Influences of the Romantic Period

The Romantic era began in 1770, with its peak being from 1800 to 1850. With emphasis on the imagination and emotion, Romanticism emerged as a result of the Enlightenment period, which heavily placed values upon reason and order. Thus, Romanticism depends heavily on “the practical accomplishments of the prior un-Romantic era— a relationship between material wealth and scientific knowledge on one hand, and personal, spiritual, or emotional transcendence on the other, that twenty-first century Americans continue to manage.” The simplest explanation for what is Romantic is “‘anything but the here and now’ or whatever is not realistic” (“Romanticism”). The

Romanticism is an intellectual, spiritual, and literary movement that begins at the start of the nineteenth century and concludes at the beginning of the twentieth century. Of the many characteristics that are associated with Romanticism, the characteristics that are most evident in literature from this period are the characteristics of individuality and imagination. The author Edgar Allen Poe exhibits these characteristics in his works “The Black Cat”, and the “The Raven”.

Romanticism is the involvement of emotion, fantasy, and intuition in a story. It happens to be the opposite of rationalism which involves logic, reason, and rationality in a story. There happens to be five romantic elements to choose from. They include: dissatisfaction with city life, desire to connect with nature, concern of individualism, nostalgia for the past, and supernatural interest. Of the six stories we could choose from all of them have some part of romanticism in them in one way or another. I chose to express a desire to connect with nature in “Rip Van Winkle”, “Thanatopsis”, and Walden.

The Romanticism art movement praised imagination over reason, emotions over logic, and literature over science. The Romanticism artists were known for replacing the classical 18th century literature heroes with much more complex and passionate characters. Romanticism focuses on self-expression and individual uniqueness that does not lend itself to be defined nor controlled by society. The landscape on Romanticism was commonly displayed in cool rich colors and untamed peaceful surroundings. In Romanticism, nature was used to represent the extension of the human personality, the capability of feeling love, serenity, and sympathy.

American Romanticism is a journey away from the corruption of civilization and the limits of rational thoughts, and toward the integrity of nature and the freedom of imagination. In other words, it is a journey away from industrialism or rationalism, which is working hard and earning money. This movement, originally started in Europe and later reached in America. It can be best defined as a thought that values feeling and intuition over reason. Some of the characteristics include the importance of feeling and intuition over reason, placing faith in inner experience and the power of imagination, preferring youthful innocence over educated sophistication, finding beauty and reality in exotic locales. It encouraged people to enjoy the integrity of nature and freedom of imagination. It also encouraged one to have faith in imagination and inner experience. In addition, romanticists found inspiration in myth, legend, and folk culture and found poetry as the highest expression of imagination. Romanticists believed that the landscape was regarded as an extension of the human personality, capable of sympathy with man 's emotional state, whereas nature was regarded as a vehicle for spirit just as man; the breath of God fills both man and the earth. However, romantics would create chaos when the issues were connected with human rights, individualism, and freedom from oppression (Arpin 138-150).

Romanticism first came about in the 18th century and it was mostly used for art and literature. The actual word “romanticism” was created in Britain in the 1840s. People like Victor Hugo, William Wordsworth, and Percy Bysshe Shelley had big impacts on this style of art. Romanticism is

Romanticism was a period time 1750 to 1870 in Europe, Latin America and The United States. Romantic Movement didn’t reach to France until the 1820’s. Romanticism main spirit was against of rule, law and formulas that classicism the different characterized of general in 18th century. Imagination, Subjectivity of approach, freedom, Expression and the idealization of nature will be focused in movement of Romantic Literature. In this period industrial revolution with the social and political norms form as age of enlightenment and against of scientific rationalization of nature. Some Literature element of that period will be emotional, imagination and suspense. Romanticism movement brings some of different writes such as John Keats, Blake William, Wordsworth William and other. They came with the different illustrated, poetry that expresses the language, emotion and imagination. Romanticism is a phenomenon characterized by subjectivity of approach and reliance on the imagination, An Idealization of nature and freedom of though and expression.

Imagine a candle-lit dinner on a starry night in Paris, the Eiffel Tower just in view with dazzling lights shining into the night. This image is probably what you think of when you hear the word “romantic,” correct. However, this image is a stumbling block when people think of the “Romanticism Period” in literature. Where “romantic” means having a lovely time with the person you love the most, “Romanticism” is a piece of literature written with key themes in mind. Those themes tend to be a strong emotion, imagery or worship of nature, and individuality and subjectivity. The peak of inspiration for these pieces was in the years 1800-1850, and there are famous poems that are well loved today from this period. Many of the poets that you enjoy reading and know are, in actuality, Romanticism writers, and instill the themes above in our minds.

Romanticism was an art movement that developed in the late eighteenth century and lasted for about one hundred years. Romanticism is a rejection of the traditional values of reason, order, and objectivity that characterized Classicism and Enlightenment, in particular Neoclassicism. For the romantic artist, Neoclassical principles hindered the artist’s vision and creativity. Rather, the romantic artist emphasized and valued intuition, juxtaposing emotions, and imagination. Generally, Britain and Germany were seen at the forefront of romanticism. The British Industrial Revolution initiated a disillusionment in rationalism and materialism, consequently rejecting classicism.

. ." (Drabble 853). As to emotions, Romanticism "expressed an extreme assertion of the self and the value of individual experience . . ." (Drabble 853). The Romantics also "sought reassurance in the face of change by thinking about the relationship between the human mind and what is out there . . ." (Anderson 606). It was within this faith of change that the ideas of the Romantics originated.

During the late 18th century, a period known as Romanticism started to develop. People began to shift from faith in reason to faith in the senses. The key concepts that people cared about included topics about the: individual, intuition, and imagination. Many artworks expressed individualism, in which creative spirit was praised more than traditional procedures. Intuition was often valued over controlled reason. Overall, Romanticism allowed a different approach of thinking to develop, and inspired people to shift from traditional norms and into a more personal society.

My definition of romanticism is when nature played a huge part to all the great artists and writers of the time. The Period of romanticism took place during the 1800s when individuals put emotion into their work and cared about education, literature, and natural history. The true romantics wanted to escape the industrial age and move away from urbanization and population in general. The romantic revolution paved the way for many writers and artists because people felt free and it gave inspiration for original ideas. Some of the great novelists surfaced during the Romanic age, one of which was marry shelly who wrote Frankenstein a masterpiece during its time.

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.

The Romantic Era was a period of that examined emotions and put them into words. Romantics abandoned the logical traditional Western World thought which believed that intelligence was the method used to understand the world. However, the Romantics opted to espouse imagination and feelings as a veritable approach to empathize the world. (James ,488)

In reaction to The Enlightenment, the period of Romanticism rises in the nineteenth century; with its major influences in the arts. Romantics focused on the individual and emotion over reason. Nature is their biggest influence. Through nature romantics could be closer to a supreme being. When it came it religion, the romantics were drawn to Christianity, but did not consider themselves Christians. In her essay “Defence of Poetry,” Percy Shelley describes the characteristics of Romanticism, when describing poetry. She uses phrases like “the expression of the imagination,” to describe poetry. (Percy Shelley, Defence of Poetry). In her essay Shelley describes what true poetry is and consists of. Her descriptions resemble the ones of Romanticism. Thus, what is Romanticism? It is one of the hardest periods to define as Hobsbawm states, “As a style, a school, an era in the arts, nothing is harder to define or even describe in terms of formal analysis…” (The Age of Revolution, 257). Even though Romanticism can be described as undefinable, its presence could be felt throughout Europe.