The Dark Side

The Dark Romanticism came out of romanticism and transcendentalism. Many thought of dark romanticism as the opposite of transcendentalism but in fact, they have the same basic ideas. Both ideas values expression of strong emotion and imagination. The difference is that they focus on different aspects of emotion and imagination. Romanticism and transcendentalism are a lot more optimistic. They are about the positive things in life, like the innocence and heroic characteristics of people and the beauty of nature.  The transcendentalists talk about achieving the human perfection. Dark romantics have a more negative view towards the world. Their works focus on the conflict between good and evil, effects of guilt and sin, the destructive underside of appearances and even madness. Some of the leading dark romantic writers are Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Herman Melville. In Nathaniel Hawthorn's famous novel, the Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale suffers from sin and his own guilt. He is a minister and tortures himself for his secret sin. Many of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories are also really dark. Many of his stories talk about mad people or describing people that are about to get killed. I think the scariest part of his stories is the anxiousness and fearful tone. To me, dark romanticism is just like scary stories but at a deeper and more thoughtful level.