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(2018
midterm assignment) Sample Student Midterm Answers 2018 #3: Web Highlights (Index) |
LITR 4328 |
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Anne Ngo
Understanding the Sublime
The sublime in Romantic literature was a new concept for
me. Prior to the course, my understanding of the “sublime” was that it was used
to describe something grand and magnificent. However, as I learned through the
course, the sublime was more than just the incredible: it was the combination of
the beautiful and the terrifying that makes someone experiencing it in awe.
The readings of past essays further narrow my
understanding of it. Ronni Abshier’s “Sublime: Not Just a Scary Good Band Name”
describes the sublime similar to its universal literary definition, while
Kimberly Hall’s “The Sublime: A Study in Emotional Contrast” expands the term,
adding that it is a contrast of any two emotions. Furthermore, Timothy Morrow’s
“The Dark Unknown and its Welcoming Nature” discusses the relevancy of the
sublime to modern audiences. Through these essays, they provide a more enriching
understanding of the sublime in Romantic literature.
Abshier provides an academic definition of the term,
using Edgar Allan Poe’s Ligeia and
Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle as
texts that show examples of the sublime. If the sublime is “a blend of beautiful
and terrifying,” as Abshier points out, then the walls in
Ligeia showcases examples that
reflect this definition. The writer states that Poe “uses the sublime to
exaggerate things and excite the reader while simultaneously frightening” them
like “[the] walls that were so tall they loomed over him [the narrator] in a way
that made him weary of them.” In Rip Van
Winkle, Abshier states that the “descriptions of Rip’s ascent up the
mountain” had a “a sense of foreboding” to it as if “the mountain was warning
Rip of the strange things in store for him.” Through these examples, the writer
names the sublime from two American Renaissance pieces in order for the reader
to have a better understanding of the term.
On the other hand, Hall extends the
academic definition of the term to include the contradicting emotions of the
sublime. The writer describes it as “an image provoking extreme, seemingly
contradictory feelings.” Hall sums up the sublime as “an angry child” loving “a
kitten more than life” in Maria Susanna Cummins’s
The Lamplighter, nature “bring[ing]
simultaneous joy and terror” in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s
Nature, and “a woman dying as the
most beautiful experience in the world” in Poe’s
Ligeia. While Abshier describes the
sublime as the beautiful and the terrifying, Hall extends this definition to
include other variations of emotions. Thus, the writer adds on to the meaning of
the sublime to include other contradicting feelings.
As Abshier and Hall define the term in their essays,
Morrow details the sublime’s relatability factor on modern readers. In
Nature, the writer points out that
Emerson “finds himself in the wilderness,” discovering “a feeling of empowerment
through the connection with nature.” Morrow then provides a real-world
application that mirrors this “connection” by examining national parks. As the
writer explains, visitors of these parks, like Emerson, may “feel the sense that
they are participating in something larger than life, something bigger than what
they are.” This example showed me that the concept of the sublime not only
relates to those of the Romantic period, but also readers in the current times
as well.
With the help of Abshier, Hall, and Morrow’s essays, my
working definition of the sublime has been enhanced and extended. Abshier
reinforces the academic definition of the sublime, while Hall extends the term
to include any contradicting emotions. Morrow applies the feeling of the sublime
to a modern context, using national parks as an example. Thus, I learned that
the sublime is not only the beautiful and the terrifying, but something of
contradicting emotions. It is a feeling that seems more prevalent than it
appears to be.
