Romanticism Essays

The Author Percy Bysshe Shelley, the author of “Ode to the West Wind”, was a significant part of the English literary period we now refer to as the Romantic Age which ran from 1798 to 1832. The most prominent features of the Romantic period were the reflected effects of the American and French Revolutions, as […]

The words, classical and romantic, although, like many other critical expressions, sometimes abused by those who have understood them too vaguely or too absolutely, yet define two real tendencies in the history of art and literature. Used in an exaggerated sense, to express a greater opposition between those tendencies than really exists, they have at […]

Abstract: The thesis is about the analysis of light and darkness in the poems of George Gordon Byron. The analysis is based on the two poems-She Walks in Beauty and Darkness. Key words: light, darkness, Byron, contrast, beauty, fight. As a leading figure of Romantic Movement, George Byron is widely regarded as the most flamboyant […]

The author of “An Occurrence on Owl Creek Bridge” is Ambrose Bierce. This story was written during the Civil War, between 1861 and 1865, which classifies it as a Realistic text. Realism is a literary technique that highlights the depiction of reality, emphasizing the harsh realities of life and providing intricate details about commonly encountered […]

Nathaniel Hawthorn is a great novelist. He ranks high among American novelists because of his beautiful style, which is attributable to three main aspects of his works. He is a skillful craftsman, his work provides evidence of his moral nature and keen insight and his mastery of allegory and symbolism. Henry James regards him “the […]

In our day, we instinctively associate Western Civilization with liberty, individualism and reason. However, liberal democracy is more recent phenomena. Many crucial aspects of the civilization of Western countries of today developed from the time of French and American revolutions. Before 1800 CE, the modern Western civilization was in many ways in formative stages. For […]

Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote ‘The world is nothing, the man is all; in yourself is the law of all nature’(Norton 548). Emersonian individualism has had a burning influence on American society, where the individual mind is perceived as something divine, where man stood alone, independent and all-knowing. A contemporary author, Edgar Allan Poe, had […]

When I have fears that I may cease to be, by John Keats, portrays the poet’s fear of dying young and being unable to fulfill his ideal as a writer and loses his beloved. Based on the use of sensuous imagery, it is clear that visual image dominates the use of imagery and there are […]

Ferdinand Victor Eugene Delacroix was a French artist, best known for his significant contributions to the Romantic Movement during the early 1800s. Throughout his career as an artist, Delacroix has produced over 9,000 art works. As such the thesis for this paper will focus on acknowledging Eugene Delacroix’s influence and contributions to Romanticism. Delacroix was […]

Contrary to autobiographical pieces such as those by St. Augustine and St. Teresa that primarily concentrated on spiritual and religious matters aimed at converting people to Christianity or other religions, Jean Jacques Rousseau’s “Confessions” adopted an alternative method (Cranston). His autobiography was largely influenced by his personal emotions, life events, and even episodes that caused […]

The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper presents an idealistic or romanticized view on early America. The scenes present spectacular views of great courage, great treachery, and great love. Especially portrayed with immense idealization, is the natural beauty of the landscape. Nature seems beautiful, safe, amazing, and contains neither danger nor evil. Romanticized […]

In the case of Diego and Gabriela Silang’s tragic yet heroic love story, a lot of factors are to be considered in order for us to deduce that both Diego and Gabriela may have had a touch of romanticism with their heroism in both their love and historical stories. The first factor that I’d like […]

Tom Stoppard entitled his play Arcadia, which sets in the readers’ minds an idea of an idyllic region (distant places – as romantics used to frequently refer to in their works). It is a region which after the collapse of the Roman power in the west of Greece, became part of the Byzantine Empire. It […]

In 1798 a new era began in English poetry called the Romantic age. This age provoked the thinking of new radical ideas and thoughts and the writing of these ideas in poems. The poets included Samuel T Coleridge, Alfred Lord Tennyson and William Wordsworth. Some of their ideas and thoughts include: 1) Rebellion against tyrannical […]

Romanticism, in essence, is a broad term encompassing different movements towards change seen in European literature, art, and culture during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. While it led to a noticeable change in sensibility, Romanticism was not a cohesive movement with a universally agreed upon agenda. Its emphases differed greatly depending on the […]

Both “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” and “Paul’s Case” depict main characters with similar qualities that lead them to encounters that ultimately destroy their innocence. The tragic endings of both teenagers’ lives suggest that their lack of parental guidance and moral restrictions, as well as their desire for romance at a young […]

The term ‘Romanticism’ is related to a period of European history during the end of the 18th Century and the beginning of the 19th Century. The romantic age of poetry was dependant on various features atypical to their time, for example a reaction against previous literary styles, arguments with eighteenth century and earlier philosophers, the […]

Romanticism vs Rationalism Romantics value Individuality while, Rationalist value conformity. In the Poem “Ode: Intimation of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood” by William Wordsworth, stanza VII deals with conformity. The young man will have to “fit his tongue to dialogues f business, love, strife” (Wordsworth 13-14) just so that he fits in. He is […]

In the current historical reassessment of romanticism, individualism has rightly become a major area of scholarly and critical focus. One important question that has begun to press to the surface of critical discussion in the investigation of romanticism is whether the romantic imagination is essentially masculinist. In the current historical reassessment of romanticism, individualism has […]

Realism, a 19th century movement, aimed to transform playwrights from traditional romantic pieces to focusing on the day-to-day activities that shaped people’s daily lives. This new writing style influenced acting and brought about several changes in how actors prepared for their stage roles. Actors began studying actual events in society and rehearsing them before performing […]

“The Destruction of Sennacherib” is an example of Romantic philosophy in both its revolutionary subject matter and in how Byron uses vivid details and descriptive language. “The Destruction of Sennacherib” retells an ancient story that is firmly rooted in nineteenth-century Romanticism. Byron believed strongly in a revolution of ideas, not only how poets should write […]

American Romanticism emerged in Germany during the 1770s and subsequently gained popularity in both Europe and America by the 1820s (Hampson, par. 1). The Romantic period played a crucial role in shaping a national literary tradition in America, especially as there was no extensive literary history compared to Europe. This significance is evident from the […]