Summary Of American Romanticism In Edgar Allan Poe's Billy Budd

American romanticism and the ideals of transcendentalism are demonstrated in many works during the 18th and 19th century in forms of their story plots or the overall message of their literary work. For an example, the romanticism work “Billy Budd”, written by Herman Melville had somewhat of a hero theme. Billy had to struggle against evil and at the end, he dealt with the evil. The story of “Bartleby the Scrivener” also written by Herman Melville had a anti-transcendentalist theme and it told a sad story about a man that lived in an office and that individual chose to be alone despite all the attention he was given. An author that focused on the theme of dark american romanticism was Edgar Allan Poe. He wrote many works including “Ms. Found

Billy Budd expressed somewhat of the American Romantic theme of the American Hero. Billy Budd was described as a tall strong, young, and attractive man. Billy is favored with certain attributes that made him a desirable person in a personality sense. In the story, Billy was a sailor that “had entered the king’s service having being impressed” (4-5). Billy was an sailor who was impressed into service and but he worked very hard on the ship until he was reassigned onto another ship named the H.M.S Belliotent. Billy was a valuable sailor, his former captain was angry that Billy was leaving. He said to the other lieutenant, “you are going to take my best man from me, the jewel of em” (6). Billy had tons of popularity and authority among his crew members. But onboard the other ship, he quickly runs into conflict with either crew member named John Claggart. Claggart soon admits that he hates Billy, but he does so because he envies him. Claggart is introduced by the narrator as “in whom was the mania of an evil nature, not entered by vicious training or corrupting books, or licentious living, but born with him and innate” (35). That confirms that claggart is indeed evil in a sense, this brings up the romantic theme of good versus evil. This particular line also brings up that Claggart’s evilness isn’t caused by any particular motive, but its just his nature. According to the beliefs of

Most of his works were written with an dark romanticism category and death is is often a very common theme of dark romanticism. The Tell Tale Heart told the story about a man who was driven by an old man with an “Evil Eye”. Throughout the story, the narrator describes the nights leading up to the old man’s murder and the aftermath. Throughout the story, the narrator displays signs of growing insanity. Poe liked to use insanity to “evoke dramatic irony” (131), Poe overall liked to use the dark human feeling of insanity to add an particular effect to his works. In one of his other work of “Annabel Lee”, the story starts off with the line “It was many and many a year ago” (Line 1). This line first suggests that the poem is a fairy tale because this introduction fits under that category of romanticism. This poem is about a couple that lived in a kingdom by the sea. The narrator felt that their love couldn’t be torn apart by anything, including death. One day a wind “came out of the could by night, chilling and killing” (15-16) Annabel Lee and she was ultimately killed by the feelings of envy of the angels. But despite her death, he wouldn’t let death separate their love, and he concludes with these lines, “And so, all the night-tide, I lie down the side of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride, In her sepulcher there by the sea” (34-42). The fact that