The Romantic Time Period1800-1860

Pretend you are describing the image (Crossing the Plains or The Oregon Trail by Albert Beirstadt) to a blind person whose final wish is to know what

this scene looked like. Write about the scene above in a descriptive paragraph using vivid imagery.

Example:As men, women, and children make the pilgrimage into the unknown wild west, the red and orange hues of the evening sun shine in their faces and light the sky with a glorious sunset as they journey. The travelers will soon run out of daylight, so they are preparing to set up camp for the night. The travelers’ carts and covered wagons are packed to the brims with supplies to sustain themselves during their trek westward. However, due to limited space, the people had to leave behind many valuable things with the hopes that once they reach their final settling place, the material possessions they once had will no longer be important. The vital animals the travelers brought with them are feeding on the surrounding fields for strength and energy required to meet their demands. To the left, the full and looming trees provide shelter from the unknown wilderness of the frontier land and cast dark shadows on the grazing area of the animals. The forest on the far left is dark, which the people are avoiding. Instead, they sit on their horses in the last remaining shred of sunlight socializing and enjoying their rest after a hard days’ journey. The dark forest represents what has passed behind them- the miserable and depressing conditions of the East. The travelers now head into the still-lit promise of the majestic white mountains that lie ahead, representing the promise of a fresh start and wealth in the west. The light reflecting off the mountains shows the optimism carried by the journeyers as they head into the unknown land.The path ahead at the bottom of the mountain range is clear, which indicates that nature provides a safe path for them to travel and complete their quest. The scene is peaceful to indicate that nature is encouraging the travelers to continue, almost as if approving of their actions. Nature will allow them safe, happy, and peaceful traveling.

What does “Romantic” mean to you?

✤ Romantics value feeling and intuition over reason and logic.

✤ Started in Europe and migrated to America

✤ In Europe, started as a reaction to rationalism

What got it started?

✤ In the midst of the Industrial Revolution, the living conditions in the cities were unbearable.

✤ People started to realize the limits of reason and turned to the use of the imagination

✤ Romantics believed that the imagination could come to better truths that the rational mind could not.

✤ truths accompanied by powerful emotion associated with natural, unspoiled beauty.

✤ Placed importance on intuitive “felt” experiences to make art, or writing

What was their objective?

The romantics wanted to rise above the dull realities of life to reach a higher truth

How did they reach their objectives?

✤ They did this in two ways:

✤ 1-Searched for exotic settings in the more “natural” past by searching for a world removed from the miserable conditions of the cities of the industrial age.

✤ They would look to discover the world in the supernatural realm or in old legends or folklore

✤ 2- Tried to reflect on the natural world until dull reality fell away to reveal underlying beauty and truth.

✤ Typically, the writer would see an ordinary object or scene. A flower or bird overhead would bring the speaker to some important, deeply felt insight

✤ Similar to the way the Puritans drew meaning from nature

✤ Puritans found God, Romanticists found a less clearly defined divinity in nature.

✤ Led to a more generalized emotional and intellectual awakening

What was different about America from Europe?

✤ America had yet to be fully discovered, whereas Europe was already completely settled

✤ American romanticism coincided with westward expansion, the growth of a nationalist spirit, and rapid spread of new cities.

✤ This made American romanticists idealize the frontier life

✤ American romantic heroes were different than European heroes.

✤ European heroes were typically high-ranking, sophisticated individuals

✤ Can you think of modern-day European Romantic Heroes?

✤ American romantic heroes?

✤ youthful, innocent, intuitive, and close to nature

✤ Can you think of modern-day American romantic heroes?

What is important to remember?✤ Values feeling and intuition

over reason

✤ Places faith in inner experience and the power of imagination

✤ Shuns the artificiality of civilization and seeks unspoiled nature

✤ Prefers youthful innocence to educated sophistication

✤ Champions individual freedom and the worth of the individual

✤ Reflects on nature’s beauty as a path to spiritual and moral development

✤ Looks backward to the wisdom of the past and distrusts progress

✤ Finds beauty and truth in exotic loacales, the supernatural realm, and the inner world of the imagination

✤ Sees poetry as the highest expression of the imagination

✤ Finds inspiration in myth, legend, and folklore

TranscendentalismTrue Reality is Spiritual

“I unsettle all things. No facts are to me scared;

none are profane; I simply experiment, and endless

seeker, with no Past at my back.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

What’s that all about?

✤ Transcendentalism is a movement in America during the romantic period

✤ Transcendental refers to the idea that in determining the ultimate reality of God, the universe, the self, and other important matters, one must transcend, or go beyond, everyday human experience in the human world.

Who were these people?

✤ A group of people that looked beyond the “black and white” reasoning of the times past.

✤ They saw the world with color and deep meaning to gain divine intervention or come to a deep, meaningful conclusion about the world and the purpose of it.

✤ They believed in human perfectibility, and worked to achieve this goal by connecting with nature to have divine intervention.

Where did they get these whacky ideas?✤ The Puritans!

✤ Seriously!

✤ Specifically Jonathan Edwards

✤ The Puritans would look to nature and find evidence of God and signs that God was with them.

✤ The transcendentalists didn’t necessarily see God in nature, but they still saw spiritual meaning in all natural things.

✤ Emerson says: “Every natural fact is a symbol of some spiritual fact”

What ideals set the Transcendentalists apart from the Romantics?✤ Everything in the world,

including human beings, is a reflection of the Divine Soul

✤ The physical facts of the natural world are a doorway to the spiritual or ideal world.

✤ People can use their intuition to beyond God’s spirit revealed in nature or in their own souls

✤ Self-reliance and individualism must outweigh external authority and blind conformity to custom and tradition

✤ Spontaneous feelings and intuition are superior to deliberate intellectualism and rationality.

Who wrote this stuff?

✤ There were several writers of the time, but the two most famous and influential are:

✤ Henry David Thoreau

✤ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

A little about Emerson…

✤ Born in Boston in 1803 to a cultured but poor family

✤ Father was a Unitarian minister, who died when Emerson was eight

✤ He had 5 siblings when his father died, leaving his mother to care for all of them

✤ She opened a boarding house to support her family

✤ Was essentially raised by his aunt, Mary Moody Emerson

✤ Aunt Mary emphasized self-sacrifice and drove the Emerson boys to achievement.

✤ Emerson describes his aunt: “She had the misfortune of spinning with a greater velocity than any of the other tops.”

✤ Emerson was expected to go to Harvard and become a minister like the eight generations before him

✤ He wasn’t really feeling the whole minister thing, he wanted to establish and identity of his own.

✤ Started at Harvard at age 14

✤ After college, took a job at his brother’s school and prepared to enter the Unitarian ministry.

✤ In 1829, at age 25, he accepted a post at Boston’s Second Church and soon got married to 17-year-old Ellen Tucker

✤ Who, seven months later, died from Tuberculosis

✤ Her death pushed him away from God and his ministry

✤ Resigned from the church in 1832 and set out for a tour across Europe

✤ Met with highly influential romantic writers from Europe

So, what happened next?

✤ Came back to the United States in 1833 to Concord Massachusetts

✤ Married Lydia Jackson

✤ Started giving lectures as his job, referred to it as “his new pulpit”

✤ Emerson denied the importance of the past

✤ In speech, he demanded that American scholars free themselves from the shackles of the past.

✤ Emerson’s influence began to boom.

A little outspoken…..

✤ He called for a rejection of institutional religion in favor of a personal relation with God.

✤ Gave this lecture to a group of divinity students at Harvard University

✤ This did not go over so well

✤ He was prohibited from speaking at Harvard for 30 years.

A little out there….

✤ Believed in the existence of the “Over-Soul” which was a large entity in which each soul belonged

✤ Believed nature and man were a part of the same idea in which man could see their souls reflected in nature

✤ Believed that God works through nature, and even the natural events that are most tragic can be explained on a spiritual level

✤ If we trust ourselves we can develop a personal relationship with God and realize that we are all a part of the divine soul, the source of all good

Growth and Fame

✤ People traveled from all over to Concord to hear him give lectures

✤ Truth-seeking young people saw Emerson as their guru.

✤ Everyone loved Emerson’s optimistic view of society and the world

Tragedy Strikes✤ Emerson’s son, Waldo, died at age 5 from scarlet fever in

1842

✤ This event killed most of Emerson’s optimism about the world.

✤ He was very close and emotional outward with his son, and when he died he couldn't share his emotions with anyone, and sank into a deep emotional shell.

✤ This tragedy struck

✤ In the fall of 1881, Walt Whitman visited with Emerson and described him as completely silent but looking as good as ever. Six months later Emerson died from pneumonia on April 27th, 1882.

Pretend you are describing the image (Crossing the Plains or The Oregon Trail by Albert Beirstadt) to a blind person whose final wish is to know what this scene looked like. Write about the scene above in a descriptive para-

graph using vivid imagery. Be sure to include at least TWO characteristics of transcendental writing.

Example:As men, women, and children make the pilgrimage into the unknown wild west, the red and orange hues of the evening sun shine in their faces and light the sky with a glorious sunset as they journey. The travelers will soon run out of daylight, so they are preparing to set up camp for the night. The travelers’ carts and covered wagons are packed to the brims with supplies to sustain themselves during their trek westward. However, due to limited space, the people had to leave behind many valuable things with the hopes that once they reach their final settling place, the material possessions they once had will no longer be important. The vital animals the travelers brought with them are feeding on the surrounding fields for strength and energy required to meet their demands. To the left, the full and looming trees provide shelter from the unknown wilderness of the frontier land and cast dark shadows on the grazing area of the animals. The forest on the far left is dark, which the people are avoiding. Instead, they sit on their horses in the last remaining shred of sunlight socializing and enjoying their rest after a hard days’ journey. The dark forest represents what has passed behind them- the miserable and depressing conditions of the East. The travelers now head into the still-lit promise of the majestic white mountains that lie ahead, representing the promise of a fresh start and wealth in the west. The light reflecting off the mountains shows the optimism carried by the journeyers as they head into the unknown land.The path ahead at the bottom of the mountain range is clear, which indicates that nature provides a safe path for them to travel and complete their quest. The scene is peaceful to indicate that nature is encouraging the travelers to continue, almost as if approving of their actions. Nature will allow them safe, happy, and peaceful traveling.