“A Look at Romanticism”
If I were to ask someone to describe a Romantic, I might get a response such as “a day-dreamer; someone who longs for adventure and romance,” and that would be a good beginning to understanding what Romanticism is about. The Romanticism movement extended not only to literature, but also to art and philosophy. Of course, I will only focus on the literature aspect. The best way to describe Romanticism is to discuss common themes and ideas found in this genre of literature, such as the emphasis of imagination and feeling, escapism, appreciation of beauty and nature, and the importance of the individual.
First, in Romantic literature, an author will use imagery as his/her tool to draw the reader into the surreal, where imagination and emotions can flourish and reality can be escaped. In The Fall of the House of Usher, Poe’s saturation of macabre imagery transports the reader to the “mansion of gloom” where Poe’s persona looks upon the landscape “with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon opium – the bitter lapse into every-day life…” (738-739). Hawthorne, in Rappacini’s Daughter, creates a similar dreamy quality with images of strange, poisonous flowers that apparently have some mystical power, especially over Beatrice. The flowers’ “perfumed breath” is to Beatrice “the breath of life.” Giovanni, is in turn, captivated by the same mystical power in Beatrice’s voice, “ rich as a tropical sunset” which made him “think of deep hues of purple or crimson” (837). The imagery of the sunset is often used because it conveys that mysterious state between asleep and awake, where anything can happen. The scene where Giovanni first lays eyes on Beatrice ends at dusk, and the Hawthorne writes, “but there is an influence in the light of morning that tends to rectify whatever errors of fancy, or even judgment, we may have incurred during the sun’s decline…” (838). In Irving’s Rip Van Winkle, it is by no accident that, just before Rip encounters the strange beings, he “lay musing at the scene” of the cliffs “scarcely lighted by the reflected rays of the setting sun,” and the shadows that nightfall casts (371).
Writers of this movement value the individual. Their literary form is centered on appealing to the individual reader’s senses and imagination. Their subject matter emphasizes this value, as well. In fact, they almost idolize the individual human –innocent and beautiful by nature but jaded by the world and its knowledge. Melville’s Billy Budd was the “Handsome Sailor” and, like Adam may have been, was a “rustic beauty” that “showed in the face that humane look of reposeful good nature which the Greek sculptor in some instances gave to his heroic strong man, Hercules” (900). Melville also writes, “the form of Billy Budd was heroic; and if his face was without the intellectual look of the pallid Claggart’s, not the less was it lit…” (916).
Romanticists appreciate, and almost worship the natural; therefore, they despise man’s attempts in controlling nature. They appreciate the mystery and beauty of nature, and they feel stripped of that when man tries to manipulate nature through science. In Sonnet – to Science, Poe expresses his anger by comparing science to a “vulture, whose wings are dull realities” who has torn from him “the summer dream beneath the tamarind tree” (775-776). Hawthorne goes so far as to associate science with evil and sin. Dr. Rappaccini – “a tall, emaciated, sallow, and sickly-looking man, dressed in a scholar’s garb of black” produces a commixture of plants, referred to as “adultery,” and “monstrous offspring” that is an “evil mockery of beauty” (836-844). The association of the scientist as the evil villain is clear.
In conclusion, some might perceive Romantic literature as simplistic or far-fetched fairy tales, but with a further look, one can see the exploration of human psychology and emotions and the coexistence of good and evil.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel.
Rappaccini’s Daughter. The Harper Single Volume American
Literature. (3rd ed.) Ed. al Donald McQuade . New York: Longman, 1999. 834-853.
Irving, Washington. Rip Van Winkle. The Harper Single Volume American Literature.
(3rd ed.) Ed. al Donald McQuade . New York: Longman, 1999. 367-378.
Melville, Herman. Billy Budd. The Harper Single Volume American Literature. (3rd
ed.) Ed. al Donald McQuade . New York: Longman, 1999. 895-947.
Poe, Edgar Allen. Sonnet – to Science. The Harper Single Volume American Literature.
(3rd ed.) Ed. al Donald McQuade . New York: Longman, 1999. 775-776.
---.The Fall of the House of Usher. The Harper Single Volume American Literature.
(3rd ed.) Ed. al Donald McQuade . New York: Longman, 1999. 738-750.
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