(2016 midterm assignment) Model Student Midterm answers 2016 #1: Long Essays (Index)

LITR 4328 American Renaissance

Vaneza M. Cervantes

The Core of Romance found in Nature, and the Americanized theme of Gothic.

Walking into Dr. White’s classroom, I was absolutely nervous. Especially for the name of the class ‘American Renaissance,’ I was honestly never good at history.  I didn’t know what to expect, however I felt optimistic because I love the theme of Renaissance. The idea of rebirth and new beginnings, therefore I felt that maybe this class will bring a new chapter into my life of literature.

Being emerged into the classroom I learned a lot of things I never thought were associated to the theme of gothic. Being in pervious literature classes, I learned that the term gothic usually is associated with the image of old- dark mysterious castles, with secret passage ways and the huge stained glass windows viewing all over the majestic castle.  The best example that my mind always runs to when it hears the word gothic is Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. The novel and film adaptations have always been my ideal gothic scenery.  However all of that changed in Dr. White’s classroom.

As it turns out in America there are no old deserted castles. Therefore American poets or authors have used the woods as a representation of the gothic.  In Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, we see the Americanized concept of gothic unfold beautifully.  We see the themes of gothic reveal in the wilderness, “What fearful shapes and shadows beset his path, amidst the dim and ghastly glare of a snowy night! With what wistful look did he eye every trembling ray of light streaming across the waste fields from some distant window! How often was he appalled by some shrub covered with snow, which, like a sheeted specter, beset his very path!”(18).  It is the forest in Irving’s tale that is the most haunted and mysterious to all the people. It is the woods that are forbidden because evil is lurking there.

In the novel by James Fenimore Cooper The Last of the Mohicans, who is also old American like Irving’s, we also see the use of Americanized gothic represented in chapter five.  In the following passage we see Heyward, “ awakened imagination, deluded by the deceptive light, converted each waving bush, or the fragment of some fallen tree, into human forms, and twenty times he fancied he could distinguish the horrid visages of his lurking foes, peering from their hiding places, in never ceasing watchfulness of the movements of his party” (5.8). When reading this passage we can see a correspondence played out between Cooper’s novel and Irving’s legend. Addressing back to the Americanized gothic we can see it clearly played out here, seeing the shadows as human forms, his imagination running wild with what is in the woods.

Besides being educated on the Americanized term for gothic, I also found interesting that nature is an aspect of Romanticism.  It is in Dr. White’s class that I first heard of Emerson, and he is a funny guy. It was difficult for me to understand and come up with a solid conclusion of Emerson. However I found it very interesting of how Emerson gives of a romantic appeal to nature in his poem Nature, “But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and what he touches” (6).  We see a romantic feel when describing nature, from the stars to heavenly worlds.  It is unique though that Emerson brings romance into nature, when he was focused in transcendentalism- science. However in line 25 we see Emerson stating that nature is more striking than science, giving it a beautiful romantic feel.

Another poet that I found relating to what Emerson found in nature is Edgar Allan Poe.  Poe brings up romance a lot in his poetry; however in lines 1.9 and 1.10 in Poe’s poem Romance, Poe brings up the romantic theme of child in nature, “While in the wild-wood I did lie/ A child- with a most knowing eye.” He is giving his meaning of Romance by meaning of escape. - To escape and be free like a child with innocence. This correspondence to Emerson, on how he states that children are all knowing, “the sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child” (10).  Illuminating the innocence and purity found in childhood giving it a romantic appeal that is found in nature.

To conclude, I am truly enjoying this class and have learned so much. New novels and poems have come my way and I truly am enjoying them. Some are hard to grasp—but that is the beauty of literature, there are many interpretations. I now look at horror movies differently knowing where each one is being set; also Emerson has become one of my favorite poets. I would like to educate myself more on him and his belief on transcendentalism.