Essential Questions

Romantic's Beliefs

 

 

Optimism and individualism are expressed by authors from the beginning of the story to the end. Usually the author starts the story off by telling who the main character is. It leads to optimism because usually an event happens that is tragic like the lady's death in "A Rose for Emily" or the outings of Connie in "Where are You Going Where Have You Been". Individualism is more expressed in stories like "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" or "Everything that Rises Must Converge".Optimism is usually expressed in quotes such as "Then we were sure that they were to get married."("A Rose for Emily") and "There was one good thing, June went places with girl friends of hers..." ("Where are you going where have you been"). Those both show optimism because in a "A Rose for Emily" the man that they were talking about who was going to get married was gay and the people were hopeful that he would marry a women. Then, in the other story the girl was finding any reason to be positive. The sleepy hollow story shows uniqueness in many ways, for instance "The gallant Ichabod now spent at least an extra half hour at his toilet, brushing and furbishing up his only suit, of rusty black." That's about as unique as one can get. In the story O'Conner wrote certain aspects make it unique "...in spite of all her foolish views, he was free of prejudice and unafraid to face facts" That is unique because most people who are judged tend to judge people more.

Romanticism- movement in literature during the 18th century where the focus is inspiration and individualism.

 

Gothic Romanticism- Form of literature that focusses on mysterious and supernatural objects and settings. Also has a deep connection between two characters.

 

Southern Gothic Romanticism- Mysterious piece of work with the added affects of basic Romanticism and a more southern setting from the past.

 

All of these are similar in the aspect of tone, mood, and overall goal of individuality. They have their difference in the way that Gothic Romanticism and Southern Gothic Romanticism are more dark and mysterious than Romanticism. They are also different because Romanticism is more in a "normal" setting considering the 18th century focus where as Gothic Romanticism is in a more haunting setting and Southern Gothic Romanticism in down south with the porch swing and ice tea with a twist of creepy.

America kind of gave way to Gothic Romanticism's dark side in the way that we as a nation developed very harsh feelings towards the slaves, as well as this nation hid a lot of stuff beginning in the 18th century. There are a lot of things in this country's roots that developed in the 1800s and part of Gothic Romanticism is that story no one knows about until the end.

 

These writing that have been read throughout the unit influence today's literature by giving way to a dark side and opening up an imagination that may not have progressed without these pieces. Poe was very influential with his works because they show that everyone has a hidden secret. This really helps with today's literature because it lets a person know that it's ok to be different. Without these writers the writers of today may be afraid to express more differences.

 

Southern Gothic Romanticism is a response to other movements before it like Romanticism and Gothic Romanticism. It responds to this by adding to these movements with an American twist which is the southern part. The southern idea comes from the evolving of this nation. It is a manipulation of Romanticism because it breaks it down piece by piece. It is just a sub genre because it isn't the complete product of Romanticism.

 

 

 



"The Fall of the House of Usher"

1. This story was a very challenging story to understand or interpret. Seeing as it was not a story that one can collect too many ideas on there may be an interpretation that Usher's faults were the cause of Madeline's vampireness."
It was this deficiency, I considered, while running over in thought the perfect keeping of the character of the premises..." He has an obsession with his house so he needs someone. The only way to keep a person in his life because of his issues. "It was no wonder that his condition terrified..."



2. Frequently authors describe directly the faults of human nature. This is proven when in "The Black Cat" Poe states "Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or stupid action, for no reason other than he know he should not?" By saying this his tone reflects the fact that he feels angered by this. It is also pointed out directly when Faulkner says "In a Rose for Emily" "When the next generation, with it's more modern ideas, became mayors and alderman, this arrangement created some little dissatisfaction." He is entertaining the idea that the younger generation is at a major fault because they want to change tradition. The fact of the fault of human nature is also described in the short story "Everything that Rises Must Converge" as the narrator says "Julian thought he could have stood his lot better if she had been selfish, if she had been an old hag who drank and screamed at him. The fault provoked at this moment is the fault of greed which is still a character of human nature. This is also indirectly brought up when the story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" says "....but is unconsciously imbibed by everyone who resides there for a time" the human nature fault here is the desires to do what isn't right. The wrong thing to do stated in the quote is being at a place in the wrong time and drinking with the absence of knowledge. The authors all communicate this in the same way and it appears that they all think the same way about human nature. They communicate this in a way that is directly-indirect. With that being said they stress the ideas of human nature by giving the reader a characters bad characteristics to focus on and driving them out harder. They also express this is the tone of their pieces. The tone is usually negative with a mood of apathy. Their thoughts on human nature is that human nature makes a person very unstable mentally and makes one a somewhat negative because they do many things wrong. Such as when they let someone go, or when they drink, or do other things that would be considered morally wrong.

 

"Swing Low Sweet Chariot"

"Swing Low Sweet Chariot"

 

This song is representative of escaping the physical conditions of slavery because the slaves who were singing would rather be dead then be living in the conditions given by their masters. This can be concluded when they sing the first verse of the song. The overview of the song can be sought out to be hopeful and faithful because they are singing to God to bring the Chariot of Fire to them. They are hopeful to get out of the land they are in because of their poor physical and emotional state. The only way to get out of it though would be "going home" as they sing where "home" is Heaven.  The song is reflective of it's time period because it was written in the early 1900s and during that time the major problem was slavery and that was what the main focus of the world was on. It reflects that because these people are not only singing to go home to Heaven, but they could also be singing to go home to the land they come from. This relates to today because often times certain people talk about going home or the world being in the end times. In which case this applies to a majority of people, weather they are desiring to go home to a town or state they grew up in, or if they are hoping that Jesus will call them to Heaven soon to be with him. It doesn't as much reflect the desires to escape how exactly they are living. In way it is possible for "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" to foreshadow any reoccurring problems of the world.



"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"

Picture this ("The Legend of Sleepy Holllow")

    The story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" captures the imagination of readers today by discussing briefly the topics of  wizardry, haunted spots, ghosts and headless objects. "The dominate spirit that haunts this enchanted region is the apparition of  figure on horseback without a head." This is giving a reader, most likely a child the free range to believe that there can be things in this world such as a headless cat, a mythical creature, or even a ghost. It helps develop this by restating these thoughts throughout the story such as when it says "...and listen to their marvelous tales of ghost and goblins, haunted bridges and haunted houses, and particularly of the headless horseman." It opens the readers minds up to the willingness of creating new creatures such as Ichabod "Ichabod was a suitable figure for such a steed."
     Irving's story helps one to create thing that without this story one may not be able to imagine. He even goes as far a there being a very detailed setting. This setting comes about when he is describing his passing of the farmers place. "Around him nature wore the rich and golden livery which we always associated with the idea of abundance." Of the course of the story as a reader someone might just develop a major idea of a new world with an entirely unique setting. Then again, maybe they already had an imagination and it just got evolved.