Irving and Romanticism
What is Romanticism? Today, people would relate it with love and romance, however Romanticism is actually a style of literature that emphasizes imagination and emotion ins. It flourished in Europe and America throughout the 18th and 19th century and began a after the French Revolution in 1789. It was used by many authors and poets, such as Washings on Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, and William Sullen Bryant.
Romanticism writers glorified nature, did legalized the past, and celebrated the divinity of creation and mystery. Washington Irving was a Romantic writer in the sass. He was the first American writ to achieve an international reputation. He was the youngest writer at this time, being published at the age of 16. Irving based most of his works on German folk tales and used satire in one of his most famous folk tales, “The Devil and Tom Walker. ” In, “The Devil and Tom Walker,” Irving uses Romantic qualities such as, awareness of he past, nature, supernatural element, and mystery.
He creates the setting at the be ginning of the story using nature and then uses awareness of the past to show what time the story I s taking place in. Then, he uses mystery by making the reader use their imagination as to where To m Walker’s wife went and uses supernatural element with the devil. He creates the plot and the r details by using these Romanticism qualities. Irving writes about good versus evil or in this case, the Devil versus God. In this story,
Tom Walker represents greed and teaches people to not be greedy. Irving makes the reader realize that people do anything they can to become rich and have money. In this case , Tom Walker sold his soul to the devil for money, but after he had what he wanted, he became me scared about what would happen to him in the afterlife. Many people throughout their lives do this as well, meaning that they do not care until it is too late.
In conclusion, Irving was an outstanding writer and used Romanticism throughout his…
