Romanticism: A Literary Analysis

Improved Essays
Romanticism is a term that applies in contexts that vary and emerge with diverse meanings to different people. In this introduction, the definition of romanticism will be drawn from literary contexts. As a movement in literature and art, which came into being as a rebellion against previous centuries’ Neoclassicism, it is described as “emotional matter being depicted by literature in a form that is imaginative” (Perry 68). This descriptive definition can be termed as general, however, a proper explanation should include themes such as Individualism, freedom from rules, life in society in contrast to life in solitude, and spontaneity.
The focal points of romanticism include freedom, imagination and emotion. In the world of literature today,
…show more content…
By observation, this is seen in his attempt to explain sinking, iciness and sickening heart. Obscurity, pertinent to the story’s plot, is visible where a letter of was to Roderick (Edgar 423). After a careful study of this shorty story, it appears, the author’s choice of diverse themes were directed towards striking terror in the hearts of his audience. The exact reason why he wanted to cause fear in the minds of the readers is not clear; perhaps it was his style of writing. Needless to say, his work drew and continues to attract anxious people due to his literary elegance and scope of the topics he sought to express to the general human family. He writes about “insufferable gloom” as being depicted by the environment and Usher mansion (McMahon 79). Psychic communication is an aspect which also demonstrates the theme of romanticism. In fact, the short story portrays a relationship between Madeline and Roderick, a connection that is intimate. Their relationship is so solid to an extent that some illness is donated by Roderick to an already sick Madeline. Even after being buried in the vault, Roderick has a conscious awareness that Madeline is alive.
After the death of Madeline, it appears that she had a powerful desire to live as she endeavors to escape the burial while alive, many days after her burial. Analyzing this short story critically, it is not obvious whether she, after burial, still exists or resurrected. Emotions are part of the life of any person. They play a central role in the general manner of relating to people. They can be positive and at times negative. The outcome of emotions depends on how a person is able to control and harness them to fit a

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The Romantic Era was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe. In order for these artist’s feelings to be freely expressed, the content of their art needed to come from their imagination with little interferences from ‘artificial rules” dictating what should be in a work. Romantics tended to believe that a close connection with nature was both morally and mentally healthy, while they were distrustful of the human world. the focal points of romanticism are emotion, imagination, and freedom. Romantics also have a belief in children 's innocence and wisdom while they viewed adulthood as corruption and betrayal. They are often dreamers, idealist, nonconformist, and on a quest for undefined or unfamiliar goals.…

    • 1127 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    It’s understandable that when people hear the word romanticism, they think of love and romance. However, the word “romanticism” actually comes from a movement that changed the way in which various literary writers (and artists) expressed themselves, how they viewed the world around them, and how they conveyed cultural and moral values.…

    • 1494 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Usher House Analysis

    • 494 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Their relationship shows how Madeline is the conscious because she controlled the subconscious, in this case, Roderick. When she became diseased, so did he, and he never left the house again. In the text, Roderick announces that when Madeline dies, he would be the, “last of the ancient race of Ushers” (Poe). Even though it is a negative thing to have the Usher lineage come to an end, there may be some joy in it for Roderick. He believes that with Madeline dead, he would gain control of his mind. When Roderick begins to notice his mental illness, he thinks that Madeline has truly passed away so he tries to lock her up literally inside the house, and figuratively inside his…

    • 494 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Romanticism and Realism are entirely different. Romanticism is a movement that dominated literary, visual, and musical arts. It does not contribute to romance, it's main focus is ¨depicting emotional matter in imaginative form¨. Realism focus on ordinary people and their daily lives rather than supernatural, nationalism, heroism, and strange and faraway places, themes that characteristic the Romanticism literature. Romanticism and Realism are perfectly opposite each other like in ¨Masque of the Red Death¨ by Edgar Allen Poe,which is Romanticism and ¨To Build a Fire¨ by Jack London which is Realism. The main purpose of this essay is to prove the differences between the two gernes by comparing and contrasting the Plot,Characters,and Presentation of good and evil.…

    • 2055 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Romanticism is a literary movement which is marked by several key components, many of which are observable in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. One element of Romanticism is the belief that imagination is able to lead to a a new and more perfect vision of the world and those who live in it. In this novel, Victor Frankenstein is the idealist who wants to create life from nothing; that is the ultimate ideal, marking victor as a Romantic. In another sense, Victor's actions demonstrate the Romantic renunciation of science and reason over emotion and nature.…

    • 1073 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The narrator states that the outside of the house looks gloomy and depressing, as well as the inside being spooky and mysterious. Everything that surrounds the house seems to have some kind of deathly, evil look to it. There were decaying trees, murky ponds and the house was disintegrating all together. As the reader meets Roderick and Madeline is obvious that the house could possibly symbolize the lives of the Ushers. Madeline who is sick dies in the story and Roderick decides to bury her in the tomb below the house so scientist would not want to examine her. While reading to Roderick one night the narrator starts to hear noises that mimic the story. He soon comes to realize that Roderick has been hearing these noises all along. He believes that they had buried Madeline alive and it was her struggling to get out. Its at this moment that madline appears at the doors and attacks Roderick. He soon dies from fear and the narrator runs from the house. Madeline’s character throughout the story is somewhat secondary to the narrator and Roderick until the end. “This sylph-like creature [Madeline], so attenuated and frail, seems to slip through the story like vapor, all the more mysterious for that and for her incredible power displayed in the conclusion” (House of Mirrors 228). Poe’s use of Madeline being buried alive puts the fear that most people already have back in the reader’s mind.…

    • 2215 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When one thinks of romanticism, they may think of someone who is romantic. In reality, romanticism is something very different. According to Webster, romanticism is defned as “a literary, artistic, and philosophical movement originating in the 18th century, characterized chiefly by a reaction against neoclassicism and an emphasis on the imagination and emotions, and marked especially in English literature by sensibility and the use of autobiographical material, an exaltation of the primitive and the common man, an appreciation of external nature, an interest in the remote, a predilection…

    • 1363 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The age of Romanticism is viewed by many as a liberating time period where multitudes worldwide could explore different lifestyles contrary to Old World’s dogmatic beliefs. However, the dismissing of the absolute, the objective, and universal for their opposition, the relative, the subjective, and particular is nothing more than moral bankruptcy. Choosing the latter is a tempting lifestyle choice for many because one no longer has to answer to a Higher power; You are the higher power. If logical reasoning is discarded and replaced with emotional reasoning then a person can do whatever feels good to them or seems right at the moment.…

    • 695 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Romantic literature is defined as the individual's expression of emotions, awe of nature, imagination, fixation on/analysis of death, etc. Some great authors include Walt Whitman, Edgar Allan Poe, William Cullen Bryant, Washington Irving, and many more. Throughout this essay I will do an analysis on these stories: The Devil and Tom Walker, Thanatopsis, and section 33 from Song of Myself.…

    • 1025 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Faure Research Paper

    • 1374 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Romanticism was a literary movement that traveled in every country of Europe, the United States, and Latin America that lasted from approximately 1750 to 1870. The Romantic Era reached France around the 18th century. This movement was born in the setting full of revolution and wars that caused tension and doubt on the security of the age of reason. Pessimism overwhelmed the views of hope and optimism.…

    • 1374 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Romanticism is a movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual.As a part of this assignment I have been charged with reading three selections of this time period relating to this movement.From reading the selections I really got to better understand the romantic movement .The writing of that was truly trying to convey the writer or main character’s extreme emotion that was felt during his/her experiences.I enjoyed what I read , but unless there was something within the writing that showed a character in agony, pain , or doing something strange I found myself getting extremely bored while reading.…

    • 913 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Romantic era, or Romanticism, an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement, that emphasized emotions such as horror, terror, and awe. Common…

    • 1302 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As Edgar Allen Poe once said, “we loved with a love that was more than love.” With this quote Edgar Allen Poe showed the meaning of love and romanticism. “Romanticism, more than anything else, is the cult of the individual--the cultural and psychological nativity of the I--the Self--the inner spark of divinity that links one human being to another and all human beings to the Larger Truth” (Romantism par. 2). In the Romanticism era of American literature there were many meaningful and important artists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving, Emily Dickinson, and James Russell Lowell. In particular, romantic author Edgar Allen Poe exemplifies the romanticism era two characteristics of insanity and fear, in his stories “Tell Tale Heart”…

    • 1165 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    American Romanticism was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement of the eighteenth and nineteenth century. So many phases of romanticism occurred that a satisfactory definition is not possible. Poe stressed that emotions were the most important part of art and that intelligence was not a factor of it. In his story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, “I…

    • 1377 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During the romanticism, writers, poets and free spirited humans created four major themes of their writing. The four major themes of Romanticism are emotion and imagination, nature, and social class. Romantic writers were influenced greatly by the evolving and changing world around them. During 1889 they were striving to remember nature and its impact on the world as they experienced the industrial revolution in Europe and the moving of families to cities as factories were being built. As the lower class citizens revolted in France in 1889, poets and authors alike were influenced by the leveling out of social class’s write they expressed in their works. Emotion and imagination were influenced by the daily struggles and wonders people face in their life. Romanticism has four main traits or ideas that are prevalent in the works from 1789 until 1832.…

    • 1058 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays