Themes Of Dark Romanticism

In “The Pit and the Pendulum”, the atmosphere is dark and unsettling. In addition to the setting and characters, there are various other factors that give the story a creepy feel to it. Furthermore, the narrator’s thoughts and descriptions add to the ominous mood of the story. For example, the tale states, “By long suffering my nerves had been unstrung, until I trembled at the sound of my own voice, and had become in every respect a fitting subject for the species of torture which awaited me” (Poe 5). At this point in the story, the narrator, falling into his torturers’ trap, tips on the verge of insanity and begins to lose hope. The reader can easily picture the narrator, cowering against the wall, eyes wide, flinching at the slightest of sounds. Therefore, along with the horrifying aspects of the torture chamber, the unstable narrator and his thoughts create a foreboding and macabre feeling characteristic to gothic

The Romantic Period is characterized as an artistic and intellectually stimulating literary movement. Writers of this genre and time are considered to be those who fused the elements of romance in their writings to enhance the human experience. Edgar Allan Poe, known as the father of the modern short story, epitomizes this notion in his writings. In “Annabel Lee,” and “The Oval Portrait,” Edgar Allan Poe uses romance to illustrate the essence of death and misery and to illustrate elements in which the reader can actually feel that was is happening in the story is happening to them.

In Holly Wren Spaulding’s essay, “In Defense of Darkness,” her main claim is that we have fallen away from darkness and immersed ourselves in a society of lightness. Furthermore, she claims this has lead humans to lose touch with basic human emotion as well as the sensual and spiritual experience true darkness has to offer. Spaulding makes this claim evident through exceptional use of personal testimony and copious appeals to value.

4. Define “Dark Romanticism” as you understand it by discussing two works by different authors. Account for the rise of this kind of writing in America and evaluate its appeal and significance then and now.

The human race holds a dark side lurking within them. In most cases, humans are unaware of its existence because of the high standard expected in civilization.“Where’s the man with the megaphone?” The fair

The start of the Romantic Age coincided with the start of the French Revolution in 1789. It ends in 1837. Just as the revolution was changing the social order, the romantic poets were taking literature in a whole new direction. The mechanical reason that pervaded the work of the previous era was replaced by strong emotions and a return to nature. Animals and respect for nature were frequently used subjects in works of his period. The first generation of poets included William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Sir Walter Scott. Their primary contribution to literature was with their lyrical ballads. They used the typical romantic themes of respect for nature and all of its creatures. Wordsworth is above all the poet

In the short story "The Devil & Tom Walker" by Washington Irving, the main character's fate is going to hell because of his wrong decisions in life when he sold his soul to the Devil for wealth. Washington Irving reinforces his message about why you shouldn’t make decisions that may damn your soul with the use of romantic literary elements and satire. Religion was widely written about during 1824, the year “The Devil and Tom Walker” was written, due to the large religious population and the fascination with the Devil as an evil wandering spirit. When writing, Irving combines characterization with mood/setting to perpetuate the theme of romanticism in the story for the reader's mind.

Lord Byron’s “Darkness” illustrates a dark and pessimistic outlook for the world as we know it. The world loses all sense of hope and is left with only despair and darkness after the loss of the provider of thought and hope-sunlight. With the extinction of sunlight comes the destruction of social classes due to inevitable fear of death, and, as a result, all that is left is chaos. The psychological mind drastically changes its mannerisms and mode of thinking when faced with life and death situations.

An example of this is when the author Wes began to fail in school and the dean called home. He told Joy that Wes had “Bad grades, [and many] absence[s] from [his] classes” (Moore 87) and those were just some of the reasons why the dean put him on academic probation. This is what pushed Joy over the edge and what made her put the author Wes in military school. Military school became the author Weses last chance to turn his life around for the better, he took it and is now a successful man with a family. Hester also took her chance and became successful. When Hester was being shamed for her adultery, Hawthorne thought that, if she had received the full sentence, the crowd would have looked at her execution “without a murmur at its severity” (Hawthorne 86). Hester was lucky not to be killed and if she ever had an affair again, she would be killed. If this was the case, Pearl would be hurt beyond comprehension and Dimmesdale would not be able to take this, with the guilt of his sin eating away at him and the love of his life being killed. Those are just a few of the consequences if she had another

When children think of darkness they think of lack of light which causes them to become scared. As we grow older, we begin to not only realize the lack of light, but the objects inside the dark which can be more frightening. We start understanding how darkness makes us feel. Darkness makes one think of unusual scenarios that are not real, but seems so real at that moment. Once we start believing in those scenarios, they start to overcome us and we no longer stay ourselves. There are multiple definitions of darkness and they all go with these two authentic stories, Heart of Darkness and The Dead. In the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, darkness is defined as: partial or total absence of light, wickedness or evil, unhappiness, secrecy and lack of spiritual or intellectual enlighten. Comparing, Heart of Darkness written by Joseph Conrad and The Dead written by James Joyce, each author brings out darkness and the living dead into the main character and shows how much it changes them for the worse and/or for the better.

The Romantic Era featured two sub categories that had similarities as well as differences; Dark Romantics and Transcendentalists. They could be compared and contrasted by their use of supernatural and spiritual forces and how those powers affected the characters and their perspectives. The first text is a Dark Romantic piece,“The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe. This piece is about the main character who narrates the hallucinations he experiences. His dynamic perspective builds throughout the text as his addiction to opium intensifies. The second piece is also in the Dark Romantic category and is called “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The main character and antagonist is a scientist by the name of Aylmer who has a wife with a distinct birthmark upon her face. Aylmer unravels as the text continues. The first Transcendentalist text is “Self Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson narrates this piece himself and the subject matter emphasizes individualism and his hopes for the transformation of society. Lastly is “Walden” by Henry David Thoreau. He into nature to live alone and shares his experiences and reasoning behind it.These pieces work together and against each other to exhibit how the supernatural and spiritual forces influence the characters in each text.

Before being good or bad, human beings are just humans who have to live with their own nature, which they sometimes cannot control. Man can do good or evil but he always makes it with a unique purpose, his personal satisfaction, because it is simply in his nature. Thus, human beings aware of good and evil are confronted with conflicting choices but they never act against their will. The poem, “The Human Abstract”, written by William Blake reflects on these characteristics of human beings and demonstrates how they are unconsciously corrupted by their own nature in a selfish way.

The aim of this paper is to examine the elements of modernism in The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, Sons and Lovers by D.H Lawrence and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce.

This can be viewed through the works of author Washington Irving in his short story, The Devil and Tom Walker, published in 1824, where he goes into detail of his opinions of romanticism and what it means to him. A quote from the short story is, “You shall open a broker’s shop in Boston next month,” … “You shall extort bonds, foreclose mortgages, drive the merchants to bankruptcy”. This quotation is said through a man in the story who is symbolizing the devil; therefore Irving is using this to show a negative aspect of human nature and how there is a dark and corrupt side to society. Another example of romanticism having a negative aspect of human nature is in the many stories and essays written by the author Edgar Allen Poe, such as, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, “Ligeia”, and “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”. The short story with the most detail and evidence of romanticism and it’s negative aspect would be another famous work by Poe, “The Pit and the Pendulum”. The story is based upon Gothic literature and includes the story with the tragedy of death and the events that follow. An example from the story is, “I shrank back, but the closing walls pressed me resistlessly onward. At length for my seared and writhing body there was no longer an inch of foothold on the firm floor of the

Dark romanticism is a subgenre of writing that took a different approach to the fantasy, and it submerged into American literature in 1800-1860. And it emphasized humans weakness and vulnerability to sin and destruction. The main characteristic of this genre was horrific themes and creepy symbols. Since many famous writers wielded it into their writings such as Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Emily Dickenson.