By the end of the eighteenth century, thought gradually moved towards a new trend called Romanticism. If the Age of Enlightenment was a period of reasoning, rational thinking and a study of the material world where natural laws were realized then Romanticism is its opposite. Romanticism emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental (Forsyth, Romanticism). It began in Germany and England in the eighteenth century and by the late 1820s swept through Europe and then swiftly made its way to the Western world. The romantics overthrew the philosophical ways of thinking during the Enlightenment, they felt that reason and rationality were too harsh and instead focused on the imagination. Romantics believed in freedom and spontaneous creativity rather than order and imitation, they believed people should think for themselves instead of being bound to the fixed set of beliefs of the Enlightenment.
Romanticism and Love
Of all the emotions celebrated by the Romantics the most popular was love. However, Romanticism should not be confused with romantic love in a sense of candle lit dinners and receiving love notes, flowers and boxes of candy. Instead, it was about a love for nature and beauty, and a sense of all human beings having a connection, empathy was heightened for others in which brought on feeling the pains of other people in the world. To the Romantics love, in which invokes compassion, was a natural God-given right. Back in the Age of Enlightenment people felt marriage depended more on the basis of survival, they would tolerate unhappiness for the sake of living; however, for the romantics love was the necessary foundati...
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... It was all about progress, political correctness and it was very controlling in the area of how people lived their lives concerning many matters. By embracing the ordinary and unknown of human existence, the romantics overthrew the limitations that were seen in the Enlightenment. Defining Romanticism is not easy as there was not a particular dominate set of beliefs nor were the styles in literature and art the same. It was a time to be yourself, to let out whatever type of personality that was within. The modern world has Romanticism to thank for much of the way we live today concerning ideas, values, love, dreams and beliefs. It’s worthwhile to mention that both era’s consisted of varieties of thought, much like it is today. We are better off today because of men like Isaac Newton during the Enlightenment and for the Romantics teaching us how to be free thinkers.
To start with, Romanticism was the first writing movement of the nineteenth century. It originated at the close of the eighteenth century in Europe, but was popular from the 1800s to 1850s. This movement was a revolt against the political and social standards of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction to the reasoning of nature through science. Romanticism’s characteristics came from philosophical sources and, because it is a reaction against reasoning, it focuses on intuition, nature, and human emotions. The philosophical background of this movement came from an author named Jean-Jacques Rousseau who emphasized the individual and the power of inspiration. Romanticism later then broke off into another two movements called Parnassian and Realism.
The American Renaissance introduced an individualistic approach to viewing society and human nature that focused on equality and the inherent goodness of all mankind. The period ushered in the beginning of widespread movements toward race and gender equality. Out of Sentimental Romanticism came several very successful female writers who used emotional appeals to relate the plights of women to readers. The Transcendentalists who held a philosophical understanding of equality based on human nature rather than characteristics of individuals, asserted that all people are equal by nature, yet didn’t particularly concern themselves with inequality of women. In thought, the Dark Romantics shared the same belief in equality as the other groups of Romantics.
The Age of Enlightenment opened the doors to independent thinking and development in areas such as math, astronomy, politics, philosophy and many more. Toward the end of the Age of Enlightenment, the Romantic Era was born and it seemed to be in protest to the ideas that the Enlightenment had brought to society. Although both time periods were established around more independent thinking and growth, The Enlightenment and the Romantic Era contrast significantly. These two periods differed in almost every aspect, including (but not limited to): their beliefs, reasons for coming into being, and the impacts that they have had on society.
The changes beginning in the late 18th century and still augmenting today, shepherd the reaction that was the Romantic Era. What began as a reaction against the intellectualism of the Enlightenment Movement was largely expanded into a crusade against the previously rigid class structure and materialism demonstrated in the Industrialization of Europe. During this period of progress, modern science encouraged the dependence of scholars on factual information. However, the literature of the reactionary period portrays the complete opposite as repudiation of rules is often a foundation of the romantic philosophy. The superseding nature of imagination over reason, emotions over logic, and intuition
Romanticism was an artistic and philosophical time period that occurred in Europe during the late 18th century. Many forms of art were introduced at this time, as were forms of poetry and unorthodox ideals coming from the creators of these pieces. The poetry of Blake, Wordsworth, and Keats all shared aspects of nature and their personal emotions displayed through literary allusions. They break away from social norms, and even artistic norms, which was the aim of the artists during this part of literary history.
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 the Enlightenment Movement and their religious ideology.
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
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 an art in which people express their emotion. Whatever they believed is put into a picture, painting, poem, or book. Romanticism goes deep into a mind. It is very deep thinking and it’s expressing yourself through that deep thinking. Romanticism is the reaction to the Enlightenment and the enlightenment aka the “Age of Reason” took place during the 1700s to 1800s. The enlightenment emphasized being rational and using your mind; on the other hand, romanticism focuses on emotion and imagination. It says don’t just focus on rationality and reason.
Romanticism started in the 18th century and was said to be influenced by the French and Industrial Revolution.
Toward the end of the eiteenth-century, Romanticism emerged as a response to Classicism. Even though this change was gradual, it transformed everything from art and philosophy to education and science. While the Classicsts thought of the world as having a rigid and stern structure, the romanticists thought of the world as a place to express their ideas and believes. The Romaniticists and Classicsts differed in their views of the relationship between an individual and society, their views of nature and the relationship between reason and imagination.
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.
Romanticism was a reaction to the Enlightenment as a cultural movement, an aesthetic style, and an attitude of mind (210). Culturally, Romanticism freed people from the limitations and rules of the Enlightenment. The music of the Enlightenment was orderly and restrained, while the music of the Romantic period was emotional. As an aesthetic style, Romanticism was very imaginative while the art of the Enlightenment was realistic and ornate. The Romanticism as an attitude of mind was characterized by transcendental idealism, where experience was obtained through the gathering and processing of information. The idealism of the Enlightenment defined experience as something that was just gathered.
The Romantic Period was a time in which music and poetry talked about love, nature, and the good of being human. Different poets like Blake, Wordsworth, and Coleridge made poetry that will live on in literature forever. The Romantic period didn’t only affect Britain. It affected the entire world
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
Romanticism spawned in the late 18th century and flourished in the early and mid-19th century. Romanticism emphasized the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, the transcendental, and the individual. Romanticism is often viewed as a rejection of the ideologies of Classicism and Neoclassicisms, namely calm, order, harmony, idealization, rationality and balance. Some characteristics of Romanticism include: emotion over reason, senses over intellect, love for nature, use of the hero and the exceptional figure in general, emphasis of imagination being the gateway to spiritual truth, and an interest in folk culture. Romanticism was preceded by related developments in the med-18th century referred to as “Pre-Romanticism”. One Pre-Romantic style was medieval romance, which is where Romanticism gets its name from. The medieval romance was a tale that emphasized the exotic, the mysterious, and individual heroism. This style contrasted the then prevalent classical forms of literature such as the French Neoclassical Tragedy. But this new emotional literary expression would be a key part of literature during the Romantic Era (Britannica). Literature during the Romantic Era was influenced by politics and major historical events and social reforms, religion, science, economics, and art and music.