Influence Of British Romanticism On British Literature
Influence Of British Romanticism On British Literature
Characterized by freedom of the mind and an idealistic view of human nature, Romanticism slowly crept out of Neoclassicism to become one of the most influential periods of British literature. It is the emergence of this new literary period called Romanticism that stirred an interest in those who were hungry for a new form of writing and thought. This idea, although relatively short-lived and lasting only from 1798-1832, had enormous effects on the philosophy and literature of the time while leaving its mark on the history of England. When describing Romanticism, an author once said:
This was a turbulent period, during which England experienced the ordeal of change from a primarily agricultural society, where wealth and power had been concentrated in the landholding aristocracy, to a modern industrial nation, in which the balance of economic power shifted to large-scale employers, who found themselves ranged against an immensely enlarging and increasingly restive working class (Abrams 1).
Writers of Neoclassicism have often been described as writing:
most of their poems in heroic couplets, made their center of interest London, were preeminently satirists, had little patience with individual deviations from the dictates of common sense, and placed good manners on a higher level than personal emotion (Bell and Grebanier 13).
These characteristics of Neoclassicism were prominent in Europe for nearly a century, contributing to the British a yearning for change. This long-awaited change was brought about by Romantics focusing more on the sense, emotions, and imagination of each individual, rather than standards that were set by previous writers. The authors’ styles were more free than before while they focused on nature above all else.
This idealistic view of nature was started by French philosopher and Romantic forerunner Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau was a true individualist and strongly believed in the freedom of the human spirit. His most famous quote that characterizes his naturalistic views of life is, “I felt before I thought” (“Romanticism (literature)”). One influential author during the Romantic Period was Edward Gibbon who is known to be the greatest English historian of the Enlightenment. It was once said of him that:
the influence of his iconoclastic rationality was to be felt in the work of a new generation of writers who often distrusted reason and who earnestly sought to redefine the intellectual and political assumptions of its fathers (Sanders 333-334).
Just as Rousseau...