dark romanticism

5/10/2018 Dark Romanticism - slidepdf.com

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/dark-romanticism-55a0c65d3ea64 1/17

Click to edit Master subtitle style

4/29/12

a

r

Romantici

m



A Dark Romantic View

I know not how it was—but, with the first glimpse of the building, asense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable;for the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable,because poetic, sentiment, with which the mind usually receives

even the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible.From “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe

©

2 0 0 3 - 2 0 0 4 c l i p a r t . c o m



Who Were the Dark Romantics?

• Nineteenth-century writers who explored the dark sideof human nature.

• Explored the human potential for evil, including the

psychological effects of guilt, sin, and madness.• The Dark Romantic view countered the optimism of theTranscendentalist writers of the time.



Let’s Review: Who Were the Transcendentalists?

• A group of nineteenth-century writers and artists whobelieved in the goodness and ultimate perfectibility of human beings.

•

The Transcendentalists valued self-reliance andindividualism over custom and tradition.

• They saw the natural world as a doorway to a mysticalor ideal reality.



Differences Between Transcendentalists and Dark Romantics

Saw divine goodness andbeauty beneath everydayreality

Believed spiritual truthsmay be ugly or frightening

Embraced the mystical andidealistic elements of

Puritan thought

Reintroduced the dark sideof Puritan beliefs: the idea

of Original Sin and thehuman potential for evil

Transcendentalists Dark Romantics



Similarities BetweenTranscendentalists and Dark Romantics

True reality is spiritual.

Intuition is superior tologic or reason.

Human events containsigns and symbols of

spiritual truths.

Transcendentalists Dark Romantics



Nathaniel Hawthorne

• The biography of NathanielHawthorne on pg. 225 of your book begins,“Nathaniel Hawthorne wasan unusually handsome

man…”• Agree? Ms. Clark might have

a slight crush on him.

• During his life, Hawthornewas acclaimed as an author

and was a friend to the U.S.President Franklin Pierce–Pierce got him a job as theU.S. Consul in England.

• Hawthorne had a beloved

wife, a great job, and was apublished writer. However,



Nathaniel Hawthorne(1804–1864)

Hawthorne’s short stories and novels reflect DarkRomantic views of humanity.

In “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment,” four people drink

a magical elixir and choose the foolishness of false youth over the wisdom of age and

experience.

In “The Minister’s Black Veil,” a Puritan minister

decides to wear a black veil for the rest of his lifeto represent the universality of sorrow and secret

sin.

The novel The Scarlet Letter tells a story of sin

and redemption and explores the evil of hypocrisy.



Herman Melville(1819–1891)

Herman Melville’s short stories and novels also reflect aDark Romantic view of nature and humanity.

In the novel Moby-Dick , Captain Ahab doubts whether there is anyreal truth or meaning behind the appearances of nature.

In “Bartleby the Scrivener,” a lawyer watches his copyist withdrawcompletely from the material world.



Edgar Allan Poe

Wrote “TheRaven”

Widely accepted

as the inventor of the detective story

Known as aneccentric writer –

his dark anddismal life

probably hadsomething to do

with it



Edgar Allan Poe(1809–1849)

Poe’s masterful short stories told tales of madness, revenge, and tragic fate.

In “The Cask of Amontillado,” the madnarrator takes deadly revenge on a man

who insulted him.

In the classic horror tale “The Pit and the

Pendulum,” the narrator barely escapes ahorrible death in a dark dungeon.

In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” a man commitsmurder and is driven to confess by theimaginary beating of the dead man’s



4/29/12

Dark Romanticism Today?

Can you think of any televisionshows, websites, movies,

people that fall into the darkromanticism category?



The Dark Knight

Bruce Wayne: bothparents killed

Believes that the world isinherently evil

“Because he's the heroGotham deserves, but

not the one it needs rightnow. So we'll hunt himbecause he can take it.Because he's not our

hero. He's a silentguardian, a watchful

protector. A dark knight.”



Twilight

Evil vs. good

Betrayal

Darkness

Forbidden loveOmg



The News



4/29/12

Society in General

Emphasis on wealth andmaterialism

Credit crisisNational debt

ForeclosuresFinancial chaos



4/29/12

What Have You Learned?

1. The Transcendentalists had a dark vision of the world.

a. true b. false

2. Hawthorne was a Transcendentalist.a. true b. false

3. The Dark Romantics believed in spiritual but not

necessarily optimistic truths behind nature.a. true b. false

dark romanticism

Documents