British Literature: The Different Characteristics Of The Romantic Period

What is great about British literature is that each literary period corresponds to the time period it is in. The writing represents how the author and people of the period live during the time period; it either describes feelings, opinion, and experience of the time period. Readers are able to feel and imagine, what it is like during the time. They are able to connect with the author, time period, character and the story. Throughout the British literary history from the 1800s to present, there have been a few literary periods. Each literary period was different from their different characteristics. The earliest period was the Romantic Period which started from 1798 until 1870. The literature of the Romantic period comprises of nature, symbolism

The literature of the period is similar to the lifestyle of Victorian’s of the time. The literature is a combination of “pure romance and to gross realism” (“Characteristics of Victorian”, 1). The Victorians have different kinds of literature: novels, poetry, children’s literature and comic verses. The writer usually contains moral messages to their readers such as “hard work, perseverance, love, and luck will win out in the end” ending novels with a happy ending and those who are immoral will receive karma (“Victorian Era Literature”, 1). Their poetry contains imagery and senses to show struggles between Religion and Science, and ideas about Nature and Romance (“Victorian Era Poetry”, 1 ). When reading Victorian literature, it is very practical and materialistic. Another characteristic of the Victorian Period of literature that is seen in the writing and impacts the characters in the writings behavior is societal perception. Societal perception seen in Victorian literature includes “stereotypes about class, race, and gender” is seen in Victorian period of literary. It is common to see in Victorian Literature that the “lower class and other race are inherently inferior in their physical makeup and are irrational, childlike, superstitious, criminal, and extremely sexual and dirty” (Smith, 1). On the other hand, those of the upper class were ideal humans such as being rational, respectable, Christians and middle class. A literature that represents the Victorian Period well is Wuthering