The goals of Romantic writers in America were very similar to those of European Romantics—to create literature that revealed the conflicts between industrialization and the human need for spiritual as well as economic development. As the "truth-tellers" of their generation, these writers wanted to sound the alarm: The drive to obtain commercial success and the actions required to achieve that profit could be damaging—even crippling—to the human spirit. According to Romantics, the best solution to this problem was a return to simpler times, when people's ability to survive depended on their connection to and observation of the natural world, when intuition served humans well in making sense of the world.
Scene |
Description |
Narration |
1 |
Slow motion video of a woman in the sunlight, smiling and blowing kisses. The video suddenly freezes and dims with a “record scratch” sound after narrator says “love.” Fades to video of flowers in a field. |
To understand the kind of Romanticism that swept the nation in the early 1800s, don’t think two people in love. Instead, imagine a person all alone, out in nature, considering the miracles and mysteries of life. |
2 |
Portrait of Washington Irving in front of a pasture in Sleepy Hollow, New York. Background image of pasture fades to painting from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. |
Washington Irving was that kind of Romantic when he wandered a grove in Sleepy Hollow, capturing its quiet beauty so effectively that its legend soon spread worldwide. |
3 |
Portrait of Ralph Waldo Emerson in front of Walden Pond. Background image of pond fades to pages from Emerson’s journal. |
So was Ralph Waldo Emerson when he sat journaling by a New England pond, inventing an entirely new literary voice while helping define what it means to be an American. |
4 |
Portrait of Margaret Fuller in front of a sunny garden with a white bench. Background image of garden fades to a female hand holding a quill. |
To understand Romanticism with a capital R, picture the teacher and pioneering feminist Margaret Fuller, reading stacks of books in her garden before laying the intellectual groundwork for future civil rights movements. |
5 |
Portrait of Henry David Thoreau in front of a New England forest. Background image of forest fades to Thoreau’s hand counting tree rings. |
Or think about Henry David Thoreau and his careful notes on tree growth, written in the ancient forest where he realized that nature must be protected from human activity. |
6 |
Paintings and portraits from the Romantic period, including Waterhouse’s Lady of Shalott, Dahl’s Eruption of Vesuvius, an image of Beethoven, Blake’s Little Girl Found |
Of course, the Romantic movement was not limited to North America and its writers. Starting in Germany and Britain toward the end of the 1700s, Romanticism was a worldwide response to the stuffy and impersonal Age of Enlightenment, and it revolutionized the way we think about art, music, and even science. |
7 |
All four isolated portraits float over a scenic image of New England. |
It was in the newly formed United States, though, that Romantic ideals found perhaps their most passionate and direct expression The texts produced by American Romantics forced the rest of the world to sit up and take notice of the inspiring and influential literature a brand new democracy could produce. |
Question
Why were nature and rural life such common topics among Romantic era writers?
