At the turn of the 20th century, the American people experienced a turbulent change in the way they viewed the world. During the preceding Romantic Period, originating in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, literature and thought had been geared towards hopeful longing, romantic optimism and an abundant use of flowery, complex language, both in the spoken and written word. Romantic poets such as John Keats and William Wordsworth used intricate metaphors and descriptive imagery to give vast, inspiring meaning to their works, which usually encompassed topics such as love, life and belonging. To describe the beauty and spiritual gravity of this time period, French poet Charles Baudelaire stated, "To say the word Romanticism is to say modern art - that is, intimacy, spirituality, color, aspiration towards the infinite, expressed by every means available to the arts." …show more content…
Contrastingly, however, is a notion conceived by contemporary journalist and author Brin-Johnathon Butler: that "at the heart of all romanticism is suffering." This statement serves as an appropriate foundation for a new worldview, following the fall of Romanticism; a worldview that focused on suffering rather than belonging, on lust and desire rather than true love, and how the heroes of Romanticism were quickly fleeting in the face of reality - of Modernism.
As Romanticism faded, Modernist writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald saw the people's need for a new kind of hero, a man's whose desire could incite some kind of hope in the face of such tremendous greed, immorality, and
listlessness. However, as it is seen in his novel The Great Gatsby, the desires of mankind and the longing which Romanticism depended upon so heavily may be what holds us back from the horizon we reach for.
Certain authors, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, wanted to reflect the horrors that the world had experienced not a decade ago. In 1914, one of the most destructive and pointless wars in history plagued the world: World War I. This war destroyed a whole generation of young men, something one would refer to as the “Lost Generation”. Modernism was a time that allowed the barbarity of the war to simmer down and eventually, disappear altogether. One such author that thrived in this period was F. Scott Fitzgerald, a young poet and author who considered himself the best of his time. One could say that this self-absorption was what fueled his drive to be the most famous modernist the world had seen. As The New Yorker staff writer Susan Orlean mentions in her literary summary of Fitzgerald’s works, “I didn’t know till fifteen that there was anyone in the world except me, and it cost me plenty” (Orlean xi). One of the key factors that influenced and shaped Fitzgerald’s writing was World War I, with one of his most famous novels, This Side Of Paradise, being published directly after the war in 1920. Yet his most famous writing was the book, The Great Gatsby, a novel about striving to achieve the American dream, except finding out when succeeding that this dream was not a desire at all. Fitzgerald himself lived a life full of partying and traveling the world. According to the Norton Anthology of American Literature, “In the 1920’s and 1930’s F. Scott Fitzgerald was equally equally famous as a writer and as a celebrity author whose lifestyle seemed to symbolize the two decades; in the 1920’s he stood for all-night partying, drinking, and the pursuit of pleasure while in the 1930’s he stood for the gloomy aftermath of excess” (Baym 2124). A fur...
By the end of World War I, many American authors were ready to change their ways and views on writing. Authors are tired of tradition and limitations. One of these writers was F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was a participant in the wild parties with bootleg liquor, but he was also a critic of this time. His book, The Great Gatsby is an excellent example of modernist literature, through its use of implied themes and fragmented storyline.
Just as the European romantics cared about emotions, nature, imagination, meditation, humanity and freedom, the American first "group of great imaginative writers -Irving, Bryant and Poe" (readers Note p 57) -cared about the them too . In their writings, these writers were taken by the romantic ideals empathizing on nature, creating their own world, borrowing sets from the past or from legends, meditating their life, and finding their own explanations to its processes . With such attitudes, these writers made their way into literature as romantics . " The Devil And Tom Walker","Hop Frog", " To a Waterfowl" and "Thanatopsis" serve as good examples for American Romanticism .
F. Scott Fitzgerald's life has been described as a “Tragic example of both sides of the American dream the joys of young love , wealth and success and the tragedies associated with excess and failure. ”(Willet, “The Sensible Things”). The Dominant influences on Fitzgerald and his work were aspiration,literature, Princeton, his wife and alcohol. With the constant fear of death and failure plaguing him his entire life, his literary works and his life accomplishments always seemed to be never good enough and through his life Fitzgerald constantly suffered a constant thought that he had failed to do anything with his life and that his literary works would never go on to be anything that people ever took the time to care about.
For many, saying or hearing the word romanticism evokes numerous stereotypical and prejudged definitions and emotions. The biggest reason this probably happens is because of how closely romanticism sounds like romance. The similarity of the sounds and spelling of the two words can lead to some thinking that the two words mean the same thing or are closely related. Although romanticism and romance do share some similarities in their spelling and pronunciation they couldn’t be more different. In the Merriam Webster Dictionary romance is defined as, “a love story”. The Romantic Period was not necessarily a time of true romance and love stories, although love was written about, but was instead a time of extreme emotion expressed in many different ways. One of the many ways emotion was expressed was through the use of supernatural and gothic literature and a lot of it contained horrific subject matter for the time it was written, making it anything but romantic. Expressions of thought and emotion were shown through horror and the supernatural just as much as emotion was expressed through love and romance. Many of the authors during the Romantic period submitted works, “dealing with the supernatural, the weird, and the horrible” (Britannica Online Encyclopedia). In many ways, gothic tales of horror and suspense defined the Romantic period just as much as any other type of literature at the time.
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 Romantic period was essentially a Renaissance of American literature. “It was a Renaissance in the sense of a flowering, excitement over human possibilities, and a high regard for individual ego” (English). American romantics were influenced by the literary eras that came before them, and their writings were a distinct reaction against the ideology of these previous eras. In this sense, American Romanticism grew from “. . . the rhetoric of salvation, guilt, and providential visions of Puritanism, the wilderness reaches of this continent, and the fiery rhetoric of freedom and equality . . .” as they eagerly developed their own unique style of writing (English). American romantic authors had a strong sense of national identity and
Both Hemingway and Fitzgerald capture the essence of the modernist period, and both approach different aspects of the same genre. The goal of the modernist writer was to create an enjoyable piece of literature, while confronting issues that had never before been raised in the literary world to date. The Modernist hoped to wipe away the images of perfection in the imaginary realties of the literary past and create a clean slate filled with the reality of the modernist period. The Modernist authors will always be remembered for their exploration of language and form, and for their dedication to keeping us in a well lit place, in an otherwise deceiving reality.
The Romantic period was an entirely unique era in American history that produced new life philosophies through the focus of nature and exploration resulting in the evolution of the American Dream. Consequently, some of the world’s greatest advancements in arts and literature were accomplished during this time period. Authors such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Fennimore Cooper, and Oliver Wendell Holmes sparked the imagination of American audiences through newfound literature such as lyrical poetry, myths, legends, folklore, and the new American novel. Romantic age writers emphasized nature, especially in poetry, as an inspiration for imagination and emotion. The American Dream during the Romantic era was to lead a life of emotion and intuition over reasoning through exploration of the countryside and the recognition of natural beauty displayed by imaginative literature that reflected this American Dream.
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 itself actually originated from Europe in Germany by the publication of Goethe’s Sorrows of Young Werther. It then moved to England; not until 1830, Romanticism appeared in America. “American Romanticism was a movement that marked the reaction in literature, philosophy, art, religion, and politics” (Scheidenhelm). It was an age of westward expansion, and a rebellion against the Age of Reason. It was the return to classics. Historically, this period of tensions resulted in the Civil War. Romantic Literature was personal, intense, and showe...
Baudelaire had a strong influence on Romanticism. Romanticism is a literary and art movement that occurred during the late 18th century that emphasized imagination, emotion, and love of nature. Baudelaire really liked Romanticism although he found himself “incapable of being moved by vegetation.” During the time he wrote “salon de 1846”, Baudelaire alleged that the ideal was represented by Romanticism. In “Salon de 1846” he wrote, "Romanticism is precisely situated neither in choice of subject nor in exact truth, but in a way of feeling" (Galitz). Baudelaire felt that the beauty in Romanticism was that artists and writers were looking inward to represent things in their own personal way while using nature as an inspiration for that self-exploration. In his book, Baudelaire: Selected Writing on Art and Artist, Baudelaire wrote, "Romanticism lies neither in the subjects an artist chooses nor in his exact copying of truth, but in the way he feels" (Baudelaire 52). Through this states how he views Romanticism and what attracts him to the movement. Throughout his life and for many years to come, Baudelaire had a significant inf...
F. Scott Fitzgerald is a well known and an amazing American short story writer. Fitzgerald is notorious for writing about the American Dream and all the conditions that must be met, along with all the obstacles the main character must face, before reaching their end goal. Not only does Fitzgerald follow an important theme and concept that is held dear to most American hearts, but he also writes in such a simplistic and sophisticated style. He is known for using symbolism, era appropriate diction, and has used characterization to create controversial realistic characters. Along with using many different literary devices to keep his stories interesting and to convey his messages in a mysterious way, he includes jaw dropping subjects such as sexuality,
I bet since you read the topic of my paper that you think that this will be a “kissy kissy, lovey gooey” story about two British and American lovebirds. Well, the truth is that it’s not, in fact, it is totally different! The word “romance” has changed very much since our ancestral fathers had defined it. Unfortunately, I cannot write about Valentines Day, and things pertaining to that, but I will tell you how romance used to be and what exactly romance was like before modern day life changed the definition. So now, I’ll explain the differences, as well as the similarities between the British and American Romance.
Roughly from 1815 to 1910, this period of time is called the romantic period. At this period, all arts are transforming from classic arts by having greater emphasis on the qualities of remoteness and strangeness in essence. The influence of romanticism in music particularly, has shown that romantic composers value the freedom of expression, movement, passion, and endless pursuit of the unattainable fantasy and imagination. The composers of the romantic period are in search of new subject matters, more emotional and are more expressive of their feelings as they are not bounded by structural rules in classical music where order, equilibrium, control and perfection are deemed important (Dorak, 2000).