Not everyone was enamoured of the Transcendental philosophy expounded by Emerson and Thoreau. To some of their contemporaries, Emerson and Thoreau were out of touch with reality and failed to account for human weaknesses, such as evil, greed, and selfishness. We can classify this wave of thinking as Anti-Transcendentalist because it directly opposed Transcendentalism. The most notable names are Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of The Scarlet Letter and "The Minister's Black Veil," and Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick. Unlike their more optimistic contemporaries, Hawthorne and Melville felt human nature to be contradictory, full of good and evil. They also believed rules to be a necessity to control the vices and impulses of our dissolute human society. The reader can discern elements of Puritanism because many of their characters seem to have in innate "sinful" nature, much like original sin, that affects their decisions and leads them astray; therefore, it would be unwise to suggest to the world to follow our instincts and intuition because our natural inclination is to follow selfish or evil urges and desires. What elements of Anti-Transcendentalism can you identify in the writing of Hawthorne and Melville? How do the characters of Hester Prynne, Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, Reverend Hooper, or Captain Ahab represent these ideas?
14 comments:
Boo! Transcendentalism is where it is at! you got served!
What should be the format for our introduction?
you don't have to worry so much about an introduction in these explications. Just come out with your point, or thesis statement as the first sentence, and take it from there. I am grading more on content and ideas than on structure and format.
Mr. farley i have a quick question-if my thesis statement is extra long do i get a better grade?
or is it quality versus quantity
it is always quality over quantity.
i mean how do i prove the minister from the black veil is anti tranny is it because he does not care what other think????
Reverend hooper represents the anti-trannie view that we all have secret and hidden sin within us; the story makes the reader ponder the possible sins Rev. Hooper could have committed, so we, in effect, are revealing our own sins as we think of his. in a way, the short story is a kind of active anti-trannie'ism.
damn all of Mr Farley's classes DONT ASK NO QUESTIONS!!!
if at the end of the essay i want to show how they authors are similar in some way can i do so? or not?
yes you can, Natifa. It is the argument that counts, so if you see a connection, then prove it in your essay.
hey i found this page and i was wondering if you could briefly explain to me how "moby dick" is anti transcendentalism. im really frustrated because i don't really understand antitranscendentalism and we just did an entire lesson on it in literature class... so ...HELP!! thanks
hey i found this page and i was wondering if you could briefly explain to me how "moby dick" is anti transcendentalism. im really frustrated because i don't really understand antitranscendentalism and we just did an entire lesson on it in literature class... so ...HELP!! thanks
The most influential paper that I have read ever???
Leah
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