'ROMANTICISM'

Romanticism was one of the literary

movements that began in the late 18th century
and ended around the middle of the 19th
century—although its influence continues to
date.

Romanticism has been closely associated with

great democratic experiences such as the
French Revolution and the American
Revolution, as well as other social changes,
because the social and political changes of
these periods were instrumental in the
emergence of romanticism.
• Romanticism that is focused on emotions
and the inner feelings of the writer, and is
often used as an autobiographical asset to
inform about the work or even to provide
a template for it, which is not like the
traditional literature at the time.
• Romanticism is characterized by a
profound appreciation of natural
beauty, a preference for emotions over
reason, introspection, and the
examination of human personality. It
associates the artist with creativity and
imagination and places importance on
national culture and myths.
Additionally, it shows interest in exotic
and mysterious subjects.
 Most Famous Writers in The Romantic Period in English Literature

William S.T Lord Byron P.B. Shelley John Keats

Wordsworth Coleridge (1778–1824) (1792–1822) (1795–1821)
(1770–1850) (1772–
1834)
• The publication of the Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor
Coleridge helped Romanticism to step into English Literature in the 1790s. Wordsworth’s
“Preface” to the second edition (1800) of the Lyrical Ballads in which he described poetry
as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings,” became the manifesto of the
English Romantic movement in poetry. William Blake was the third important poet of this
Romantic Movement’s early phase in England. The first phase of the Romantic
Movement in Germany was completely focused on the innovations in both literary style
and content; and by a preoccupation with the supernatural, the mystical, and the
subconscious. A flock of talents, including Friedrich Hölderlin, Novalis, the early Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe, August Wilhelm Jean Paul, Ludwig Tieck, and Friedrich von
Schlegel, Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder, and Friedrich Schelling belong to this first
phase. In Revolutionary France, François- Auguste-René, Vicomte de Chateaubriand, and
Madame de Staël were some of the chief initiators of Romanticism by virtue of their
influential historical and theoretical writings.
• The second phase of Romanticism, from 1805 to the 1830s, was characterized by
a rapidly growing cultural nationalism and a new center of attraction towards
national origins. During this period, local folklore, folk ballads, poetry, folk dances,
and music, and even previously neglected medieval and Renaissance works were
collected and imitated. This revived historical awareness was brought into
imaginative writing by Sir Walter Scott, often acknowledged as the inventor of the
historical novel. Meanwhile, English Romantic poetry reached its summit with the
works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats, and Lord Byron during this time period.
• By the 1820s, Romanticism had expanded its scope to encompass the literature
of entire Europe. In the later second phase, the movement had a less universal
approach and focused more on exploring each nation's cultural and historical
heritage, as well as examining the passions and struggles of exceptional
individuals.
• The French Revolution is undoubtedly one of the most influential
events in Europe during the late 18th century, with lasting concepts in
politics, culture, and literature. During this period, Romantic poetry
arose and introduced a generation of authors that each uniquely
portrayed their own perspectives on the revolution through their
works. Some poets referenced a more concrete political standpoint,
while others went towards a more intangible concept of freedom and
equality. The works written by authors: William Wordsworth and
Mary Wollstonecraft, reflect the social uproar of not only their own
feelings and worries, but also the general consensus of concerns
throughout Europe during the revolution.
• The French Revolution had a significant impact on the works of
romantic poets. It inspired themes of liberty, equality, and
individuality in their poetry. The revolution's ideals of freedom and
social change resonated with the romantic movement, leading poets
to explore themes of rebellion, passion, and nature. It also sparked a
sense of romanticism in literature, emphasizing emotions,
imagination, and a break from traditional rules, shaping the literary
landscape of the time.
• Romantic literature is marked by six basic characteristics: giving importance to
nature, focusing on the individual and spirituality, a celebration of loneliness and
melancholy, emphasizing the common man, idealization of women,
personification, and the pathetic fallacy.
CELEBRATION OF NATURE
• Romantic writers found nature to be a teacher and a source of infinite beauty.
FOCUS ON THE INDIVIDUAL AND SPIRITUALITY
• Above all the Romantic writers used to turn inward by valuing the individual
experience. This in turn led to heighten the sense of spirituality in Romantic
work and the addition of occult and supernatural elements. The work of Edgar
Allan Poe is a bright example of this aspect of the movement; the Raven tells the
story of a man who mourns for his dead love (idealizing woman in the Romantic
tradition) when it seemed sentient Raven arrived and tormented him, which
could be interpreted literally or manifested his mental instability.
CELEBRATION OF ISOLATION AND
MELANCHOLY
• Related to emphasising on isolation, melancholy
is an important feature of many Romantic works,
usually seen as a reaction to inevitable failure—
writers wished to elaborate the pure beauty they
discern and the failure to do so adequately
resulted in hopelessness like the one expressed by
Percy Bysshe Shelley in A Lament:

O world! O life! O time!

On whose last steps I climb.
Trembling at that where I had stood before;
When will return the glory of your prime?
No more—Oh, never more!
INTEREST IN THE COMMON MAN
• William Wordsworth was one of the first poets to
take up the concept of writing that could be read,
enjoyed, understood, analyse and interpret by
anyone. Instead of using stylized language,
Wordsworth used and referred to classical works
in favour of emotional imagery, that was conveyed
in simple and elegant language, as in his most
famous poem, ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’:

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
IDEALIZATION OF WOMEN
• In the works such as Poe’s, ‘The Raven’, women were always presented as
idealized love interests, that is pure and beautiful, but usually without anything
else to offer. Ironically, the most notable novels of the Romantic period were
written by women for example Jane Austen, Mary Shelley and Charlotte Bronte,
but that had to be published initially under male pseudonyms because of these
attitudes. Much Romantic literature is marinated with the concept of women
being perfect innocent beings to be adored, mourned and respected—but never
touched or relied upon.
PERSONIFICATION AND PATHETIC FALLACY
• Romantic literature’s focus on nature is characterized by using of
both personification and pathetic fallacy heavily. Mary Shelley used
these techniques in order to get effect in Frankenstein
 Romanticism and Classicism exist on two very different poles within
literary movements. Many new periods came about as a reaction to the
previous period, and the contrasts between these periods are no
different

The Romantics believed that one would only find truth through their
own intuition given they highlighted the importance of individual
thought and not societal thought. The Classicists, instead, believed that
truth existed only as a result of reason. They found that imaginative
thought failed to be able to be studied scientifically and, therefore,
upheld no realistic function.
The Classicists believed that man should conform to universal thought
and ideas. The Romantics believed that they should embrace their own
individual innovations. Perhaps the most poignant quote to exemplify
Romantic thought on tradition and innovation is from William Blake:

"I must create a system or be enslaved by another mans; I will not

reason and compare."