Romanticism and Transcendentalism Essay

Ralph Waldo Emerson encompasses nearly all of transcendentalism in one statement: “Every chemical substance, every plant, every animal in its growth, teaches the unity of cause, the variety of appearance...” (Emerson 5). Written in the essay “Self-Reliance,”this statement means that —whether it be as small as an atom or as large as a tree— there exists a unity between their beings. The philosophy of transcendentalism was formed by famous writers such as Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, and…

Ralph Emerson was a principal figure in the Transcendentalist movement of the 1840s, in addition to, he was also a well-known essayist and poet. His 1841 essay, “Self-Reliance”, emphasizes the importance of people acquiring their identity along with being true to themselves. Throughout his essay, Emerson strains the significance of individuals avoiding conformity and following their own thoughts and judgments. Emerson obtains his goal of conveying his message by generating multifarious…

As the 18th century came to its last years, it granted hope and cheer for futures of men, disregarding class and education. Following that into the 19th century rose a period known as the American Romanticism. The search for individuality became a growing goal for the citizens of America as it removed itself from the British Empire. With independence came the rise of national pride and the popularity of an anti-British doctrine. Especially for American literature, as it progressed and matured…

Literature is a fundamental basis for humanity. Throughout the years mankind has inhabited the Earth, recording culture, values, stories and events through the written word. Writing these stories down are their authors, many of which have become well known and world renowned for their creativity and contribution to the world’s libraries. One such author is Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a English poet and author who helped to create the romantic movement, additionally demonstrating the elements that…

American history is filled with ups and downs. First you have the settlement era where very clueless and scared individuals move across the world to live in a very unfamiliar place. Then you have the enlightenment era were people change up their philosophies and start to take more about nature and science. It continues all the way to the era we are currently in, postmodern era where we write more freely. American literate styles changes as time goes on. These styles change because of historical…

During the 19th and 20th centuries in America, literature evolved into new styles as writers began the formation of a distinct American style. Two opposing styles that developed during this time were realism and naturalism. As these styles took shape, American authors discussed the elements and effect of each in a series of commentaries and essays, including Frank Norris’ “Zola as Romantic Writer”. In “Zola as a Romantic writer”, Norris criticizes the style of the realistic writer, and in doing…

The Scarlet Letter was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in the 1800s, but the book is placed in the Puritan times of the 1600s. Hawthorne is an anti-transcendentalist, which means he thinks society is good and nature is evil and humans are naturally evil. Puritanism is a very strict religion in the 1600s. If you are a Puritan you are against all earthly pleasure and your life is hell on Earth. Symbolism is a literary device that uses symbols to represent ideas. In this novel, The Scarlet Letter,…

The Scarlet Letter: Prompt 2 Nathaniel Hawthorne and Ralph Waldo Emerson were among a group of authors known as the Romantics that valued feeling over reason, imagination over science, and nature over civilization. These ideals are commonly displayed in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Like any writers of the same time period, Hawthorne and Emerson may have never completely accepted each other's beliefs, however the characters that Hawthorne creates agree with Emerson’s advice, “[d]o not go where…

Henrik Ibsen was a Norwegian playwright in the latter half of the 19th century. He was considered ‘the father of modern drama’ as he used the newly emergent realist form of the time. The realist form is a conscientious way of ‘reflecting’ real life by rejecting ‘idealization, escapism, and other extravagant qualities of romance’ and recognising ‘the problems of life’ (Baldick, 2008). This is done by implementing aspects of real life on the stage through various techniques, focusing on the…

As humans, we tend to put ourselves in the spotlight of our own world. We use humanistic terms that give a place imagined borders. Don McKay’s “Otherwise than Place” is a lyrical essay that starts off with the narrator holding an introspective stone from the West Coast of Vancouver Island, he asks himself what the relation is between place and wilderness. As encouraged by Don McKay, it is a good meditative practice for humans to notice that we label things according to our occurrence to the land…