The Literature Book

140

E

arly to mid-19th-century

America witnessed the

development of two strands

of Romanticism. One, practiced

notably by Ralph Waldo Emerson

and Henry David Thoreau, was

Transcendentalism, an idealistic

movement centered on a belief in

the soul or “inner light,” and the

inherent goodness of humans and

the natural world. The other was

Dark Romanticism, which took a

less optimistic view of human

nature; writers such as Edgar Allan

Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and

Herman Melville explored ideas

of the individual susceptible to sin

and self-destruction, in a reaction

against Trancendentalist idealism.

The dark side

Both schools recognized a spiritual

energy in nature, but whereas the

Transcendentalists saw nature as

a mediating channel between God

and humanity, the Dark Romantics

were less sanguine about human

perfectibility. They saw nature as

embodying dark, mysterious truths

that humans confront at their peril.

In the same spirit of pessimism,

they regarded attempts at social

reform as dubiously utopian.

In their poetry and prose from

about 1836 through the 1840s,

exponents of Dark Romanticism

often depicted individuals failing

in their attempts to bring about

positive change. Drawn to horror,

the supernatural, and the macabre,

as well as to suffering and tragedy,

they were fascinated by the human

propensity for evil and by the

psychological consequences of

sin, guilt, revenge, and insanity.

Such elements were also found

in gothic literature, and paved

MOBY-DICK

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Dark Romanticism

BEFORE

1845 In “The Raven,” a poem

by Edgar Allan Poe, the bird

repeats the word “Nevermore”

to accelerate a grief-stricken

lover’s descent into madness.

1850 In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s

The Scarlet Letter, Hester

Prynne has a daughter out of

wedlock. The scarlet letter is

“A” for “Adulteress,” which she

must wear on her dress.

1851 The House of the Seven

Gables, also by Hawthorne,

explores guilt, retribution, and

atonement, with hints of the

supernatural and witchcraft.

AFTER

1853 In a foreshadowing of

existential literature, a legal

copyist in Melville’s story

Bartleby, the Scrivener politely

refuses to accept his tasks,

dwindling to mere existence.

Herman Melville The son of an importer and

merchant, Melville was born in

1819 in New York. Starting his

working life at his late father’s

business, he then taught at local

schools, worked on his uncle’s

farm, and clerked in a bank. At 20,

he enrolled as cabin boy on a

merchant ship sailing to Liverpool.

In 1841 he got a job aboard the

Acushnet, a whaling ship. An

interlude of living in the

Marquesas Islands in the South

Pacific inspired his first novel,

Typee. Later he served on more

whalers and on a US Navy frigate.

Seafaring provided material for

Moby-Dick, and Melville hoped

to capitalize on popular interest

in marine adventure. But by the

time the book was published,

public interest had shifted to the

American West, and Moby-Dick

was not seen as a masterpiece

in Melville’s lifetime. He died of

a heart attack in 1891.

Other key works

1846 Typee

1853 Bartleby, the Scrivener

1857 The Confidence-Man

1888–91 Billy Budd (published

posthumously in 1924)

... all that cracks the sinews

and cakes the brain; all the

subtle demonisms of life and

thought; all evil, to crazy

Ahab, were visibly personified,

and made practically

assailable in Moby Dick.

Moby-Dick

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