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Romanticism In The Romantic Period

Decent Essays

In the transition time between the seventeen and eighteen hundreds there was a drastic change in American literature. Before the shift authors wrote about enlightenment ideas such as freedom, self-rights, and putting logic above religion. With the dawn of the new century writers began to focus on man's relationship to nature rather than to intelligence. This new generation of authors would create the Romantic era. Romanticism held ideas of nature and feelings above any other relationships. Romantic works often shared themes of nature, feelings, sublime, and inspiration. Some of the romantic authors who best encompass these themes into their work are Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and O. Henry.
Many writers of the time believed that man can better understand life with a strong connection to nature and its elements. They believed people were naturally pure before being corrupted by society. To them, the best hearted men were those who had spent their lives within nature. In Henry's story “The Skylight Room” the main character, Leeson, is plagued with poverty and the worries of society. She finds calm and joy in the star Billy Jackson, a symbol of nature. In the end of the story Leeson is saved by a doctor named Dr. Jackson. “It recounted the reception into Bellevue Hospital of a young woman who had been removed from No. 49 East -- street, suffering from debility induced by starvation. It concluded with these words: Dr. William Jackson, the ambulance physician who

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