Date of Award
1971
Document Type
Thesis
Department
English
First Reader
Professor Dennis Holt
Abstract
Romanticism actually blossomed out in the beginning of the nineteenth century. The term romantic was first used by Fridrich Schlegel to identify the new mental revolution that was taking place all over the world. This new movement was not concerned with just one phase of living such as politics, but everything from literature, music, and art, to science. The Romantics were not content with the existing sciences, but turned their avid minds to new, intriguing fields of knowledge. The Age of Enlightenment had set the stage for the idealistic Romantics.
It is the purpose of this paper to explore the age of confusion in which the Romantics lived, but were able to rise above the ugliness surrounding theme, to write of the beauty and simplicity of each day. Even as a modern "would-be-romantic" writer, Archibald MacLeish stated in his Pulitzer Prize winning play, "J.B.", "The one thing certain in this hurtful world is love's inevitable heartbreak", it is possible for man to see the truth of his universe but create beauty from that truth. This paper has been written to illustrate the filth now being hailed as "realism of man" is not necessarily the entire scene and I believe the Romantics plainly show this. Even today, we have great men like MacLeish who are willing to bring the image of mankind away from the now popular concept of the "sick", unresponsible, failure back to the proud and beautiful hero of the Romantic age.
Recommended Citation
Wilson, Janice, "Romanticism" (1971). Honors Theses. 310.
https://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/honors_theses/310