Romanticism Essay Research Paper ROMANTICISMThe definition of

Romanticism Essay, Research Paper

ROMANTICISM

The definition of romanticism is noted as a romantic spirit, outlook, tendency, etc. or the spirit, styles, and attitudes of, or adherence to the Romantic Movement or a similar movement contrasted with classicism and realism. Now, to complete this definition we must define the Romantic Movement. The Romantic Movement was the revolt in the late eighteenth to early nineteenth centuries against the artistic, political, and philosophical principles that had become

associated with neoclassicism: characterized in literature, music, paintings, etc. by freedom of form, emphasis on feeling, originality, and creative imagination. Also on the artists own personality and sympathetic interests in nature, medevilism, the common man and so forth. This basically explains the content of this essay. The

essay will be a deeper explanation of these things related to four of the main themes in romanticism. Specific examples of revolution, individuality, nature, and love will be included. The leading item in romanticism was passion. Almost everything, whether it be art, music, or literature, was shown with extreme passion. This could very well be the reason for calling it the Romantic Period. Love has a somewhat difficult definition, due to the fact that it is a feeling. Love had an immense role in romanticism. Love in art was mainly shown in ballet. It gave great importance to women not only as artists but mythical figures as well. The ballet showed men and women in an equality of roles, but also gave men a chance to show that they too could accomplish extravagant dance steps. Ballet also stressed exoticism, fantasy, nature and most importantly love. An example of

a common love theme in ballet would be the unrealizable love for an fleeting lady or fatal love for a temptress. Paris was the center of romantic ballet. A poet by the name of Theophile Gautier wrote the story for twhat is considered the greatest ballet of all time called “Giselle”. This ballet is still popular with modern audiences. This particular ballet was based upon a German legend of a girl who loves to dance and falls in love with a shepherd boy. Her mother warns her of her fate by saying “Unhappy child! You will dance forever, you will kill yourself, and when you are dead, you will become a Wili (dancing spirit).” Her prophecy eventually becomes truth when Giselle kills herself after finding that her beloved is a duke in disguise and is already engaged to a noble lady. The woman who danced the lead (Carlotta Grisi), as told by Gautier himself, danced the role “With

perfection, lightness, boldness, and a chaste refinement and refined seductiveness, which placed her in first rank . . .she was nature and artlessness personified.” In literature Madame de Stael’s novel “Corinne” is about a poetic genius who suffers and eventually dies of unrequited love, a very passionate and common theme in the Romantic Era. Madame de Stael’s statement on poetic inspiration is chiefly known for its portrayal of women and for its romantic glorification of inspired genius. Here is a portion of that statement: “Sometimes my impassioned excitement carries me beyond myself; teaches me to find in nature and in my own heart such daring truths and forcible expressions as solitary mediation could never have engendered.” This is a excellent example of so many of the themes in romanticism. It tells of passion, nature, love, and also individualism. These are all necessary components of romanticism. The roles of women in the Romantic Period were quite contradictory. They were liberated and independent, predatory and dangerous, domestic and subservient, and even ethereal and mystical. These are all ways that women were portrayed at this time, mostly the oppinions of men. Women, as

writers, often went under male pen names due to the controversy of women writing. Some archetypes of women writers in romanticism were: Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelly (the woman who married the poet Shelly and wrote the story of “Frankenstien”). There were the Bronte sisters and Mary Ann Evans (under the name George Elliot) in England, Germaine Necker (Madame de Stael)and Aurore Dupin (George Sand) in France, and in the United States the extraordinary writers Margaret Fuller and Emily Dickenson. These are only a few of the many female writers in romanticism. These women were courageous and as passionate, if not more so than men, in their writing. They faced restrictions and struggled to be recognized as respectable writers in their time, they eventually did, but did not live to see this happen. The revolutions of both Europe and the United States greatly impacted romanticism. Romanticism is occasionally known as a revolutionary movement due to the extreme changes in politics, taste, feeling, behavior, thought and social and domestic relations. There are many examples of revolutionary and romantic ideas mixed. In Spaniard Francisco de Goya’s painting “The Third of May” (1808) there are obvious romantic qualities. The eloquent way that the figures are

posed in motion and with the intensely contrasting and dramatic colors. All of these elements were typical in romanticism. This painting was also a political statement of the injustices and the slaughter of innocent citizens after an uprising against a French invasion. This painting was painted in 1814 after king Ferdinand