Transcendentalism And Romanticism Similarities

Improved Essays
As most people know, there are many different types of stories and books. There is fiction and nonfiction, thrillers and science fictions. What many people do not know is there are other categories in literature. Two of them are Romanticism and Transcendentalism. There are many similarities and differences between Romanticism and Transcendentalism. Dark Romanticism is a subcategory of Romanticism. It is quite similar to its parent type but has a darker perspective. Romanticism and Transcendentalism are as similar as they are different. There are many similarities between Romanticism and Transcendentalism. One of the similarities between the groups is the incorporation of nature. Writings by authors of both types seem to tie nature into many of their works. For example, in Walt Whitman’s piece “A child said What is the grass?” he …show more content…
It uses the basic framework of Romanticism, but is otherwise quite different. They still believe that God is an important part of life and must be wanted, but with the Darks, there is darker light involved. In Poe’s work, “The Pit and the Pendulum,” the protagonist is a recusant, or someone who speaks out against the Christian Church. He is being punished for his actions in a room full of mysterious surprises. This supports the sinister side of spirituality because it shows that not everyone shares the same beliefs of God and some feel that they must speak bad of those who believe. Another thing that makes the Darks different from others is the dark, mysteriousness of their writing. In most Romantics’ pieces, the mood is positive, but in Dark pieces, the mood is evil and suspenseful. Poe uses words such as hideous, repulsive, monstrosities, dungeon, menace, and many more (Poe 255). These types of words do not fall under the category of positive. They create a feeling of fear and darkness. That is not typical of normal Romantics. Not all Romantics choose to write about the positives in

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    Romanticism and Gothicism can be seen as the rejection of Classicism (ideas of order, calm, harmony), and the emphasis of the spontaneous and transcendental. The novel is also a story within a story, also known as a frame story. Frankenstein tells Walton his story and Walton tells the reader Frankenstein’s story. The story is also told through letters from Elizabeth, Alfonse and Walton, making it an epistolary.…

    • 67 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In today’s world, the genre of romance has a very different connotation than it did over 150 years ago. Nowadays, romance novels are typically about two people falling in love and living happily-ever-after. However, in the beginning to mid 1800’s, the idea of Romance didn’t have much to do with relationships. The era of Romanticism was one that was marked by a strong contrast against the ideals of the more scientific Enlightenment that had occurred some years previously. It is in this period that many famous writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and many more first made their presence known as serious American authors.…

    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Superhero Research Paper

    • 809 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Romantic writing not only inspired plays, by classic books. Medievalism mixed with Romanticism created fairy tales, which captured mythical, romance, and magic. This saw the rise in fame of classic writers, like the Grimm brothers. Other forms of Romanticism was Gothic Romance, which saw horror and mystery make for passionate writing, like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Individualism was a form of Romanticism that focused on loving yourself.…

    • 809 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Between the works of two of the most well known Transcendentalist writers, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, the comparison between one of their most famous works, Self Reliance and Walden, shows how their ideas were alike. Emerson served as Thoreau's mentor and influence for many of his literary efforts. Since Emerson had such an impact on Thereau, the pieces seem comparable due to the fact that they wrote stories based their knowledge and beliefs on Transcendentalism. Some examples of how these writings are alike are the similar ideas of conformity, how there should be more focus on the individual or yourself, and the use of imperative sentences to get readers to understand the theme.…

    • 500 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Influence on Nature Nature is all around us. How people choose to treat the nature is up to them, as well as how they choose to perceive it. Transcendentalism is the belief that in order to learn more about oneself, they must go beyond themselves and what they think. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau both have very similar ideas about nature and how people treat it in their everyday lives.…

    • 997 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    • Transcendentalism: The American manifestation of Romanticism was Transcendentalism and it stood as one of the major American Revolution. Transcendentalists believed God to be supreme and most mighty as he animated everything. It was a reaction which stood against modernism and rationalism. It was marked by the mystic belief in a spiritual state that transcended the physical and the factual and the perfect state could only be attained by one’s own intuition and reflection.…

    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Muir And Wordsworth

    • 855 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Naturalism has a superpower that can be used to find a connection with all things in humans and nature. This power can be in all of us, because it's the power of observation and we can interact with nature by exploring its natural surroundings. Romanticism has no superpowers but does have amazing effects from its beauty, depending on your view of nature, the effects can be life changing; or a place of peace, "bliss of solitude", and a relaxing state of being. In these two writings, Muir faces dangers in his path to get to the flower, and Wordsworth stumbles upon these flowers while walking around in nature. They also use techniques, like diction, tone, and syntax in their writing to help effectively make the reader read all the way through…

    • 855 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nature is also a characteristic of American Romanticism. “He rubbed his eyes - it was a bright sunny morning. The birds were hopping and twittering among the bushes, and the eagle was wheeling aloft, and breasting the pure mountain breeze” (Irving 16). “The whole forest was peopled with frightful sounds—the creaking of the trees, the howling of wild beasts, and the yell of Indians; while sometimes the wind tolled like a distant church-bell, and sometimes gave a broad roar around the traveler, as if all Nature were laughing him to scorn.” (Hawthorne 11).…

    • 665 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Poe’s stories often contain very dark and twisted characters. He likes to write about fear and torture. The main character in the stories “The Raven” and “The Tell Tale Heart” are on the edge of insanity. In “The Raven”, the narrator fears he is going insane.…

    • 208 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Poe's Poe: The Father Of Poetic Horror

    • 884 Words
    • 4 Pages
    • 7 Works Cited

    Throughout many of his works Poe uses dark themes, irony, and horror to make a statement that will ring true to his…

    • 884 Words
    • 4 Pages
    • 7 Works Cited
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The similarities of Dark Romanticism, and Transcendentalism are that they both contain the idea of individualism. They show self-expression, and that you should rely on yourself. The differences that they had were even greater though. The transcendentalists had a strong belief that no matter how evil you were you there would still be some good left in you. While the dark romanticism believed that no matter how good you were there would still be some evil in you somewhere.…

    • 140 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Transcendentalism” Nature In this essay i will be giving examples of transcendentalism from two articles that i read. those two articles are, From Nature, and Self-reliance, they are both written by Ralph Waldo Emerson. I will be choosing out some quotes that relate to transcendentalism and explain why they relate. I will be giving examples of five different type of categories.…

    • 1041 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Poe’s use of mystery and darkness in both literary works sets the tone for what will lead…

    • 1005 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Seen as two different times in history, the Enlightenment and Romanticist periods are actually very close relatives of each other. During the Enlightenment period, time was ruled with logic and skepticism, always analyzing and looking for an answer through reason whether it is God or other matters. The Romanticism period focused mainly on the artistic, intellectual and literacy ideas of the time. The Romanticism ideas were birthed from the very womb of the Enlightenment therefore having some similarities, but also had many opposing ideas. Both the Enlightenment and Romanticism periods being rebellions of society saw ideas through similar lenses.…

    • 821 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In the early 1800s, Romantic thinking was upon every great scholar 's mind. Romanticism was an era where people began to think more spiritually rather than everything being explained by science. These writers and poets valued feeling over reason and touched upon universal human experiences such as death, love, and life. This is a time where nature and individualism were celebrated. There were different kinds of romantic thinking, there was Gothic and Transcendentalism.…

    • 1094 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays