Romanticism Literature - Essay Example

Romanticism Literature Question one In Poe’s works the “The Premature Burial” and “The Masque of the Red Death” the characters are presented as being afraid of death. In the premature burial the writer narrates the story beginning with factual events of such as earthquakes in Lebanon and further goes ahead to discuss fictional stories of people who have been buried alive. He then gives an account of his own story, which is characterized by a sickness that causes him to have attacks to make him look dead. The fear of being buried alive in this situation gives him a lot of discomfort and even make hi dream a number of times that he had been buried alive. Due to this fear, he constructs a tomb where he would be buried, in the tomb he puts in a mechanism where he could communicate in case he woke up. He also swears not go away from the people who know his condition claiming that if he left, the condition could attack him and lead to his burial alive. In the “The Masque of the Red Death”, he tells of a prince who hides himself and his noblemen in his mansion protected by iron in a bid to escape, the Red Death, a monster that was contagious and killed within thirty minutes after the encounter. The two stories show how far the characters can go to protect themselves from dead. In the premature burial the main character was willing to even have his grave fitted with communication equipment so that he could communicate and therefore escape death incase he was buried. According to the Preface to The House of the Seven Gables by Hawthorne, a novel differs slightly from romance. He explains that novels manly adhere to the normal everyday life framework, while romance is a narrative that gives the writer more room to present his feelings differently from the everyday life and therefore in romance another form of truth can be told from the writer’s point of view, this ‘truth’ can be enhanced by facets that transcend reality. He then goes ahead to explain that his work covers both genres, but is primarily a romance. In the light of this discussion his work “The Ambitious Guest." Seem to be more of a novel than a romance this is because the story is based on real life events that really happen. On close examination, however, reveals that Hawthorne uses a variety of narrative techniques not only to engage his audience, but also to control their responses, at least to some extent. Such a method points to Hawthorne’s Romantic agenda which is explained above. The narrator describes himself as a safe man who takes few risks if any, the narrator, since he works as a lawyer and mainly deals with the legal matters of the rich has managed to have a good home build in the modern economy. Bartleby the scrivener on the other hand, seems to be the opposite of the narrator, however they seem to parallel each other. Bartleby is described as a person who looks like he is dead and the writer says that he resembles both a corpse and a ghost. He says that due to his indoor work he has become pale and seldom move and show no expression and passion characteristic of living humans. Turkey is a drunkard who is only productive in the morning and drunken most of the time in the afternoon. On the his work mate Nippers has a problem with digestion which causes him to complain all morning with very little, but is very useful in the afternoon when turkey is drunk therefore the two seem to double each other. Their work’s ambition is also comparable mainly due to their difference in age, Nippers is young and ambitious while Turkey is older and always pleads with the narrator to be lenient on him considering his age. The young Ginger nut is presented as an obedient young boy who seems to be a messenger All the characters presented in the story are characteristic of the business world today, there are those who are very lazy in the work and are represented by Bartleby. Drunkards are also common place in the current business world, there also those who always complain about their health and are represented by nippers. The narrator represents the bosses who never take risks and are satisfied with their current situation. In the current business world in addition to the vices mentioned above are those who come to work to spy and plan on how to steal from the company or the organization they are working for. Question 2 Most of the writers were philosophers who tried to explain their existence, rights and beliefs through their writing. Thoreau's retreat and concentration method is similar to the techniques used by Asians to meditate, like Emerson they were influenced by Hindu and Buddhist philosophy and hence the resemblance. Both Emerson and Thoreau also treasured Asian classics which they owned in a library. Unlike Emerson, however, Thoreau’s eclecticist style is borrowed from Latin and Greek works.The style is very clear, though using a lot of metaphors and humor just like metaphysical works done by others writers from the late Renaissance period. Thoreau and Emerson were individualist and were against the restriction dictated by the society and government as this was against their principles. They were for the idea that the individual must not depend on the society to fulfill their existence. Thoreau also unlike the rest disliked materialism and lived in a very small house that he build in the property owned by Emerson. Melville like Hawthorne, was critical of the pervasive optimism which characterize his time and could not accept it, he, however admired Emerson and, like him, was against the state of preferring machines as compared to human beings Edgar Allan Poe had an obsession for death haunted stories, he was an excellent poet and mostly wrote short stories. His main style was most of the time imaginative horror stories and science fictions. He is also known to be a critic. He did not assimilate to most of the lifestyles and values that characterized the middle class of his time, and despite this his works were read widely. Emerson's philosophical style of writing unlike the rest avoided logical, intellectual system. He assumed a different path, since the logical, intellectual system did not match with his romantic belief characterized by intuition and flexibility. However, his works are consistent with the nature inspired individualism that he anticipated would be born in American poets. Both Melville and Hawthorne were descendants of wealthy families, however, Melville became poor following the death of his father.this is despite the patrician upbringing that he got from his parents, in the end he did not even attend college but he succeeded as a writer. Unlike the other writers whose articles mainly base in the American continent most of the stories by Hawthorne were created in Puritan New England. However, the stories are still well appreciated in America and in fact his famous novel, The Scarlet Letter published in 1850 has come to be the ideal representation of Puritan America. Unlike the rest, he also uses New England English as a background for his work. Works Cited Fogle and Harter Richard. "By: Romantic Poets and Prose Writers. ." Goldentree Bibliographies (1967). Waxman, BF. "Nature, spirituality, and later life in literature: an essay on the romanticism of older writers." The Gerontologist (1999): 516-524. Read More