Romanticism There are several basic beliefs and literary characteristics of American Romanticism. In the United States the Romantic movement began in 1820 and 1865. Similar to Romanticism in France, it looked to other surroundings for development. Some basic beliefs introduced at this time were love, faith, religion, reality versus illusion, and artistic creativity. Allegory took a major role in its literary characteristics. Much of the Romanticism is reactions against forms and rules. Romanticism is an attitude of imagination and vision, which values a vast freedom in style! Romantics of this period saw the imagination as the means for