American Romanticism Movement Research Paper

The American Romanticism movement was one of the most important eras in American literature, taking place from the years 1820-1870, a time frame including the American Civil War, the rise and abolition of slavery, and the first works of feminism. However, Romanticism was first brought forth through religion, which, according to David Robinson’s article Romanticism, was “the field of thought and expression that had had the longest hold on the American imagination.” During this period, although most people were still very connected to traditional religion, many cliques appeared with slightly different beliefs in regards to religion. Many of these traditional religious establishments doubled down on the idea that somebody’s choices and motivations

Another important concept not necessarily introduced, but brought into the limelight during Romanticism was individuality, particularly that of a woman. During this time, women were not nearly as empowered as they are today, they were expected to care for the house and kids and not do much else. Therefore, many women were reading this literature and applying its individualistic messages to their lives and, for those women who wrote, their literature. This newfound individuality led to writing based on one of the most prominent issues facing romantic era denizens, was slavery and the ensuing civil war. The tone of these slavery era authors varied significantly in opinion, mostly based on their location in either the North or the South. Many famous novels were written about slavery displaying the real horrors of the practice. These books only added to the already growing public disapproval of slavery (Robinson, American Romanticism). Although events influenced the writing choices of romantic authors, in the end, their works influenced the opinions of the people and therefore the

His writing style was most certainly more on the bleaker side, an excellent example of this would be The Tell-Tale Heart. This short story, which focuses on the murder of an old man by a younger individual, does a magnificent job at bringing the general ideas of Romanticism to a single story. First of all, throughout the story, the narrator's sole desire is to rid himself of the dreaded evil eye; exemplifying the focus on the adverse impact individual thinking has on others around you that Poe writes about (Robinson, American Romanticism). Poe uses this negative outlook and the plot of the story to insinuate that all the individual thinking will lead to the destruction of society. Also, by mostly using one character, Poe manages to focus on the amount of harm extended thinking can do. The narrator kills the old man solely to eliminate this so-called “evil eye,” Poe’s logic states that if logical thinking would have been applied, the narrator may have realized the wrongness of his actions. The narrator itself fits extremely well in the previously mentioned characteristics of a romantic character, although not spiritually perceptive, having incredibly acute hearing allows what is believed to be the old man’s heart, which is a symbol of time. Time is the true conflict of the narrator, the fear of the passing of time causes him to associate the man’s eye with the solution to his fear he also