Romanticism is a style in the fine arts and literature. It emphasizes passion rather than reason, and imagination and intuition rather than logic. Romanticism favors full expression of the emotions, and free, spontaneous action rather than restraint and order. In all these ways, Romanticism contrasts with another style called Classicism. Periods of Romanticism often develop as a revolt against Classicism. Artists and writers throughout history have shown Romantic tendencies. But the term Romantic movement usually refers to the period from the late 1700’s to the mid-1800’s.
The qualities of Romanticism
Romantics yearn for the infinite. The English Romantic poet William Blake thought he could “see a World in a Grain of Sand / And a Heaven in a Wild Flower.” Romantics view nature as a living spirit, attuned to human feelings of love and compassion.
Romanticism stresses freedom for the individual. It rejects restricting social conventions and unjust political rule. In literature, the Romantic hero, such as Lord Byron‘s “Manfred,” is often a rebel or outlaw.
Just as the Romantic hero is in revolt against social conventions, the Romantic artist is in revolt against artificial ideas of good form. In drama, for example, Romantic writers reject the classical unities of time, place, and action. They allow the events in their plays to range widely in time and space. Jean Racine‘s play Phaedra is rigidly Classical in form. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe‘s play Faust is Romantic.
Romanticism in the arts
Romanticism in literature.
During the Romantic movement, most writers were discontented with their world. It seemed commercial, inhuman, and standardized. To escape from modern life, the Romantics turned their interest to remote and faraway places, the medieval past, folklore and legends, and nature and the common people. The Romantics were also drawn to the supernatural.
Many Romantic characteristics were united in the Gothic novel. This was a type of horror story, filled with violence and supernatural effects, and set against a background of gloomy medieval Gothic castles. The Gothic novel influenced the American writers Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe. The novels of Sir Walter Scott of Scotland and James Fenimore Cooper of the United States reveal the typically Romantic interest in the past. Grimm’s Fairy Tales, collected by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, are famous examples of the Romantic interest in legends and folklore.
Many typically Romantic characteristics appear in the poetry of William Wordsworth of England. Wordsworth preferred a reflective “vacant and pensive mood” to a restless search for scientific knowledge. He believed we learn more by communing with nature or talking to country people than by reading books. He also believed that harmony with nature is the source of all goodness and truth.
Romanticism in painting.
Romantic painters often used bold lighting effects and deep shadow to cast a visionary gleam over their subjects. Classical forms and themes were abandoned for faraway exotic subjects such as the Asian scenes painted by Frenchman Eugène Delacroix. Dramatic scenes of nature were also popular. Important Romantic landscape painters of the early 1800’s include John Constable of England and Caspar David Friedrich of Germany. Friedrich’s paintings of the natural world seem to suggest a mysterious, otherworldly quality that goes beyond nature itself.
Romanticism in music.
Romantic composers modified the formalism of classical music, and aimed at lyric expression and organic unity. Many Romantic composers gave their works a nationalistic character by using folk songs as themes. Romantic composers include Franz Schubert of Austria; Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, and Carl Maria von Weber of Germany; and Frédéric Chopin of Poland.
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Opera: Romanticism
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Classical Romantic music by Chopin
Romanticism and society.
The French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau taught that people are naturally good but have been corrupted by the institutions of civilization. He idealized the noble savage, an individual unspoiled by luxury and sophistication, and he argued that in a virtuous society children would grow up honest and free. Influenced by these ideas, many Romantics opposed political tyranny and took part in liberal and revolutionary activities. The revolutions in America and France during the late 1700’s were influenced by Romantic ideals.
Many of Rousseau’s theories influenced educational theory and practice. Romanticism also became associated with economic and social reform, especially in the United States.
