American Transcendentalism and Dark Romanticism

The British colonized America in 1607 with the setting up of James town in Virginia. The first American literature in America was actually written by the British people who had settled there, making it Anglo-American. It was only later that the concept of the American Dream emerged and the people living in America tried to establish an independent identity of their own. This paper discusses the origin and characteristics of American transcendentalism and dark romanticism.

American romanticism was largely influenced by the Romantic Movement in England. In England, the Romantic period began in the late eighteenth century and continued till the early nineteenth century, reaching its peak from around 1800 to 1850. In The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, J.A. Cuddon defines Romanticism.

“A movement in art and literature in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in revolt against the Neoclassicism of the previous centuries… Any list of particular characteristics of the literature of romanticism includes subjectivity and an emphasis on individualism; spontaneity; freedom from rules; solitary life rather than life in society; the beliefs that imagination is superior to reason devotion to beauty; love of and worship of nature; and fascination with the past, especially the myths and mysticism of the Middle Ages.”

The Neoclassical movement was the literary movement that preceded the Romantic period. It existed during the age of Enlightenment. During this time, rationality and logic were emphasised and imagination was discouraged. Writers were expected to follow the rules as set down by the masters, and these rules were not to be changed. Johnson was a prominent neoclassicist. He was a very strict believer in following the rules set down by traditional masters. The only exception he made was for Shakespeare, whom he called a natural genius.

The Romantic Movement was something of a counter-revolution to the Neoclassical Movement. Writers like Wordsworth and Coleridge celebrated imagination and nature. The countryside was glorified and contrasted with the squalor of the city. They adopted a more spiritual outlook to life. Spirituality was not necessarily connected with religion. Romantic poets believed that nature was God’s manifestation. They believed that God was universally present around us. Coleridge talks about the relationship between man, nature and God in his poem “Frost at Midnight”.

 “The lovely shapes and sounds intelligible

Of that eternal language, which thy God

Utters, who from eternity doth teach

Himself in all, and all things in Himself.

Great Universal Teacher!”(12)

Coleridge emphasizes the idea of the eternity of God. Even Wordsworth wrote along similar lines by praising the beauty and tranquility of nature. However, not all the writers of the Romantic period wrote in the same way. Based on the time period during which they wrote and their poetic mindset, the Romantic poets can be divided into two branches or generations. Wordsworth and Coleridge belonged to the first generation of Romantics. They wrote during the beginning of the French revolution and were inspired by its ideals. These writers had a positive view about the subjects they wrote about. On the other hand, the second generation of Romantics consisted of poets like Byron and Shelley who wrote after the failure of the French revolution. Shannon Heath discusses and describes the style of the second generation Romantics in her essay titled “Romanticism and Revolution”.

“Second-generation Romantics such as Lord Byron and Percy Shelley held to the Revolution’s principles in a more idealistic, if somewhat cautious way. Shelley, for instance, portrays rebellious events in poems such as Prometheus Unbound (1820), Swellfoot the Tyrant (1820), and Hellas (1822), yet he avoids direct representation of revolutionary action through a mythological framework.”

Prometheus is a character from Greek mythology who had to suffer eternal punishment for defying Zeus. The second generation Romantics took a more pessimistic approach to life. They still talked about nature but they included a dark side to it that was not previously depicted by the Romantic poets. Second generation Romantics also paid more attention to human psychology.

The European Romantics strongly influenced the American Romantic movement. The American Romantic movement occurred in the nineteenth century. According to Professor Bruce Harvey in his essay on American Romanticism,

“American Romantics tend to venerate Nature as a sanctum of non-artificiality, where the Self can fulfill its potential (the earlier Puritans tended to see nature as the fallen "wilderness," full of "savage" Indians).  American Romantics also champion spiritual intuition or self-reliant individualism”

The American Romantics celebrated individualism and egalitarianism. The “American dream” was glorified and everyone was considered equal. There were no traditional class hierarchies like in England. This was because there were settlers from all over the world. This did not leave much space for class or religious hierarchies to be formed. Everyone was given a chance to reach their full potential. However, this democracy extended only to white males. Africans and the Native Americans continued to be left out. (Harvey)

A very important part of the American Romantic Movement was Transcendentalism. M. H. Abrams and Geoffrey Harpham define Transcendentalism in A Glossary of Literary Terms as:

“A philosophical and literary movement which was centered in Concord and Boston… was neither a systematic not a sharply definable philosophy, but rather an intellectual mode and emotional mood that was expressed in diverse, and in some cases rather eccentric, voices.”(412)

They also say that the Transcendentalists rebelled against rigid rationalism. They were against the Calvinist orthodoxy of New England which believed in predestination. They also did not fully agree with the Unitarian theory that arose in the eighteenth century. The Unitarian belief of religion did not believe in the Holy Trinity but instead believed that God was one single entity. The Transcendentalists believed that knowledge was grounded on feeling and intuition. They believed more in spirituality than in religion.

“Transcendentalists, especially Emerson, were confident in the validity of a mode of knowledge that is grounded in feeling and intuition, and a consequent tendency to accept what, to logical reasoning, might seem contradictions; an ethics of individualism that stressed self-trust, self-reliance, and self-sufficiency; … and in place of a formal or doctrinal religion, a faith in a divine “Principle”, or “Spirit”, or “Soul” in which both humanity and the cosmos participate.” (413)

 Elizabeth Witherell, and Elizabeth Dubrulle wrote an essay called “Thoreau’s Early Years” in which they discussed the beliefs of Transcendentalists.

“The Transcendentalists assumed a universe divided into two essential parts, the soul and nature. …A belief in the reliability of the human conscience was a fundamental Transcendentalist principle, and this belief was based upon a conviction of the immanence, or indwelling, of God in the soul of the individual. "We see God around us, because he dwells within us," wrote William Ellery Channing in 1828; "the beauty and glory of God's works are revealed to the mind by a light beaming from itself."

Ralph Waldo Emerson was a prominent Transcendentalist. He wrote an essay called “Nature” which is divided into eight parts: Nature, Commodity, Beauty, Language, Discipline, Idealism, Spirit and Prospects. Each section takes a different perspective on the relationship between humans and nature. He says that people are distracted by worldly life and fail to appreciate nature. He stresses on the importance of nature and its link to human spirituality. This is clearly seen in his poem, “The Apology”

“Think me not unkind and rude,

That I walk alone in grove and glen;

I go to the god of the wood

To fetch his word to men.

Tax not my sloth that I

Fold my arms beside the brook;

Each cloud that floated in the sky

Writes a letter in my book.

Chide me not, laborious band,

For the idle flowers I brought;

Every aster in my hand

Goes home loaded with a thought.

There was never mystery,

But 'tis figured in the flowers,

Was never secret history,

But birds tell it in the bowers.

One harvest from thy field

Homeward brought the oxen strong;

A second crop thine acres yield,

Which I gather in a song.”

In the poem we see that every verse has a reference to nature. We see that solitude is encouraged in order to get in touch with one’s soul and with god. Emerson talks about how being quiet and calm can be mistaken for laziness by worldly people. The whole poem has a light and transcendent feeling to it, as if it means to transport the reader away from the world.

Henry David Thoreau was also an important Transcendentalist. He believed in living closer to nature and also supported the dignity of manual labour. He wrote a book called Walden which talks about living a simple life in the woods. He stresses on self-reliance, which was a major theme during the American Romantic Movement.

However, there were a group of writers who did not fully agree with the optimistic view of life that the Transcendentalists propagated. This gave rise to Dark Romanticism. Karthik Venkat wrote a paper on Dark Romanticism in which he defines it and compares it with Transcendentalism.

“Dark Romanticism is primarily a 19th century literary movement. It is popularly known as a Sub-genre of the larger Romantic Movement. This is because it retains and expounds several of the characteristics associated with the same. … In the late 18th century and early 19th century in America, the transcendental movement began to gain representation. The basic philosophy of the movement was a belief in man’s spiritual essence and his soul’s ability to transcend the physical. Such a picture of the world did not digest very well with everyone. Consequently, we had (as a reaction to the transcendentalist) a collection of works concentrating upon themes of horror, tragedy, the macabre and the supernatural. These works, illuminating the ideas of obscurity of the human mind, its affinity towards the unknown and the dark etc. led to the birth of the dark romanticist.”

The Dark Romanticists focused more on human psychology and the complexities of human behaviour. They still referred to nature, but sometimes in a dark and eerie way. Gothic elements of the supernatural as manifestations of truth and human conscience were also common in the writings of the Dark Romanticists.

G. R. Thompson compares Dark Romanticism and Transcendentalism in "Introduction: Romanticism and the Gothic Tradition." He talks about how perfection was perceived by both groups. He also compares their views on nature and psychology.

“Dark Romantics are much less confident about the notion perfection is an innate quality of mankind, as believed by Transcendentalists. Subsequently, Dark Romantics present individuals as prone to sin and self-destruction, not as inherently possessing divinity and wisdom. G.R. Thompson describes this disagreement, stating while Transcendental thought conceived of a world in which divinity was immanent, "the Dark Romantics adapted images of anthropomorphized evil in the form of Satan, devils, ghosts … vampires, and ghouls."

Secondly, while both groups believe nature is a deeply spiritual force, Dark Romanticism views it in a much more sinister light than does Transcendentalism, which sees nature as a divine and universal organic mediator. For these Dark Romantics, the natural world is dark, decaying, and mysterious; when it does reveal truth to man, its revelations are evil and hellish. Finally, whereas Transcendentalists advocate social reform when appropriate, works of Dark Romanticism frequently show individuals failing in their attempts to make changes for the better”

Edgar Allan Poe was a prominent Dark Romanticist. His works are contain the quintessential elements of Dark Romanticism. For example, his poem “The Raven” involves a ghostly element of the supernatural. His short story “The Tell Tale Heart” also shows the supernatural as a manifestation of the protagonist’s conscience. There is a lot of emphasis on the mind and thought processes. Poe uses the supernatural in such a way that it is only a result of the protagonist’s mentality. The protagonist sees and hears what he is thinking. That is why in “The Tell Tale Heart”, nobody except the protagonist can hear the beating of the murdered man’s heart. The beating heart is a manifestation of the protagonist’s guilty conscience.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was also a Dark Romanticist. His book The House of the Seven Gablescontains many elements of Dark Romanticism. The most prominent element is nature. Hawthorne is very descriptive about the natural surroundings of the house. This is typical of any Romantic writer. Hawthorne adds a dark spin to these descriptions by making nature appear to be withering and decaying. His unpleasant descriptions of the Pyncheon house along with the mysterious description of Maule’s well give nature an eerie touch.

These descriptions of the surroundings are reflected in the descriptions of the inhabitants of the house. Like the house, Hepzibah seems to be withering. She and her brother Clifford are given anachronistic descriptions which further make them stand out. They were different clothes and have disturbing pasts. They simply cannot coexist with the people of the “outside world”. Hawthorne makes this very clear. With the exception of Phoebe, every character has a dark side. Even Phoebe loses some of her seemingly excessive optimism through the course of the story.

A supernatural element in brought in right from the beginning of the story with the mysterious death of the Pyncheon who built the house with seven gables. This ghost along with the ghost of Alice Pyncheon carries through the story even if it is sometimes present only in the background. Nevertheless, there is still an eerie resemblance in the behaviour of the current Pyncheons and their ancestors.

However, the story has an uncharacteristically happy ending. This was uncommon for Dark Romantic novels. For example, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, the novel does not end on a happy note. Rather, it ends with the steady sense of life moving on, leaving the characters to prepare themselves to adapt to the life ahead of them. There is only a vague and cautious optimism in Beloved.This is not the case in The House of the Seven Gables. It ends on a positively cheerful note with all its problems resolved and the fresh promise of a new beginning. Nevertheless, it bears many characteristics of Dark Romantic writing and is thereby suitably placed in that category.

Transcendentalism and Dark Romanticism are just two of the many sub-genres of the American Romantic Movement that spanned from 1820 to 1860. Common to all these sub-genres was an importance to nature and man’s relationship with it. Various authors chose different aspects of nature to relate to the human psyche. Romanticism rebelled against Puritanism and gave importance to spirituality rather than religion. The American Romantic period encouraged the American dream of self-reliance and self-expression.