Is J. W. Ward's View Of The 18th Century American Romanticism

Following the intellectual movement of the 18th Century American Enlightenment, the ideas of “nature” and “will” would dominate the new American way of thought during the early to mid-19th Century American Romanticism mood. Led by the New England Transcendentalist movement, reason, predominantly imagination, intuition, whim, and instinct, would overtake the Lockean five senses way of knowing until the outbreak of the American Civil War. The notions that feelings gave one knowledge and that the closer one was to nature, the better, became popular during this mood. These characteristics are echoed in J.W. Ward’s analysis of the Jacksonian mood and Emerson’s famous essay, “Nature.” Conversely, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s (1804-1864) works reflect a negative view of the New England Transcendentalism movement and emphasizes human fallibility and susceptibility to sin and self-destruction when dealing with “nature” and “will.” Ward analyzes the 18th Century American Romanticism through Andrew Jackson (1767-1837) and the Jacksonian mood. According to Ward, “Andrew Jackson symbolizes the philosophy of nature which sanctioned the rejection of Europe” (pg. 149). Americans were struggling with their own identity following the War of Independence, forging their own unique traits laying between the savagery
This symbolizes the dangers of what Ward asserted when analyzing the Jacksonian mood of the self-made man. When one takes off on his own path, glory and fortune are not always at the end, but turmoil and evil can ultimately be the fate. Glamorizing self-determination, like the Jacksonians did, and ignoring the potentially undesirable consequences is what Hawthorne is attempting to symbolize in this