Famous American Authors: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allan Poe, and Nathanial Hawthorne

Emerson was known as America’s Intellectual Declaration of Independence. He encouraged Americans to look inward and find power and inspiration within. He used the spiritual resource of nature to promote the nation politically and morally. He influenced many of his peers by his transcendental ideas about nature’s unity, distinctive soul, and deep belief in God. He also was known as a prophet of faith and unconditional optimism during a struggling historical

Anti-Transcendentalism, also known as dark romanticism, was a literary movement that revolved around the negative aspects of life and human nature.Many authors have made a name for themselves through Anti-Transcendentalism, including Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe.Both writers used their stories as a platform to expose the "reality" of human nature. Hawthorne discuss' the foolishness found in youth in "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" while Poe writes about the tragedy of not being able to escape your fate in "The Fall of the House of the Usher". So essentially, each writer effortlessly demonstrates the traits of Anti-Transcendentalism.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was essential the founder of the transcendentalist movement and the philosophies that encompass it. There are many of his quotes that really show what this movement was about. For instance when he said "I do not like to see a sword at a man's side. If it threatens man, it threatens me". Now transcendentalism is a philosophy of the individual, but it is also about your fellow man.

Emerson, himself was a Transcendentalist and he influenced other people to be one as well because he believed everyone should create their own ideas and not fall to be just another person in a society, take a leap of faith. “The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried” (Self-Reliance 774). Emerson was able to consider himself a Transcendentalist because he took a leap of faith and always made his very own context as to what he was against, and what he viewed as a current situation. The overall reason Emerson was a transcendentalist is because he created a different view for society and went outside of the norm to create ideas people had yet to even contemplate. Therefore, by creating a new idea for the society, people were able to expand their knowledge and build from Emerson’s ideas. All in all, Emerson believed in his own thoughts so he shared them with the public. As emerson stated as well as lived by, “To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart, is true for all men” (Emerson

Although transcendentalism is primarily viewed as straying from tradition, the element of nature and the simplicity that comes along with it are also very salient. Emerson believed that nature

Emerson's "transcendentalism" is essentially a romantic individualism, a philosophy of life for a new people who had overthrown their colonial governors and set about conquering a new continent, in hopes of establishing new and unique views. Though Emerson is not a traditional philosopher, the tendency of his thought is toward inward reflection in which soul and intuition, or inspiration, are fundamental. The new American needed less criticism and a rejuvenated sense of personal inspiration. Taking a practical and democratic, yet philosophic interest in all of nature and in individuals of every walk of life. Emerson stresses the potential for genius and creativity in all

Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe are considered masters of American gothic fiction. They used similar gothic elements in their writing and used it to build up a sense of impending doom. Even today numerous readers enjoy, study, and discuss the gothic elements both utilized in their work. Gothic writing is a style that is concerned with the dark side of society, an evil that lies within the self. Poe and Hawthorne contributed stories which contained dark struggles between characters and society with its rules of order of the time. Gothic writing is fantasy meant to entertain despite the fact that it depicts the political and social problems

Romanticism took place in the early 1800's, it focused on the evolution and the effects nature has upon the universe. This time period helped grasp imagination, emotions, symbolism, and focus on the individual of one's self. I will be evaluating the authors, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne to demonstrate how their works relate to the time era of the 18th century.

Human nature is something that never seems to change. While humans all seem to be different from one another through physical and emotional attributes, their psychological behaviors are all mostly very similar. In the late 18th century and early 19th century, many authors successfully could explain the characteristics of human nature and the effects that it has on everyone and everything surrounding human beings. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allen Poe all convey the behavior of human nature in separate ways. These three authors show the curiosity, drive for perfection, and fear of human nature throughout their texts in detail. With these characteristics being prominent in human nature itself, it

Transcendentalism was an early philosophical, intellectual, and literary movement that thrived in New England in the nineteenth century. Transcendentalism was a collection of new ideas about literature, religion, and philosophy. It began as a squabble in the Unitarian church when intellectuals began questioning and reacting against many of the church’s orthodoxy ways regarding all of the aforementioned subjects: religion, culture, literature, social reform, and philosophy. They in turn developed their own faith focusing on the divinity of humanity and the innate world. Many of the Transcendentalists ideas were expressed heavily by Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his essays such as “Nature”, “Self Reliance”, and also in his poems such as “The

Undoubtedly, Gothicism was meant to focus on the darker side of human nature (Gothic Literature). This literary movement began from authors that believed the novels in the transcendentalism movement were too optimistic. The readers became

The Transcendentalist Movement of the early nineteenth century proved to be especially popular with American writers. Though many critics have associated authors such as Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson with this movement, many other American authors utilized themes of transcendentalism in their works. Likewise, although critics often do not portray Nathaniel Hawthorne as a transcendentalist, the multitude of characteristics central to those of the American Transcendentalist Movement suggest that Hawthorne was indeed a transcendentalist. In his novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne represents the Transcendentalist Movement by incorporating three major transcendentalist themes: self-reliance, the importance of nature, and the innocence of youth.

Transcendentalism was a movement that promoted nineteenth-century literary and philosophical beliefs, which influenced many writers and Americans. A key concept of the transcendentalism movement was individuality and staying true to oneself in a society that wants to make individuals fit in. The movement was mainly influenced by writers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, who had beliefs of spiritualism, individualism, self-improvement, and moral protest. Both writers included various themes of transcendentalism in their writings, but a unifying theme between the writings from class was standing up for original ideas and not conforming to society’s beliefs. Each piece encourages finding answers for oneself, and this transcendental

The theme of individualism is present in several of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s works. It was also his philosophical views on how to live life. He believed that human beings had remarkable capabilities, more than they can possibly identify. With these capabilities a person should govern themselves, not be governed by a society. Emerson also believed that nature played a large role in how man should act and to follow nature’s actions of growing without obstruction (“Nature”). This is why he lead the Transcendentalism movement in the nineteenth century, along with Theodore Parker, Frederic Henry Hedge, Amos Bronson Alcott, Margaret Fuller and Henry David Thoreau (Lewis). This philosophy was not only significant then, it was imperative throughout times in history.

The Romantic period developed in America in the 19th century, with the Gothic/Romantic stories of Edgar Allan Poe and the quasi-religious, transcendentalist poetry of Ralph Waldo