ENGLISH 2323
The Romantic Period
I. Pre-Romantics
A. Henry McKenzie. The Man of Feeling (1771).
B. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774).
C. François René, Vicomte de Chateaubriand.
Atala and Rene (1793-1802).
II. Dates 1789-1857 (Publication of Madame Bovary): 1789-1859 (Publication
of Origin of Species); to 1837 in England (Ascension
of Queen Victoria); to 1865 in America (end of the Civil War).
III. Definitions
A. Samuel Johnson's (1755)
IV. Major
motifs
A. Feeling. Especially love and pity,
sensibility, pathos.
B. Individualism. Which sometimes led to
Narcissism and a feeling of extreme isolation.
1. The individual's emotions are what make
him unique, not Reason. “To exist is to
feel; our feeling is undoubtedly earlier than our intelligence, and we had
feelings before we had ideas.” —Rousseau. Emile.
2. Truth can be found inside; it is intuitive. "Truth can be apprehended
intuitively, imaginatively, spontaneously, with the whole personality, from the
deep sources of the fountains that are within."—M. H. Abrams. The Mirror and the Lamp.
C. Nature. The universe is an organism, not
a machine.
D. Progress. Belief in utopias.
E. Theory of art and creativity. Imagination, rather than Reason, becomes
the watch word.
F. Escape. Into the past, a remote part of
the world, a perfect place; led to a desire for the Sublime, an "inexpressable rapture," according to
Rousseau; ultimately led to melancholy and suicide.
G. Freedom. Politically, religiously, and
morally. “Man is born free, and
everywhere he is in chains.”—Rousseau. Social
Contract. "Damn Braces, bless Relaxes," says Blake. As a
corollary, one should be free to fully express one's self and one's feelings.
H. Man is naturally good, not depraved.
This idea led to the exaltation of primitive man, or the "noble
savage."
V. Political
and Social Characteristics
A. Rise of the Middle Class to Power, the Bourgeoisie (Revolutions in 1776, 1789,
1830, 1848).
B. Competitive Nationalism developed after
Waterloo; peace from 1815-1853.
C. Colonialism; fierce competition for
America, Asia, Africa, India.
D. Industrial Revolution at the beginning
in the eighteenth century.
1. Laissez-faire capitalism.
2. Utilitarianism—“the greatest good for
the greatest number.”
E. Rise of Modern Science
and the Scientific Attitude.
VI. Major
Contrasts with the Neoclassic Period
CLASSIC ROMANTIC
Reason Emotion
Judgment Imagination
Analysis Synthesis
Social Individual
Restraint Expression
Static
world view Dynamic
world view
Saw the
universe as a machine Saw
the universe as an organism
Greece
and Rome Middle
Ages
Life of
the mind Life
of the senses
Concerned
with the practical Concerned
with the ideal (the sublime)
Looked
outward Looked
inward
Liked
ordered nature Liked
wild nature
Loved
the city Loved
the country
Believed
in class structure Believed
in equality
Aristocratic Middle
class
Used
heroic couplets Used
a variety of forms
The
mirror The
lamp
VII. Comments
Jean-Jacques
Rousseau (1712-1778). Confessions
“I am commencing an
undertaking, hitherto without precedent, and which will never find an imitator.
I desire to set before my fellows the likeness of a man in all the truth of
nature, and that man myself.
I alone. I know my heart,
and I know men. I am not made like any
of those I have seen; I dare to believe that I am not made like any of those
who are in existence. If I am not
better, at least I am different.”
Letter to Malesherbes. “All at once I felt myself dazzled by a
thousand sparkling lights. . . .Ah, if ever I could have written a quarter of
what I saw and felt under that tree, with what clarity I should have brought
out all the contradictions of our social system. With what simplicity I should have demonstrated that man is by
nature good, and that only our institutions have made him bad.”
Morse Peckham. “Romanticism is the revolution in the
European mind against thinking in terms of static mechanism and the redirection
of the mind to thinking in terms of dynamic organism. Its values are change, imperfection, growth, diversity, the
creative imagination, the unconscious.”
Goethe. “Romanticism is disease, Classicism is
health.”