ROMANTIC PERIOD IN ENGLISH LITERATURE: 1798-1832

A BRIEF OVERVIEW

SOCIAL & POLITICAL CONTEXT

PERIOD OF GREAT CHANGE IN ENGLAND:

AGRICULTURAL - POWERFUL

LANDHOLDING ARISTOCRACY

GIVING WAY TO MODERN INDUSTRIAL

NATION OF LARGE-SCALE EMPLOYERS & A

GROWING, RESTLESS MIDDLE CLASS.

AMERICAN & FRENCH REVOLUTIONS -

IMPORTANT ELEMENTS OF THE

POLITICAL LANDSCAPE.

REVOLUTIONS - THREATS TO EXISTING

SOCIAL STRUCTURE

PERIOD OF CHANGE (cont.)

PERIOD OF CHANGE (cont.)

POLITICAL REPRESSION IN ENGLAND

NEEDED CHANGES – DUE TO

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION.

PERIOD OF CHANGE (cont.)

MILL TOWNS GREW

THE LANDSCAPE - SUBDIVIDED

FACTORIES SPEWED POLLUTION OVER

SLUMS

THE POPULATION - DIVIDED INTO RICH &

POOR.

LACK OF REFORM

NO REFORMS – philosophy of LAISSEZ-FAIRE (“LET ALONE”) prevailed.

Lack of reforms caused the Romantic poets to turn to a more private, spontaneous, lyric poetry that championed the cause of the “common man”

LACK OF REFORM (cont.)

CONSEQUENCES

LOW WAGES

HORRIBLE WORKING CONDITIONS

LARGE-SCALE EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN

& CHILDREN IN BRUTALLY HARD

OCCUPATIONS (SUCH AS COAL MINING).

LACK OF REFORM (cont.)

IN THE FACE OF TECHNOLOGICAL UN-

EMPLOYMENT & POVERTY, WORKERS

COULD NOT VOTE

RESORT TO PROTESTS & RIOTS

INCUR FURTHER REPRESSION

THE POOR SUFFERED

THE LEISURE CLASS PROSPERED.

PLIGHT OF WOMEN

WOMEN OF ALL CLASSES

REGARDED AS INFERIOR TO MEN

UNDEREDUCATED

LIMITED VOCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

STRICT CODE OF SEXUAL BEHAVIOR

ALMOST NO LEGAL RIGHTS.

PLIGHT OF WOMEN (cont.)

THE CAUSE OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS WAS

LARGELY IGNORED.

ROMANTICISM

Embraced imagination and naturalness

Turned away from 18th century emphasis on

reason and artifice

Fascination with youth and innocence

Question tradition and authority

ROMANTICISM (cont.)

ROMANTIC POETS –

REJECTED PUBLIC, FORMAL, AND WITTY

WORKS OF THE PREVIOUS CENTURY

EMBRACED PERSONAL EXPERIENCES

EMOTIONS

SIMPLE ,UNADORNED LANGUAGE

ROMANTIC POETS (cont.) LYRIC FORM TO EXPRESS, FEELINGS,

SELF-REVOLATION, & IMAGINATION DEMOCRATIC ATTITUDE TOWARD

AUDIENCE, “ A MAN SPEAKING TO MEN.” TURNED TO AN INNER DREAM WORLD TO

BLOCK OUT THE UGLY INDUSTRIAL AGE THEY LIVED IN

INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY SYMPATHIZED WITH REBELS

ROMANTIC POETS (cont.) NATURE – TRANSFORMATIVE NATURE – HUMAN MIND “MIRRORED”

THE OTHER’S CREATIVE PROPERTIES

POETIC THEORY & PRACTICE

WORDSWORTH TRIED TO ARTICULATE

THE SPIRIT OF THE NEW POETRY IN

THE PREFACE TO LYRICAL BALLADS

(1800, 1802).

CONCEPT OF POETRY

POETRY WAS SEEN AS THE “SPONTA-

NEOUS OVERFLOW OF POWERFUL

FEELINGS”

THE ESSENCE OF POETRY WAS THE MIND,

EMOTIONS, & IMAGINATION OF THE POET

(NOT THE OUTER WORLD).

POETRY & THE POET

FIRST-PERSON LYRIC POEM BECAME

THE MAJOR ROMANTIC LITERARY

FORM, WITH “I” OFTEN REFERRING

DIRECTLY TO THE POET.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SELF BE-

CAME A MAJOR TOPIC OF ROMANTIC

POETRY.

POETRY & THE POET (cont.)

POETS OFTEN SAW THEMSELVES AS PROPHETS IN A TIME OF CRISIS, REVISING THE PROMISE OF DIVINE REDEMPTION IN TERMS OF A “HEAVEN” ON EARTH.

POETIC SPONTANEITY, FREEDOM

Initial act of poetic composition must:

Arise from impulse;

Be free from the rules inherited from the past

Rely on instinct, intuition, and feeling

NATURE

Accurate observation & description of wild

nature important because,

Serves as a stimulus to thinking

Contributes to the resolution of personal problems

Resolution of crises

NATURE (cont.)

LANDSCAPE

GIVEN HUMAN QUALITIES OR

SEEN AS A SYSTEM OF SYMBOLS

REVEALING THE NATURE OF GOD.

CLOSENESS TO NATURE WAS SEEN AS

BRINGING OUT HUMANITY’S INNATE

GOODNESS.

GLORIFICATION OF THE COMMONPLACE

HUMBLE, RUSTIC SUBJECT MATTER &

PLAIN STYLE BECAME THE PRINCIPAL

SUBJECT & MEDIUM OF POETRY.

THE COMMONPLACE (cont.)

POETS SOUGHT TO REFRESH READERS’

SENSE OF WONDER ABOUT THE

ORDINARY THINGS OF EXISTENCE, TO

MAKE THE “OLD” WORLD SEEM NEW.

THE SUPERNATURAL & STRANGE

MANY ROMANTIC POEMS: EXPLORE THE REALM OF MYSTERY &

MAGIC

INCORPORATE MATERIALS FROM FOLKLORE & SUPERSTITION

OFTEN SET IN DISTANT OR FARAWAY PLACES

THE STRANGE (cont.)

RENEWED INTEREST IN THE MIDDLE

AGES (AND THE BALLAD FORM) AS A

BEAUTIFUL, EXOTIC, MYSTERIOUS

BYGONE ERA.

THE STRANGE (cont.)

THERE WAS ALSO GREAT INTEREST IN

UNUSUAL MODES OF EXPERIENCE, VISIONARY STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS HYPNOTISM DREAMS DRUG-INDUCED STATES, AND SO FORTH.

THE STRANGE (cont.) GOTHIC

Eerie and supernatural elements Stories set in gloomy, medieval castles Intention – make readers, blood run cold Expressed a sense of helplessness about:

Things beyond control Revolutions in Europe Industrialization’s economic changes

INDIVIDUALISM & STRIVING

HUMAN BEINGS WERE SEEN AS ESSEN-

TIALLY NOBLE & GOOD (THOUGH COR-

RUPTED BY SOCIETY)

POSSESSING GREAT POWER & POTENTIAL

THAT HAD FORMERLY BEEN ASCRIBED

ONLY TO GOD.

INDIVIDUALISM (cont.)

THERE WAS EMPHASIS ON BELIEF IN DEMOCRATIC IDEALS CONCERN FOR HUMAN LIBERTY A GREAT OUTCRY AGAINST VARIOUS

FORMS OF TYRANNY.

INDIVIDUALISM (cont.)

THE HUMAN MIND WAS SEEN AS

CREATING (AT LEAST IN PART) THE WORLD

AROUND IT

HAVING ACCESS TO THE INFINITE VIA THE

FACULTY OF IMAGINATION.

INDIVIDUALISM (cont.)

REFUSING TO ACCEPT LIMITATIONS,

HUMAN BEINGS SET INFINITE,

INACCESSIBLE GOALS, THUS MAKING

FAILURE & IMPERFECTION GLORIOUS

ACCOMPLISHMENTS.

INDIVIDUALISM (cont.)

REFUSAL TO ACCEPT LIMITATIONS

FOUND EXPRESSION IN BOLD POETIC

EXPERIMENTATION.

INDIVIDUALISM (cont.)

MANY WRITERS ISOLATED THEMSELVES

FROM SOCIETY TO FOCUS ON THEIR

INDIVIDUAL VISION.

THEME OF EXILE WAS COMMON - THE

ROMANTIC NON-CONFORMIST OFTEN

SEEN AS A GREAT SINNER OR OUTLAW.

INDIVIDUALISM (cont) BYRONIC HERO

“Mad, bad, and dangerous to know.” – Lady Caroline Lamb, speaking of George Gordon, Lord Byron

“A man proud, moody, cynical, with defiance on his brow, and misery in his heart, a scorner of his kind, implacable in revenge, yet capable of deep and strong affection.”

Reckless, wounded manhood

ROMANTIC POETS Dominated by six poets:

William Blake Samuel Taylor Coleridge William Wordsworth Percy Bysshe Shelley John Keats George Gordon, Lord Byron

William Blake

William Wordsworth

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Percy Bysshe Shelley

John Keats

George Gordon, Lord Byron