The Romantic Period Of John Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, And Edgar Allen Poe

The author gives a description of short story writer, poet and critic Edgar Allan Poe's place in the history of the U.S. is presented. As literary editor of "Graham's Lady's" and "Gentleman's Magazine," Poe became a major figure in American letters. Although his heavy drinking cost him his job, Poe continued to write in a cool style that was the polar opposite of his romantic poems and horror stories. Thomas Fleming gives details for his main idea that Poe’s works are widely known due to his technique of writing. Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Black Cat” is perfect examples of his suspenseful writing technique that grabs his audience, holds on to readers throughout the entire story and leaves the audience on the edge of their seats. Edgar Allan Poe’s stories are always thought of as being suspenseful and extremely dramatic. To achieve the suspense in Edgar Allen Poe’s, he uses gothic imagery to help add an unknown, eerie effect. The author, Thomas Fleming, gives an example with “…with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable

There were six main writers who contributed to American Literature through their thrilling stories/poems. Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Herman Melville all wrote works consisting of the sub-genre of Dark Romanticism. Edgar Allan Poe was an accomplished poet, short story writer, editor, and literary critic. He also invented the genre of Gothic Literature. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote many pieces that formed the basis of a new national literature, while also writing one of the best novel “The Scarlet Letter.” A poet, Robert Frost, became a four time recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He is an icon on the American literary landscape. William Lloyd Garrison also became one of the greatest American Literaturist. He is known for

“The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where one ends and the other begins”(Poe, par. 3). Edgar Allan Poe, as well as many other writers throughout history, have questioned the ideological standards of society. A noteworthy debate that has surfaced time and time again through varying time periods is the dispute of logical and rational intelligence versus the impassioned emotion of one’s inner-self. These two conflicting philosophies divided and defined the different characteristics of literature during the Enlightenment era and the Romantic era. In order to understand why various authors such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and John Locke wrote in their differing styles, it is important to understand the historical context that inspired these authors. Although these approaches in style were exceedingly different, remarkable works of literature emerged from both time periods. While the various writers of the Enlightenment era had a more historical motivation for writing, the writers during the Romantic era composed an overall more amusing anthology of literary works.

Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allen Poe were extremely successful gothic or dark romantic authors of the 19th century. The two authors wrote a plethora of short stories that strayed from the rationalist styles of the 18th century and paved the way for other dark romantic authors. Romanticism focuses on emotions and nature while rationalism focuses on logic and reasoning. Hawthorne and Poe display the darker side of human nature throughout all of their works. Three especially good examples of this particular style are Hawthorne’s “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” as well as Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat.”

Poe wrote in the literary movement of Dark Romanticism. The Romantic Movement was intellectual and artistic, but Poe’s work took that and added a gothic twist to it. This was a start to the recognition of disarray and darkness. ”The Fall of the House of Usher” evident characteristics of the Dark Romantics was it was a haunting

Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of the most important authors in the history of American literature and the genre of Romanticism or Dark Romanticism, due to his unique style of writing and his focus upon subjects of Puritan religion and the unknown. I consider Hawthorne an important author, due to the fact that he skillfully and accurately based his fictional writings upon happenings of colonial times, was one of the first authors to display unfortunate outcomes for his characters’ immoral choices according to Puritan beliefs, and wrote of things that were considered taboo in his time, such as witchcraft, scientific innovation and experimentation. I strongly believe that Hawthorne’s influence for his writings were his Puritan ancestral background, his fascination with Puritan beliefs, and his interest in what was considered the unknown such as witchcraft and science. According to the Norton Anthology Textbook Vol. B, Nathaniel Hawthorne was “born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1804” (370). Hawthorne belonged “to a family whose ancestral roots were tied to Puritan history, with his family being among the first settlers of Massachusetts and having one of his relatives serve as a judge during the Salem witch trials” (370). Hawthorne, as a young boy, “had a particular interest in writings such as John Bunyan’s Puritan allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress, and by his mid-teens he took interest in British novelists such as Henry Fielding, Tobias Smollet, William Godwin, and Sir Walter Scott”

The Story The Minister’s Black Veil is very interesting in many different ways, it catches the reader 's attention. It uses American Romanticism, that is an interesting thing to use in a story to catch the reader 's attention. What that is, is to elevate the imagination over reason. today Edgar Allen Poe remains popular for his hunting poems and suspenseful stories. American Romantic writers differ than the European romanticism writers. Declaration of Independence used a lot of American romanticism. The Declaration Of Independence is a very historical and important document. There were many great American Romanticism writers that wrote lots of stories to the public about themselves or about others. Washington Loving, Edgar Allen Poe which i 'm going to talk a lot about today, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Herman Melville are all American Romanticism Writers. Some European Romanticism Poets were Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Cullen Bryant, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and John Greenleaf Whittier. All of those writers were great and many people bought their stories for many many years. Some of those writers are still very popular today and people still buy their stories or poetry. One example of a writer that is still popular for his Romanticism stories is Edgar Allen Poe. I am going to write about him today in this essay.

The power of consciousness and thought- that inner voice of reason constraining one from happiness, or perhaps protecting one from the imminent fear and gloom encompassing the Earth. This is what Romanticist writers across the centuries have worked so sedulously to convey. In the 1700’s these topics frequently arose through what is known as gothic literature, a severe configuration of Romanticism. Most gothic literature writers including Edgar Allen Poe and Horacio Quiroga, demonstrate the universal idea of this inherent, earthly darkness through the use of two elements- entrapment and mental decay. These writers manipulate these elements to show that it is the unfathomable darkness present in people’s hearts and minds that claws at them, torments and traps them; draining the souls from their bodies leaving nothing behind but broken minds. The preceding elements of entrapment and mental decay are portrayed prevalently through “The Black Cat,” “The Feather Pillow,” and “The Raven.”

American Romanticism has been around for quite some time now, having made an incline in popularity in the early 1800’s. Two very popular stories associated with American Romanticism include: “The Minister’s Black Veil” published in 1832, and the “Fall of the House of Usher” which was published in 1839. These two stories correlate nicely and contrast evenly in the theme of American Romanticism, such as the many supernatural elements both stories posses.

The Romantic Period served as a breeding ground for some of America's most extraordinary authors.  Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Ralph Waldo Emerson are just some of the names that graced this Golden Era of American literature.  Great as they were, these men still lacked a significant amount of originality.  Relating their themes and structures results in little to no variation.  One author, though born into the era of Romanticism dared to expand the possibilities nineteenth - century literature had to offer.  Through works such as "Young Goodman Brown," "The Minister's Black Veil," and "The Birthmark," Nathaniel Hawthorne incorporated Romanticism into his own style.  Including ordinary men,

Irving, Poe, and Hawthorne were arguably some of the most popular writers of the 19th century (Dincer 223; Lauter 2505). All three of them are known for their short essays and their advocacy to make writing a full-fledged and legitimate profession. Their writings show that they were hugely influenced by the Romantic Movement (romanticism); ‘a movement in art, literature, music, philosophy, politics and culture towards focusing on the individual, the subjective, and the spontaneous’ (Dincer 218). Romanticist writing “encouraged contemplation and self-awareness, direct contact with nature, and a focus on and an exploration of inner feelings” (Dincer 223). Yet, they had distinct writing style, focus, and theme. While Irving was more of a light romantic writer, a writing style characterized by optimism, Poe and Hawthorne are widely considered dark romantic Authors whose writings were characterized by pessimism that sees the world as full of dark, evil, suffering, horror, and mystery. While Irving’s writing focused more on satire and humor, Poe & Hawthorne’s writing was more about evil, crime, sin, and mystery. Moreover, Irving seem to be nostalgic aristocrat with huge ‘interest in the landscape, folklore, and the past’ (2506), whereas Poe and Hawthorne had a contrary view of the past (Liptak).

The Romantic era writers, Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe, had many similarities but even more differences, in both writing theme and style. This is very evident in their works, “Rip Van Winkle”, by Irving, and “The Fall of the House of Usher”, by Poe.

The definition of 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. To define it in a simpler form, romanticism is used to elevate the imagination over reason; intuition over fact. It is made to be misleading, and at times does not involve anything with love. The writers of this genre tend to stretch and alter facts, to tell the truth. Therefore, the parable, The Minister's Black Veil, by American Romanticism writer Nathaniel Hawthrone is an excellent example of this and is a reason why I choose it to write my literary analysis on it.

Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, and Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, The Fall of the House of Usher, although published in different periods, on different continents, have in common many of the main ideas that stood behind the literary movement of Romanticism (the sublime, the Romantic hero, imagination, isolation), combined with elements of the Gothic (the mysterious and remote setting dominated by a gloomy atmosphere, death, sin, pain, exotic elements, supernatural).

The Romantic Period, an era described as an expression of emotional exuberance, unrestrained imagination, spontaneity in both art and personal life, enchantment of poetry, and the embracing of the unknown. It is perhaps the rebellious condition of man to accept such liberal ideals in contrast to the conservative threshold of the Catholic Church. The response to the enlightenment era of logic and reason was cried from the footprints of historical sands. Notable figures stand out that are leaders at the forefront of this epic social battle such as William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Blake, John Clare, Walter Scott, Mary Shelley, Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allen Poe. The passive approach of writing allows the Romantic literature produced to transcend throughout history and influence the likes of philosophers, poetics, social activists, and other prominent figures of the modern age. These individuals used the mighty pen to attack the average and affected the hearts and minds of millions. This is a great alternate to shape the world in their image as opposed to immoral means, such as genocide. Some notable works which is analyzed and inferred to for historical context is Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”, Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and Hawthorne’s “The