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.