Between the 18th century and the 19th century there was an important cultural phenomenon called “Romanticism”(or the romantic crisis). It marked the crisis of Logos(logical thought) and the Quest for myth(a philosophical research). Reason came to crisis for practical causes, it was unable to give answers to existential questions, to change the nature of man, and to find solutions to the poverty of the masses(there were illnesses, infant mortality, overcrowding). The expiration of life is very low. The pessimism is consequential. Children were drawn in the river Thames. Society is split because Aristocracy lived in a good way. While in the Age of Reason there was the urban man(citizen), the gentleman and it was dominated by reason, in the Romanticism there was the man who lives alone(the hermit, the exile, the wanderer, the shepherd) and it was dominated by feelings, such as “The Sublime”, which is connected with nature. The Romanticism is not a social movement, but an intellectual(and melancholic) phenomenon. It affected all social classes(poor as Blake). There are, however, some elements of continuity, such as the use of reason and the concept of Democracy and Freedom. In the Age of Reason Democracy and Freedom are connected with political rights: they wanted rules and regulations. In the Romanticism Freedom remains a value, but it acquires a different meaning: Romantic thinkers want freedom from institutions, from rules, from social bounds and spiritual freedom. Many of them proposed Anarchism. There was a shared area, but they have different vision of Freedom and Democracy.
In classicism there were: perfection of forms, equilibrium, regularity, order, symmetry, simplicity, man dominated nature, modularity, clarity(and light); in Romanticism there weren’t regularity, modularity, symmetry, but there was chaos, obscurity, man was dominated by nature(man is small, while there are huge trees) and there are inner areas that are impossible to explain in rational terms.
Romantic spirit was escapist. They are dreamers. They search an escape in the space(in mountains, in countries, in Italy and in Asia) and in the time(they dreamed the idealized Barbarian Middle Age, a period of myth). They denounce social problems, but they can’t find solutions.
What did romantic artists think about...?
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The town: Romantic man lived alone, to him town was a place in which people met. It was considered a symbol of order, political life, industrial part made of overcrowding and violence, illnesses, alcoholism, dirt and quarrels. Moreover, the considered town a place of negativities, an insane place. They dislike laws. They admired only the beauty of the monumental town. Someone denounce problems and the human degradation due to Industrial Revolution: they say hat this is the result of Enlightenment.
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The industrialism: It was a negative thing, because it brings men to poverty and to illnesses. Work is repetitive, alienating and sterile.
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The state: they refused laws, they are anarchists.
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The church: they refused the church and religion institution; they found in nature the presence of God. They needed a God. Protestant church considered poverty as a sin. Romantics dislike British church. They refuse also Calvinistic thought which saw in work a form of prayer.
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The mind: They based their experiences on feelings. They are against rationalism because they were dreamers.
-The child: He represented the innocence. It is a symbol and the poet often recognized himself in child.
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The poor: The fruit of industrialism and the victim of the evil of that time.
Fonte: Pavi92
https://myenglish.blogfree.net/
