Assignment: Romantic movement & Characteristics of the Romanticism
This Blog is part of an Assignment of sem -1 Paper no. 102 Literature of Romantic period .Assigned by Dr. Dilip Bard sir Department of English,mkbu. In this assignment I am dealing with the topic of ' Romantic movement & Characteristics of Romanticism'.
Personal Information:
Name : Kavita N. Chauhan
Roll No. : 17
Enrollment No. : 5108230010
Semester : 1st
Paper No. : 105
Paper Code : 22393
Paper Name : History of English literature
Topic : Romantic movement & Characteristics of Romanticism
Submitted to: Smt.S.B.Gardi,Department of English,MKBU
E-mail : kavitanchauhan2002@gmail.com
•Introduction:
The Romantic Period began roughly around 1798 and lasted until 1837. The political and economic atmosphere at the time heavily influenced this period, with many writers finding inspiration from the French Revolution. There was a lot of social change during this period. Calls for the abolition of slavery became louder during this time, with more writing openly about their objections. After the Agricultural Revolution people moved away from the countryside and farmland and into the cities, where the Industrial Revolution provided jobs and technological innovations, something that would spread to the United States in the 19th century. Romanticism was a reaction against this spread of industrialism, as well as a criticism of the aristocratic social and political norms and a call for more attention to nature. Although writers of this time did not think of themselves as Romantics, Victorian writers later classified them in this way because of their ability to capture the emotion and tenderness of man.
•Romantic Movement:
The term “Romantic literature” might sound like it has something to do with romance, but it actually refers to something else entirely.
The word "romantic" can be used to describe love stories in any culture or time period, while the word "Romantic" with a capital "R" describes a literary movement from the 18th and 19th centuries. You could sit down at your desk right now and write romantic poetry, but you couldn't write Romantic poetry without the help of a time machine.The Romantic period, also known as Romanticism, was an intellectual, artistic, and literary movement that took place in Europe and America around 1780-1850.
European Romanticism began as a reaction to the ways in which the Industrial Revolution and the Enlightenment had transformed society.
The Enlightenment had prioritised reason and rationality over emotion and creativity. The Industrial Revolution had urbanized England. Technology was booming, science was accelerating, and cities were becoming increasingly crowded.
As a result of these changes, many people felt like humanity was losing its relationship with the natural world and the sublime.Along came the Romanticists: a group of artists, writers, and intellectuals who celebrated nature, emotion, and the spiritual. They criticized the way society had changed and glorified the past in their work.
One of the most powerful things about literature is that it holds up a mirror to the society that it was written in. Europe and America changed drastically in the late-18th century, and the Romantic Era was a reaction to the societal issues of the time.
•Characteristic of Romanticism :
Central features of the Romantic era include:
Let’s look at each of these characteristics in more detail and analyze some examples from Romantic poetry and prose.
1. Emotion and passion :
The Romanticists were deeply in touch with their feelings. Emotion was one of the most crucial characteristics of the Romantic period.
Wordsworth said that poetry began as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.” This statement perfectly captures the way that many Romanticists saw emotion as a driving force for art.
Romanticists cared about emotions such as fear, awe, and horror. In stories written by Romantic writers, characters often focus on the more sentimental sides of the story, including their inner struggles, dreams, and passions.
Similarly, many characters in Romantic literature fell in love, instead of marrying out of convenience. One notable example is Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. When Heathcliff finds out that Catherine is dead, he utters:
“Be with me always—take any form—drive me mad. Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! It is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!”
Heathcliff’s passion is the type of powerful emotion that was characteristic of Romantic literature—and an example of a book in which Romanticism and romance actually overlap.
2. The critique of progress:
Romanticists viewed urbanity and industrialization in a largely negative light. Many Romantic authors understood the importance of progress, but criticized the way it impacted the common people.
In England, the Industrial Revolution had created a large working class that worked in dangerous and grueling conditions. The chasm between the rich and the poor was widening every day.
Many Romantic writers depicted the ugly side of urbanization and commercialism and used their writing to argue for social change in England.
Mary Shelley’s famous novel Frankenstein (1818) is an example of a Romantic novel that depicted the dangers of technology without emotion.
In the story, Victor Frankenstein is so obsessed with the pursuit of knowledge that he forgets to question his own ethics and ends up creating a monster. At one point, the monster even exclaims: "Cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live? Why, in that instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you had so wantonly bestowed?"
3. A Return to the Past:
Related to their critique of progress is the fact that Romanticists were fascinated with the past and resurrected it in various forms. They used their writing to remind everyone of what the past had to offer and how far society had moved away from the good old days.Many Romanticists glorified the Middle Ages and revived elements of literature—such as knights in shining armor and damsels in distress—that were perceived as more medieval.
Similarly, Romantic writers were interested in ruins and old artifacts of history. Many Romanticists traveled to Greece and Italy to glean inspiration from Greek and Roman ruins.
4. An Awe of Nature:
The Romanticists saw nature as a source of beauty and truth. Much of Romantic literature focuses on nature as something sublime.
There are countless Romantic poets who wrote lyrical ballads about everything from birds and flowers to mountains and clouds.
Take the poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (1807) by William Wordsworth, one of the most famous early Romantic poets. Here’s the first verse:
I wandered lonely as a Cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and Hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden Daffodils;
Beside the Lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
In this poem, he exalts the beauty of the daffodils he sees, painting a vivid image of the nature around him. He uses simple visual language to describe the sublime. In fact, ProWritingAid's Sensory check detects that 100% of the sensory language that Wordsworth uses is visual.
5. The Idealization of Women:
In the Romantic era, women were seen as innocent, pure creatures who should be admired and respected.
Many Romantic poets and novelists centered their narratives around celebrating the purity and beauty of a woman.
Unfortunately, this idealization meant that the Romantic Movement typically saw women as objects for male admiration rather than as people with their own dreams and ambitions. Female writers such as Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, and the Brontë sisters had to publish under male pseudonyms because of these attitudes.
6. The Purity of Childhood :
Romanticists believed that children should be allowed to have a pure, happy childhood.
At the time, many children were forced to work in factories or as chimney sweeps, which was dangerous and grueling work for which they were paid extremely low wages. Romantic writers and poets depicted a different kind of childhood—a happy one full of play instead of work.
7.The Search for Subjective Truth:
Romanticists believed that truth could be discovered in nature and imagination. They shunned the objective truths of science in favor of the more subjective truths of art.
Self-expression was seen as the way to achieve absolute truth, which was more permanent and more divine than anything discovered with the rational mind. They questioned the notion that there could be any single truth.
The poem “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (1820) by John Keats is addressed to a marble urn of ancient Greece. The final line of the poem reads: “Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all
8. The Celebration of the Individual:
Many Romanticists saw themselves as self-reliant, independent individuals who stood apart from the rest of society, and some even chose to lead largely isolated, solitary lives.
Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote an essay called Self-Reliance in 1841, describing the importance of determining your own path and relying on your own resources.
One well-known quote from the essay reads: "To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
9. A Break From Convention:
Romanticists were rebels at heart. Many of them were attracted to movements related to individualism and freedom from oppression. The French Revolution, and other movements toward democracy, inspired many Romantic philosophers.
Similarly, Romantic writers believed that individuals should be allowed to decide what and how they wanted to write, instead of following formal rules and classical conventions.
In general, Romanticism believed that the content of literature should come from the writer’s imagination, with minimal outside input. Being derivative, or copying work that had come before, was seen as the worst sin.
10. Spirituality and the Occult :
As we’ve already discussed, Romanticists were interested in the infinite and the divine. As a result, Romanticism began to include occult and supernatural elements.Many Romantic poems and stories involve some aspect of the mystical or the “gothic.”
Edgar Allan Poe is a commonly cited example of a Romantic writer who used spiritual and supernatural elements in his stories and poems.
•Conclusion:
Romanticism is marked by an interconnectedness of thought and an intertextuality of expression, both of which are manifestations of circulation and interaction rather than borrowing and influence.The religious debates of the Romantic Era challenged church authority and explored modes of faith that in previous centuries would have been charged with heresy. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Joanna Baillie, and William Blake were among the several authors who had much to say in each of the episodes of Romanticism.
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•References :
https://prowritingaid.com/romanticism-characteristics
https://www.easternct.edu/speichera/understanding-literary-history-all/the
-romantic-period.html#:~:text=The%20Romantic%20Period%20began%20roughly,social%20change%20during%20this%20period
