Impact Of Romanticism In The Late Victorian Age

Aestheticism was a popular dogma in the late 1800s that centered on the belief that art should exist for beauty alone. This doctrine is defined as an “exaggerated devotion to art, music, or poetry, with indifference to practical matters” and “the acceptance of artistic beauty and taste as a fundamental standard, ethical and other standards being secondary” (“Aestheticism,” def. 1 and 2). In Oscar Wilde’s sole novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, aestheticism is a fashionable belief accepted by society at the time. Oscar Wilde uses the moral deterioration and ultimate destruction of Dorian Gray in The Picture of Dorian Gray to emphasize the negative effects of society’s preoccupation with aesthetics and offer a moral for the reader.

To understand how Romanticism changed the way society thought, you must first understand the meanings and reason behind the movement. The Romantic Movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries was described as a movement in the history of culture, an aesthetic style, and an attitude of mind. (Fiero) Romanticism provided expression of their thoughts and ideas toward their own societies, which was in effect predominantly in Europe and in the United States. The movement was a reaction to the Enlightenment which provided strict ideology and rationalism. The Church had much to do with the Enlightenment seeing as if religion and the importance of God were incorporated into most aspects of their culture. Thus, Romanticism was a response to

Art is able to evoke different feelings and emotions to each person that sets their eyes on it. The act of ‘looking’ is simple, but a lot comes from it. Where the eyes are first drawn to, the duration that the eyes are focused on a specific detail, and the thoughts that flood one’s brain when viewing art is all significant. These actions say more than the piece itself, it reveals emotions of both the artist and the audience. Art can be expressed through infinite forms, but the underlying importance is not with the art itself. It represents a place in time, displaying what was noteworthy to an individual in their own life. It serves as a lasting creation representative of human imagination with the ability to bring out a multitude of emotions from whoever views it. When art is created it represents the creativity of the human mind compacted into a physical object. Art has little usage aside from pure observation, yet it has prevailed throughout time, showing its importance to humanity. Art provides a lens into humanity, showcasing the human ability over time. When studied through history, art is a view into the development of humans and their interests. Through something as basic as commonly using symmetry to transitioning to asymmetry, the European’s perspective following the Renaissance is revealed. The making of art is solely up to one individual and their creativity. It is the pinnacle of

The Romanticism period in the United States was focused mainly on nature which introduced progressiveness as one of the quintessential characteristics of America and its citizens. Romanticism was a movement in which the people believe that nature is at the epicenter of all ideas and inspirations. This sentiment of nature’s greatness only increased amongst Americans after the Louisiana Purchase and the migration of the Americans to the west that came shortly afterward. The Louisiana purchase was a deal made with the French for control over most of the mid-west and other western areas in 1803. The deal was made by Thomas Jefferson during his presidency for only 15 million dollars (May-Beaver). The Louisiana Purchase was one of Jefferson’s best decisions as president due

Written by Jeffrey Eaton, an Open Letters editor, this source is reliable because the magazine speciality is to critique many works of art and literature. Rather than merely summarizing the main events of the memoir, Eaton actually expresses his dislike about it by providing

quoted “When we see a landscape, we situate ourselves in the it. If we saw the art of the past, we

It exercised the flexible use of an illustrious imagination to offer the audience a different interpretation of the world. Romanticists are often guided and influenced by their emotions to write the way that they do, almost as if it was a ‘law’ of romantic writing. The ideology of romanticism tended to clash with that of satire, which is why satire is belittled in the eyes of romanticists. It was also closely aligned to Emerson’s belief of self-reliance and emphasized individualism and people’s natural inclination to do well. They also highly praised nature, which was evident in most pieces during the romantic era. The author also tended to have a personal relationship with the audience, which was inclusive, as most romantic pieces often included a tranquil and didactic

Since the Enlightenment, western society began to massively shift in norms and behaviors. Authoritarian governments and the heavily religious society began to die away to make way for more enlightened leadership. As art is one of the major definitions of society, art went through drastic changes as well. Instead of focusing on nationalism, religion, and the positive effects of the enlightenment, artists began to depict the more dark and abstract sides of society. Artists of many future movements and styles would depict the negative changes in society in their works, and their ideals and emotions through unconventional ways, namely in abstract art. These movements and styles were very out of the societal norms at the time. However, as the movement continued, more and more viewers began to warm up to these movements, and their fame and popularity would raise.

“Aestheticism can be defined as the ideal of creating works of art that renounce any purpose or meaning other than their own refined beauty.” (Quirk) Aestheticism’s main goal was to be a way to counter the political and social views of the time. “Human beings in decadent art and writing are irretrievably flawed and live in a state of disruption both with themselves and with an equally flawed Nature. Since this is the case, humans can only overcome this imperfect melancholy state momentarily in acts of sin, disguise, or pretense.” (Quirk) Perhaps Aestheticism’s most recognizable figure was Oscar Wilde, who was the author of Dolan Grey. Aesthetic art focused more on being beautiful and pleasing to the eye rather than having a deeper meaning. The paintings often do not have any subject and are abstract, which is different than many types of art.

Webster's dictionary states the definition of Romanticism as "a movement in literature and art during the late 18th and early 19th centuries that celebrated nature rather than civilization". Romanticism was a movement that helped generated other movements, but brought a new form of literature that was well embraced during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Oscar Fingal O’Flaherty Wills Wilde was an Irish playwright, novelist, essayist and poet. And everything else can find in a book or online, I am not going to do that today, I am sure you are not interested in the regurgitation of Oscar Wilde facts. I am sure that you know most of what is written there better than the people that wrote those facts on Wikipedia any way. I am not going to talk about the importance of being earnest in any way shape or form, trust me for I am in the gutter looking up at the stars right now and everything that is written here will probably be a huge lie. I cannot resist the temptation to it is just too hard not to sit here and just write a bunch of untold truths at least I won’t

In Pound’s essay, Date Line, he identifies five different modes of literary criticism and one of them is “criticism by translation” (Literary Essays 74). This type

The word New Criticism was appearing on the book, "The New Criticism", written by John Crowe Ransom. In his book, "The New Criticism", Ransom came up with a new formalist current, which emphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature functioned as a self-contained, self-referential aesthetic object. It soon became a dominated theory in the middle of 20th century in Anglo-America.( Tyson, 135)

Through the late 1700s and early 1800s, the period of Romanticism blossomed. “Romanticism” very loosely describes the era in which modern culture began to take shape. During the Romantic era, many advancements were made in all aspects of people’s lives and cultures. One aspect in particular has held great value even to this day. That aspect being the expansive amount of literature created during the era. The era of Romanticism had its name for a reason. It can be greatly attributed to the romantic style or genre of literature that defined the period. Romantic writers wove many tales of admiration, longing, and aspirations. They were fantastical, in a sense, and almost the antithesis of realism, even. Amidst the great breadth of literature

Romanticism came to be in the 18th and 19th centuries which emphasized the imagination and emotions of romanticism. Many people viewed this type of literature as the quality or state of being impractical or unrealistic meaning romantic feelings or ideas. During this time many poets were encouraged to express their true colors and individual uniqueness. The Romantic Era expanded all throughout the world, and reached poets such as Keats, Byron, Shelley, and Wordsworth.