Essential Questions

1. How are the Romantics' beliefs of optimism and individualism reflected in their writing?
             ~Optimism is reflected in their writing because throughout the stories when the authors are criticizing human nature they are hoping for us as humans to change. One quote from the story "The Masque of the Red Death" is, "And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all." This quotes shows that because one person couldn't be kind enough to let everyone into the party, the Red Death conquered everyone. So when the reader reads this story they should understand to be kind and not selfish, and to treat everyone equally.

2. What is Romanticism, Gothic Romanticism and Southern Gothic Romanticism? How are they similar how are they different?
             ~"Romanticism is a movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual", a definition which Google gave me. Gothic Romanticism is a genre that contains a mix of fiction, horror and romanticism. Southern Gothic Romanticism is writing that usually took place is the 1800's and includes "deeply flawed, disturbing or eccentric characters who may or may not dabble in hoodoo, ambivalent gender roles and decayed or derelict settings, grotesque situations, and other sinister events relating to or coming from poverty, alienation, crime and violence", another definition which Google gave me. They are similar because they all generally include some type of romance, various forms, but still romance. They are different because that romance varies greatly. In Gothic Romance it has some dark twisted plot, when Southern Gothic is also dark but includes elements of the South such as slang, and Southern settings.

3. How is the Southern Gothic movement a response to literary movements that have preceded it as well as a manipulation of Romantic literary conventions?
            ~It is a response because of how it adapted to Romanticism. In the 1800's the "pride for the South" was growing so Romanticism evolved into Southern Gothic Romanticism. It just added darker elements to the stories and placed the settings in the South. An example of these stories being dark would be Poe's quotes from "The Black Cat", "This had probably been done with the view of arousing me from sleep. The falling of other walls had compressed the victim of my cruelty into the
substance of the freshly-spread plaster; the lime of which, with the flames, and the ammonia from the carcass, had then accomplished the portraiture as I saw it."  There are influences from the other genre's in it, such as: Southern Gothic took the romantic aspects from Romanticism and the darker aspects from Gothic Romanticism.

4. How did the American culture prompt the dark sides of Romanticism (think Gothic and Southern Gothic)?
            ~The American culture prompted the dark sides of Romanticism by all the crime and other odd things going on. There was many witch trials going on during this time period, which Walter Kirn said a great quote about ,“Everyone loves a witch hunt as long as it's someone else's witch being hunted”, so that helped the writers of Southern Gothic with there writing genre. There was also rebellions going on against Europe and other places that also helped cause Romanticism.

5. How do the writings of these time periods influence the writings of today?
            ~These writings help influence today greatly. Without us having Gothic we would not have any of the horror or serial killer books that we have today. We wouldn't have the deep dark twisted elements in the books either. These writings are where  authors get ideas for there books are, a big example being Stephen King. "Romanticism was more widespread both in its origins and influence. No other intellectual/artistic movement has had comparable variety, reach, and staying power since the end of the Middle Ages", a quote said by Paul Brians, which shows how great Romanticism influenced writers.