The Romantic Period

The Romanticism period began in 1800 and ended in 1860.  New westward expansion began with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Many Americans packed up their belongings and moved west, thinking they were going to become rich after gold was uncovered in Sutter’s Mill in California. During this time, Americans had not found a cultural identity for themselves. The Romantics and Transcendentalists had made a new literature that focused on imagination and feelings. The Transcendentalists wanted to go beyond their ordinary lives with spiritual experiences in nature. They believed that in order to discover truths, they must transcend, or go beyond our physical world and pursue the ideal world. Another group of writers, the Dark Romantics, became popular during this time. They explored the dispute between good and evil. The Dark Romantics didn’t believe the spiritual truths found in nature were all good like the Transcendentalists did. Popular novels during this time would include Nathaniel Hawthorne’s A Scarlet Letter, Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.  Famous poems written during this era would be Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Ballads and Other poems” and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven and Other Poems”. A well-known short story from the Romantic era would be Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.