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Comparison Of Dark Romanticism And Transcendentalism

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Transcendentalism is the belief that people and nature are inherently good. Transcendentalists believe that the institutionalization of society has corrupted the good and purity of people, and that instead of such institutions, self-reliance and individualism are where people perform at their best. The transcendental movement in the 19th century was met with a small wave of skeptics, most notably, authors such as Edgar Allen Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne, who were part of a subgenre of Romanticism called Dark Romanticism. Literature within this subgenre was in direct contrast of the utopian ideas of transcendentalism; these writers did not believe in humanity’s inherent perfection. Furthermore, Dark Romantic authors presented their characters as individuals prone to self-destruction and sin, unlike the transcendentalists who saw individuals as full of wisdom, divinity, and goodness.
However, while Poe was deeply rooted in his dark romantic beliefs, Hawthorne came about only after experiencing for himself the pitfalls of reform. He wrote The Blithedale Romance, a satirical romantic fiction, based on his recollections of experiences he had after living at Brook Farm, a short-lived utopian community based on extrapolation of transcendental ideas. While initially excited for the possibilities of Transcendentalist reform, by the end of his time at Brook Farm, Hawthorne was ultimately disappointed. He grew to dislike Transcendentalism after living there, and criticized the

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