A Growing Nation-Reading Questions
Answer the following questions using quotes whenever possible.
1. Give a brief (no more than one paragraph of 5-8 sentences) summary of the philosophical movement known as Romanticism.
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2. How do the elements of Romanticism show up in each of the readings assigned from this unit (1 paragraph for each reading selection)?
3. After reading The Philosophy of Composition, summarize Poe's philosophy in one hundred words.
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1. Romanticism was a movement that took place during the late eighteenth century and the early nineteenth century. The ideals that romanticism promoted influenced the art and literature produced during that time period in America. These works focused on the beauty and value of nature. Romanticism promoted the imagination, emotion over reason, and focused on the individual. Romantic works tried to relate with the internal struggles individuals might be suffering and encouraged the use of senses, or instincts, over common sense. Romanticism also supported folklore, and in the United States, this new folklore was based on current political events and helped to create a stronger sense of nationalism. Also during this time, the hero was made much more popular, such as the knights and other medieval characters. In a religious way, writers were encouraged to reference biblical characters and morals in their books. A few of the most prominent authors of this time period included Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Irving, and William Cullen Bryant. Romanticism influenced many of the legendary writers and artists in American history.
2. In The Devil and Tom Walker, Washington Irving displays romanticism by using a folk tale. His story about a man selling his sole to the devil is obviously exaggerated, and is fiction, but it still relates to the men of his time. By showing how Tom Walker becomes so consumed with greed, he is showing his opinions on the danger of commercialism in America. “Let us get hold of the property, and we will endeavor to do without the woman.” Tom is so worried about his material items that he doesn’t care about his wife, and is even willing to condemn himself to Hell in order to gain wealth. This romantic folklore allowed him to emphasize his point while still entertaining his audience.
In William Cullen Bryant’s “Thanatopsis”, romanticism is represented because his entire poem focuses on the beauty and masterfulness of nature. In his poem he tells about the beauty of nature, along with its spirit, wisdom, and mystery. Romanticism promoted seeing the beauty and greatness of nature, and his poem proves it. “To him who in the love of Nature holds…And eloquence of beauty…And healing sympathy” Here he tells of how nature, specifically the grand wildernesses in America, is so awe-inspiring. In his second poem, he tells of a waterfowl. This poem tells about the great value that animals in nature have.
Edgar Allan Poe contained the element of romanticism in his work because his short stories were mysteries. Romanticism encouraged writers to use their imaginations and to write to appeal to emotions and the senses, rather than the logical and intellectual side. With his The Fall of the House of Usher, he depicted a house with a man who is haunted by inner demons and suffers a mental illness. This further shows romanticism because Poe described a man who was suffering due to his inner plights. This appeal to the inner suffering of man was another element of romanticism. In his story, he mentions Romantic architecture on the Usher mansion, “…and I entered the Gothic archway of the hall…”. In this statement, he comes right out and talks about the influence that Romanticism had on so many aspects of American life during that time.
3. In Edgar Allan Poe’s The Philosophy of Composition, he explains what he believes is necessary to make an acceptable piece of writing. His main philosophy was “The Single Effect.” This means that every character, event, and detail in a piece of literature should be focused on achieving one main point. “It is my design to render it manifest that no one point in its composition is referable either to accident or intuition- that the work proceeded step by step, to its completion, with the precision and rigid consequence of a mathematical problem.” His first requirement for a good piece of writing is its length. Poe stated that if it took more than one sitting to finish reading a piece of literature, that it was too long. He said that if a story was too long, the reader focused only on the length, and not the point of the story. He then went on to say that the best tone for poetry was a melancholy one, and that it was important to use literary devices properly.
1. Romanticism was an artistic and intellectual movement in the history of ideas that originated in late 18th century Western Europe. There was a strong element of historical and natural certainty in its ideas, stressing the importance of "nature" in art and language. Romanticism is also well-known for its increase of the achievements of what it supposed as heroic individuals and artists. It followed the Enlightenment period and was in part inspired by a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms from the previous period.
2. Elements of romanticism show up in The Devil and Tom Walker in that it talks about nature, human nature. The nature of man which is shown in Tom demonstrates the weakness of people. He’s greed ultimately destroys him. He becomes consumed by the greed he feels towards the money he collects through the years. The elements of Romanticism are the supernatural events and focus on America's past.
Thanatopsis is a poem written about nature, and its ability to heal. The author writes that whatever type of mood you are in, and what u give out to the world, is what you are going to get back. He talks about death and the possibility of life after death. He writes, “Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim Thy growth, to be resolved to earth again.” The theme of the poem is basically about how you will not be alone when you die. You will be reunited with the Earth, as well as your maker. You will be dying the same death, no matter who you are, or what kind of life you have led. The main point of the poem is that death is your final equalizer.
Many elements of Romanticism are knit throughout Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher." The first of these elements is one of the most well known themes of Romanticism, where a person is moved to "follow the heart over the head." The second element is Roderick Usher's "sympathetic vibrations," shown in his suffering from nervous exhaustion. The last element is the negative influence of nature on the psychological state of Usher and the physical state of his house. An important aspect of Romanticism is that Romantics rely only on their perceptions.
3. Poe went into a discussion of what Beauty was. Beauty is not a quality but an effect that touches the emotions. Poe reveals the domain, the tone, and the topic of Beauty. He points out that "effects should be made to spring from direct causes--that objects should be attained through means best adapted for their attainment." Poe argues that "Beauty of whatever kind in its supreme development invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears." Referring to his "Raven," he asks himself what is the most miserable of subjects. Poe concludes that it’s death and that it is most poetical when connected with Beauty. Then he adds, "the death then of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetic topic in the world."
1.The Romantic Movement was an era that extended all over Europe. It was an era where artists rebelled against the conventional forms of art and tried to create new styles of art. The styles mostly consisted of focusing on the irrational and the more subjective view. The Romantic Movement could have also been viewed as the rejection of the Enlightenment, 18th century rationalism, and materialism. It allowed the mind to create extravagant conclusions by giving it the freedom to use irrational evidence.
2.Romanticism in the first reading, A Growing Nation, does not show within the writing. The writing is purely a historical piece, which follows a modern conventional style. Therefore, this reading cannot be classified as a romantic piece; however, the reading does express how the United States’ literature took on the romantic type of literature and writers as the nation was developing. For instance, the writing inquires, “…—Irving , Cooper, Bryant , and Poe—be described? …, they were all Romantics.”
The second reading, The Devil and Tom Walker, does have a romantic style of writing since it adapted a folklore tale. Folklore tales are usually highly irrational, and Romanticism mainly focused on the irrational and rejected the traditional rational views on life. In The Devil and Tom Walker, he adapted the story by using a folklore tale of a man, who sold his soul to the devil on how his story focuses on the colonists’ exaggerated ideas on Indians.
Thanatopsis, the third reading, was by all means a Romantic writing since it focused on emotions, and subjective views concerning nature. William Cullen describes his feelings towards nature in the attempt to convey nature as some sort of spiritual force. For instance, William states, “Go forth, under the open sky, and list To Nature’s teachings, while from all around—“ This portrays nature as a wise spirit.
The Fall of the House of Usher, the final reading, is indeed a Romantic writing since it conveys emotions in occurring events. The author describes these emotions and tries to convey a dark feeling upon the reader. Edgar Allan Poe wrote, “… with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit.” This statement gives the reader a dark feeling regarding the building.
1. During the 18th century there was an artistic and intellectual movement known as romanticism. It occurred in literature and art and intellectually among humans. It's characterized by a heightened interest on the individual’s expression of emotion and imagination. It pulled away from the earlier interest in social rules and conventions of the early 18th century. In the early years of the United States there were writes who were puritans who “were political realist who pursued reason.” (168) As the 19th came close writer such as Irving, Cooper, Bryant, and Poe all wrote more imaginational pieces rather than factual, thus the change to Romanticism.
2. When Irving wrote The Devil and Tom Walker he wrote it based on a German fold tale. Folk tales are a type of Romanticism because it’s not factual. It’s imaginative and contains exaggerations.
Bryant’s Thanatopsis talks of nature and death. A major theme of romanticism was the talk of nature. “To him in the love Nature hold…” (187) “The venerable wood- rivers that move” (188) These quotes both talk of the nature and earth that the poem is about.
To a Waterfowl is similar to Thanatopsis because it talks about nature. This, once again, is a major quality of romanticism.
3. In The Philosophy of Composition, Poe talks about creating a poem. The Raven, the poem in question, tells the story of the death of a woman. The poem is relatively short which is part of his philosophy. He thinks poems should be short so people are able to read them. He wanted his poem to be liked by many people. He thought all poems and written works should be unique. He always wanted his works to be original. He also His philosophy was that you should create an effect. You need to have a unique effect and you create that effect by using a tone.
1. The philosophical movement, or the Romanticism, is when people started to use literature and art to tell their perspective on their philosophy during the time. They would try to tell the audience of how they see and thought about emotions, nature, individualism, and other subjects they liked to share to the world. Romanticism is misleading because the stories are not about love and romance. It is a movement of state of mind and artistic movement. The Romanticism spread throughout the world very quickly and people started to take interest and started to learn different points of view. The Romanticism writers were against the idea of “natural laws,” which was also known as the Enlightenment, and they would argue by telling their philosophies in stories.
2. In The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving, is about human behavior. Tom Walker and his wife were greedy and disrespectful to the man in the woods and to each other. Tom Walker and his wife were being rude and didn’t trust to each other because of their behavior towards to each other. His wife was greedy and would take anything that’s valuable. “Whatever the woman could lay hands on, she hid away….” (Pg. 174) Tom Walker sold his soul to the devil for money while the wife had her organs cut out. “found nothing but a heart and liver tied up in it!” (Pg. 178)
In Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant, it talks about death and nature. In the poem, it talks about how nature is beautiful and it becomes one with a person because the person gets buried when he or she dies. The person becomes happy when nature is with him or her because nature becomes like a “mother” to the dead. “Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch about him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.” (Pg. 188) People are to “rest in peace” with nature.
The story The Fall of the Usher, by Edgar Allan Poe, is an example of Gothic romance because it has a scary scene where Roderick Usher sees Ethelred, who is dead. “‘I heard them --many, many days ago --yet I dared not --I dared not speak! And now --to-night --Ethelred --ha! ha! --the breaking of the hermit's door, and the death-cry of the dragon, and the clangour of the shield!’” (Pg. 205) The description of the dead is scary. Horror is a human nature and the illness that Usher has is not impossible to get in real life.
3. In The Philosophy of Composition by Edgar Allan Poe, he talks about how stories and poems should be written. In his opinion, he thinks poems and stories should be short because readers can focus on the main points and not the details. “Keeping originality always in view….” Picking words were important because it picks the tone of the story or the poem. In his poem, The Raven, he used repetition, the word “Nevermore,” to get reader’s attention. “In observing the difficulty which I had at once found in inventing a sufficiently plausible reason for its continuous repetition, I did not fail to perceive that this difficulty arose solely from the preassumption that the word was to be so continuously or monotonously spoken by a human being- I did not fail to perceive, in short, that the difficulty lay in the reconciliation of this monotony with the exercise of reason on the part of the creature repeating the word.” He used the same word, but in a different way, so the poem will not have a monotone. For his topic of the poem, he used beauty and death. “… I have already explained on the subject of Beauty, as the sole true poetical thesis.” Edgar Allan Poe talks in more details about his poem and using examples, but his main points were clear in his writing.
1 )- Romanticism began in the late 18th century in Western Europe, swept through the United States, and was basically an intellectual and artistic movement. It followed the Enlightenment period and resulted in romantic writers, who favored imagination over reason and stressed inner feeling, all of which was expressed in literature. Romanticism included aspects such as the respect to nature and art, which was clearly present in Bryant’s poems, and mystery in human experiences including emotion, as seen in Poe’s work, a romantic writer. Overall, it was present in many places like literature, music, and art, which all changed the way people thought of life.
2)- Elements of Romanticism were clearly present in the folk tale The Devil and Tom Walker. Those included fascination and belief with the supernatural, which was the devil, and focus on self, here being the greed of Tom, and nature. The superstition was there throughout the whole story, which was all just human imagination for Tom, for example, “he was neither Negro nor Indian…pair of red eyes.” The greed and the superstition go together because the devil basically took control of Tom’s actions, which was to “became a rich and mighty man”, which he did, and later failed to respect his orders and led to his disappearance, “ Tom, you’re come for”, like his wife. The swamp, nature in the tale, was described as “a horrible and mystery place”. Overall, romanticism was present in this folk tale.
For Poe’s Philosophy, it seemed as if he used inner feelings and emotions and the use of imagination, rather than the use of reason and logic. He added it to everything he criticized and thought it should be his way, for example, a poem should be consisted of “beauty”, as he stated.
For the Fall of the House of Usher, romanticism could be seen in the nature of the house, which had a mysterious atmosphere, and superstition, which was in the Usher. The nature of the house has a feeling of death, supernaturally evil, and makes fear that drives its occupants crazy. The house is described as having “eye-like windows”, all of this being human imagination.
The only element that I believe was only present in Bryant’s Thanatopsis was a profound love of nature. He basically was expressing his devotion to nature, for example telling us to “list to Nature’s teachings, while from all around, earth and her waters and depths of air comes a voice.” By explaining in detail nature and his relationship with it, it clearly made it a romantic poem.
3)- The Philosophy of Composition deals with the methods or organizing principles of composing his most famous poem, "The Raven", and he applies them to his own work and to the works of other writers. Poe consistently believed and used it. Also, it seemed as if he was criticizing and saying what certain writing, like poems, should be. He says, “Beauty is the sole legitimate province of the poem. Melancholy is thus the most legitimate of all the poetical tones”, after previously stating that some weren’t effective. Another philosophy of his was the composition of the stanza. Once again, he states what it should be and how to be used.
K. Jones
1) The attitude of Romanticism characterized the works of art in the west from the 18th century to the middle of the 19th. Romanticism was denying the normal balance and rationalism and materialism n general. Instead romanticism focused on the imaginative and personal aspects, the subjective and the visionary outlooks, the emotional ties and spontaneous outburst. The attitudes of romanticism were druidic and “emo.”(Without of course the cutting and depression, taking into account their deep sense). Deeper respect for the beauty of nature, taking emotion over reason and the senses over intellect, were the primary outlooks of romantics. The creative spirit of the artist was more important that the formal rules of prior art.
2) Romanticism shows up in the devil and tom walker, as Washington Irving writes the story in the form of a folk tale. We see the elements of Romanticism here when the characters begin to act to benefit themselves. The setting is in New England, a primarily Puritan settlement. The people of New England should be devoting their lives to god and when we see a man selling his soul to the devil we immediately think that he is evil and ultimately greedy. Though Romanticism is seemingly a positive outlook, there is no doubting the anti elements shown of it here. The man is holding on to his material possessions, something the romantics tried to avoid.
William Cullen Bryant’s “Thanatopsis,” is grand example romanticism as the poem he creates is totally focused on the wonderful beauty of nature. Romanticism held the beauty of nature in a supreme respect. Nature in his poem is how with his deep reverence to it. How that nature can be so inspirational. “And eloquence of beauty, and she glides into its darker musings, with a mild and healing sympathy. The aspects of nature can be healing, and forgiving, as he expresses in this quote.
Edgar Allen Poe’s work contains the elements of romanticism with his many mysteries and inspiring attempts to the senses, as was the way of romanticism. "The Fall of the House of Usher” is very gothic, and expresses elements of romanticism in its deep reflection and its personal confession.
1. Romanticism was an artistic style that was prevalent in the 1800s. It was used by many early American authors. The characteristics of this style was that it emphasized emotion and imagination over logic and reason. Writers who subscribed to this philosophy tended to not care too much about perfect reality, and tended more often to exaggerate concepts and details and attempted to author a more imaginative work.
2. Romanticism showed up in the works from this unit. The text of the growing nation focused more on the majesty of American and how its history seems to fit seamlessly together rather than simply presenting cold, hard facts. The next story discussed the "Devil." (That is a quote) It was very imaginative in its portrayal of the devil. It tried to imagine a persona for the devil rather than relying on the fact of his simple unabated evilness. In "Thanatopsis" his main focus is nature. He emphasized its beauty and majesty to the point where it becomes very imaginative and starts to lose touch with reality. In the "Fall of the House of Usher," Poe uses Romanticism. One of the characteristics the textbook described for romanticism was mystery. Poe uses this extensively throughout his work.
3. Your writing should always be original. You should decide how the incidents and tones of the novel will work together and relate. Everything you write should have a clear aim and purpose. The composition should flow in logical order. "Art that effects should be made to spring from direct causes." If a composition is able to be read in one sitting, it will flow better and the main idea will be better realized by the author. If it is too long, the parts will be broken up and the meaning will be lost. The composition should be mentally stimulating, cunning. It should serve to please the "satisfaction of the intellect."
1. Romanticism is defined as "An artistic and intellectual movement originating in Europe in the late 18th century and characterized by a heightened interest in nature, emphasis on the individual's expression of emotion and imagination, departure from the attitudes and forms of classicism, and rebellion against established social rules and conventions." Popular authors of this era were Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Irving, and William Cullen Bryant. These people were instrumental in spreading the concept around the continent west of Asia.
2. In the Devil and Tom Walker, by Washington Irving, fanatical Tom Walker strikes a "deal" with the Devil. This is a direct reflection on the belief that humans, through their thought, should direct their own actions; God could not dictate all. Although negotiations with the Devil are questionable, the concept that humans are in control of their actions is still apparent.
William Cullen Bryant’s “Thanatopsis” shows the beauty of nature. Romanticism was largely a respect of nature, and thus this book was considered a proponent of romanticism. The glory of nature was made apparent through his lush descriptions.
Edgar Allen Poe's short stories reflect the Romanticist uprising of innovative, thoughtful literature. The distinct tone and themes of his short stories made him a star among the Romanticist writers of his time.
3. "The Philosophy of Composition" by Edgar Allen Poe reveals the author's opinion on the components of good literature. He held a firm belief in “The Single Effect," which basically dictated that every character, event, and detail in a work of literature be focused on one chief motif. "It is my design to render it manifest that no one point in its composition is referable either to accident or intuition- that the work proceeded step by step, to its completion, with the precision and rigid consequence of a mathematical problem,” stated Poe in reference to his specific literary method. Literature is a more precise art than most think, according to Poe.
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