Dark Romanticism

1. I’m closer to being a Transcendentalism because I believe that God has his own way of speaking to us through nature. He shows us different menaing of things with the sun, stars, rain, or even wind. Not only these things but he speaks to us through our mind and spirit. I also feel that we are our strongest power not the government because we can do whatever they can. A transcendentalism believed that we thought through God and so do I.


2. I just read “Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe. I enjoyed this short story it was about a black cat and its owner and the things your mind can trick you into doing. The main character was addicted to animals every since he was young, and once he was older he and his wife owned a pet of all sorts. He had a special pick out of the animals, which was a black cat named Pluto. “Pluto -- this was the cat's name -- was my favorite pet and playmate. I alone fed him, and he attended me wherever I went about the house. It was even with difficulty that I could prevent him from following me through the streets.” The man loved and cared for this cat very much, until one day a sense of evil came over him. As said by his wife”black cats were witches in disguise.”
The man became a alcholic and murdered the cat. “I took from my waistcoat-pocket a pen-knife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket ! I blush, I burn, I shudder, while I pen the damnable atrocity.” This is a example of Dark Romanticism, because evil had built up inside of the man for no apparent reason. In my opinion, I also thought that he was insane, but to a transcendentalism no human would do this because we were all pure. This man showed a different belief, which would fit into Dark Romanticism, who knew that all humans had some evil in them because of the original sin.


3. “The Raven” also by Edgar Allen Poe was written while his wife was dying. The poem is focused on a raven, a stranger tapping at the author’s chamber door. He says he’s sitting trying to nap when there came a tapping and a rapping. It filled him with fear and terror that he never felt before as the wind was blowing and worsening the scene. The only words that were being spoken was ”Lenore!” When he open the chamber door the raven flew in.
I chose to include all of the lines above because they stuck out to me the most in the poem. They stuck out because the man is in another room writing a poem while is wife is in another one dying. Once he hears a noise he become afraid and worried but never before was he concerned. I think that the raven but some fear into his heart, since he wasn’t worried about his wife.
This represents anti- Transcendental because a Transcendetalism wouldn’t have been scared or afraid since they believed that they were pure through God. Speaking against that a Dark Romanticsim believer would’ve believed this was happening because the person was evil or insane, because of Adam and Eve causing us to sin. In their opinion, the raven was taunting the man because he was being evil towards his wife. I felt that he was being unpure because he wasn’t caring about others unil something freightened him.