I really enjoyed your essay, it gave me incite into another way of looking at this painting. When I looked at this painting I never really thought of horror or violence, just the impossibly far sail in the distance and how badly I would want to reach it. But now I look at it from the critiques view this is quite full of doom and gloom and I can see how that diddent sit well with the "Romantic" notion of man conquering nature and all that. I wonder if the characters on the raft are supposed to be normal sailors or if there supposed to represent something or someone(s), sounds like something and artist would do don't you think?