Literary works like Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment," Washington Irving's "The Devil and Tom Walker," and Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" show characteristics of the American Romantic Age. All of these stories have an emphasis on emotions rather than intellect and tend to reject realism and accept idealism. In Hawthorne's tale, he writes of an eccentric Dr. Heidegger who invites four of his elderly friends to his study to partake in one of his new experiments. This story exemplifies romanticism because it is highly imaginative and far-fetched. An acquaintance of the doctor discovers the fabled Fountain of Youth and sends him a vase full of its water. He asks his guests, eager to relive their glory days, to drink the magical concoction. Romanticism focuses on human nature and how humans inevitably sin and feel guilty. Each of the four …show more content…
Graphic description of setting is an element of romanticism. The story is set in early nineteenth century New England, where Tom and his wife live in a "forlorn looking house" that no one ever stopped to visit. Their yard is sterile and the tress that grow struggle to do so. When Tom takes a shortcut home, he passes through a swamp that is "thickly grown with great gloomy pines and hemlocks." There are quagmires and pits, and the fallen tree trunks look like alligators in the water. This story illustrates the supernatural aspect of romanticism. Tom makes a deal with the devil, or Old Scratch, who reluctantly agrees to tell Tom the location of a unexplainable secret treasure. His wife attempts to strike a deal with the devil, but magically disappears. Unsure of her whereabouts, Tom finds her apron hanging from a tree, a heart, and a liver. Tom tries to go back on his bargain with Old Scratch. He calls for Tom's soul, and Tom is magically and mysteriously carried away by a black horse towards the ancient Indian burial ground located near his