Romanticism,_Transcendentalism,_and_Gothic_Literature

Romanticism, Transcendentalism, and Gothic Literature From puritan vales and god influencing literature moved into the age of reason and enlightenment where things in life where influenced by science and logic and this reasoning began to spill over into the literature of the time period as different authors brook off from it three major new literary movements were born: romanticism, transcendentalism, and gothic or dark literature. The many changes besting the American lifestyle in the mid-nineteenth century: the industrial revolution, universities, westward expansion, urbanization and immigration, gave rise to a new form of American literature known as romanticism or transcendentalism. The Transcendental movement in America gave rise to the authors of romanticism studied for in our class; therefore the two are interchangeable for the purpose of this essay. Transcendentalism allowed for a new way of looking at philosophy, literature, and religion; feeding on the American mans desire to redefine himself and his place in the world in response to an innovative and changing society. It was a response to the insolvency of religion and mechanization of the no longer satisfying rational consciousness of eighteenth century. In the nineteenth century, America was immersed in the Industrial Revolution. Unlike the eighteenth century, were goods had been produced in homes and on small farms, the mechanization of the nineteenth century led to huge factories and cities, who’s populations grew at alarming rates. The development of transportation also increased the pace of urbanization of the east and expansion into the western territories. The first successful steam During the 19th century war had changed how many Americans felt about themselves and their ideas. Now that America had found physical independence, there was a shift in the style of writing. During this period feelings and imagination were upheld over reason and fact and literature had emerged. This was called the period of Romanticism. Romanticism showed life as people might have imagined it or how people thought it should have been. Many writers of this period urged people to bring forth the spirit of the individual, or to take interest in the unknown. There are many writers who used Romanticism in their writing to shift away from classic style of literature. Imagine the wonderful aroma of roses, birds chirping in lilac trees, romantic sweet sayings. This was known as the Romantic time period. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Self Reliance,” is an American Romantic because it explores the philosophies of transcendentalism, and individualism. Transcendentalism is the belief that there is a higher reality, or truth that a man can grasp through his intuition, not with logic or science. The celebration of individualism is to look to yourself for your own truth and happiness, and not look to society, or your neighbor. These issues are still relevant today even though this essay was written in the late 1800’s. Transcendentalism is the key principle to Emerson’s writing, and to Transcendentalism- a system of philosophy, especially that associated with Ralph Waldo Emerson and other New England writers, that emphasizes intuition or the divine Romanticism- in the arts, the style and theories of the romantic movement, or the movement itself Transcendentalism was a literary movement in the first half of the 19th century. Transcendentalists were influenced by romanticism, especially such aspects of self examination, the celebration of individualism, and the exploring the beauties of nature and of humankind. According to them, fulfilling the search for knowledge came when one gained an awareness of beauty and truth, and communicated with nature to find union with the 'Over-Soul', a term used by Emerson in place of God. When this occurred, one was cleansed of materialistic goals, and was left with a sense of self-reliance and purity. Leaders of this movement include Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Theodore Parker, Bronson Alcott, William Ellery Channing, and Henry David Thoreau. These people were all transcendentalists. Transcendentalists can be seen as a generation of well educated people who lived in the decades before the American Civil War. (Lewis, 'What is Transcendentalism'' ) Transcendentalists deliberately went about creating literature, essays, novels, philosophy, poetry, and other writing that was clearly different from anything from England, France, Germany, or any other European Nation. The concept of transcendentalism is clearly expressed in the essay "Nature", by Ralph Waldo Emerson. His essay "Nature" tells of how one can gain insight and spiritual cleansing simply from experiencing nature. Emerson tells of how "in the woods is perpetual youth" and "in the woods we return to reason and faith." These lines show the whole concept of transcendentalism. In the following lines, Emerson remarks: "Standing on the bare ground- my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space- all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball: I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or parcel of God."(Emerson, 'Nature') These lines display the transcendentalist belief that purity and knowledge can be obtained from a union with and understanding of nature. Emerson also relates the concept of transcendentalism to human life in his essay, "Self-Reliance." In this essay, Emerson talks about another part of transcendentalism, the issue of "self-reliance." He sees mankind as somewhat of a coward and that people never express their true selves. Emerson claims that humans are afraid to fail and no matter what success may come to them, they will never be happy, they always want more. He expresses transcendentalist ideals by saying that a true person would be a non-conformist. Emerson puts this belief into words in the following lines: "There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil." These words pretty much sum up the idea of transcendentalism, that one must celebrate the individual in order to find himself one with the universe. is full of dark, disturbing, bizarre, deathly things. In the Masque of the Red Death, there are many elements reflecting the gothic literary parts of its nature. The Prince Prospero is slightly bizarre, perhaps insane even. Inside the building the people were hiding from the grotesque and death filled area of Europe. The palatial living quarters were twisted and unusual. The whole irony in the story was very imaginative and eerie. This story was excellent in its show of the strange and fantastic plot twists and turns, the irony was just perfect. In this story, the Prince, who feels he can escape death and throw a party receives an ironic ending. Death comes and ta The action takes place in an unknown town that is being destroyed by a terrible disease, named the Red Death. The main character of the story is Prospero – a rich prince who is trying to escape from the death, which kills thousands of people. However, he chooses a rather extraordinary and insolent way to do it. Living in a castle, Prospero decides to give a masquerade ball in order to withstand the death and to show that he is not subject to it. He decorates the castle and invites people, but in full swing of the ball, a stranger, wearing a red ugly mask and dire clothes, comes to the castle. Terrified people can’t stop him and he goes through all the rooms, until Prospero, being angry with such behavior, tries to stop him. However, when he approaches the stranger, he dies immediately and people found out that the stranger is not a live person but a ghost. It is the death that came to prove who is the master there. There are a lot of gothic elements in the story, which create a particular atmosphere and foreground the message of the story. However, before naming them it is necessary to define what is the gothic literature and what characteristics it has. For the first time this genre in literature was introduced in 1764. It is characterized by a particular treatment of horror. The writers and consequently the readers are supposed to perceive horror as something thrilling and fascinating. Yet, the main idea that runs through all gothic works is the inevitability of death and the decay of humanity. Therefore, the main symbols that are always met in all gothic stories are ghosts, bandits, monsters, demons and other evil spirits or the very dregs of the population, together with symbols of death, decay and collapse. Gothic buildings, particularly castles, are also characteristic of this genre. online essays If to analyze “The Masque of the Red Death”, we can say that Edgar Poe used many of mentioned above elements to create a real gothic work. To begin with, the way Prospero decorated the castle implicates a deep meaning. There are seven rooms and each of them is decorated in a single color. It is considered that these rooms symbolize seven stages in a person’s life. If to base on the plot, we can suppose that these are the stages of Prospero’s life, with each color – blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet, red and black – characteristic of these periods. All the rooms are situated one after another, with the first room in the East and the last room in the West. Thus, the whole human life is shown, from the birth, i.e. East, and to the death, i.e. West. The last, the seventh room, represents a particular gothic element, which symbolizes death. Not in vain the room is decorated in black and red – the colors of blood and grief. “But in the western or black chamber the effect of the fire-light that streamed upon the dark hangings through the blood-tinted panes, was ghastly in the extreme, and produced so wild a look upon the countenances of those who entered, that there were few of the company bold enough to set foot within its precincts at all” (Poe 62). Besides, there is a clock in the room, which strikes mournfully every hour, as if it counts off the hours of human life. The ghost, who has been mentioned above as a pure element of any gothic work, is also present in the story. It is the stranger, whose appearance inspires with awe everybody in the castle. “The mask which concealed the visage was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse that the closest scrutiny must have had difficulty in detecting the cheat… His vesture was dabbled in blood – and his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror” (Poe 65). Thus, Edgar Poe thoroughly developed the topic of the omnipotence of death and the impossibility to escape from it with the help of wealth. Prospero, who enjoyed his power and found comfort in the thought that he managed to win death, was finally punished. He died in the seventh room, when the clock stroke the twelfth hour.