Theme of the power of the imagination over reason in creating its own reality.
Washington Irving is an American Romantic writer whose short stories often reflect the movement away from Enlightenment thinking with its insistence on the authority of Reason and its ability to verify objective reality to Romantic views that assert the power of the imagination and the emotion to create its own (subjective) reality.
In the short story “Adventure of the German Student”, Irving evokes the theme of the power of the imagination over reason in creating its own reality.
In a well thought out and composed essay, illustrate how this theme is evoked through Irvings use of setting(day/night, historical period-French Rev/Reign of Terror, Germany/France), character (Wolfgang, Woman, Police Officer), imagery (catacombs, decay, storm), and symbols (guillotine, overturn statue Henry IV-“head of State).
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