CHAPTER 4, SECTION 4 “LECTURE NOTES”
-Late 18th century conservative intellectual & artistic movement called romanticism (expression of feelings,
emotions & imagination of individual) emerged as a reaction against the Enlightenment focus on
reason (thinking.)
-Romantic novelists created “characters” who were misunderstood, rejected or isolated from society, guided
only by their inner feelings & were non-conformists.
-Romantics glorified the past, especially middle ages (knights in shining armor, damsels in distress) eg:
novel Ivanhoe. They believed the industrial age lacked mystery & interest in the human soul.
-Gothic literature of exotic, unfamiliar, chilling subjects (Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, poems of Edgar Allan
Poe.) Believed industrialization would alienate people from their inner selves & nature. When science
tries to conquer nature, a “monster” like Frankenstein is created.
-Poetry focused on a love of nature (William Wordsworth.) Critical of modern science & technology which
reduced nature to a “cold” subject.
-Architects revived medieval styles (eg. neo-Gothic castles p. 281)
-Romantic artists believed that art should reflect:
1. artist’s own imagination & inner feelings (eg. “Wanderer Above a Sea of Fog” p. 282)
2. warmth & emotion (exotic & colorful paintings, eg. “The Lion Hunt” by Eugene Delacroix p. 283
“a painting should be a feast to the eye.”)
-Romantic musicians = Ludwig van Beethoven’s symphonies had powerful melodies with dramatic intensity.
“I must write, for what weighs on my heart, I must express.”
-New age of science led to many discoveries:
*English doctor Edward Jenner discovered a vaccine for smallpox
*French biologist Louis Pasteur proposed the germ theory of disease
*Russian chemist Dmitry Mendeleyev classified all basic material elements
*English inventor Michael Faraday built an electric generator
-Growing faith in science increased secularization of society.
-British scientist Charles Darwin went on ocean voyages to make observations of nature.
-1859, he wrote the theory of organic evolution in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
-Species pass on genetic traits or variations that helped them to survive (i.e. “survival of the fittest”.)
-Darwin argued humans, like other species, had more primitive animal origins. Started controversy with
religious officials. Many scientists & intellectuals came to accept Darwinism.
-Intellectual, political & artistic trend called realism closely related to the scientific outlook.
-Literary realists rejected romanticism. Wrote about “ordinary characters” from actual life rather than about
romantic heroes (Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, description of small-town life in France), used
real-life descriptions instead of emotional language. Realists preferred novels to poems.
-Social issues were explored by novelist Charles Dickens by creating a vivid picture of the brutal life of
London’s poor, but also of their humor & humanity. Sympathetic characters like Oliver Twist & Tiny
Tim (A Christmas Carol) helped bring about social reform,
-Realist artists sought to show everyday life of ordinary people.
-“The Stonebreakers” p. 285 shows the simple reality of two road workers hard at work.
“I have never seen either angels or goddesses, so I am not interested in painting them.”