Romanticism In The Late 1800s

Romanticism started around early 19th century around 1820 and lasted until 1830. There were many different views of romanticism. For example, there was the dark, light, transcendental, and romantic view. The dark view was looked at the evil in the world, and thought that when they looked in people’s hearts only something deeply disturbed would be found. Also, that some of the true earmarks of the human nature were guilt, cruelty, self-destruction, and crime. The light romantic view was, that if the human heart was looked at then it would be bright and optimistic. The transcendental view was, that people should trust themselves, and look toward nature for real truths, then people would be able to transcend to the universal being. The romantic

After the Civil War many things changed including the literature of America. One of the effects of the war, was that people’s way of thinking changed. For example, the enthusiasm and optimism of the country was lost, and that turned people to start writing about what was actually going on in the world around them. The two main types of realism were naturalism and realism. Some of the main writer in this time were Mark Twain, Douglass, Cather, Crane, Chief Joseph, and Chopin. Realism used more on an objective attitude of human affairs and the world rather than the subjective view that was used during the romantic period. For naturalism writing, instead of following the self-reliance taught by Thoreau, they believed that the fate of people were decided by environment, heredity, nature, pure chance, and social conditions. Realism showed the the American attitude about democracy, science, loss of idealism, and pragmatism that was going on in America after the Civil War. Dialogue, style, humor, and setting were important characteristics in the writing of this time period. Common items that influenced realistic and naturalistic writing was regionalism, urban sophistication, industry, and urban