English Romantic Period

921 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Romantic individualism developed

The English Romantic period (1785-1832) was a complex movement that expressed dissatisfaction with the current society, explored the human condition, celebrated nature, and greatly encouraged experimentation and creativity in the arts. This period emphasized emotions over thoughts and reason and highly valued individualism. Romantic writers of the age were “aware of a pervasive intellectual and imaginative climate, which some called ‘the spirit of the age.’ This spirit was linked to both the politics of the French Revolution and religious apocalypticism” (“The Romantic Period”).
Because the era before Romanticism weakened the religious stronghold on society, Romantics were not very concerned with piety, but rather were interested in experimentation with religion in an esthetical manner. Many artists, writers and visual artists alike, used religious imagery and themes in their works, but did not necessarily consider their works to have Christian or religious connotations. As with the era before it, people of the Romantic period expressed doubt in a higher deity. They questioned the Church’s teachings and sought more scientific answers to the workings of the world (Brians).
The Romantics “traversed the dark side of existence. They were intrigued with the grotesque, the malignant, the horrific, and the fearful” of both nature and the human mind. They believed life could not be beautiful without death because “all beauty is fleeting and eventually withers away” (“Romanticism: Imagining Freedom”). It is from this approach that the majority of English Romantic poet William Blake’s works of art stem. “The Tyger,” one of Blake’s most famous and most debated poems, can be interpreted in various ways, but greatly relates to this doubt in ...

... middle of paper ...

...du. Washington State University. 11 Mar. 1998. Web.
13 Nov. 2013.
Evans, Robert C. “Literary Contexts In Poetry: William Blake’s “The Tyger.” Literary Contexts in Poetry: William Blake’s ‘Tyger’ (2006): 1. Literary Reference Center. Web. 13 Nov. 2013
Potter, Polyxeni. “A Flea Has Smaller Fleas That On Him Prey; And These Have Smaller Still
To Bite ‘Em, And So Proceed Ad Infinitum.” Emerging Infectious Diseases 16.3 (2010): 583-584. EBSCOHOST. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
“Romanticism: Imagining Freedom.” Films Media Group. Films On Demand. 2005. Web. 13
Nov. 2013.
"The Romantic Period 1785-1832." Period Introduction Overview. The Norton Anthology of
English Literature. 9th ed. Vol. D. Gen. ed. Stephen Greenblatt. Norton, 2011. Web. 13
Nov. 2013.
“William Blake.” Academy of American Poets – Biographies Of American Poets (2008): 1.
Literary Reference Center. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.

Show More
Related

  • Comparison: Frankenstein & The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

    1670 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the late eighteenth century arose in literature a period of social, political and religious confusion, the Romantic Movement, a movement that emphasized the emotional and the personal in reaction to classical values of order and objectivity. English poets like William Blake or Percy Bysshe Shelley seen themselves with the capacity of not only write about usual life, but also of man’s ultimate fate in an uncertain world. Furthermore, they all declared their belief in the natural goodness of man and his future. Mary Shelley is a good example, since she questioned the redemption through the union of the human consciousness with the supernatural. Even though this movement was well known, none of the British writers in fact acknowledged belonging to it; “.”1 But the main theme of assignment is the narrative voice in this Romantic works. The narrator is the person chosen by the author to tell the story to the readers. Traditionally, the person who narrated the tale was the author. But this was changing; the concept of unreliable narrator was starting to get used to provide the story with an atmosphere of suspense.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Romanticism In The Birthmark

    1364 Words  | 3 Pages

    Romanticism has been described as a “‘Protestantism in the arts and letters’, an ideological shift on the grand scale from conservative to liberal ideas”. (Keenan, 2005) It was a movement into the era of imagination and feelings instead of objective reasoning.

    Read More

  • Cold Mountain Essay

    3131 Words  | 7 Pages

    G. Ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Romantic Period. New York: Norton, 2000. Barth, Robert J. Romanticism and transcendence: Wordsworth, Coleridge, and the Religious Imagination. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2003.

    Read More

  • The Romanticism Period

    1166 Words  | 3 Pages

    History is the story and knowledge of the past. There are individuals that are interested by history and wish to study it by learning more. It is very informative to know what has happened in the past for self-knowledge. An individual cannot be naïve to the past including but not limited to how literature came to. One can understand literature more when they understand the time period the author wrote during and the way they wrote. There are several time periods different authors have been through with each period having specific beliefs. Romanticism is the time period that interests me the most; it was a time during the eighteenth century and focused on nature along with the individual’s expression of imagination and emotion.

    Read More

  • Empiricism In Poe's The Fall Of The House Usher

    1295 Words  | 3 Pages

    Romanticism was a movement in art and literature in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in revolt against the Neoclassicism of the previous centuries. The romanticism movement in literature consists of a few of the following characteristics: intuition over fact, imagination over fact, and the stretch and alteration of the truth. The death of a protagonist may be prolonged and/or exaggerated, but the main point was to signify the struggle of the individual trying to break free, which was shown in “The Fall of the House Usher” (Prentice Hall Literature 322).

    Read More

  • The Romantic Movement

    2016 Words  | 5 Pages

    The dawning of the nineteen century brought with it a change in the political and social climate, the world was ready to usher in a new era of artistic thought. This new awareness was called “Romanticism” and saw its height during the Industrial Revolution. At this time, the Romantic era centered on the ideas of emotion, fantasy and hope. The end of the French Revolution became an important force in propelling a new train of thought. For the first time people were now regarded as individuals, oppression was sympathized and the banner of equality was flying high.

    Read More

  • John Keats Bright Star Analysis

    1168 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Romantic period was an expressive and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century and peaked in the 1800s-1850s. This movement was defined and given depth by an expulsion of all ideals set by the society of the particular time, in the sense that the Romantics sought something deeper, something greater than the simplistic and structured world that they lived in. They drew their inspiration from that around them. Their surroundings, especially nature and the very fabric of their minds, their imagination. This expulsion of the complexity of the simple human life their world had organised and maintained resulted in a unique revolution in history. Eradication of materialism, organisation and society and

    Read More

  • American Romanticism

    794 Words  | 2 Pages

    Despite its name, the Romantic literary period has little to nothing to do with love and romance that often comes with love; instead it focuses on the expression of feelings and imagination. Romanticism originally started in Europe, first seen in Germany in the eighteenth century, and began influencing American writers in the 1800s. The movement lasts for sixty years and is a rejection of a rationalist period of logic and reason. Gary Arpin, author of multiple selections in Elements of Literature: Fifth Course, Literature of The United States, presents the idea that, “To the Romantic sensibility, the imagination, spontaneity, individual feelings and wild nature were of greater value than reason, logic, planning and cultivation” (143). The Romantic author rejects logic and writes wild, spontaneous stories and poems inspired by myths, folk tales, and even the supernatural. Not only do the Romantics reject logic and reasoning, they praise innocence, youthfulness and creativity as well as the beauty and refuge that they so often find in nature.

    Read More

  • To What Extent Did Nationalism Affect Music of the Romantic Period?

    3167 Words  | 7 Pages

    King, Neil. The Romantics: English Literature in Its Historical, Cultural, and Social Contexts. New York: Facts on File, 2003. Print.

    Read More

  • Close critical analysis of Coleridges Frost at Midnight

    1692 Words  | 4 Pages

    Wolfson, S. & Manning, P. 2003. The Longman Anthology of English Literature Vol 2: The Romantics and their Contemporaries. London: Longman.

    Read More

  • The Transition between Romantic Era to Realism Movement

    2032 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the late eighteenth century, a movement spread throughout the world that was known as the Romantic Era. The works of authors, artists, and musicians were influenced by emotions and imagination. Characters in literature during that time period heavily relied on impulses to guide them in their decisions. Whether it is the logical choice or not, they followed their hearts instead. The image that Romanticism created was one of a perfect, unrealistic lifestyle because of the worship to the beauty of nature and human emotions. Although some romantic plays ended in a tragedy, it was due to the emotions that we are capable of feeling. Romanticism promoted the idea that people should follow their hearts. This, however, gradually came to an end in the mid-19th-century.

    Read More

  • The Tyger Essay

    586 Words  | 2 Pages

    The sublime is the feeling of delightful horror associated with powerful, large objects that produce both a feeling of awe and fear. Blake alludes to the “fearful symmetry” (4) of the Tyger in order to create the sublime feeling that the creature is both daunting but exquisite. The sublime quality develops further when Blake asks “What dread hand? & what dread feet?” (12). Implementing the word “dread” adds to the frightening tone of the poem, creating a sense of wonder and mystery that derives from the sublime. Blake uses the sublime notion to allow the readers to process the enormity of both the Tyger and its creator, helping develop the poet’s main question; what “immortal hand or eye” (3) could be so powerful to create a formidable creature like the Tyger? The poem “The Tyger” is complexified by the unusual spelling Blake chose for the word “tiger”. The purpose of the alternative spelling is to enhance the complexity of divine creation, Blake’s main concern throughout the poem. The spelling of “Tyger” is also employed to suggest to the reader that the Tyger discussed in the poem is a different, darker beast than the jungle tiger. Humanity, the devil, or sinful actions themselves could all be argued as the “Tyger” Blake refers to. Blake himself does not explain why he misspelled the word, adding to the unanswered questions, which the entire poem consists of,

    Read More

  • The Romantic Period

    920 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Romantic period has many beginnings and takes different forms; so that in a celebrated essay, On the Discrimination of Romanticism (1924), A.O. Lovejoy argued that the word “Romantic” should no longer be used, since it has come to mean so many things that by itself, it means nothing. On the derivation of the word “Romanticism” we have definite and commonly accepted information which helps us to understand its meaning. Critics and literary historians differ widely and sometimes as violently, about the answer then have differed about love truth and other concepts. Romanticism is concerned with all these concepts and with others with equal importance. It is an attitude toward life and experience older than religion, as permanent as love, and as many-sided as truth. (Watson, J.R. English Poetry of the Romantic Period, Longman Inc. New York)

    Read More

  • Francisco Goya Romanticism

    805 Words  | 2 Pages

    Romanticism was an artistic and literary movement that began in the late 18th century Europe that stressed the individual’s expression of emotion and imagination, glorification of the past and nature, and departure from forms of classicism. The movement emerged as a reaction against the ideas

    Read More

  • Nature In The Romantic Era Essay

    1240 Words  | 3 Pages

    Nature’s beauty can be seen all around us and has been and will always be there for us to appreciate; yet the way we experience and interpret nature is ever changing. The Romantic Era was a literary movement that gave a new attitude towards nature that was unique and spiritual. The Romantic movement, beginning around 1798, and carrying on well into the mid 1800s, expanded into almost every corner of Europe, into the United States, and Latin America. The ideology of the romantic era, of being completely humanistic, was the opposite of the new ideas of logic and reason of the Enlightenment.

    Read More

More about English Romantic Period

Open Document