The Romantic Period
Silence (1799), by
Henry Fuseli
It is widely recognized that, among all literary periods, Romanticism is the one that
generally defies any one definition because of its complexity and multiplicity. As a
matter of fact, Romanticism can be viewed as a label which literary critics
conveniently used at a later time to describe the new intellectual and artistic
climate that had developed between the end of the 18th century and the
first part of the following one. In addition, Romanticism was a European
movement which involved and affected other countries, such as Germany, Italy and
In the play Sturm und
Drang, 1774,
Friedrich
Maximiliam Klinger
gives violent expression
to emotions and heralds
individual expression
and subjectivity over
the natural order of
rationality.
France, each of which added to it in its own specific way.
One way to introduce the Romantic period is to trace the history of the word
romantic and highlight a few of the many meanings and definitions which have
been attached to it. Interestingly enough, it was in England that the term was first
introduced around the mid-17th century to characterize the unreality and
improbability of the events told by old romances and chivalrous tales as well as to
underline the exaggeration of the feelings exhibited. The term was used in a
derogatory way during the Augustan Age which championed order, balance and
correctness.
Gradually, however, “romantic” took on a more positive meaning again, thus
mirroring the change in sensibility which took place around the mid-18th century
when the neoclassical literary values and ideals were called into question by the
works of Thomas Gray or Edward Young who, in this sense, can be considered preRomantics. “Romantic” started being used to connote or describe states of mind
associated with the expression of feelings and emotions, in particular those
aroused by the contemplation of natural landscape and shaded with melancholy
and sadness.
At this time and with this connotation, the word was introduced, in its translated
forms, into France and Germany and this fact is considered one of the most
important English contributions to the history of European thought.
Among the many writers who variedly used this word, it is worth mentioning Jean
Jacques Rousseau and Friedrich Schlegel. Rousseau used “romantique” in a
famous passage of his Reveries du promeneur solitaire (1776-1778) to describe the
shores of a lake he was walking by. Schlegel, who is reckoned to have introduced the
term “romantisch” into the context of literary criticism, used it in his works on
literature and the creative process especially in connection with what is emotional
and imaginative. It is worth noting that, in England, the authors who are commonly
regarded as Romantic, such as Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats,
never used this word to define the qualities of their own poetry.
The romantic awakening was eventually the culmination of an intense and lively
intellectual and philosophical debate which had developed throughout Europe
during the latter part of the 18th century and which in England had been anticipated
by the so called Age on Sensibility. In this context, it is worth mentioning the works
of the French philosopher and writer Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) as well as
the German literary movement Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress).
In Discours sur l’origine de l’inégalité (1775), an investigation into the origins of
inequality among men, Rousseau contends that society and civilized behaviour are
bad while nature and natural behaviour are good. From this opposition originaties
his idealized notion of the “noble savage”, who is good, free and happy because in
contact with nature, and his praise of simple life and its uncorrupted joys. Thus,
Rousseau advocates a return to nature which finds an eloquent exposition in several
of his works, in particular Reveries du promeneur solitaire, published posthumously
in 1782. The emphasis on the communion between nature and the individual's ’tate of
mind is here treated in a personal, subjective way through spontaneous association of
images and ideas and the use of autobiographical material.
Rousseau’s new approach to nature greatly influenced the young German writers
grouped under the Sturm und Drang after the title of a play written by one of its
members. It was formed in Strasbourg in 1770 and was active for some ten years.
65
The Sorrows of
Young Werther,
written by J.W.
Goethe in 1774 was
a major influence on
the Romantic
literature that
followed.
Ariel, by H. Fuseli
Giacomo Leopardi
(1798-1823), is
considered to be one
of Italy’s greatest
poets and thinkers.
Il bacio (1856), by
The inspiring forces behind it were the German writer and dramatist Johann
Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832) and Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803), writer and
philosopher. Besides exalting nature and its spontaneity against the constraints
imposed by the use of reason, the Sturm und Drang writers emphasized the
uniqueness and essential freedom of the individual and stressed his creative
powers. In their conception, which was also influenced by Young’s conjectures on
Original Composition, these features were at their best embodied in the figure of the
genius, that is the creative artist.
It is also important to acknowledge the influence of the German idealism which
is generally considered the philosophical background of Romanticism. It centered
around the works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814), Georg Wilhelm Friedrich
Hegel (1770-1831) and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775-1854). Each of them,
in his own peculiar way, voiced the aspiration towards the Absolute or the
infinite, beyond the limits imposed by reason and the certainties it apparently
fostered. They recognized a fundamental creative, dynamic spiritual force at
work in the world which moved incessantly towards its own realization. Fichte
called it the Thinking Self or Ego, Schelling the Absolute and Hegel the Ideal. Notably,
Schelling maintained that the best manifestation of the Absolute was to be found in
art and that the artistic experience was the only way for man to come close to the
Absolute.
Within this web of interweaving and overlapping influences, romantic sensibility
spread all over Europe.
In Germany, where it had its philosophical roots, Romanticism developed
out of the enthusiasm of the Sturm und Drang and stressed the predominance of
sensibility and transcendent discernment over any rational experience. The figure of
the artist remained central in his being able to fuse the rational and irrational aspects
of the mind.
In France, notwithstanding Rousseau’s fundamental influence, the romantic
movement developed rather late due to the persistence of a neoclassical tradition
which had sanctioned France’s cultural dominance since the 17th century. Oddly
enough, despite the impact of the French Revolution on the minds of the so-called
romantic intellectuals, France’s political history since 1789 somewhat obstructed the
literary debate. As a result, a real romantic movement became evident in France as
late as the 1820s by mostly emphasizing freedom from literary conventions and the
role of passion and spontaneity.
In Italy too the romantic movement emerged relatively late, mainly because
Italian literature was deeply rooted in the classicist tradition and tended to imitate
the classics. In addition, the sense of history, the concept of nation and the emphasis
on freedom were impressed upon the minds of the Italian intellectuals who,
politically liberals, longed and strived for the unification of Italy: for them literature,
or art in general, was a means towards the political education of the Italian people
and, as such, was to convey high moral, social and political values.
In England the genre dominated by Romanticism was poetry. The English
romantic poets are conventionally divided into two generations.
The poets of the first generation (which includes includes William Wordsworth
and Samuel Taylor Coleridge) were united in their appreciation of and enthusiasm
for the French Revolution. In addition, they regarded their task as poet as that of
arousing the individual’s consciousness and providing a deeper, purified vision of
life. They confronted their contemporary society but never opposed it openly.
The poets of the second generation (which comprises George Gordon Byron,
Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats) all had a brief through intense life. Lord Byron
and Shelley in particular travelled extensively all over Europe. Travelling on the so
called ‘grand tour’ was very fashionable during the romantic period and almost all
romantic poets journeyed through Europe. However, while travelling continued to
be considered a learning experience and an opportunity to expose oneself to a
different cultural or intellectual climate, the poets of the second generation used it to
further highlight their opposition to contemporary society, its conventions and rules.
These poets carried to an extreme their passionate intensity of feeling and
imagination, their idea of freedom and rebellion, their determination to remain
independent. In doing so, they detached themselves from the established order of
things either by harshly contrasting it or contemplating it from the privileged though
isolated position of the poet, and took refuge in an exclusive cult of the beautiful.
Francesco Hayez.
66
The Spirit of Romanticism
There were two events that left a permanent mark, not only in this period but also in
the following: the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution.
The French Revolution was hailed by many intellectuals as the overthrow of
tyranny, the beginning of a new era in human history. Liberty, equality, fraternity –
the motto of the Revolution – spread throughout Europe and fired yound
intellectuals and poets like Wordsworth, who cried:
In one of his most
famous poems, Lines
Written in Early
Spring, Wordsworth
wrote: “And much it
grieved my heart to
think/ What man has
made of man”. (i.e.
has destroyed the
capacity to share the
harmony and joy of
all natural creatures.
Economist Jeremy
Bentham created his
famous principle of
‘utility’: “It is the
greatest happiness
of the greatest
number that is the
measure of right and
wrong.”
“Bliss was it in the dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very heaven!”
Behind this yearning for reform it is possible to detect the ideas of the French
philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), who set forth his theory on the
equality of all individuals and advocated a society governed by the general
will.
In his rejection of civilization, that he saw as artificial and corrupting, he preached
a return to a simple, natural life. This aspect of the thought of Rousseau leads ‘by
contrast’ to the other important event which transformed the way of life: the
Industrial Revolution.
Before this change from an agricultural to an industrial nation, a large share of
English society was formed by small farmers who lived an independent life. The
Industrial Revolution destroyed the rural family as an economic unit and
transformed the working individual into an impersonal labour force.
Those who had been independent farmers moved to the new industrial towns to
become factory workers, thus leaving their villages, while the importance of
agriculture declined. The intellectuals of the time deplored the abandonment of
the country, the loss of contact with nature, and foresaw the evils connected with
the mass society that was being born as well as the materialism and the greed that
they already perceived in their contemporaries. Hence their wish to transcend the
reality, their deep interest in nature, not as a beautiful scenery but as a spiritual
influence; hence the emphasis on individualism and on solitude.
The excesses of the Jacobin dictatorship and France’s wars with the rest of Europe
disappoined many supporters of the French Revolution, who passed to conservative
positions.
However, the necessity of reform was urgent and deeply felt. The working
classes were beginning to become conscious of their rights, and were demanding
better living standards and the right to vote; the reforms were not welcomed by the
government (the Reform Bill of 1832 was passed only after great resistance) and by a
good share of public opinion, afraid of concession to what they called “Jacobin
mobs”.
The ideological fervour of those years was the source of great pamphleteering
and debate. A very influential man who greatly appealed to the idealistic feelings of
so many young intellectuals, was the radical and anarchic philosopher William
Godwin (1756-1836), who condemned institutions, traditions, and even feeling like
gratitude because they limit personal freedom.
In L’enfant
sauvage
(1970), French director
François Truffaut
develops some of the
anxieties of the
Romantic period.
The industrial and commercial development saw the flourishing of economists
like John Stuart Mill and, Thomas Robert Malthus. The most influential thinker of
the time was perhaps Jeremy Bentham, the father of Utilitarianism, who maintained
that social action is right when it produces the greatest good for the greatest number.
He had many followers, who pursued the successful policy of institutional reform
which secured political continuity.
The period witnessed the beginning of the dichotomy which would mark all the
19th century: on the one hand the wealthy classes were determined to achieve more
and more wealth and power, utilitarianism and free trade were accepte, many
reforms were granted but in fact left things basically unchanged; on the other
individual philanthropists and intellectuals challenged the order of things and
sought to evade from a society that they felt alien.
67