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Audrey Buck
Professor Babcock
English 137H
3 November 2015
A Shift in Literature: From Enlightenment to Romanticism
Human beings are the only animals in existence that have the capacity to use their
heads to escape from unpleasant, banal, or frightening situations; daydreaming, mindwandering, or, as Sigmund Freud coined the term, escapism is entirely intrinsic to
homo sapiens. Children travel to fantasy worlds as warlocks and unicorns; teenagers
delve into exciting, adventurous video games; adults daydream from their desks at work.
All three of these activities are versions of the same escapist coping mechanism that
inspired what is considered to be the American Renaissance of literature: Romanticism.
This genre of novels and poetry followed the Enlightenment Age and was prevalent in the
United States from 1830s until the 1860s, which was a time of great development and
urbanization in America. Cities were growing faster than ever, slums were expanding and
worsening, railroads were making it possible for everyday life to pick up the pace. This
genre of novels and poetry focuses on the individual rather than society, on emotion
rather than reason, and nature rather than industry as a way to transcend the reality of its
time period. These values rebel against the preceding genre of literature during the
Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, where science, society, and industrialization were the

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key. Authors of romantic literature longed for a simpler, idealized past and for a mystic,
fantastic present. They rejected the Enlightenment idea that science could lead to an
advancement in society. The Romantic authors created their literature to respond to the
Age of Reason with an age of their own that focused on idealization of the past, nature,
and the individual.
In order to understand the beginnings of the Romantic Era, its entirely pertinent
to be familiar with the preceding literature period named the Enlightenment. The
Enlightenment Era in America was a century long, stretching from 1720 to 1820 (Smith).
This literature movement advocated a cool, detached, scientific viewing of the world. The
authors during the enlightenment desired the removal all citizens rose-colored glasses;
the world was to be analyzed closely and rationally using the scientific method.
Scientific rationalism, exemplified by the scientific method, was the hallmark of
everything related to the Enlightenment (The Enlightenment). It was believed that
people, institutions, and entire societies could be understood if meticulously organized
and viewed with a scientific approach. Literature at this time held thought above feeling
and society above the individual; any subjective emotion was of no importance when
compared to the development of industry and infrastructure in America, the true
brainchild of the Enlightenment Era. The authors fixed their gaze on the industrialization
of America and were therefore an important part of the Industrial Revolution that began
in the early 1800s. However, the Enlightenment authors focused solely on the benefits of
industrialization because they believed that the advances of science and industry
heralded a new age of egalitarianism and progress for humankind (The Enlightenment).

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They entirely glossed over the pain and struggle and heartbreak of the growing
workforce. During the industrial revolution urban, industrialized areas were unable to
keep pace with the flow of arriving workers from the countryside resulting in inadequate,
overcrowded housing and polluted, unsanitary living conditions in which disease was
rampant (Industrial Revolution). Although these conditions were extremely prevalent in
the Enlightenment Era, the mentions of disease, overcrowding, child labor, and worker
injury in literature were very few and far between. Romanticism emerged, then, as a
response to both the limited, constricting views of the Enlightenment Era and the struggle
and squalor of the Industrial Revolution.
One of the foundations of Romanticism is the idea that literature can be used as a
form of escape. This concept, aptly named escapism, is defined in the Merriam-Webster
dictionary as the tendency to seek distraction and relief from unpleasant realities,
especially by seeking entertainment or engaging in fantasy. The cold, harsh values of the
Enlightenment Era combined with the pain of the masses during the Industrial Revolution
had become too heavy of a weight for a few of the members of the literary community to
carry. They started to write to relieve their own burden and to try to relieve some of the
worries and concerns of their readers. The Romantic authors retreated from reality and
scientific inquiry by penning novels and poems that included motifs of idyllic scenes
from the past, elaborate myths, beautiful nature, and the subconscious mind. By allotting
time and words for dreaming and meditating on these topics, these few authors sparked
an entire movement. These authors have become some of the most celebrated American
authors of all time.

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One of the founding fathers of the Romantic Era in America is Nathaniel

Hawthorne. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts (Merriman). He became one of
the leading writers of his time after moving away from the formalism of the
Enlightenment. Hawthorne wrote a large number of short stories and six novels during
his lifetime that focused on themes such as the importance of creative expression, the
responsibility of the individual, and mans relationship with nature. He also included
motifs of Puritan New England because of where he was born; he felt guilt about his
great-grandfather officiating during the Salem witch trial, and this feeling permeated a lot
of his work. His most famous novel, The Scarlet Letter, is set in Puritan New England. It
follows the story of a young woman named, Hester Prynne, being punished for adultery.
She is forced to wear the scarlet letter A on her chest because she refuses to tell the
town rulers who she committed this crime with. This story explores ideas of sin,
mortality, and repentance as well as themes of identity and wilderness. One his most
famous short stories is titled Young Goodman Brown and it also set in Puritan New
England. It tells of a mans encounter with the devil and how this experience changed his
life. In this story, Hawthorne contemplates ideas of purity, innocence, and the weakness
of public morality. Nathaniel Hawthorne helped spark the Romantic Eras fascination
with the individual, nature, and past.
A second significant, and also notorious, author of the Romantic Era was Edgar
Allan Poe. Born in 1809, it took Poe a substantial amount of time to establish himself as a
poet, short story writer, and editor (Edgar Allan Poe). However, by 1846, Poe was
recognized as the writer of many of his most acclaimed works such as The Fall of the

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House of Usher, The Tell-Tale Heart, and The Raven (Poe). Poes stories mark him
as one of the fathers of both horror and detective fiction. In The Fall of the House of
Usher, Poe sets a grim and mysterious scene as the narrator of the story arrives at his
childhood friends crumbling estate. The narrators friend had written to him in a state of
physical and emotional sickness looking for company, asking him to come quickly. The
narrator spends days trying to cheer up his friend to no avail and begins to suspect that
the house itself is bad for ones health. His friends twin, a sister, soon falls ill and dies;
they bury her in the tomb underneath the house. Late one night, when neither the narrator
nor his friend can sleep, they hear thumping and bumping and scratching echoing
throughout the house. The noises are the twin sister, buried alive, forcing her way out of
her tomb. The wind blows open the door to the room where the two men sit and the sister
stands in the doorway in white robes bloodied from her struggle. She attacks her brother
and literally scares him to death. The narrator frees the house, and as he escapes the entire
house cracks down the middle and falls to the ground. This story deeply explores ideas of
identity between the two twins and also the decay of memory, history, and relationship all
represented by the house. Not only does Poe deeply embed these romantic notions into
his stories, he is also the champion of crafting escapist literature. His poems and short
stories completely whisk the readers away to a haunting reality where the dead live on
and animals speak.
Walt Whitman, a contemporary to Hawthorne and Poe, has been celebrated as the
most important American poet of all time. Born in 1819, Whitmans most important
publication was self-published when he was 36 years old (Walt Whitman). Titled Leaves

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of Grass, this slim collection of 12 poems is heralded by Ralph Waldo Emerson (another
Romantic writer) as the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom to come from an
American pen (Walt). More pieces of poetry were later added to Leaves of Grass in
revised additions until the collection reached almost 180 total poems. One of the most
famous pieces of work in this compilation is titled Song of Myself. In this poem he
focuses entirely on the beauty of the individual and the importance of this diversity. He
argues throughout the entirety poem that without all of these different voices singing their
own songs, the world would be a dull, uninteresting place. Another theme that Whitman
examines in this poem is mans relationship with nature. A single excerpt of this
extremely long, free form poem expresses this idea:
My respiration and inspiration, the beating of my heart, the passing of blood and air
through my lungs,
The sniff of green leaves and dry leaves, and of the shore and dark-colord searocks, and of hay in the barn,
The sound of the belchd words of my voice loosd to the eddies of the wind,
A few light kisses, a few embraces, a reaching around of arms,
The play of shine and shade on the trees as the supple boughs wag,
The delight alone or in the rush of the streets, or along the fields and hill-sides,
The feeling of health, the full-noon trill, the song of me rising from bed and meeting
the sun. (Whitman)

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Here Whitman is describing how he experiences the grass, the leaves, the sun, and the
shade. Using words like kisses, shrine, and supple give the poem a dreamy quality.
Its a beautiful example of the romantic idea that nature should be important and sacred in
everyday life.
During the Enlightenment Era, stories about a womens struggle with societys
heavy-handedness, a mans terrifying encounter in a haunted house, and a narration about
the beauty of nature would be unacceptable. Science, rationalism, and reason were the
keywords of the period. However, with the oppression and struggle experienced by the
masses during the industrial revolution, a harsh and cold genre of literature wasnt right
for the time. The romantic authors felt the need to escape from such a restricting,
overwhelming time in history through writing about the individual, nature, and the
subconscious. During the time these writers were alive, theyre work was mostly
overlooked; they had no inkling that they had started an entire new era of writing that
would influence every other period to come (Romanticism). It is true that their writing
didnt improve the living conditions of the time or inspire ruthless entrepreneurs to treat
their workers better and value the individual. It didnt help stop the spread of disease
through overcrowded slums or make child-labor illegal. Yet Romanticism has been
entitled the most important literature movement in America because of its timelessness. It
went out of fashion because the writers were regarded as innovators but a bit lost in their
imaginations, but romanticism has been lurking under the surface of many following
literary eras, from Transcendentalism to Modernism. Many novelists and poets of the

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20th century cite Romanticism as their inspiration (Romanticism). In this regard, perhaps
Romanticism didnt change the world, but it did change the world of literature.

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Works Cited

"Edgar Allan Poe." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2015.
"The Enlightenment." Literature Periods & Movements. The LIterature Network, n.d. Web. 04
Nov. 2015.
"Industrial Revolution." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 04 Nov. 2015.
Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2015.
Merriman, C. D. "Nathaniel Hawthorne." - Biography and Works. Search Texts, Read Online.
Discuss. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.
"Romanticism." Literature Periods & Movements. The Literature Network, n.d. Web. 04 Nov.
2015.
Smith, Nicole. "Overview of Romanticism in Literature." Article Myriad. N.p., 11 Dec. 2011.
Web. 16 Nov. 2015.
"Walt Whitman." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2015.
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. New York: Eakins, 1966. Print.