Sentimental Romanticism Essay

The American Renaissance introduced an individualistic approach to viewing society and human nature that focused on equality and the inherent goodness of all mankind. The period ushered in the beginning of widespread movements toward race and gender equality. Out of Sentimental Romanticism came several very successful female writers who used emotional appeals to relate the plights of women to readers. The Transcendentalists who held a philosophical understanding of equality based on human nature rather than characteristics of individuals, asserted that all people are equal by nature, yet didn’t particularly concern themselves with inequality of women. In thought, the Dark Romantics shared the same belief in equality as the other groups of Romantics.

Usher has just discovered his sister Madeline is gravely ill, and the entire short story showcases his fragile emotional state. The sister remains a vague, shadowy character with information about her only being revealed through the man’s thoughts and feelings. The idea of her lingers in the background, while her actual character seems more important to the setup of the story than the actual plot. Her character is more of a haunting obsessive thought rather than an actual presence. In fact, Madeline only physically appears at the conclusion of the novel when Usher has fallen deeply into madness, her appearance accompanied by the collapse of their home. The entire purpose of Madeline in the story is to cause the demise of Usher’s mental health as the character offers nothing else of

Catharine Sedgwick had used her characters to realistically change women should be judged and pointed out all the flaws of strict Puritan thoughts about women. Harriet Jacobs defied expectations with her slave narrative that targeted the inequality not only of different races, but also the mistreatment of women. For every step towards female equality taken by sentimental romanticism, Dark Romanticism caused women 's rights to take two steps back. Through diminishing the role of women in their stories and perpetuating harmful gender stereotypes, the Dark Romantics neglected to reflect the equality they claimed to believe in. Given the success of the male Dark Romantic writers, open support of true equality being displayed in their work could have had huge impacts on the burgeoning racial and gender equality