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Romanticism intro
- 1. The Romantic Period: 1798–1832 Introduction to the Literary Period Feature Menu Interactive Time Line Milestone: The American Revolution Milestone: The French Revolution Milestone: The Era of Napoleon Milestone: The Industrial Revolution Milestone: The Romantic Movement What Have You Learned?
- 2. The Romantic Period: 1798–1832 Choose a link on the time line to go to a milestone. 1776–1783 American Revolution 1799–1815 Era of Napoleon 1789–1799 French Revolution 1750 1800 1850 late 1700s–early 1800s Romantic Movement late 1700s Industrial Revolution
- 3. The American Revolution 1776–1783: American Colonies revolt, defeat Britain, gain independence How American Revolution affected Britain: • Big psychological blow • Severe economic problems—war debts, no more revenue from Colonies • Government by personal power of king comes to an end
- 4. The French Revolution 1789: storming of the Bastille 1792: “September massacre” 1793: Louis XVI beheaded The French Revolution at first inspired liberals in England, scared conservatives Storming of the Bastille later turned violent, ended in dictatorship of Napoleon Bonaparte eventually led to conservative clamp-down in England
- 5. The Era of Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte—ruthless, tyrannical dictator of France; tried to take over Europe 1803–1815 England at war with France 1815, Waterloo, Belgium England and allies send Napoleon’s army back to France
- 6. The Industrial Revolution Beginning in England • Production moves from homes to factories • Factories located in cities • Communal land taken over by rich owners • People move to cities looking for work • City populations swell • Living conditions very poor
- 7. The Industrial Revolution Policy of Laissez Faire • laissez faire—”let (people) do (as they please)” • let business owners operate without government interference The Result: • Rich grew richer while poor suffered more • Children forced to do hard labor
- 8. The Romantic Movement The Romantics • were dedicated to social change • believed in individual liberty • valued imagination • thought of nature as transformative • focused on personal experience and emotions
- 9. The Romantic Movement Romanticism—Three Useful Meanings A Child’s Sense of Wonder Fascination with innocence, youth, and the child’s fresh way of perceiving the world Social Idealism Questioning authority and tradition in order to imagine happier, fairer, healthier ways to live Adaptation to Change Becoming more aware of change and finding ways to accept it and adapt to it
- 10. The Romantic Movement Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems • collaboration of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth • published 1798 “A new kind of poetry”: • commonplace subjects; simple language • immediacy, spontaneity, emotion, self-revelation • celebrates bond between nature and the human mind
- 11. The Romantic Movement Some Romantic poets: But to the eyes of the man of imagination nature is imagination itself. As a man is, so he sees. . . . To me this world is all one continued vision of fancy or imagination. —William Blake William Blake George Gordon, Lord Byron John Keats Percy Bysshe Shelley
- 12. The Romantic Movement The Lure of the Gothic Horror tales and Gothic architecture were popular in the Romantic period. Strawberry Hill • medieval-style, rustic, eerie castle • built by Horace Walpole The Castle of Otranto • horror tale, first Gothic novel • by Horace Walpole, 1764
- 13. What Have You Learned? Choose the correct answer to each question. 1. Which of the following was NOT a result of the Industrial Revolution? a. pay raises b. poverty c. crowded cities 2. Which of the following was NOT important to the Romantics? a. nature b. order c. social change b. order 3. Which of the following was NOT a Romantic poet? c. Pope a. Wordsworth b. Keats c. Pope
- 14. END
Editor's Notes
- BACKGROUND • The stubbornness of the British monarch, King George III, played a large part in beginning and prolonging the American War of Independence. Thus, the king’s power was diminished with the loss of the Colonies.
- BACKGROUND • The Bastille was a prison in Paris. To the French people it represented the oppressive policies of the French monarchy. The storming of the Bastille was seen as a triumph for the people in their struggle for freedom. • The Romantic poet William Wordsworth was one of the democratic idealists in England who initially found the French Revolution exhilarating. In Book XI of Prelude, Wordsworth speaks of “France standing on the top of golden hours / And human nature seeming born again.” • Wordsworth and other Romantics became disillusioned in 1792 when hundreds of French aristocrats and some members of the clergy were executed during the “September massacre.” • The beginning of the French Revolution sparked many of the sentiments characteristic of the Romantic movement—belief in individual liberty, rebelling against tyranny, focus on imagination. Some historians use 1789 (the year of the storming of the Bastille) as the beginning date for the Romantic period. • The Romantics’ optimism was ultimately displaced by disillusionment, because the French Revolution essentially had stripped power from one tyrant only to give it to another. The rise of Napoleon as a dictator was disappointing, because power was no longer in the hands of the people. • The conservative clamp-down in England included severe repressive measures, such as the outlawing of collective bargaining and the imprisonment of suspected spies without a trial.
- BACKGROUND • To the early supporters of the revolution, Waterloo was still more cause for disillusionment—it was simply the defeat of one tyrant by another. Still, the Romantics clung to their hopes that the world could change for the better. • Napoleon did make some improvements in France. He restored order, boosted the economy, weeded out corruption, and established a public school system. He also created the Napoleonic code, a set of laws for civil order.
- QUESTIONS • Many of the inventions that contributed to the Industrial Revolution were related to the textile industry. Machines such as the spinning jenny and power loom increased the speed at which textiles could be produced. The steam engine was also important to the Industrial Revolution, because it provided a low-cost source of energy. How do you think people felt about the use of these new technologies? [Possible response: Some people—especially businesspeople—may have been happy about these developments because more products could be produced faster and for a lower price. However, the skilled workers who were replaced by the machines were probably upset because their skills were no longer needed or valued.] • At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, there were no labor laws or trade unions to regulate working conditions. How would this lack of laws or regulations have affected the working class? [Possible response: The working class would have had no rights as workers. Factory owners could have overworked or underpaid their workers and gotten away with it.] • What aspects of the Industrial Revolution may have inspired Romantic writers to emphasize the beauty and restorative powers of nature? [Possible response: The Industrial Revolution resulted in overcrowded cities and awful living and working conditions. The Romantics may have related city life to suffering and felt that people were better off living in the country—where they could breathe fresh air and work outdoors.] BACKGROUND • The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain details these vast changes in the British economy: “Coal output doubled between 1750 and 1800. . . . Iron production, boosted by war demand [and] by the use of coal instead of charcoal for smelting, . . . rose by two hundred percent between 1788 and 1806.” • The historian Christopher Harvie writes that factory towns were squalid, that they “smoked and stank,” and that “they were expensive both in terms of rent and of human life. . . . If housing was bad, sanitation was worse.”
- BACKGROUND • With no child labor laws in effect, the young children of the poor were harnessed to carts and forced to drag coal, just as if they had been small donkeys. Children used as chimney sweeps were pushed with poles or pins or even scorched with fire to make them crawl into narrow black channels filled with soot. The work left many children disabled or chronically ill.
- QUESTIONS • The ideas of a philosophical movement are often reflected in the literature and art of the period (and vice versa). Why do you think movements affect more than one aspect of society? [Possible response: Movements are usually responses to social and political happenings of the time period. All types of people experience these events and may begin to change their views of life. Philosophers may react in one way; writers and artists may react in another way. All of the reactions, though, are tied together by the common experiences.] • The works of neoclassical poets and writers were often public, formal, and witty. Based on the Romantic values listed, how do you think Romantic works differed from neoclassical works? [Possible response: I think Romantic works were more personal and informal, since Romantics valued emotion and imagination. The Romantic writer wouldn’t be trying to impress the public with formal language or witty comments; he or she would be trying to express an emotion.] • What do you think transformative means? (Hint: Break the word into parts. The root of the word is transform.) How can nature be transformative? [Possible response: I think it means “capable of changing something.” Nature can be transformative because it can change your outlook on life or your mood. For example, when I’m in a bad mood, I sometimes go outside or go for a walk so I can think and work things out for myself. Somehow when I’m surrounded by nature—trees, birds, flowers—I start to feel better.] • Look at the artwork in the top right corner of the slide. How do you think the man in the painting feels about what he is seeing? [Possible responses: awed; overwhelmed; euphoric.] • What Romantic elements do you see in the painting? [Possible responses: a solitary figure in a dramatic natural setting; the identification of the human wanderer with the swirling clouds.]
- QUESTION • Have you read any works by William Wordsworth or Samuel Taylor Coleridge? What do you remember about them? [Possible response: I’ve read “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth. It was about someone who is struck by the beauty of a field of daffodils. Seeing the daffodils makes the person feel happy.] BACKGROUND • Many consider the publication of Lyrical Ballads as the official beginning of the Romantic period. • In the preface to the first edition of Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth called the poems “experiments” to see “how far the language of conversation in the middle and lower classes is adapted to the purposes of poetic pleasure.” • The Augustan poets wrote in an age when order had just been restored to a society badly in need of it. Naturally enough, the Augustans celebrated order, hierarchy, and enlightened rule. The Romantics, on the other hand, lived in a society desperately in need of social change. They rebelled by writing about personal feelings, supporting individual rights, and using common, everyday language.
- QUESTIONS • Are you familiar with these poets or their works? What do you think of them? [Possible response: I’m familiar with most of these poets. I remember reading “She Walks in Beauty” by Lord Byron. It begins with the famous line, “She walks in beauty, like the night.” It’s a love poem.] BACKGROUND • Both the English Romantics and the American transcendentalists believed that direct contemplation of nature leads to spiritual knowledge and inspiration.
- BACKGROUND • In The Castle of Otranto, Walpole filled Strawberry Hill with ghosts, monsters, and living statues to illustrate the collapse of a royal family. The effects of Walpole’s “little gothick Castel” and the terrifying, imaginative novel it inspired were far-reaching. They helped begin the Romantic period’s love affair with all things Gothic. People thought that Gothic architecture reflected the wild, unpredictable aspects of nature and that a melancholy painting could enhance spiritual awareness. • The Gothic was one way people expressed a sense of helplessness about forces beyond their control, such as the revolutions in Europe and the unsettling changes brought about by industrialization. • Other Gothic romances include Ann Radcliffe’s The Italian (1797), Matthew Gregory Lewis’s The Monk (1796), and William Beckford’s Vathek (1787).
- Possible response: People may have turned to nature as a way of escaping from the problems of the cities. People who grew up in the countryside may have been nostalgic for a childhood free of those problems.
- John Gilbert’s (1817–1897) ability to draw accurately from memory enabled him to capture this image of a train in motion.