Dark Romanticism Or Anti-Transcendentalism

Dark Romanticism, also known as Anti-transcendentalism, is a sub-movement of the Romanticism movement that began in the mid-nineteenth-century. Dark Romanticism emerged as a reaction to the optimistic views of Transcendentalism. This reaction to Transcendentalism also led to the birth of another literary genre, American Gothic. Transcendentalist authors believed that humans would listen to their conscience and do good. On the other hand, Dark Romantics believed that humans always followed their darkest impulses (Themes of Dark Romanticism Prezi). Works of Dark Romanticism also use dark symbols to emphasize their themes. Prominent examples that show the themes of Dark Romanticism are: Moby Dick, by Melville, “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “Tell-Tale Heart”, by Poe, and “The Minister's Black Veil”, by Hawthorne.

Poe, Melville, and Hawthorne started Dark Romanticism in protest of how optimistic Transcendentalism was (newworldencyclopedia.org). These three authors also thought that Transcendentalism was far too egotistical, so they modified it to how they thought it should be. Instead of using the belief that the human spirit will transcend the physical, the three authors depicted the human spirit as being prone to sin and self-destruction. The three authors also though that no matter how good someone was or acted there was still a little bit of evil deep inside of them. This was in contrast to the beliefs of Transcendentalists. The Transcendentalists believed that no matter how bad someone was that there was still a little bit of good in them, even if that person did not realize