Dark Romanticism Vs Transcendentalism Essay

Philosophy transpires as individuals seek to discover the truth about the world. Both Transcendentalism and Dark Romanticism emerged as its founding members questioned nature and humanity. Although the ideas of Dark Romanticism stem from an era of Transcendentalist philosophy, Dark Romantics provide an alternate, more pessimistic view of humankind. While Transcendentalists believe in the power of solitude and individuality, on the contrary, Dark Romantics believe that humans are inherently evil and are prone to self-destruction. Transcendentalists place an emphasis on the divinity of the individual; however, Dark Romantic philosophers challenge this idea in believing that humans are subjected to sin. In Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay ¨Self-Reliance¨, he discusses the importance of trusting oneself. ¨The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried¨ (Emerson 1). Emerson marks the importance of being intuitive with one´s thoughts and feelings in stating that …show more content…
Henry David Thoreau, a prominent Transcendentalist philosopher, describes in his essay “Solitude”, “For the most part we allow only outlying and transient circumstances to make our occasions. They are, in fact, the cause of or distractions” (2). When in solitude the only limitations one can experience are the ones an individual places on him or herself. Society has a way of distracting one from the beliefs that truly matter to the individual. For this reason Thoreau, along with other Transcendentalists, finds value in being alone with one’s own thoughts. Later in the essay, Thoreau continues to develop this belief by posing the idea that even when an individual interacts with others in society there is no connection that is created, and no time spent that is actually of

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