ralph Waldo Emerson

This first movement of romanticism occurred toward the end of the 1700s when new ideas began to transform European civilization.

Romantic authors shared two important attitudes:

They valued imagination and feeling over intellect.

They believed in the basic goodness and equality of individuals, and that everyone had the right to govern themselves. This belief in the value of the individual was known as transcendentalism.

1. Optimism and Individualism

Transcendentalism: Emerson’s belief in the value of the individual was shaped by the era in which he lived. In the 1830s, the influence of Romanticism began to be felt in the US. One result was transcendentalism, a loosely organized movement that embodied the ideas of thinkers who were active in new England in the 1830s and 1840s. Emerson was a leading figure in this group.

The essence of Transcendentalism was the philosophy known as Idealism. For idealists, reality is not in material objects but instead exists in our ideas about those objects. The Transcendentalists believed that intuition is a more valuable guide than sensory experience in grasping what nature really is.

Transcendentalism4 basic principles of Transcendentalism include:

An individual is the spiritual center of the universe—and in an individual can be found the clue to nature, history and, ultimately, the cosmos itself. It is not a rejection of the existence of God, but a preference to explain an individual and the world in terms of an individual.

The structure of the universe literally duplicates the structure of the individual self—all knowledge, therefore, begins with self-knowledge.

Transcendentalists accepted the neo-platonic conception of nature as a living mystery, full of signs—nature is symbolic.

The belief that individual virtue and happiness depend upon self-realization.

Quiz

1. Who was the main author of the optimism and individualism movement?

2. What were the two beliefs that the romantic writers shared?

3. In your own words, briefly define transcendentalism.

4. Can you think of any examples of transcendentalism in modern music or writing? List a few.

5. What are the four principles of transcendentalism?

Bell-ringer #2

What do you remember about Transcendentalism?

Ralph Waldo Emerson1803-1882

Emerson was the central figure of American Romanticism. His ideas about the individual, claims about the divine, and attacks on society were revolutionary.

Even though Emerson was a minister’s son, trouble and hardships caused Emerson to lose faith and leave the church.

He rejected organized religion, and instead claimed that truth was found within the individual.

From Self-Reliance, pg. 183

In this essay, Emerson suggests that everybody has the potential for genius.

In this essay, Emerson argues that people should recognize their own ideas and follow their convictions. People should live by their own opinions and stop imitating the ideas of others.

Self-Reliance Quiz

1. What does Emerson mean by the statement, “In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts?”

2. According to Emerson, what is the cause of our shame?

3. According to Emerson, what is genius?

4. According to Emerson, in what way should a person approach his or her work?

5. To what does Emerson compare society?

Bell-ringer #3

What things make your life busy?

How can you simplify your life?

Kinship with Nature

Main author: Henry David Thoreau

From Walden pg. 203Rejecting a life of needless complexity, Thoreau goes into the woods to live more simply. He belittles those who complicate their lives by hurrying, working too hard, and trying to keep track of the latest news. He believes these things limit the time people have for what is important. When he leaves the woods, his belief in simplicity is confirmed and his insight into life is deepened.

Transcendentalism Today

Watch music videos and annotate lyrics for trancendentalist thought.

The Power of Darkness

Authors to remember: Hawthorne, Melville, and Poe

Our experience of the life and the world has a dark side. We fear the evils we know—poverty, violence, disease, madness, death—and are troubled by nameless terrors that might lurk in the shadows beyond our knowledge. Not all important American writers of Emerson’s time shared his optimism. In fact, Hawthorne admired Emerson, but thought him unrealistic. To Herman Melville, Emerson’s optimism was “nonsense” that ignored the “disagreeable facts” of life.

Washington Irving

Named after his country’s first president, Washington Irving won the battle for America’s literary independence. He was the first American storyteller to be internationally recognized as a man of letters. During his time, he was both a lawyer and a writer.

The Devil and Tom Walker: One day, the devil offers Tom Walker a pirate’s treasure. When Tom’s greedy wife urges him to accept the deal, he refuses out of spite; so she tries to make her own bargain with the devil—but she disappears. Tom then accepts the devil’s offer and becomes a rich money-lender who preys on those in need. When a borrower asks Tome for an extension on a loan he replies, “The devil take me if I have made a farthing.” The devil whisks Tom away, and his riches turn to cinders.

Nathaniel HawthorneAlmost all of Hawthorne’s fiction is based on stories of the past, particularly the history and legends of his Puritan ancestors in New England. Hawthorne was drawn to the puritan past as Gothic writers were drawn to the Middle Ages.

The Minister’s Black Veil: pg. 266—When parson Hooper arrives in church to preach his Sunday Sermon, he is wearing a black veil that hides much of his face. His congregation is deeply troubled by the veil, but no one is willing to ask him why he wears it. As the years pass, the minister’s veil remains an object of dread but also makes him a more effective clergyman.

Edgar Allan Poe

Gothic Horror: Gothic horror relies chiefly on atmosphere, or mood, to achieve its effects. Writers create an atmosphere of horror through plot, characters, and settings that most people find chilling.

Edgar Allan Poe was the first American master of this type of horror. In his poems and stories, Poe often bettered earlier Gothic writers in achieving spine-tingling effects.

“The Raven”

In “The Raven,” the speaker is a melancholy man who has lost his beloved Lenore. Late one night, while he is grieving, he is visited by an eerie and mysterious raven. The man questions the raven about Lenore, but the raven’s only response is “Nevermore.” The poem shows how loneliness and excessive grieving drive the man to madness.

“The Pit and the Pendulum”

A soldier is sentences to death by the Spanish Inquisition but escapes a sharp swinging pendulum. Just as he is about to be forced into a pit by heated metal walls, French soldiers enter the city, and he is saved.

Bell-ringer

The Gothic Tradition: Dark, mysterious, and often ghastly settings and subjects are part of the Gothic literary tradition. In the US Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne were two of the most famous authors to write in the Gothic tradition.

How is “The Pit and the Pendulum” an example of the dark tales of horror that make up the Gothic tradition?

“The Pit and the Pendulum” Quiz

1. To what fate has the narrator been sentenced?

2. What kind of death does the narrator associate with the pit?

3. What horror does the narrator face after avoiding the pit?

4. When in the dungeon, how does the narrator’s description of his surroundings reflect the Gothic tradition?

5. “A richer tint of crimson diffused itself over the pictured horrors of blood.” In this sentence, the word diffused means…A. to spread widelyB. to appearC. to bounce backD. to attach to another object