The Development of Individualism and Romanticism

Individualism
Romanticism is the cult of the individual – the cultural and psychological nativity of the self, the inner spark of divinity that links one human being to another and all humans to the Larger Truth. Artist became preoccupied with articulating the personal experiences they become, in turn, a representative one. The artists takes on a quasi-religious status not only as a prophet and moral leader, but also as a divinely inspired vehicle through which nature and the common man find their voices.
The idea of man’s natural goodness and the stress on emotion also contributed to the development of Romantic individualism; they believed that what is special in a man is to be valued over what is representative (the latter is often connected with the conventions imposed on man by civilised society). If a man may properly express his unique emotional self because its essence is good, he is also likely to assume also that its conflicts and corruptions are a matter of great importance and a source of fascination t himself and others. The Romantics delighted in self-analysis. The ‘savage’ is noble, childhood is good and the emotions inspired by both beliefs causes the heart to soar. Urban life and the commitment to ‘getting and sending’ generates a fear and distrust of the world.
Concern for the common man evolved not only from the democratic ideologies of the Age of Revolution but also from a renewed interest in folk culture. The Folk Movement became the way for an international language of human commonality, at whose centre stood the images of home and the heart. This individuality translated into the revolution of feeling against form – the rejections of classical balance in favour of romantic asymmetry. Embracing the unknown a...

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...ossible. It would not be wrong to say that the idea of the intrinsic value dates from the Enlightenment.”
• “The theme of unrequited love was introduced as early as 1774 by Goethe in his novel The Sorrows of Young Werther. The book ends with young Werther shooting himself… The suicide rate rose after the publication of the novel, and for a time the book was banned in Denmark and Norway…”
• “Strong emotions were involved”
Colderidge
• “Examine nature accurately, but write from recollection, and trust more to the imagination than the memory.”
Rousseau:
• Nature never deceives us; it is we who deceive ourselves.
Byron:
• There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
• I'll walk where my own nature would be leading: It vexes me to choose another guide.