Introducing 

Prezi AI.

Your new presentation assistant.

Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.

Loading…
Transcript

Transcendentalist Analysis

Transendentalist

Quote 3

Author

Self-Reliance by

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines" (Emerson).

Romanticism

  • Trancendentalist author
  • In his study he discussed philosphy, religion, and literature.
  • In 1838, Emerson published Nature.
  • Him and a few other authors were known as the Transendentalist Club.
  • They developed a philosophical system that stressed intuition, individuality, and self reliance.

Characteristics

Romanticism

This quote found in Emerson's Self-Reliance is an example of the romanticism characteristic that demonstrates the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow his or her own instincts and ideas. The meaning behind this quote is of an individual who fell into the trap of following the crowd rather than being his or her own person. Emerson is making conformity seem like a limitation to an individuals mental growth.

Author

Ralph Waldo Emerson

William Cullen Bryant

~Commitment of individualism and the growth of ones self.

~An emphisis on intuative perception

~The assumtion that the natural world was inheritantly good, while human society is filled with corruption.

~Settings are often distant/remote in time and place

~Embrace individual spirituality and rebelled agaisnt the confinement of traditional relilgion

~Stories built on dreams or visions; exploration of the supernatural

~Hero seems to represent a general type with universal traits, rather than a specific individual

Transcendentailism

  • Bryant was a editor and chief of the New York newspaper.
  • Brynat is also a romantic autor.
  • Bryant was influenced by the work of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
  • After reading their work, Bryant incorperated romanticism into his poem Thanatopsis.
  • The final version of Thanatopsis was published in 1821.
  • Thanatopsis means, "a view or meditation on death".

Characteristics

Romanticism

~A trust in the individual, democracy, possibility of continued change for the better

~A need to see beyond what is before our eyes, to see a deeper significance, a trancendent reality

~Spontanious activity of the creative artist seen as the highest acheivement

~Great literature viewed as an expression of the divine spirit

~Emphasized role

~Importance of individual conscience and value of intuituion in matters of moral guidence and inspiration

~Critical of formalized religion

~An ambition to acheive vivid preception of the divine as it operates in common life which would lead to personal enlightenment

~Belief that nature is the best way to learn from/be inspired by the divine spirit

Romanticism and Transcendentalism Contrast

Examples in Thanatopsis

"Take the wings of morning, pierce the Barcan wilderness, / or lose thyself in the continuous woods / Where rolls the Oregon" (Bryant 263).

"So shalt thou rest, and what if thou withdraw in silence from the living, and no friend take note of thy departure" (Bryant 264).

Examples in A Dream

"Ah! age is drear, and death is cold! / I turned to thee, for thou wert near, / And saw thee withered, bowed, and old, / And woke all faint with sudden fear" (Bryant).

Madison Kean and Izzy Meidl

Romantisim Analysis

Quote 3

Contrast

A Dream By William Cullen Bryant

"Ah! age is drear, and death is cold! / I turned to thee, for thou wert near, / And saw thee withered, bowed, and old, /And woke all faint with sudden fear" (Bryant).

Our third romantisim quote from A Dream demonstrates the characteristic of having the story be built on dreams or visions; exploration of the supernatural. Many people in this time period (and in our time period today) have a fear of death. No one can understand death because it is supernatural. In this romantism quote, it is demonstrated that the message of the poem is not God himself, but the path of death. The vision of death or the thought does not center around God, it centers on the message that dying happens to everyone. Death can also be seen as a supernatural phenomenon because what happens after death cannot be explained. The fear of dying can be connected to the fear of the unknown. This fear is demonstrated through the dream written about in Bryant's A Dream.

Transendentalist Analysis Quote 1

Romantism Analysis

Quote 2

Romantism and Transcendentailism are equally realated, as they are different. For this we will be contrasting the two types of literary styles in order to fully explain that the two do not share the same characteristics. In the example from Thanatopsis, it is demonstrated that romantism settings usually take on a remote/distant setting or time frame. This quote from Thanatopsis makes that clear, "Take the wings of morning, pierce the Barcan wilderness, or lose thyself in the continuous woods where rolls the Oregon" (Bryant 263). This piece written by Bryant focuses on the message of the piece rather than the discription of the setting. Bryant does not take the time to explain the setting in great detail, rather he just mentions that the setting is in a remote desert region. Romantisim characteristics focus more on the importance of emotions and freedom, versus intellectual growth, like transcendentalist pieces. Transcendectualist pieces of literature focus more so on God being the center of the universe. In Nature, by Emerson, it is clearly demonstrated that the transcendentalists main point is to expand on the knowledge of spirituality through the Earth and the significance of nature through a divine being. The transcendentalist characteristic of using nature to see past what is right in front of you and into the divine spirit. An example of this characteristic can be seen in this quote by Emerson , "I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or parcel of God" (Emerson 367). With this quote, it is examplified that the focus of the piece is about God or a divine being. God is a major theme that is consistent throughout transcendalist work as opossed to romantism work, which is based off of a forceful message through a positive voice in the shape of a narrative, instead of through a poem, which is typically the style transcendalist authors write in. Either way, romantism and transcendentalist pieces are different from eachother in their overall meanings, the moral/message one should take away from the reading and the significance placed on God and a divine spirit.

Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant

"So shalt thou rest, and what if thou withdraw in silence from the living, and no friend take note of thy departure" (Bryant 264).

"I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or parcel of God" (Emerson 367).

Our second quote of Bryant's Thanatopsis (264) is describing the characteristic of supernatural theories. The characteristic states that romantism stories are based on dreams or visions; exploration of the supernatural. This quote addresses the human fear of dying alone. The supernatural fear of death is erradicated by the realization that evetually, all people will die, therefore one is not alone in the experience.

Our first quote from Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson confirms the characteristic that demonstrates a need to see beyond what is before our eyes, to see a deeper significance, and a transcendent reality. This quote is an example of this because it explains that the narrator wants to see beyond what is before his eyes. The narrator also vocies that he is able to see everything because the deeper significance of what the narrator is seeing is that he is a part of God.

Transcendentailist

Transcendentalist Analysis Quote 2

Examples in Nature

Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson

"In the wilderness, I find something more dear and connate than in the streets or villages. In the tranquil landscape, and especially in the distant line of the horizon, man beholds somewhat as beautiful as his own nature" (Emerson 368).

"I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or parcel of God" (Emerson 367).

Romanticism Analysis

"In the wilderness, I find something more dear and connate than in the streets or villages. In the tranquil landscape, and especially in the distant line of the horizon, man beholds somewhat as beautiful as his own nature" (Emerson 368).

Our second quote from Nature is an example of the characteristic that is the belief that nature is the best way to learn from/be inspired by the divine spirit. This is demonstrated by how the narrator looks past the trees or landscape and sees a place were he can let himself grow as a human being. By understanding that, the narator tries to reach a higher self and see the true gift before him. The gift before him is tranquility and should be awknowledged just like the beauty that can be found in any man. Also, the landscape is long lasting and that is how he relates himself to nature and sees what nature truly has to offer him. The divine spirit that can be represented through nature gives humans the chance to reach a place within themselves where they have reached peace and balance. Nature is simply at peace, and through observational learning and trying to reach a higher self, one can achieve a similar peace to that found in nature.

Thanatopsis

Examples in Self-Reliance

"Take the wings of morning, pierce the Barcan wilderness, or lose thyself in the continuous woods where rolls the Oregon" (Bryant 263).

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines" (Emerson).

Our quotes from Thanatopsis are examples of how romantism characteristics are present in this poem. Our first quote of Bryant's Thanatopsis (263) is describing the characteristic which states that settings in romantism literature are often distant/remote in time and place. In the quote, Bryant describes the Barcan wilderness which is refering to a desert region in North Africa. A desert region is a prime example of an area where few forms of life can exist. Creating the mental picture that this setting is removed from other civilizations. This poem is also not specific in time. The greek word Thanatos means death. Death never comes at a predictable time; therefore, fitting the characteristic of being distant in time.

Learn more about creating dynamic, engaging presentations with Prezi