Puritanism values self reliance, industriousness, temperance, and simplicity. Most Puritans were extreme protestants from the Church of England and lived very modest and simple lives. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God is a piece of Puritan literature that influenced many people to become a part of their culture by using fear. One example is “Let every one that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come…”. This means that if you aren’t religious you need to be because God is angry with everyone who doesn’t follow him. Another piece of Puritan literature is The Crucible, which is a play about the Salem Witch Trials. Puritanism revolves around becoming the best Christian possible, and when accusations of witchcraft start it becomes a huge deal. When a slave gets accused of witchcraft she starts begging for forgiveness so she won't be hung. The reverend says, “You have confessed to witchcraft, and that speaks a wish to come to Heaven’s side. And we bless you, Tituba”. To Puritans, they had no obligation to punish someone; it was their own decision to confess and have God forgive them.
Rationalism is the belief is always being rational, reasoning, and thinking things out logically. In Ben Franklin’s autobiography he makes a list of virtues to succeed and live his life the way he thinks is right: temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility. He says, “As I knew, or thought I knew, what was right and wrong”. In Rationalism you must be able to change your ways and be open to new ideas, and correct anything that you are doing that isn’t beneficial. Ben Franklin says, “The contrary habits must be broken, and good ones acquired and established”. This means he, and other rationalists, weren’t born with open minds they had to learn and practice accepting and becoming more rational.
Dark Romanticism is Gothic literature. It beautifys tragedies such as death, sickness, insanity, and loneliness. In Masque of the Red Death, a bunch of aristocrats hide themselves away in a castle to avoid the Red Death but in the end it found them, “and darkness and decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all”. This means death is inescapable no matter what. In The Raven the man is sitting in his room alone and says, “I pondered, weak and weary, over a many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore”. He’s missing his lost love, which is a very common topic in Dark Romanticism.
Transcendentalism is the idea of the individual. It believes that to find the universe or nature, you must look inside yourself. Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson includes many of the same principals of Transcendentalism. Emerson says, “Nature always wears the colors of the spirit”. Transcendentalism believes that in each person is nature, and in nature is ourselves. Nature wearing the colors of the spirit has the same meaning. Emerson also says, “it is certain that the power to produce this delight does not reside in nature, but in man, or in a harmony of both”. We must find a balance of ourselves and nature to find happiness.
Each of these beliefs have things in common despite the large differences. Each is a personal experience, it’s all about expressing yourself or achieving some goal.