Assignment paper 105
This blog task is part of assignment of paper 105: History of English literature- From 1350 to 1900
■ personal information:
Name: Shatakshi Sarvaiya
Batch: M.A sem 1 (2024-26)
Enrollment number:5108240030
E-mail Address:
shatakshisarvaiya9@gmail.com
Roll number: 28
■ Assignment Details:
Topic: The Romantic Age
Paper & Subject code: Paper- 105: History of English Literature- From 1350 to 1900
Submitted to: SMT. Department of English, Bhavnagar
Date of submission: 20 November, 2024
■ Table of Contens :
✴ Romantic age (1745-1798)
✴ The Age of Revolution
✴ Characteristics
✴ Poets
✴ Prose writer's
■ Romantic Age (1745-1798)
The Romantic period in English literature began in 1798 with the publication of Wordsworth's "Lyrical Ballads" and concluded in 1832 with the first Reformation Act. It allowed more people to vote but had limited impact on the lives of the working class.
Around 1785, early figures like William Blake paved the way for Romanticism to emerge. However, it was Wordsworth and Coleridge's joint work, "Lyrical Ballads," published in 1798, that marked the official beginning of literary Romanticism. This collection of poems brought about a significant shift in literature, favoring rural subjects and everyday language over urban settings and grand styles.
- Several key factors shaped literature during this era:
- The French Revolution emphasized the idea of universal freedom and equality.
- The Industrial Revolution led to the rise of large-scale industries, the dissolution of small enterprises, and issues such as slums and child labor.
- In 1830, the first train was introduced and radically changed transportation.
- Steam engines became widely used in various sectors, including transportation and industry.
- The Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 granted Roman Catholics more rights.
- The Penny Post, introduced in 1840, allowed affordable postal communication.
Romanticism extended beyond literature, influencing art, music, and more. It revived themes from the Middle Ages, like chivalry and courtly love, through ballets, operas, and Shakespeare regained popularity.
■ Characteristics of Romanticism:
The Romantic Era is one of the key movements in the history of English literature. It includes many of the literary works that we still read and love today, from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to Herman Melville's Moby Dick.
This article will define the Romantic period and describe ten of the most important characteristics of Romanticism in English literature.
- Emotion and passion
- The critique of progress
- A return to the past
- An awe of nature
- The idealization of women
- The purity of childhood
- The search for subjective truth
- The celebration of the individual
- A break from convention
- Spirituality and the occult
Let’s look at each of these characteristics in more detail and analyze some examples from Romantic poetry and prose.
Characteristic 1: Emotion and Passion
The Romanticists were deeply in touch with their feelings. Emotion was one of the most crucial characteristics of the Romantic period.
Wordsworth said that poetry began as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.” This statement perfectly captures the way that many Romanticists saw emotion as a driving force for art.
Romanticists cared about emotions such as fear, awe, and horror. In stories written by Romantic writers, characters often focus on the more sentimental sides of the story, including their inner struggles, dreams, and passions.
Characteristic 2: The Critique of Progress
Romanticists viewed urbanity and industrialization in a largely negative light. Many Romantic authors understood the importance of progress, but criticized the way it impacted the common people.
Many Romantic writers depicted the ugly side of urbanization and commercialism and used their writing to argue for social change in England.
Mary Shelley’s famous novel Frankenstein (1818) is an example of a Romantic novel that depicted the dangers of technology without emotion.
In the story, Victor Frankenstein is so obsessed with the pursuit of knowledge that he forgets to question his own ethics and ends up creating a monster. At one point, the monster even exclaims: "Cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live? Why, in that instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you had so wantonly bestowed?"
Characteristic 3: A Return to the Past
Related to their critique of progress is the fact that Romanticists were fascinated with the past and resurrected it in various forms. They used their writing to remind everyone of what the past had to offer and how far society had moved away from the good old days.
Many Romanticists glorified the Middle Ages and revived elements of literature—such as knights in shining armor and damsels in distress—that were perceived as more medieval.
Characteristic 4: An Awe of Nature
The Romanticists saw nature as a source of beauty and truth. Much of Romantic literature focuses on nature as something sublime.
Take the poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (1807) by William Wordsworth, one of the most famous early Romantic poets.
Characteristic 5: The Idealization of Women
In the Romantic era, women were seen as innocent, pure creatures who should be admired and respected.
Many Romantic poets and novelists centered their narratives around celebrating the purity and beauty of a woman.
Unfortunately, this idealization meant that the Romantic Movement typically saw women as objects for male admiration rather than as people with their own dreams and ambitions. Female writers such as Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, and the Brontë sisters had to publish under male pseudonyms because of these attitudes.
One example of the idealization of women is Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “Annabel Lee” (1849)
Characteristic 6: The Purity of Childhood
Romanticists believed that children should be allowed to have a pure, happy childhood.
At the time, many children were forced to work in factories or as chimney sweeps, which was dangerous and grueling work for which they were paid extremely low wages. Romantic writers and poets depicted a different kind of childhood—a happy one full of play instead of work.
This is an excerpt from T.S. Arthur’s short story “An Angel in Disguise” (1851): "The sweetness of that sick child, looking ever to her in love, patience, and gratitude, was as honey to her soul, and she carried her in her heart as well as in her arms, a precious burden."
Characteristic 7: The Search for Subjective Truth
Romanticists believed that truth could be discovered in nature and imagination. They shunned the objective truths of science in favor of the more subjective truths of art.
Self-expression was seen as the way to achieve absolute truth, which was more permanent and more divine than anything discovered with the rational mind. They questioned the notion that there could be any single truth.
The poem “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (1820) by John Keats is addressed to a marble urn of ancient Greece. The final line of the poem reads: “Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all.”
Characteristic 8: The Celebration of the Individual
Many Romanticists saw themselves as self-reliant, independent individuals who stood apart from the rest of society, and some even chose to lead largely isolated, solitary lives.
Characteristic 10: Spirituality and the Occult
As we’ve already discussed, Romanticists were interested in the infinite and the divine. As a result, Romanticism began to include occult and supernatural elements.
Many Romantic poems and stories involve some aspect of the mystical or the “gothic.”
□ poets:
Lord Byron (1788–1824)
George Gordan Byron, better known as Lord Byron, was a key poet in the Romantic movement. Among his peers, he was the most flamboyant and had gained quite a reputation for his wild lifestyle and scandalous love life. He was the playboy of his time—rich, famous, swashbuckling, adventurous, a womanizer and a heartbreaker. He had a sharp wit, which when paired with his mercurial temper made him dangerous should one ever cross him. But Byron was very much the sentimental poet who wrote some of the most beautiful poems in the English language. “She Walks in Beauty” is one of his best-loved poems and one of the finest of Romantic poetry. Its lyrical qualities make setting it to music easy—so if you really want to impress your love, why not sing it!
2. Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)
Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the visionary poets who helped define Romanticism, but he was a rather obscure poet who wasn’t widely read or celebrated while he was alive. Only after his untimely death did his poetry begin to receive recognition and be truly appreciated. This is not to say, however, he didn’t have a huge influence on the literary community of his day. He was friends with Lord Byron and John Keats, both of whom inspired and in turn were inspired by Shelley. Like his peers, he was a free spirit and a free-thinker, a humanist, atheist, feminist, socialist, philosopher, and to top it off a wooer of women. “Love’s Philosophy” combines his rhetorical skills and philosophical musings in an attempt to persuade the listener to kiss the poet using arguments that nothing in the world is single.
3. William Wordsworth (1770–1850)
One can’t talk about Romanticism without mentioning William Wordsworth, one of England’s most influential Romantic poets and very much nature’s poet. Many of his poems express a reverence for nature, for central to his poetry is this pantheistic idea that love of nature leads to love of humankind. He was friends with Samuel T. Coleridge, and both believed that the role of nature in poetry should help to espouse a unifying pantheism that brings people together for a common good and that an imaginative engagement with the natural world could lead to compassion for all living things. The hippies of the 1960s and ‘70s were a little late in the game on this idea. He wrote using the vocabulary of ordinary people rather than the formal stylized language of poets before him. It was all about communicating feelings honestly without embellishment, and it was a more effective way to write about nature. His poems have a certain elegance in their simplicity, and “Travelling” is a good example of his poetic style.
4. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)
A poet, critic, philosopher, and a drug addict—Samuel Taylor Coleridge was all these and much more. He’s probably best known for Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a poem of great imagination and creativity. Of all the Romantic poets, he was probably the most imaginative and some might say most out there in his thoughts (maybe it was all that opium!). Imagination is the poetic principle that has defined Coleridge’s poetry and indeed what makes his poems great. His poems, notably the ones about love, have a sensuous lyricism, which is one of the defining aspects of Romantic poetry and which many later poets tried to emulate. “Presence of Love” isn’t as well-known as his other poems, but perhaps that makes it all the better on Valentine’s Day
5. John Keats (1795–1821)
John Keats died of tuberculosis at the tragic young age of 25, yet in his short life he left behind a substantial body of work and made a lasting impact on English literature. His friend Joseph Severn painted a portrait of him in 1819 before his death. It was reproduced by William Hilton around 1822 and immortalizes Keats as the young, hopeful yet doomed poet who is aware of his mortality. He is perhaps best known for “La Belle Dame sans Merci” and his odes such as “Ode on a Grecian Urn” and “Ode to a Nightingale”—all dealing with death in some form or another. However, beautiful and moving as they are, they’re not exactly Valentine-grade love poetry, unless your boo is a goth. For something truly romantic, his sonnet “Bright Star” is a lovely poem to share with that special someone.
■ The Age of Revolution:
During the decades of economic and social transformation, western Europe also experienced massive political change. The central event throughout much of the Continent was the French Revolution (1789–99) and its aftermath. This was followed by a concerted effort at political reaction and a renewed series of revolutions from 1820 through 1848.
Connections between political change and socioeconomic upheaval were real but complex. Economic grievances associated with early industrialization fed into later revolutions, particularly the outbursts in 1848, but the newest social classes were not prime bearers of the revolutionary message. Revolutions also resulted from new political ideas directed against the institutions and social arrangements of the preindustrial order. Their results facilitated further economic change, but this was not necessarily their intent. Political unrest must be seen as a discrete factor shaping a new Europe along with fundamental economic forces.
The French Revolution:
Revolution exploded in France in the summer of 1789, after many decades of ideological ferment, political decline, and social unrest. Ideologically, thinkers of the Enlightenment urged that governments should promote the greatest good of all people, not the narrow interests of a particular elite. They were hostile to the political power of the Roman Catholic church as well as to the tax exemptions and landed power of the aristocracy. Their remedies were diverse, ranging from outright democracy to a more efficient monarchy, but they joined in insisting on greater religious and cultural freedom, some kind of parliamentary institution, and greater equality under the law.
Enlightenment writings were widely disseminated, reaching many urban groups in France and elsewhere. The monarchy was in bad shape even aside from new attacks. Its finances were severely pressed, particularly after the wars of the mid-18th century and French involvement against Britain during the American Revolution. Efforts to reform the tax structure foundered against the
opposition of the aristocracy. Finally, various groups in France were pressed by economic and social change. Aristocrats wanted new political rights against royal power. Middle-class people sought a political voice to match their commercial importance and a government more friendly to their interests. The peasant majority, pressed by population growth, sought access to the lands of the aristocracy and the church, an end to remaining manorial dues and services, and relief from taxation.
These various discontents came to a head when King Louis XVI called the Estates-General in 1789 to consider new taxes. This body had not met since 1614, and its calling released all the pressures building during recent decades, exacerbated by economic hardships resulting from bad harvests in 1787–88. Reform leaders, joined by some aristocrats and clergy, insisted that the Third Estate, representing elements of the urban middle class, be granted double the membership of the church and aristocratic estates and that the entire body of Estates-General vote as a unit—they insisted, in other words, on a new kind of parliament. The king yielded, and the new National
Assembly began to plan a constitution. Riots in the summer of 1789 included a symbolic attack on the Bastille, a royal prison, and a series of risings in the countryside that forced repeal of the remnants of manorialism and a proclamation of equality under the laws. A Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen trumpeted religious freedom and liberty of press and assembly, while reaffirming property rights. Church lands were seized, however, creating a rift between revolutionary and Roman Catholic sentiment. Guilds were outlawed (in 1791), as the revolution promoted middle-class beliefs in individual initiative and freedom for technological change. A 1791 constitution retained the monarchy
but created a strong parliament, elected by about half of France’s adult males—those with property.
This liberal phase of the French Revolution was followed, between 1792 and 1794, by a more radical period. Economic conditions deteriorated, prompting new urban riots. Roman Catholic and other groups rose in opposition to the revolution, resulting in forceful suppression and a corresponding growing insistence on loyalty to revolutionary principles. Monarchs
Monarchs in neighbouring countries—notably Britain, Austria, and Prussia—challenged the revolution and threatened invasion, which added foreign war to the unstable mix by 1792. Radical leaders, under the banners of the Jacobin party, took over the government, proclaiming a republic and executing the king and many other leaders of the old regime. Governmental
centralization increased; the decimal system was introduced. Mass military conscription was organized for the first time in European history, with the argument that, now that the government belonged to the people, the people must serve it loyally. A new constitution proclaimed universal manhood suffrage, and reforms in education and other areas were widely discussed. The radical phase of the revolution brought increasing military success to revolutionary troops in effectively reorganized armies, which conquered parts of the Low Countries and Germany and carried revolutionary laws in their wake. The revolution was beginning to become a European phenomenon.
Jacobin rule was replaced by a more moderate consolidation after 1795, during which, however, military expansion continued in several directions, notably in parts of Italy. The needs of war, along with recurrent domestic unrest, prompted a final revolutionary regime change, in 1799, that brought General Napoleon Bonaparte to power.
■ prose writer:
1. John Keats
2. Lord Byron
3. Jane Austen
4. Mary Shelley
5. Johan Clare .
■ Conclusion:
In a nutshell.
■ My Reference are:
“History of Europe - Age of Revolution, Enlightenment, Industrialization.” Britannica, 29 October 2024, https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Europe/The-age-of-revolution. Accessed 19 November 2024.
“The Romantic Period - Eastern.” Eastern Connecticut State University, https://www.easternct.edu/speichera/understanding-literary-history-all/the-romantic-period.html. Accessed 19 November 2024.
Tennyson, Alfred, and A. Tennyson. “The Romantic Age: an Introduction.” literature...no trouble, https://www.literature-no-trouble.com/the-romantic-age2/. Accessed 19 November 2024.
Wigley, Julie. “The Romantics | British Literature Wiki.” WordPress at UD |, https://sites.udel.edu/britlitwiki/the-romantics/. Accessed 19 November 2024.
Thank you........
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