Research on key characteristics of Romanticism

Literature

·         Belief in the individual and common man

·         Interest in the bizarre, supernatural and gothic.

·         Love of (reverence for) nature. (sublime) - Romantic literature tends to emphasize a love of nature, a respect for primitivism, and a valuing of the common, "natural" man; Romantics idealize country life and believe that many of the ills of society are a result of urbanization.

·         Interest in the past.

·         Looks at the world with more than reasonable optimism (rose-colored glasses).

·         Romantics were attracted to rebellion and revolution, especially concerned with human rights, individualism, freedom from oppression

·         Faith in inner experience and the power of the imagination - imagination is a gateway to transcendent experience and truth.

In literature, romanticism was popularized by poets and authors such as John Keats, Shelley, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. These authors of romantic literature believed in creative expression through pieces of prose and poetry, a movement that soon began to affect the world in terms of emotions and relationships. Romanticism is alive in literature to this date, and traces of this genre can be viewed in some pieces of writing. Romantic authors made an attempt to view the mundane in a very extraordinary manner. A good example is the poem Daffodils by William Wordsworth. An analysis of Daffodils by William Wordsworth clearly exhibits many characteristics of romanticism, one of which has been mentioned above.

Another important characteristic of romanticism is the view of life in its minor aspects and not as a whole. In his popular work Defence of Poetry, Shelley argued that human beings must understand and learn to appreciate the little things that life has to offer, to make the pain and pleasure of another individual one's own, in order to truly comprehend the meaning of life. The basic effort of the romantic movement was to incorporate creative expression, transform the ordinary to the extraordinary, and experience emotions at not a superficial but at a deeply intense level.

All in all, the influence of romanticism in literature reflected a profound attempt to experience life more passionately, be it the self or another, be it an emotion or an object. Instead of focusing on a practical, logical or scientific approach, as popularized during the Enlightenment or the industrial revolution, romanticism was directed towards focusing within oneself for solutions and newness, and encouraged people to trust themselves and their instincts. Romantics also made an attempt to focus on nature, to give it importance above the scientific revolution that had overtaken the world. This they believed, would change the way the world was perceived, and would help individuals understand themselves better.

The romantic movement in literature also gave rise to a sub-genre, dark romanticism. While romanticism in itself focused on beauty and an 'out of the world view' of life, dark romanticism focused mainly on tragedies and horror. Though a sub-genre of romanticism, dark romanticism turned out to be almost an opposite of romanticism in itself. This sub-genre was more of an extension of American romanticism in literature, which later spread to other parts of the world. Some popular works of dark romanticism include those by William Blake and Edgar Allan Poe.

All in all, it can be said that the romantic movement that influenced literature restored hope in the human race; hope for the fact that not everything could be mechanized and rendered lifeless. By coming a full circle, romanticism taught people how to experience pleasure in the little things in life, to think out of the box, to dream, and to explore. In today's day and time, romanticism, the definition of which has been reduced to pure mush, will regain lost ground. Not everything can be looked at with a practical approach, not everything has to be logical. By returning to the beliefs of romanticism, one may in effect, be able to bring back to life that little hope, that little desire to dream and believe, and make life a little more colorful, to say the least.
 

Poetry

There are many angles and point-of-views from which one can study romantic poetry. The most of important characteristic of this form of poetry is imagination. The different characteristics of romantic poetry are elaborated on in the article below.

Imagination
In the words of William Wordsworth, 'poetry is the first and last of all knowledge'. The phenomenon of imagination is the essence or core of romantic poetry. According to romantic poets, it is possible to attain a transcendental experience by means of imagination. It takes us near to the spiritual truth.

Emotions
When it comes to romantic poetry, reason and logic take a backseat. The one thing which rules the world of romanticism is emotion. Romantic poetry is one of the best means to let loose one's emotions through words. The overflow of emotions depicted through romantic poetry transcends the boundaries of logical reasoning. Spontaneity in romantic poetry arises from an emotional outflow, and sometimes pain is the inspiration.

Nature
A romantic poet can let loose his/her imagination in the process of interpreting natural phenomena. It is said that romantic poetry associated with nature is a kind of a meditative process. The rationalists tend to view or associate nature with some kind of machine. A romanticist's perception of nature is that of an organic phenomenon. Nature is also viewed as a setting or place which offers respite from the artificial world that we inhabit.

Pastoral Life
The pastoral life, culture and traditions are mentioned on a frequent basis in romantic poetry. In most cases, the relaxed and slow-paced pastoral life of shepherds is depicted in these poems. Romantic poetry employs this feature in order to present before readers the complexities of life in a simple manner. Contrasting features of country and urban life can also be depicted by the portrayal of pastoral life.

Symbolism
It is a way of expressing so much in so little. The use of symbolism in literature allows to infer / derive different meanings from a single expression. Symbolism rouses the curiosity of readers and also adds a kind of enigma to the expressions or thoughts of the poet. Representing a particular thing allegorically, lies at the core of symbolism. Repetitive presentation of an object or character is one of the ways in which symbolism is depicted in poetry.

Individualism
It is one of the important romantic poetry characteristics. Representation of a hero, a person with exceptional genius, is of common occurrence in romantic poetry. Heroes are depicted as personalities which exhibit boldness. This quality boldness is in contrast with that of restraint depicted in ancient classics.

Art

Nineteenth-century romanticism was characterized by the avoidance of classical forms and rules, emphasis on the emotional and spiritual, representation of the unattainable ideal, nostalgia for the grace of past ages

Romantics would endow inanimate objects with human values (e.g., the wild trees and shimmery moonlight used in the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich to suggest infinity of human longing)

The thoughts and feelings that ruled this romantic philosophy were appreciation of the beauty of nature, exultation of emotion over reason, the senses over intellect and a focus on heroes.

As the Romantic period emphasized on human emotions, the position of the artist or the poet also gained supremacy. In the earlier times, the artist was seen as a person who imitated the external world through his art. However, this definition was mooted in the Romantic era and the poet or the painter was seen as a creator of something which reflected his individuality and emotions. The Romantic perception of the artist as the creator is best encapsulated by Caspar David Friedrich, who remarked that "the artist's feeling is his law". It was also the first time that the poems written in the first person were being accepted, as the poetic persona became one with the voice of the poet.