The Romantic Period
1798-1832
History:
-The Enlightenment
-The American Revolution
-The French Revolution
-Napoleon
-George III and the Regency
-The Industrial Revolution
Philosophy:
-The Enlightenment “Project”
-Cosmopolitanism
-German idealism
-Rousseau and the “state of nature”
-Sturm und Drang movement
Literature:
-Reaction against Neoclassical/Augustan
-William Blake and Robert Burns (precursors)
-William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (early)
-Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, John Keats (late)
-Mary Shelley
-Jane Austen and Sir Walter Scott
History:
In order to understand Romanticism it is necessary to first
grasp what the goals of the Enlightenment were. The
Enlightenment, like the Renaissance, is a term that is used by
historians to describe the intellectual developments that took place
during a certain period of time. The Enlightenment was a
movement during the 18th century that emphasized the use of
science and reason to understand the world. It shares with the
Renaissance a certain confidence in our ability to comprehend the
world through human reason. Increasingly, science and rationality
were declared the most legitimate ways of comprehending reality.
In England, the figure of Sir Isaac Newton and the discovery, or
belief that the universe operates according to logical principles is
representative of this approach. Gradually, philosophers began to
apply this scientific thinking to human beings and society. The
Enlightenment reliance on reason influenced literature, politics,
economics, and religion.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal.” The “Declaration of Independence” was heavily
influenced by John Locke’s “Second Treatise on Government,”
which rationally argued against the “divine right of kings.” The
American Revolution, which took place between 1776-1783;
represents the application of certain Enlightenment ideas.
However, it is the French Revolution, which began in 1789 that
contributes more prominently to the historical background of
English Romanticism.
While the loss of the American colonies affected England’s
pride and economic interests, the French Revolution posed a much
more serious threat to political and social order within England
itself. Early Romantic writers such as William Blake, William
Wordsworth, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge enthusiastically
supported the French Revolution when it began. These writers did
not view it simply as an important event for French history, but as
an important event for humankind. These writers viewed the
French Revolution within the framework of the Enlightenment, a
movement whose ideals crossed national boundaries.
These early Romantic writers tended to align themselves with
the democratic spirit of reformers and revolutionaries. However, as
the broad revolutionary movement in France evolved into a radical
and violent faction, support within England began to decline. In
1792, the event known as the “September Massacres” involved the
execution of hundreds of the French nobility. In 1793-1794, the
event known as the “Reign of Terror” involved the execution of
King Louis XVI and thousands of aristocrats associated with the
Old Regime were guillotined. Due to this violent shift, the early
Romantic writers became disillusioned with the French Revolution
as a possible realization of Enlightenment ideals and the English
government became increasingly concerned about their own
security. The violent persecution of the aristocracy in France
revealed the power that a discontented lower class was capable of
exercising. The response to the violence and chaos in France was a
conservative restriction on freedom of assembly and freedom of
speech in England. Despite their disillusionment with the French
Revolution, many liberal and democratic reformers felt that
England was in need of political and social changes, but those in
power feared that any reforms would represent a move towards the
anarchy that characterized France (slippery slope argument).
Parliament and the monarchy feared an internal rebellion from
below, but also feared a French invasion from without. Britain
went to war with France after the French invasion of the
Netherlands and French aid was given to the Irish attempting to
remove the English colonialists who occupied Ireland (Swift’s A
Modest Proposal).
In France, Napoleon Bonaparte emerged as a military dictator
and eventually became emperor of France. Napoleon aimed to
spread Enlightenment ideals through military conquest and this
resulted in the rise of nationalism in what would become Germany
and Italy.
The British defeated the French navy in 1805 in the Battle of
Trafalgar and no longer feared a French invasion. Britain gradually
liberated countries that Napoleon was occupying and Napoleon’s
invasion of Russia in 1812 was unsuccessful. Napoleon was
ultimately defeated in 1815 in the Battle of Waterloo and the
Congress of Vienna then restored monarchies to the countries that
Napoleon had conquered. In other words, what began as a
revolutionary and democratic movement within France that had
spread to all of Europe by Napoleon, ended with the wealthy and
conservative classes still in power.
George III was King of England during the American
Revolution and the French Revolution; however, George later
became mentally ill and his son George ruled from 1811-1820.
This is referred to as the “Regency” period and George eventually
ruled as George IV.
Lastly, in order understand the historical background of
English Romanticism it is necessary to understand the profound
transformations that resulted from the Industrial Revolution. In the
18th century, England began to change from a primarily
agricultural society to a modern industrial society. The balance of
economic, and therefore political power, began to shift from the
landowning aristocracy to the middle-class industrialists and
businessmen; those who owned the factories.
The process of “enclosure,” whereby public land is made
private, had been taking place in the countryside for some time.
This contributed to a situation wherein peasants were losing access
to land while new jobs were becoming available in the urban
factories. Cities experienced growth due to industrialization and
rural peasants began seeking work in the new factories. These
factories were characterized by dangerous working conditions,
long hours, and low wages. Admittedly, this growing working
class did not live a much better life in the country, but the rapid
growth of cities resulted in poor living conditions, inadequate
sanitation, disease, and crime. Furthermore, new cities that arose
due to industrialization did not have representation in Parliament.
Overall, the middle-class and aristocracy prospered due to
industrialization, while the lower-class suffered in horrible
working and living conditions. The dominant economic philosophy
during this time period was the “laissez-faire” approach. The idea
is that the economy works best without government intervention.
At this time, no laws regulated factory safety, hours, or wages.
Furthermore, the government made no attempt to control the
inevitable booms-and-busts of the market. “Laissez-faire”
economics stems from the Enlightenment, the notion that “natural
laws” are at work in the universe. Well, that might work great for
physics, but it is this misapplication of, and over emphasis on,
rationality and science, that the Romantics are reacting against.
At the beginning of the Regency, an economic depression
occurred and factories fired many workers. Well, if you have taken
economics then you know about the “crises of overproduction.”
Machinery is introduced, which makes more stuff in less time and
less people are needed as labor power; the result, more supply, less
purchasing power, more people get fired. Well, the unemployed
factory workers decided to riot and to destroy the machinery in
many factories. This event is known as the “Luddite riots.”
Parliament and the people who owned the factories obviously did
not like this so they passed a law making the future destruction of
machinery punishable by death. Due to the “laissez-faire”
approach, the government did not seek to solve the unemployment
problem that caused the riot, but instead attempted to prevent riots.
The factory workers, the poor, and the unemployed wanted to unite
in their efforts, but labor unions were illegal. When the factory
workers did assemble, the government sent troops to break up the
meeting and eleven people were killed. This event is known as the
“Peterloo Massacre.”
Philosophy:
Earlier, I said that the early Romantic writers viewed the
French Revolution within the framework of the Enlightenment. In
other words, they viewed the event as the possible realization of
Enlightenment ideals. The Enlightenment “project” aimed to
emancipate mankind. That humanistic ideal of the Renaissance,
that belief that human reason can be used to make the world a
better place, influenced all of Europe. It was believed that human
reason, employed in science, philosophy, and literature, could
improve society. The Enlightenment encouraged the reasoned
criticism of existing authorities, the monarchy and the church, with
the aim of personal and political freedom.
Because the Enlightenment crossed national boundaries, the
orientation of reformers towards the French Revolution possessed
a sort of cosmopolitanism. In England, the figure of Thomas Paine,
who was involved in reform efforts in Britain, the American
Revolution, and the French Revolution, is representative of this
cosmopolitanism. Paine was a product of the Enlightenment and
his commitment to those ideals transcended nationality.
How is Romanticism a reaction against the Enlightenment?
Well, the Romantics did not reject the aims of the Enlightenment
and believed in many of the Enlightenment’s ideals. Romanticism
is a reaction against the Enlightenment in that it represents a
critique of the excessive reliance and emphasis on rationality,
order, and scientific thinking. In other words, the Enlightenment
had unforeseen consequences. Factories produce rationally and
efficiently lots of stuff; but is it healthy for human beings to be
treated as part of a machine? What happens when we apply that
Enlightenment view that Nature can be understood, controlled, and
used in a rational and productive manner, and apply it to human
beings? The Enlightenment emphasized the individual only as part
of a rational whole, a society; or in the case of labor power as part
of a machine. The Romantics revive the Renaissance emphasis on
the individual. In this way, Romanticism is the “renaissance of the
Renaissance.” Furthermore, it aims to carry out the ideals of the
Enlightenment in a different manner. Due to the French
Revolution, the emancipation of the individual through political
means had been a failure. The realization of personal imaginative
freedom was the only alternative. In this way, the Romantics
represent a tension between concerns for society, or ideas of
progress, and an emphasis on the individual. Faced with the
conservative reaction to the French Revolution, the shortcomings
of the Enlightenment “project,” and the social changes caused by
the Industrial Revolution, the Romantics in Britain respond to this
uncertainty with a new way of thinking.
The English Romantics were primarily concerned with the
individual, subjectivity, imagination, and emotion. This new way
of thinking had many sources, including German idealism
(philosophy), the Sturm und Drang movement in German
literature, the political philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and
Protestant ideas of self-determination and individual faith
stemming from the Reformation.
Schelling, a German philosopher, claimed that man could
only understand his place in the universe through an imaginative
involvement with it. In other words, rationally understanding how
the world operates, or understanding physics; does not provide an
explanation for why the world exists or the nature of man’s
existence within the world. How does the subject (the human
being) make sense of the object (the world) and their place within
the world? We are part of the world, but we can also reflect on the
world. For the Romantics, Nature becomes the site of imaginative
and emotional understanding. Nature can be understood in a
rational, scientific sense and encountered in an imaginative,
emotional sense.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a Swiss philosopher, wrote about
man in the “state of nature.” This was a time before political
institutions and society. English philosophers Thomas Hobbes and
John Locke had both written about the “state of nature,” but
Rousseau argues that man is naturally good. Rousseau argues that
society and institutions corrupt the individual and that the “state of
nature” was a less oppressive form of civilization. Rousseau
influenced Romanticism in that human imagination, emotion, and
intuition are viewed as a source of truth and goodness.
The Sturm und Drang movement, meaning “storm and
stress,” in German literature and music emphasized individuality,
subjectivity, and violent emotion. Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young
Werther (1774), which Napoleon carried in his jacket during the
French invasion of Egypt, is an early example of the “Romantic
hero” who feels a sense of isolation from the society which he is
expected to conform. The English Romantics emphasized emotion
over reason, Nature over industry, and the individual over society.
They considered the individual’s relationship to Nature very
important, they celebrated the commonplace, and perceived beauty
in the everyday. REPEAT.
Literature:
Where does the term “Romanticism” come from? Well, last
semester you studied the medieval “romance,” such as Sir Gawain
and the Green Knight. The medieval “romance” is a tale of
chivalry involving a “quest” that takes place in an imaginative
world. The use of the word “romance” to denote an emotional or
imaginative experience can be traced back to the medieval
“romance.” In referring to the literature of the late 18th and early
19th century as “Romanticism,” historians and literary critics are
recognizing an interest in the charming, magical, mysterious, and
imaginative among these writers.
Romanticism, as a literary movement in Britain, was a
reaction against the neo-classical and Augustan writing of the
earlier 18th century. Augustan writers stressed balance, order,
logic, and emotional restraint. The Romantics felt that the
Augustan emphasis on tradition resulted in a limitation of vision,
or an inability to perceive possibility.
Who are the Romantics? Two individuals who are considered
precursors to Romanticism are William Blake and Robert Burns.
William Blake (1757-1827) was not simply a poet; he was an
artist. In addition to writing poetry, Blake poured his energy into
painting, drawing, and engraving. He invented his own style of
printing called “illuminated printing,” which included a poem’s
text and illustration on the same plate. His poems in Songs of
Innocence (1789) and Songs of Experience (1794) explore the
perspectives of two opposing states of existence. Blake was a
Christian, but believed that church doctrine was used primarily as a
form of social control. This realization was part of the transition
from a state of innocence (blind obedience) to a state of experience
(disillusionment).
Robert Burns (1759-1796) grew up in poverty and was
critical of the economic inequality in Scotland. He wrote poems
praising peasant life in the dialect of the Scottish peasants. Burns’
dedication to natural speech and common experiences influenced
later Romantic poets.
The beginning of “Romanticism” in Britain is traditionally
marked by the publication in 1798 of Lyrical Ballads by William
Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Wordsworth used
simple language to celebrate nature and common life. Many of his
poems are about the passage of time and man’s subjective
experience of life and nature. He supported the French Revolution
in his youth, but became more conservative later in life.
Wordsworth contributed many poems to Lyrical Ballads and his
Preface to that work outlined some of the main characteristics of
“Romanticism.” The Preface is the theoretical justification for the
new conception of poetry that emphasized subjective experience.
How is the spontaneous expression of strong emotion and
imagination linked to man’s experiences in Nature? According to
Wordsworth, the natural world was a catalyst to explore inner
thoughts and feelings. Communion with nature could translate into
spiritual contemplation. The subject matter of the new poetry was
rustic life and ordinary events. In other words, the common was
glorified and beauty was perceived in the simple. The emphasis on
imagination also involved the mysterious, exotic, and supernatural.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,”
the first poem in Lyrical Ballads, is an example of the supernatural
in “Romanticism.” Coleridge’s poem “Kubla Khan,” which was
written in an opium-induced sleep, represents the mysterious and
exotic. Like Wordsworth, Coleridge was more idealistic in his
youth and desired to build a utopian colony in Pennsylvania, but
the plan failed to materialize. Other utopian colonies were being
founded in the U.S. during this time and in the early 18th century as
experiments with utopian socialism and this was also influenced by
the political thought of Rousseau.
While Wordsworth and Coleridge, co-authors of Lyrical
Ballads, represent “early” Romanticism, a second “wave,” or
younger generation of poets represent “late” Romanticism. These
poets, Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and John Keats, all died
relatively young.
Lord Byron’s (1788-1824) passion and rebelliousness make
him a symbol of the romantic spirit that was first captured in
Goethe’s Sorrows of Young Werther. The “Byronic hero” is a
restless, tortured soul who rejects traditional values. Byron was
described as being, “mad, bad and dangerous to know.” His fame
as a poet began with the publication of Childe Harold’s
Pilgrimage, based on his travels in Europe. He left Britain for the
continent in 1816 and became friends with Percy and Mary Shelley
in Switzerland. Lord Byron gave a speech in the House of Lords
defending the Luddite rioters and died helping train Greek soldiers
in their war for independence (cosmopolitan).
Percy Shelley (1792-1822) was an idealist and
nonconformist. As a child, Percy was the victim of bullying and
developed a hatred for tyranny and conformity. He was expelled
from Oxford University for writing an essay on atheism. He
supported Catholic emancipation and independence for Ireland.
Shelley fell in love with Mary Godwin, whose parents, Mary
Wollstonecraft, author of Vindication of the Rights of Woman, and
the philosopher William Godwin, were two of the most influential
radicals of the 1790s. Shelley wrote much of his greatest poetry
while traveling in Switzerland with his wife and Lord Byron. Percy
died at sea off of the coast of Italy during a storm.
The friendship between Lord Byron, Percy Shelly, and Mary
Shelley led to the writing of Frankenstein. Byron suggested that
they have a contest to write the best “ghost story” and Mary
ultimately produced Frankenstein, a warning against the dangers
of science and the desire to control nature. Frankenstein combined
elements of Romanticism, the Gothic, and science-fiction.
John Keats (1795-1821) achieved literary fame at an early
age and accomplished more in his short life than other poets who
wrote for decades. Keats was prevented from marrying due to his
poor health and poverty. Keats is most admired for his odes and
the imagery he used to discuss both physical and philosophical
beauty. Keats died at the age of 25 from tuberculosis.
During the 18th century the novel became a popular form of
writing and the Romantic period produced two influential
novelists; Jane Austen and Sir Walter Scott.
Jane Austen is known for her “novels of manners.” Works
such as Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility dealt with
the social conventions of the middle and upper classes. Sir Walter
Scott was influential in developing the “historical novel” and his
characters represented the experiences of the middle and lower
classes. Novels would become even more popular in the 19th
century as it became the preference of the growing middle-class.
Historians and literary critics mark 1832 as an appropriate
end date for the Romantic period due to the death of the novelist
Sir Walter Scott and the passage of the First Reform Bill of 1832.
After King George IV died in 1830, an influential member of the
Whig party, Earl Grey, led a parliamentary reform effort. This
legislation, the First Reform Bill of 1832, extended voting rights to
more middle-class men and represented a small step in the gradual
development of democracy in Britain. While Britain had
experienced working class riots, the country did not experience a
revolution and reform took place gradually. In 1837, Queen
Victoria took the throne and England expanded its power abroad.
The industrial revolution, laissez-faire capitalism, Christianity,
English culture, and the English language would be spread all over
the world, as Britain gradually became an empire.