Dark Romanticism

Edgar Allan Poe

Dark Romanticism

Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel

Hawthorne and Herman Melville

Dark Romanticism

a literary subgenre of Romanticism

does not embrace most Romantic or Transcendental themes

not optimistic about humankind, nature, and divinity

Romanticism Transcendentalism/

White Romantics

Dark Romantics/Anti-Transcendentalists

Interest in and reverence for nature

Nature is divine, connection between nature and humanity, Over-Soul

Nature is sinister, bad things happen when isolated from society

Concern with mystery/supernatural/

unknown

self-reliance, intuition Natural world is dark, decaying, and mysterious, gothic elements

Interest in picturesque past Some interest in past

Idealization of common man uncorrupted by civilization

No evil in the world

People are inherently good

Social reforms improve society

Saw evil, must know how to deal with it

People are inherently evil

Individuals fail in attempts to make changes for the better

Celebration of natural beauty and the simple life

Society does not allow this to happen

Simplicity, simplicity

Society is good

Gothic Ingredients

buildings: old castles, monasteries, gloomy mansions, haunted houses

heroine: weak or strong, alone in the world, caught in a web of horror and mystery

hero: often a hero and a villain

Gothic Ingredients

secrets: plot usually hinges on an unrevealed secret (family mystery, mysterious objects, unexplained disappearances)

revenge dark forces: supernatural (graveyard,

witches, storms, earthquakes), unnatural and evil powers, curses, succubus, incubus, body-snatching, vampires, werewolves

Edgar Allan Poe

1809-1849

Evil According to Poe

The inability to balance imagination with reason.