The Romantic Period

Romanticism 1798-1832

• Romanticism is a movement in art, literature, and music during the 19th century that values feeling and intuition over reason.• Reaction against rationalism

(belief that people can discover truth rather relying on religious faith or intuition).

Causes for the MovementGoals of 18th century America included independence, prosperity, and commerce.

Towns progressed into cities, and to many the city was a place to find success and opportunity.

Causes for the Movement• Industrial Revolution

• Squalid cities• Wretched working

conditions

The Romantics saw the city as a place of decaying morals, corruption, and death.

Characteristics of Romanticism• Individualism• Nature/Escapism• Freedom/adventure• Intuition• Imagination• Idealism• Inspiration• Supernatural• Gothic

• Idealism is the concept that we can make the world a better place.

• Imagination was emphasized over “reason.”

• Romantics celebrated the individual.

Change of IdeasRomantics believed/wanted:

• Feeling over reason, imagination over science, and nature over civilization

• Science was destroying the truth it claimed to seek

• To escape grimy industrial age with exotic settings through the supernatural realm/folklore

GothicismDark, dreary settingsDecaySuperstitionVictim/VictimizerSupernatural, magical elementsExplores the dark side of human natureElements of fear, horror, macabre

What Characteristics Are Reflected?

What Characteristics Are Reflected?

What Characteristics Are Reflected?

Romantic Influence• European view of

Americans as unsophisticated/

uncivilized• American Romantic

Hero was created to reverse this insult!

• He was youthful, innocent, and close to nature

• Novelists used the frontier and its adventures as the background setting

• Today: Western, fantasy Heroes