American Romanticism

Romanticism (1800-1860) Key Attributes of This Era: Feelings, imagination, freedom, individuality Transcendentalists: Intuition, self-reliance, relationship with Nature Dark Romantics: Sin, Madness

Emphasis on the individual, reflected by the political ideal set forth in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal.” Led to a new focus on the dignity and worth of the common individual human being, despite different ethnicities, belong to a single community

Emily Dickinson & Walt Whitman Romantic Poets were interested in expressing their INTUITION, a new style of writing that rebutted the Age of Enlightenment and Rationalism that had emerged during the Industrial Revolution Romantics emphasize the INDIVIDUAL as a way to decry mass production, conformism, and consumerism

Subset of Romanticism: TRANSCENDENTALISM Many of the Romantics were involved in social reform, especially anti-slavery (Henry David Thoreau) and the rights of women (Margaret Fuller). Transcendentalists believed in self-reliance, thrifty living, and close relationship with nature (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

NATURE Romantics emphasized the beauty, strangeness, and the mystery of nature, as opposed to the fear of the wild from the Puritans They saw nature not as a machine, but as an organic process, constantly developing and changing. Nature is a reflection of the soul and the Divine presence that is a part of all men

Dark Romantics A rebuttal to traditional Romanticism and Transcendentalism Explores the darker side of individuality- sin, human failings, insanity

Dark Romantics Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) Edgar Allan Poe (1809- 1849)

The EYE Emerson, from “Nature” & “Self-Reliance” “Most persons do not see the sun. At least they have a very superficial seeing. The sun illuminates only the eye of man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child.” “Standing on the bare ground…I become a transparent eyeball. I am nothing. The currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God.” “The eye was 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.”

What is “The Eye,” really? A symbol of the narrator’s inner vision, his view of himself, his view of the world. A homonym of “I” Emerson feels he must lose his sense of self in order to feel a part of the nature that is around him?

Poe’s Rebuttal to “The Eye” “I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture– a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees– very gradually– I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.” Poe, a Dark Romantic, rejected Emerson’s ideals; suggests Emerson has a “film” over his eye and that he is blind to reality.

CONCORD, MASS. 30 minutes outside of Boston Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, where major Romantic American authors are buried

Emerson’s Grave

Hawthorne’s Grave (So humble…)

Thoreau’s Grave

Louisa May Alcott’s Grave Little Women

The Old Manse Hawthorne’s House

Sold in the gift shop 

Emerson’s House Still owned by the family and available for tours

Emerson’s Abundant Library Featured in a local museum, not the house itself

Walden Pond Beautiful and idyllic; includes a walking path around its circumference

At the site of Thoreau’s Hut where he lived for two years

Orchard House (where Little Women took place)

In Salem, Mass. House of the Seven Gables (another home of Hawthorne; the setting of his other famous novel of the same name)

Poe’s home in Baltimore

Poe’s burial place in Baltimore