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Lundyn Herring
Mrs. Kirschner
Block 1
31 January 2016
Tough Love
The pattern of literary movements throughout the course of the 1800s and early 1900s
consisted of dramatic changes in literary trends, consisting of two major movements: Dark
Romanticism and Realism, for example. Through Berenice by Edgar Allan Poe and The
Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a common theme of love, specifically tough
love, is introduced and displayed consistently though these are works from different literary
movements. Dark Romanticism and Realism both have similar qualities; yet still have differing
descriptions of their writings, illustrating the difference in the literary movements. Yet, Dark
Romanticism and Realism are still both different in ways that categorize them in different genres.
Love is a common theme to show itself between both literary movements, essentially connecting
these two genres of writing.
Dark Romanticism is the genre of writing in which the inner workings of the mind were
explored and horrific themes were often introduced throughout the genre itself. During
Berenice, Poe introduces the first of horrific themes throughout this chilling short story, that
horrific theme being the pure pessimism of certain individuals: The wretchedness of earth is
multiform (1). Pessimism is a large, recurring symbol throughout the genre of Dark
Romanticism and represents the common trend among the literary movement and all of the
works under it. Though the majority of Dark Romantic writing has to do with the lack of
optimism, there are writers under the genre that their writings do have happy endings. For

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example, Lenore also by Poe, is a poem in which Poe gives his protagonist a happy ending.
Though Dark Romanticism may be a dark category, it was one of the factors that contributed to
the emergence of Realism, which would become both a light and dark category among literature.
Realism is the genre of writing in which relatable writing emerged, making this type of
writing more appealing to the audience. In The Yellow Wallpaper, Gilman uses journalistic
tones and devices to illustrate the suffering of the woman in the story, as vividly as possible: I
sometimes fancy that my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulusbut
John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always
makes me feel bad (1). Journalistic undertones in writing are a characteristic of the Realistic
movement, making the writing under this category as relatable as possible. These undertones
were sometimes meant to be successful, and they achieved that, other times, it was unsuccessful
and made the writings seem more predictable, yet still relatable. As it was that Realism emerged
during the time in which the Industrial Revolution had just begun, and the stories under this
literary movement were about the new mechanisms that had emerged as well. Realism
revolutionized the genre of Realistic Fiction, introducing new ideas to the world one problem at a
time.
Both Dark Romanticism and Realism seem to acquire similar themes, the theme of Love
being surprisingly prominent under both genres. In Berenice, Egaeus falls deeply in love with
his cousin, so in love in fact that when she dies, he forms an emotional attachment to her teeth, a
solid bond with her that would never be broken: The teeth! The teeth! They were here, and
there, and everywhere, and visibly and palpably before me; long, narrow, and excessively white,
with the pale lips writhing about them, as in the very moment of their first terrible development
(4). Poe classically takes a dark twist on his writing, a brilliant example of how Love is tough,

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and that the toughness of said love, sometimes results in death. During The Yellow Wallpaper,
John believes that by keeping his wife from writing in her journal, he is healing her; this is
actually the exact opposite, making her crazier by the minute: and am absolutely forbidden to
work until I am well again (1). John believes that by doing this, by preventing her from
writing, he is healing her, and he is healing her because he loves her. Basically, he is
unknowingly killing his wife throughout the story, until the end, one can infer that she eventually
does die of Post-Partum Depression. Love is a cruel mistress, one whose boundaries depend on
the situation and the type of writing itself.
The literary movements known as Dark Romanticism and Realism are both essential to
the knowledge of young minds, being that they are both prominent styles of writing in the history
of the literary world. Love is a major theme across all literary movements, Dark Romanticism
and Realism being mere examples of such. Both of these movements illustrated Love in very
different ways, yet still managed to portray the point of its interpretation of love, in a way that
the reader got very different tones and feelings while reading both of these works. These
movements both had many things in common, which made them very simple to compare and
contrast, illustrating their similarities and differences as a whole.