We all know the cliché stories we were told as a kid about the prince always saving the princess from the tower and what not yada yada yada. We know how the stories go but there is a deeper meaning behind this period and I am here to sum it up a bit. This period is where everyone’s imagination can run wild and free from anything. Whether that’s from fire breathing dragons to talking fish in the ocean. This genre, as we know, is called fantasy. It is where romanticism really belongs because it expands on the idea of unrealistic dreams that wouldn’t happen on a regular basis, for example, when I talk to my crush. Instead of stopping there, the writers began to push against the formalities of American Literature and began to put emotion into their writing. The creators at this time knew how to stay true to themselves and what they enjoyed to talk about.
Everyone wanted in on the fun of writing in this period, so here are some emotional pieces of what some authors wrote. To start off, there is a story called “Last of the Mohicans” by James Fennimore Cooper. This novel takes place during the French and Indian War. During this novel, two of the main characters fall in love but a female gets captured and of course the male comes to her rescue. You may be asking yourself “why can’t it be the other way around?” Well during this period, men were looked upon as a hero in a sense. They took it among themselves to be that cliché hero. Another lovey dovey novel would be “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley and I am pretty sure you were told of this novel because it is pretty well known but if not, it was how a monster was created by a scientist. The story writer herself had really let her imagination run wild with this piece or pieces *wink wink*. See what I did there… anyway she knew what she was she was going to write about and expressed it in the best way possible. Lastly a novel called “Grimm Fairy Tales” by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm is about a story where there are mythological creatures, melodramatic plots, and more. You name it. The stories itself held some very grim plot schemes. (he he he I’m on fire!!). But let’s not forget about the poems and short stories. Two examples of poetry at that time would be “Le Lac” by Alphonse de Lamartine, which is French for The Lake. This poem is about the author losing his wife and how he would go down to the lake to reminisce about her. And another poem from this period would be “Domain des l’aube”, by Victor Hugo and the title is French for yesterday at dawn. Within the poem it says that he had lost his eldest daughter and how he misses her so. Last but not least, there is a short story called, “The Ministers Black Vail” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The story’s structure was based on how people would literally make anything up to force to truth to come out.
Out of everything that I have talked about I hope that you made it to the end and learned something new because while writing this I just learned how funny I am. Wait… maybe I should become a romanticism writer or maybe it’ too late for that oh well.
Sources:
Lombardi, Esther. “Romantic Period Fiction – American Literature.” ThoughtCo, Oct. 22, 2018, thoughtco.com/romantic-period-fiction-american-literature-738527.
American literature Though History 