Industrial Revolution And The Heartless Revolution

The romantic period became a popular movement in the mid-eighteenth century and spread worldwide, until it fully developed by 1820 in America (Van Spanckeren, K. 2008). During this time, there happened revolutionary changes all over the world due to industrialisation and the French revolution. The industrial revolution became an undeniable factor for the society. Industrialisation and mechanisation influenced individual’s thoughts, working conditions and living conditions. (White, M, n.a.) More people moved away from farms because they started working for the factories and industrial companies. The “Population doubled in size” (CSUN, n.a.) in the cities, because of this. There were more cities build to accommodate this population size. Even

This theme indicates that through the industrial revolution, mankind lost its “heart” (line 4) or feelings for nature. Wordsworth (1770-1850) is known for his undeniable love for nature and how he explored “the human minds by the way of stimulation nature gives him” (Gill, R., 2006: 261). In “The world is too much with us” (Wordsworth, 1807), the title suggests that the world is overwhelmed with us, in it. It also suggests that the world – in other words, life - is so full of man-made things, that humans cannot appreciate nature in the way the speaker does. In line 2 “getting and spending” can refer to the natural resources we receive from nature: nature gives humans resources and they are just “getting” it and “spending” it without being thankful. “Getting and spending” (line 2) can also refers to consumerism of the industrialisation. Therefore, humans are so busy with consumerism, that they are indirectly destroying themselves by means of losing their ability to appreciate the beauty nature provides. This connects to the theme of the heartless revolution against nature, because through industrialisation, mankind became heartless against nature. Furthermore, the speaker also refers to “Little we see in Nature that is ours” (line 3). This indicates that because of this revolutionary happenings, people became obsessed with ‘wanting’ and ‘owning’ things, for instance, money, employment and better work offerings and because of this constant need for ‘owning’ things, people appreciate nature less because they cannot own it. This line contributes to the characteristics of “individual feelings” (Record et al., 2016:11) and “human hearts” (Record et al., 2016:11), because this is an opinion of the speaker which is very personal and it is about what makes humans happy, which is