The Duality Of The Forest Image In American Romanticism

American Romanticism, which began in the end of the eighteenth century, had been the important period in American history. American romantic writers did not pay attention to shaping typical environment and the typical nature of their characters. They focused on describing the inner world to express strong personal feelings. Most of Romantic literature paid much attention to describing the natural scenery and expressing author's different feelings to nature. They described a large number of America natural scenery: the primeval forests, the vast plains, the boundless grassland, the wide sea and so on.After the study, the author finds that forest images often appear in the American romantic fiction. The reasons that the forest is favored by romantic writers are the relationship between human and nature and the forest in human life is very important. Early historic writings have revealed the duality of the colonial forest imagery. On one hand, the colonial forest imagery implied that the early colonists were unwilling to yield to the outdated conventions and bad customs influenced by ancient civilization. They sought to break ties with chains and look forward to free development. On the other hand, wild new world showed so many dangers that immigrants would encounter unimaginable difficulties. The forest symbolized not only the individual and freedom but also the danger and evil.The present thesis also explores the forest symbols in America romantic writings. In Irving's Works, the forest symbolizes the representation of the good old days; in Cooper's works, the forest is the American national imaginary kingdom; in Emerson and Thoreau's works, the forest is the symbol of spirit. In Allan Poe's works, the forest symbolizes dark and gloomy wilderness of spirit. However, In Irving's works, the forest can symbolize both the good old days and dark evil world. In Hawthorne's works, the forest can symbolize both freedom and beauty and refuge of crime and evil. Based on the above information, we come to the conclusion that forest has the duality in America Romanticism and even within one writer's works. It can be the symbol of the good and the evil. The author explores the causes for this phenomenon from the view of the influence of both European romanticism and gothic novel on Irving, the influence of both Puritanism and Transcendentalism on Hawthorne as well as the positive and negative influence of writer's life over their creative thinking.