Romanticism and Transcendentalism Era of Literature - Essay Example

26). In the above instance, Thoreau’s reference to solitude highlights the importance transcendentalism places on one’s natural surroundings. Specifically, this refers to transcendentalism’s cosmological claim that the universe and essential life qualities can be understood through one’s relationship with nature. While for certain writers, romanticism may hold these cosmological connotations, to a larger extent it appears that romanticism is more prominently an aesthetic movement. One considers Nathaniel Hawthorne when he writes, “so far as it may swerve aside from the truth of the human heart…If he think fit, also, he may so manage his atmospherical medium as to bring out or mellow the lights and deepen and enrich the shadows of the picture” (Perkins, p. 326). In the above instance, Hawthorne is indicating that despite the fact that the content may not directly reflect reality, it is the writer’s prerogative to shift the facts to a new emotional mood.

Ultimately, transcendentalism is a way of viewing the universe, while romanticism is a form of aesthetic expression. There are a number of aspects of Edgar Allen Poe’s works that are both similar and different to other works from that era. Perhaps the most prominent such consideration is that Poe makes considerable use of themes of horror as a means of artistic expression. The main recognition here is that Poe’s mastery of the horror genre places him at a place unique to his fellow writers during the era, as in very limited instances was there parallel exploration of the extremes of human terror.

For instance, Hawthorne explored social hypocrisy and Dickens explored the industrial revolution and thematically investigated social classes. Still, in other ways Poe’s work was similar to these writers. One considers Poe when he writes, “These the mere romanticist must eschew, if he do not wish to offend or to disgust. They are with propriety handled only when the severity and majesty of Truth sanctify and sustain them” (Perkins, p. 309). In the above instance, Poe is indicating that while his writing explores horrific elements, it also functions within the confines of romantic literature.

In this way, Poe establishes a parallel between the romantic search for truth and a similar notion of truth inherent in the particular horror story. There are a number of themes, plots, and literary devices that are found in the short stories from Edgar Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Herman Melville. One prominent similarity is witnessed in the narrative devices Poe and Hawthorne implement, specifically in Hawthorne’s ‘the Ambitious Guest’ and Poe’s the ‘Masque of the Red Death’.

Hawthorne’s story explores the on-goings of a specific night wherein an entire family is killed by an avalanche. Conversely, Poe’s story follows the Red Death who reaches people who are hiding and kills them. While the specific narratives are divergent the exploration of death in both instances seems to share a similar thematic intention. Specifically, both story’s exploration of death seems to make a comment on the nature of fate and the pervasive impact of death in all of our lives. Harriet Beacher Stowe used a number of literary devices in Uncle Tom’