Literature Essay on Romanticism and Transcendentalism: What is the Connection?

Romanticism and Transcendentalism are movements that added emotion to art and both are very important in literary history. Because of this, take consideration in recognizing and making connections between them. Although Romantics and Transcendentalists have different foundations, each of these movements have very similar ideas and beliefs. They both have ideas of imagination, idolizing nature and god, and both support the idea of being an individual.

Imagination is something that can be picked out in almost any Romantic and Transcendental piece of work. For example, a romantic notes, “One hot summer afternoon in the dog-days, just as a terrible black thunder-gust was coming up, Tom sat in his counting-house, in his white linen cap and India silk morning-gown,” (Irving 5). In this part of the story, imagination is taken more on the visual side,  as well as describing the atmosphere around shown by “terrible black thunder-gust”. It is created in a way that gets the reader to imagine the landscape and the feel of the situation. An important aspect of a romantic work is that the author makes the reader infer if something is about to happen. A similar piece of work, by a transcendentalist writer, a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson reads, “I saw them pass, In their own guise, Like and unlike, Portly and grim,—Use and Surprise, Surface and Dream” (Emerson).  In this piece of his poem, Experience, he gives the reader a bit to think about and imagine. Although this takes a more spiritual spin on imagination, compared to the story of Tom Walker, they both have similar ideas. Both are descriptive in a way that lets readers think a bit more about the story and both have a way of leaving space for the mind to fill in, as it was written to do. Romanticism and Transcendentalism also have a strong belief in nature, although this seems like a specific topic it is wonderfully shown in different ways between both the romantics and transcendentalists. in the story The Birthmark, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, when his character says, “It was the fatal flaw of humanity which Nature, in one shape or another, stamps ineffaceably on all her production” (Hawthorne 1023). Here, the author focuses and brings lots of his main ideas back to the topic of man vs nature. The story surrounds itself within the idea of nature and it is a natural constant force that no man can fight. It is not a matter of plot in any of the romantic works but putting it into a more simplified meaning. In other words, topics like nature can easily be traced to both Romanticism and Transcendentalism. As another example, similar to Romanticism, a good Transcendentalist poem would be Tall Ambrosia by Henry David Thoreau. This piece is intertwined with nature throughout the entire piece, a good example being: “Is as immortal once as the proudest flower—Sprinkles its yellow dust over my shoes as I cross the now neglected garden” (Thoreau). This is such a good example due to its direct relation back to nature. Romantics and Transcendentalists take inspiration from nature, believing that nature is sacred and that it is important for individuals to connect with it, as well as, it is beyond the human perspective. Emotion is a great inspiration to the writer and artist when connecting readers with nature in both types of works.

Shifting over to individualism, a good piece to go back to would be The Birthmark when a different character remarks on the unique trait Georgiana has, noting, “If she was my wife, I’d never part with that birthmark” (Hawthorne1026). This is an extremely important example to bring up due to how blunt the statement relates to the topic of the individual. It is important to note that the premise of the story is about the individual and how she was shunned for her uniqueness. To both romantics and transcendentalists, being an individual is important. It may not show up in every piece of literature, but it is still a strong tie between the two genres. Additionally, the transcendentalist writer, Margaret Fuller, talks about art and how it has an individual approach to it. She expresses this in the line: “Absorbed in the creations of thy mind, Forgetting daily self, my truest self I find” (Fuller). This phrase takes a look into their appreciation of art but also explains where the writer believes it comes from: the individual's mind. Both pieces can be related to the idea of being an individual and so can lots of other works. 

Overall, it is easy to connect the importance of Romanticism and Transcendentalism to literary history. Ideas of imagination, idolizing nature, and individualism are all key aspects found within both movements. These aspects are important because they tie the reader and the writer to the world around them through shared emotions.