Romantic and Gothic Literature
Romantic literature is marked by six primary characteristics: celebration of nature, focus on the individual and spirituality, celebration of isolation and melancholy, interest in the common man, idealisation of women and personification and pathetic fallacy.
Gothic Literature or fiction refers to a style of writing that is characterised by elements of fear, horror, death and gloom, as well as romantic elements, such as nature, individuality and very high emotions. These emotions can include fear and suspense.
The Gothic grew out of Romanticism, which was a response to the Rationalist Movement. Gothicism in literature (Gothic fiction or Gothic literature) is a style of writing characterised by gloomy settings, grotesque action, supernatural elements, romance and exoticism. It basically emerged as the sub-genre of Romanticism in 18th century’s England. Later, in the 19th century, it also became popular in the United States as the darkest form of ‘Dark Romanticism’, a genre that emerged from the ‘Transcendental Movement’ in America. The Gothic writers fabricated their narratives with elements like horror, mystery, suspense, romance, decay and degeneration. They use these to tackle serious issues like social injustice, corruption, class system and gender norms.
The famous Gothic stories or novels usually contain grotesque characters, sheer terror, supernatural and picturesque adventures to entertain the reader. Besides, they also draw on emotional extremes and dark themes. The classic Gothic novels usually take place in settings like old, gloomy castles, mansions, and monasteries; all isolated and ruined. At the end of the 19th century emerged a new mode of Gothic fiction – the ‘Modern Gothic’. The modern gothic novels focus on the urban settings, complicated plots with various sub-plots and highlight contemporary issues and concerns.
Gothicism made its appearance in literature in the beginning of the Romantic Era (mid-18th Century). It was encouraged by the group of writers who were enchanted by the spell of medievalism. They wrote novels exhibiting the elements of terror, horror, suspense, superstition, mystery and romance; elements that eventually became the characteristics of Gothic novels.
Gothic fiction actually emerged as a sub-genre of Romanticism which was a reaction to the formal form of the Enlightenment, a European intellectual movement. The Romantics focused on the beauty of nature, subjectivity, individualism, and the sublime. Though Gothicism shared many features of Romanticism, it mainly focused on the darker side of humanity and its preoccupation with sin and evil.
As opposed to the Enlightenment that emphasised reason and science over superstition and blind faith, the Gothic writers intended to thrill feelings and emotions among the readers. They mainly focused on human fallibility, the psychological effects of guilt and sin, self-destruction, punishment, and discernment.
The Gothic novel in the beginning was a description of the fallen world. Early Gothic novels heavily focused on religion, morality, and philosophy, with the evil villains usually acting as metaphors for various human temptations the protagonist must overcome. Their endings were more often than not unhappy, and romance was never their focus. But in the centuries since, Gothic fiction not only developed, but also branched off into many popular sub-genres, dealing with several themes.
The Romantic epoch can be characterised by the onset of complex socio-political occurrences that promoted radical shifts in ideology and social practice. It is during the Romantic era that Britain reaches a point of ‘economic take-off’ due to the ‘enormous profits’ of 18th Century slave trade and Britain’s imperial successes overseas, the financial ramifications of which provided the early structures of a capitalist nation. In light of this, and the ‘classicism, conformist rationalism’ and ‘Lockean empiricism’ of the Enlightenment era, Britain’s dominant ideological views became that of the utilitarian practices of a new emerging ‘middle class’ and capitalist society. Initially, these practices are articulated by England’s move away from a ‘primarily agricultural society’ and a ‘landholding aristocracy’ to a ‘modern industrial nation’. This new industrial Britain created a dominant ethos which understood ‘nothing’ that could not be ‘transformed into a commodity on the open market’. Consequently, working-class factions (such as the ‘Luddite frame breakers’) sought to challenge the oppressive industrial practices of the new ruling classes. In light of the turmoil surrounding the French Revolution, Britain’s ruling classes, fearing revolution, responded with ‘brutal […] repressiveness’ turning Britain into a ‘police state’. Thus, many of the Romantic writers sought to question the impetus and ramifications of a growing industrialised England by challenging the perceptions of its emergent ‘mass media culture’, the empirical rationale of the Enlightenment era, and Britain’s utilitarian practices; all of which regarded Art as an ‘unprofitable ornamentation’ or a commodity built upon ‘hierarchy’ and ‘decorum’.
The term Romanticism does not stem directly from the concept of love, but rather from the French word romaunt(a romantic story told in verse). Romanticism focused on emotions and the inner life of the writer, and often used autobiographical material to inform the work or even provide a template for it, unlike traditional literature at the time. Romanticism celebrated the primitive and elevated “regular people” deserving of celebration, which was an innovation at the time. Romanticism also fixated on nature as a primordial force and encouraged the concept of isolation as necessary for spiritual and artistic development. Romantic literature is marked by six primary characteristics: celebration of nature, focus on the individual and spirituality, celebration of isolation and melancholy, interest in the common man, idealisation of women, and personification and pathetic fallacy. Romantic writers saw nature as a teacher and a source of infinite beauty.
Focus on the Individual and Spirituality
Romantic writers turned inward, valuing the individual experience above all else. This in turn led to heightened sense of spirituality in Romantic work, and the addition of occult and supernatural elements.
The work of Edgar Allan Poe exemplifies this aspect of the movement; for example, The Raven tells the story of a man grieving for his dead love (an idealised woman in the Romantic tradition) when a seemingly sentient Raven arrives and torments him, which can be interpreted literally or seen as a manifestation of his mental instability.
Celebration of Isolation and Melancholy
Ralph Waldo Emerson was a very influential writer in Romanticism; his books of essays explored many of the themes of the literary movement and codified them. His 1841 essay Self-Reliance is a seminal work of Romantic writing in which he exhorts the value of looking inward and determining your own path, and relying on only your own resources.
Interest in the Common Man
William Wordsworth was one of the first poets to embrace the concept of writing that could be read, enjoyed, and understood by anyone. He eschewed overly stylised language and references to classical works in favour of emotional imagery conveyed in simple, elegant language.
Idealisation of Women
In works such as Poe’s The Raven, women were always presented as idealised love interests, pure and beautiful, but usually without anything else to offer. Ironically, the most notable novels of the period were written by women (Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, and Mary Shelley, for example), but had to be initially published under male pseudonyms because of these attitudes. Much Romantic literature is infused with the concept of women being perfect innocent beings to be adored, mourned, and respected—but never touched or relied upon.
Personification and Pathetic Fallacy
Romantic literature’s fixation on nature is characterised by the heavy use of both personification and pathetic fallacy. Romanticism continues to influence literature today; Stephenie Meyers’ Twilight novels are clear descendants of the movement, incorporating most of the characteristics of classic Romanticism despite being published a century and half after the end of the movement’s active life.
The Romantic Period began roughly around 1798 and lasted until 1837. The political and economic atmosphere at the time heavily influenced this period, with many writers finding inspiration from the French Revolution. There was a lot of social change during this period. Calls for the abolition of slavery became louder during this time, with more writing openly about their objections. Romanticism was a reaction against this spread of industrialism, as well as a criticism of the aristocratic social and political norms and a call for more attention to nature. Although writers of this time did not think of themselves as Romantics, Victorian writers later classified them in this way because of their ability to capture the emotion and tenderness of man.
The Start of Romanticism
Robert Burns is considered the pioneer of the Romantic Movement. Although his death in 1796 what many consider the start of Romanticism, his lyricism and sincerity mark him as an early Romantic writer. His most notable works are “Auld Lang Syne” (1788) and “Tam o’ Shanter” (1791). Burns inspired many of the writers during the Romantic Period.
William Blake was one of the earliest Romantic Period writers. Blake believed in spiritual and political freedom and often wrote about these themes in his works. Although some of his poetry was published before the official start to the era, Blake can be seen as one of the founders of this movement. His works, Songs of Innocence (1789) and Songs of Experience (1794), are two of his most significant. These collections of poetry are some of the first to romanticise children, and in these works Blake pits the innocence and imagination of childhood against the harsh corruption of adulthood, especially within the city of London. He was also known for his beautiful drawings, which accompanied each of these poems.
POETRY
Scholars say that the Romantic Period began with the publishing of “Lyrical Ballads” (1798) by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. This was one of the first collections of poems that strayed from the more formal poetic diction of the Neoclassical Period. Poets of the period instead used everyday words that the average person could understand. This also aided in expressing human emotion. Wordsworth primarily wrote about nature. He felt it could provide a source of mental cleanliness and spiritual understanding. One of Wordsworth’s well-known works is “The Solitary Reaper” (1807). This poem praises the beauty of music and shows the outpouring of expression and emotion that Wordsworth felt was necessary in poetry. His greatest piece is “The Prelude” (1850), a semi-autobiographical, conversation poem that chronicles Wordsworth’s entire life. Conversational poetry was the literary genre most commonly used by Wordsworth and Coleridge, with the latter writing a series of eight poems following the genre structure of conversational verse and examining higher ideas of nature, man, and morality. This poetry is written in blank verse and is extremely personal and intimate in nature, with much of the content based on the author’s life.
Coleridge and Wordsworth were very good friends and the two often influenced each other. While Wordsworth was much more meditative and calm, Coleridge was the opposite and lived a more uncontrolled life. Of his three major poems only one is complete: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner(1798). This poem tells the story of a sailor’s journey and his experiences on the ship. The sailor is cursed by supernatural powers and is only able to return home when he appreciates the animals and nature around him. He is forced to wander the Earth sharing his story due to his earlier mistakes. His two other long form poems are Kubla Khan (1816) and Christabel(1816). According to Coleridge, his poem Kubla Khan came to him in an opium-induced dream after reading a work about Chinese emperor Kublai Khan. He was never able to finish the work. Christabel tells the story of the title character meeting a stranger named Geraldine who asks for Christabel’s help. Ignoring the supernatural signs, Christabel rescues and takes her home, but it appears that the stranger is not normal. Coleridge was only able to finish two out of his five intended parts to the poem.
The Second Generation of Romantic Poets
Succeeding Blake, Coleridge, and Wordsworth was a new generation of poets, each following the pattern of Romanticism of those before them. John Keats is still one of the most popular of these poets, with his work continually read and analysed today. Keats aimed to express extreme emotion in his poetry, using natural imagery to do this. He is well known for his odes, lyrical stanzas that are typically written in praise of, or in dedication to, something or someone that the writer admires. These odes followed the genre of lyrical poetry and focused on intense emotion using personal narrative. Among these odes, “Ode to a Nightingale” (1819) and “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (1819) are most famous. Keats was preoccupied with death and ageing throughout his life, which is shown in each of these two odes. “Ode to a Nightingale” discusses the temporary status of life and beauty, but in “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” he explores the artistic permanence of the images on the urn.
Percy Bysshe Shelley was seen as a radical thinker for his religious atheism and largely ostracised by his contemporaries for his political and social views. One of his most famous works is Adonais (1821). This was a pastoral elegy, a poem combining death and rural life, written for John Keats. The poem mourns the death of Keats and his contribution to poetry. Another of his well-known works was Ode to the West Wind (1819) where he discusses the force and power of the wild wind and shows the Romantic writer’s tendency to connect nature with art.
Lord Byron differed from the writing styles of Keats and Shelley. He was heavily influenced by the satire and wit from the previous period and infused this in his poetry. His satire Don Juan(1819-1824) is told in 17 cantos, divisions of long poems, and is based on the traditional legend of Don Juan. Byron changes the original telling of the story and instead of creating a womanising character, he makes Don Juan someone easily seduced by women. The cantos follow his character’s journey as he travels throughout Europe meeting several women and continually trying to escape from trouble. Byron’s other notable work is Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage(1812-1816), another lengthy narrative poem. This poem was largely biographical and discusses many of Byron’s personal travels. It describes the reflections of a young man who is seeking new beginnings in foreign countries after experiencing many years of war. This poem is significant because it introduced the Byronic hero, typically a handsome and intelligent man with a tendency to be moody, cynical, and rebellious against social norms.
THE NOVEL
During the Romantic Period the novel grew in popularity and became one of the major sources of entertainment for middle class citizens. Authors began to tailor their writing to appeal to this audience. Sir Walter Scott gained popularity during this time, both in Britain and around Europe. He mainly wrote within the genre of historical romances and made this a viable form of fiction for later writers. Scott also focused on his home country of Scotland, often writing about its beauty and romanticism. Scott’s first major novel was Waverly(1814), which is set during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. The rebellious group sought to restore the Stuart dynasty to Charles Edward Stuart. The hero, Edward Waverly, is commissioned to the army and sent to Scotland in 1745. While there, he joins the Jacobite groups even though he knows they will fail and is imprisoned; however, he is ultimately freed. The novel ends with a marriage between Waverly and a Baron’s daughter, Rose, representing the rational, realistic present of Scotland post-rebellion. While this was his first success, generally The Antiquary (1816), Old Mortality (1816), and The Heart of Midlothian(1818) are considered his masterpieces.
Gothic Fiction
During the second half of the 18th century, gothic fiction began to increase in popularity in Great Britain. This came from a look back to medieval times. Often this genre would combine supernatural and mysterious elements with the castles and dungeons of the past. The gothic novel combines the intense emotions of terror, anguish, fear, and even love. Coleridge and Byron both contributed works to this canon, but John William Polidori’s The Vampyre (1819) and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein(1818) stand out as two of the genre’s most enduring pieces. Polidori’s work has importance for creating the vampire literary genre. Bram Stoker’s Dracula, published during the Victorian Period, would continue to generate popularity around vampirism.
Shelley combines elements of love and the supernatural in her gothic novel, Frankenstein. Dr. Victor Frankenstein harnesses the power of life and uses it to animate a creature he has built. When the creature is cast away and refused companionship for his hideous physical features, he becomes murderous and determines to ruin Victor’s life.
Women Have Arrived
The Romantic Period saw more successful women writers, a precursor to their popularity in the Victorian era. The most significant female writer during this period was Jane Austen. Writing toward the end of the period, Austen did not always adhere to the strict Romantic Period guidelines and mocked some of the more extravagant plots of previous writers. Instead, Austen chose to highlight the everyday lives of average people, making a turn toward social realism. Her novels include relatable heroines with adventures that the ordinary reader would likely encounter. She was also able to better depict the lives of women in this way. She understood that women had very little class mobility at the time and used many of her novels as a way to show this. Some of her famous novels include Sense and Sensibility(1811), Pride and Prejudice(1813), Mansfield Park(1814), Emma (1815), and Northanger Abbey (1817). Pride and Prejudice is still widely read today and tells the story of Elizabeth Bennet, the second eldest daughter among five. When Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy move into the neighborhood, the Bennet family hopes they will wed two of the unmarried daughters. Although Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy clash heads early on in the novel, they eventually fall in love and get married. Austen’s novel Emma is also very popular and shows the consequences of meddling with love. Emma thinks that she could be a matchmaker, but her efforts ultimately fail and lead to heartbreak along the way. Although in the beginning of the novel she vows never to marry, by the end she realizes she is in love with Mr. Knightly and the two do get married.
Religion and Superstition
In the spiritual context of the Gothic, this approach frequently featured Roman Catholicism – or, rather, a collection of popular prejudices concerning the decadent excesses of the priesthood. In The Monk, for example, the central character a Catholic cleric, there is in effect a conflation of Roman Catholicism and blind superstition. Yet, simultaneously, the novel relies precisely on this superstitious element for its appeal, and the various irrational beliefs are never actually disproved in the narrative. As Emma McEvoy writes in her 1998 introduction to the novel, ‘The crux of the matter is that The Monk, like many Gothic novels, feeds off a Catholic aesthetic, though it takes its morality from its Protestantism.’
Idolatry is one apparent facet of the Roman Catholic faith which features strongly in several gothic novels; another is Indoctrination. In particular, the Inquisition is frequently portrayed in fearful terms, making capital, perhaps, out of the centuries- old folk memories of a predominantly Protestant nation such as Britain. The eponymous hero/villain of The Monk, for example, had been molded into his frustrated, repressed and ultimately evil character by the monks who brought him up: ‘The noble frankness of his temper was exchanged for servile humility; and in order to break his natural spirit, the Monks terrified his young mind, by placing before him all the horrors with which Superstition could furnish them.’
The impact of education or indoctrination, and the relationship between the two, was in fact fundamental to the gothic world-view, as it was for the entire Romantic Movement. The subject would find perhaps its fullest consideration and debate in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, but it also permeates every other gothic novel to a greater or lesser degree. The nature of the education depends ultimately on the view of human nature which underlies it, especially in terms of the spiritual destiny of human kind. The Romantics, following Rousseau, tended towards a view of human nature as fundamentally good – hence their frequent evocation of childhood purity. In so far as the gothic is part of this movement, its exponents shared this opinion. The reader can never be quite sure: in the gothic shadows there may be something rather more sinister lurking, and frequent gory descriptions of the effects of evil suggest the opposite of a Rousseauesque celebration of innocence.
Gothic Cinema and Music
Among the early successes in the burgeoning film industry were adaptations and re-workings: Dracula, Frankenstein and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The essential story of Frankenstein, to take the most obvious example, was first adapted for the screen in 1910, with no less a producer than Thomas Edison(1847-1931) – the inventor of, amongst other things, the electric light and the phonograph. Edison admittedly took the rather counter- gothic view that he ought to erase ‘all that was repulsive’ from the narrative. James Whale’s celebrated 1931 version of Frankenstein had far greater impact, and established the reputation of the Hungarian actor Boris Karloff, playing the Creature to telling effect. Four years later Whale repeated his success, in terms both of popularity and artistic merit, with The Bride of Frankenstein, again using the talents of Karloff, and skillfully integrating Mary Shelley. Since the 1930’s there have been many more versions, and no doubt these will continue, sometimes wandering far and wide from the original narrative content or tone, for instance, the comic Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein of 1948. One of the more recent directors Kenneth Branagh – who also played the part of Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s’ Frankenstein, 1994 – has commented, astutely, ‘…these gothic tales seem to satisfy a deep seated fascination with the limits of human experience. They discuss what birth, life, and death mean – why we’re here.’ Significantly, in the light of contemporary interest in the gothic classic in print and on the screen, in 1999 Universal Studios released a re-mastered video version of a Bela Lugosi film, Dracula (1931), complete with a specially commissioned string quartet soundtrack composed by Philip Glass.
There are some examples of gothic influence in classical music, the most notable being Hector Berlioz’s(1803-1869) atmospheric, brooding Sinfonie Fantastique(1830), complete with witches’ dance , but it is rock music that has been a huge variety of different expressions of the gothic in rock music – and considerable range in terms of quality. The 1960s saw an explosion of heavy rock activity which had distinctly gothic side to it in such performers as Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper, the latter in particular deliberately courting notoriety and controversy with outrageous live shows and albums such as Killer (1971). The post- punk era of the late 1970s and 1980s was an even more fertile time for gothic influences in rock music and attendant fashions in clothes and make up. Bands such as Southern Death Cult, Outgang, Bauhaus, the Cure, Sisters of Mercy, Theatre of Hate and Siouxsie and the Banshees offered exciting transatlantic variations on the gothic theme – the names alone conjure the type of image conveyed. Mick Mercer, a music journalist, described in his Gothic Rock Black Book (1988) the 1980s Goths:
Violently childish dream world, involving immense amounts of energy and play-acting… Wracked with religious imagery, slippery with sexual inference, Goth on stage is rarely happy. Goth offstage is a hoot. Goth on stage cries, growls and scowls. Goth offstage goes quietly insane and wraps itself in drunken worship, pagan worship, and the loins of psychologically damaged French philosophers.
Revivals in Gothic rock music continue to come and go, although not with the same intensity as experienced in the late 1970 s and early 1980 s.
DARK ROMANTICISM
Dark Romanticism is distinguished from Romanticism in its emphasis on human fallibility and sin (they are pessimists) whereas Romantics believe in human goodness (they are optimists). According to Dark Romantics, even good men and women drift towards sin and self-destruction, and there can be unintended consequences that arise from well-intended social reforms.
The genre of “Dark Romanticism” is thought to have emerged from the Transcendental Movement in the 19th century America. Transcendentalists felt perfection and their own divinity as innate qualities. Dark Romantics believed humans gravitate to evil and self-destruction. Dark Romantics focus on human fallibility, self-destruction, judgement, punishment as well as the psychological effects of guilt and sin. Authors who embrace this genre include Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville and Emily Dickinson. There’s an even darker side of the Darker Romantics: Gothic Literature, which involves sheer terror, personal torment, morbidity and the supernatural.
Moby- Dick by Herman Melville
One of the most recognised novels in this genre of Dark Romanticism. Melville’s Captain Ahab is the prototype of human fallibility and he draws upon amble Biblical allusions on themes of judgement, guilt, sin, souls and the end of the world.
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne exemplifies Dark Romanticism in its themes of imposed judgement and punishment for those who commit sin, resulting in alienation and self-destruction. Hawthorne’s most famous novel examined the human soul and our morality – certainly a cautionary tale about the dangers of well-intended social reform and blind religious fervour. He believed that for all of our weaknesses, hypocrisy and suffering, ‘the truth of the human heart’ usually prevails.
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe’s canon falls in the Dark Romanticism genre, in which he explored the psychology of the conscious and subconscious mind. A Descent into the Maelstrom is a fine example. Many of Poe’s works are on the dark end of the Dark Romantic spectrum, into the realm of Gothic Fiction with macabre tales of horror, morbidity, and madness. The Fall of the House of Usher, which deals with mental conditions such as hypochondria and sensory overload. Poe was credited as the creator of the detective fiction genre, as in his story The Purloined Letter. Poe literally provided a template for detective authors to follow.
Romanticism (also the Romantic era or the Romantic period) is an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century and was at its peak in the approximate period from 1800 to 1850.
Romanticism is characterised by its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as glorification of all the past and nature, preferring the medieval rather than the classical. It is a reaction to the ideas of the Industrial Revolution, the aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment, and the scientific rationalisation of nature.
The meaning of romanticism has changed with time. In the 17th century, “romantic” meant imaginative or fictitious due to the birth of a new literary genre – the novel. Novels, that is to say texts of fiction, were written in vernacular (romance languages), as opposed to religious texts written in Latin.
In the 18th century, romanticism is eclipsed by the Age of Enlightenment, where everything is perceived through the prism of science and reason. In the 19th century, “romantic” means sentimental – lyricism and the expression of personal emotions are emphasised. Feelings and sentiments are very much present in romantic works.
Thus, so many things are called romantic that it is difficult to see the common points between the novels by Victor Hugo, the paintings by Eugène Delacroix or the music by Ludwig Von Beethoven. Romanticism was then adopted in England. Poets are divided in two generations:
- First generation: William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
- Second generation: George Byron, Percy Shelley, John Keats.
Romanticism reached France at the beginning of the 19th century with François-René de Chateaubriand – Atala (1801), René (1802), Le Génie du Christianisme (1802) – and Germaine de Staël : De l’Allemagne (1813).
Romanticism was a new beginning, a revolution is artistic forms in paintings, literature and theatre. In Germany and Russia, romanticism created the national literature. It influenced the whole vision of art.
It was also the origin of contemporary ideas: modern individualism, the vision of nature, the vision of the work of art as an isolated object.
Political dimension: the birth of Romanticism
Romanticism represents a break with the universalist outlook of the Enlightenment. Reason is something universal and the Enlightenment found its models in classical France and Rome – all men are the same because there are all reasonable. Romanticism if a fragmentation of consciousness, with no universalist ideas left.
The French Revolution was characterised by universalist ideas such as all men are created equal. It corresponds to the philosophy of the Enlightenment. The nation is born out of a social contract: it means that you are free to choose to belong to one nation or another.
The first generation of British romantic poets
Only William Blake remained a radical, unlike Wordsworth and Coleridge. There was an incredible pressure in England at the time. The Prime Minister, Pitts, suspended the Habeas Corpus and adopted the Sedition Act, which was meant to prevent the freedom of press. It turned away the first generation from their ideals.
Blake wrote a visionary, imaginary poetry, really difficult to understand. Wordsworth and Coleridge were reactionary to the French Revolution.
Wordsworth turned away from the excesses of the revolution and wrote a simple poetry in a democratic style.
Coleridge was inspired by the Medieval Ages and German thought and was a reactionary Christian nationalist.
The second generation of British romantic poets
The second generation remains more radical but the political climate was so oppressive that the radicals left England or made more indirect political comments.
The Mask of Anarchy by Shelley was inspired by the Peterloo Massacre of 1819. In Prometheus Unbound, a man fights against political and religious oppression.
Romanticism was connected with politics of the time. Romantic poets could be either conservative or progressive, depending on their vision of the world.
An idealisation of nature
Nature became idealised as life in the country was more virtuous. Romantic poets did not talk about cities (but realists did). Nature was a source of poetic inspiration and gave a spiritual dimension to life, based on the organic connection between man and nature in traditional rural society, which was dying fast because of the Industrial Revolution (opposition between the organic/natural and the mechanical technology).
There was a regeneration of human life destroyed by cities, an idealised vision of nature: they were looking for a renewed humanity.
Wordsworth and Coleridge left the city for the Lake District. In America, transcendentalists such as Emerson or Thoreau did the same. Thoreau went out in the wilderness to Walden Pond to write Walden in 1854.
They discovered the American identity: the civilisation was European. There is a kind of individualism that refuses every kind of moral convention (who you really are) and pantheism (belief that Nature is divine and has a soul).
The expression of personal feelings, energy and passion
Nature was not only peaceful and meditative but also stormy, tempestuous and too big for man (sublime).
In Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind, the poet starts by identifying himself with the wind: he wants to have the same power and the same liberty. As such, it can be considered a political poem. The “West Wind” is the wind from America, from the Revolution.
The romantic world is a dynamic world of change. When there is beauty, it’s always ephemeral. What create the changes are the elemental forces (storm, power, etc).
Energy can come from human beings too. Romanticism is the emphasis of feelings, passions and intuitions. It differs from the 18th century, which was based on reason and reflection.
Reason is universal, everyone uses the same logic: it is not personal. On the other hand, feelings, passion and intuition are what make people different from each other; it is very individualistic and selfish. Passion is one of the dynamic elements of romanticism, it’s a factor of change for the individual and a factor of historical change as Hegel once said “nothing great was accomplished in history without passion”.
Passion is also extremely changing: nothing is closer to love than hate. It alternates between exaltation and melancholy, between nostalgia and optimism.
I am certain of nothing but of the holiness of the heart’s affections and the truth of imagination. – John Keats.
The romantic vision of love is best because intense when impossible: destiny, death, social differences – as in Romeo and Juliet.
Keats’ Isabella or the Pot of Basil happens in the Medieval Ages in Italy. The lover is killed by Isabella’s brothers. She digs his grave, cuts his head and hides it in a pot of basil with a flower in it. As she cries every day, it turns to a beautiful flower. It is Bocaccio’s story and Stendhal’s Le Rouge et le Noir: a connection between love (Eros) and death (Thanatos).
According to Nietsche, passion is “beyond good and evil”, it does not care about morality.
Characters
In a traditional Romance, characters play an incredibly important role, as they move the action along and are what creates the actual romance aspect of the story. This idea applies to the Gothic Romance as well, though the characters usually come with a bit of a twist.
The Distressed Heroine
Typically, the lead of a Gothic Romance is a woman attempting to figure out what is right for her heart, and what society expects of her. She will usually have a force, often an overprotective father, standing between her and her love, though she, or someone else, will find a way around him. Regardless of whether the story is in first or third person, we experience terror alongside her and are meant to empathise with her.
The Byronic Hero
Named after the Romantic poet Lord Byron, the Byronic hero is what led to the creation of the antihero. There are aspects of the Byronic hero that aren’t positive, yet the characters are written in such a way as to make it impossible to hate them, even after they do something horrendous. Some qualities of the Byronic hero include: violent temper, seductive nature, cynical, sinister secret or desire, prideful, moody, and revengeful. On the flip side, they are often capable of deep, strong affection, have a tortured soul crying out for compassion, and are viewed as solitary, suffering beings wanting love. A good way to describe the Byronic hero is as a fallen angel.
Secondary Love Interest
Often, there is another character complicating the situation, forming a love triangle with the heroine and hero. This secondary love interest can be for the heroine, often seen as a kind gentleman she has known since childhood, or for the hero, often seen as a sinister seductress.
Setting
Considering the genre was inspired by architecture, physical buildings, it is not hard to guess that setting would be very important to Gothic Romances. Below, you’ll find one of the most common settings used in the Gothic novel, and what it may represent.
Dark Castle or Old House
Often run down and in disrepair, the dark castle or old house is often used as the backdrop for Gothic Romances. These buildings are usually passed down through generations to the hero, and the estate’s poor state can reflect the sinister intentions of the owner, or represent the ways in which the heroine’s purity may be corrupted. The heroine is often trapped in this place by violent weather, a thick forest around the property, wild animals, or other characters.
Mood:
Gothic Romance is all about getting the right mood across to the reader. The story should be suspenseful and thrilling with some sort of mysterious element, while still focusing strongly on the romantic aspect of the story. Here are some ways in which mood is achieved in this genre.
Atmosphere of Mystery and Suspense
Gothic Romances are thrillers, and this is reflected in the mood and tone of the writing. Oftentimes, this is conveyed through objects and sounds in the setting. Common examples include: heavy wind and rain, rusty hinges, sighs/moans/howls with no known source, the sound of footsteps, clanking chains, lights in abandoned rooms, lights being blown out, rooms with no exit, doors slamming, ruined buildings, the sound of distant dogs or wolves, thunder and lightning, and crazed laughter.
Intense Emotions
Both positive and negative, the emotions of a Gothic Romance are at an all-time high. Characters can be overcome by anger, sorrow, or terror. There is often crying and panic, sometimes resulting in the heroine fainting. The romance the characters experience is also an intense, powerful love being paired with the uncertainty of whether or not it will be reciprocated. It may also result in illicit love or lust, threatening the virtue of the heroine.
Supernatural Elements
While ghosts certainly can appear in Gothic Romances, this is not the only way in which the supernatural can be displayed. There may be an ancient prophecy or omen foretelling the downfall of a character, or warning the heroine to stay away. The heroine may have visions, both waking and dreaming, or events to come. There may also be unexplained sounds or happenings. While some Gothic Romances may not have a supernatural element at all, their appearance is common enough to make this list.
The Old
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Following the young Catherine as she attempts to decide between two possible love interests, Wuthering Heights is an unyielding examination of mental illness, and the ways in which it plays into our passions and desires. As one of the classic Gothic Romances, it exemplifies the character aspects mentioned, and has characters which have become the main examples of Byronic heroes.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Poor Jane, an orphan with no one to love her, seems to catch a break in life when she becomes the governess of the mysterious Mr. Rochester. Though class separates them, they begin to grow close as she spends more time at the estate. However, when odd acts of violence begin to occur in the household, Jane is left to investigate on her own what the yelling and screaming she hears at night is all about.
Where Walpole is the father of the Gothic Romance, Radcliffe is the mother. Much like Jane, Emily is an orphan looking for more in life. However, rather than accepting a role which will help her raise her station, she is instead imprisoned in Castle Udolpho by a nobleman named Motoni. Suffering torment after torment at his hands, Emily must find a way out of the castle, which seems almost alive itself.
The New
The Haunting of Maddy Clare by Simone St. James
Unlike many of the other titles on this list, this novel is set much closer to our own time, occurring after WWI. This novel focuses on Sarah Piper who, by the referral of her temp agency, begins working with a ghost hunter to discover why the ghost of Maddy Clare is haunting the barn she committed suicide in. Will she be able to calm this violent spirit, and help her to find peace?
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
This story follows an adoring heroine who, to her own disbelief, falls in mutual love with a gorgeous and rich man, Maximillian de Winter. However, after being whisked away to his manor after a quick marriage, she begins to realise there are dark secrets haunting these halls, and comes face to face with the dark ghostly figure of her husband’s late wife, Rebecca.
In conclusion the Romantic era was a time of discovery and wonder. The courtship and education went through changes advancing in different ways. The Romantic Era was one of the strongest political movements of the time it was the push behind the romantic era. The Romantic Movement also called for new laws to be made such as the Six Acts of 1819. Emmeline Pankhurst began her fight for women’s suffrage while Mary Shelley began writing one of the famous Gothic novels Frankenstein. The Romantic Era was a time of great influence that helped to form the world to how it is today.
Dark Romanticism is a literary sub-genre of Romanticism, reflecting popular fascination with the irrational, the demonic and the grotesque. Often conflated with Gothicism, it has shadowed the euphoric Romantic movement ever since its 18th-century beginnings. Edgar Allan Poe is often celebrated as the supreme exponent of the tradition. Romanticism’s celebration of euphoria and sublimity has always been dogged by an equally intense fascination with melancholia, insanity, crime and shady atmosphere; with the options of ghosts and ghouls, the grotesque, and the irrational. The name “Dark Romanticism” was given to this form by the literary theorist Mario Praz in his lengthy study of the genre published in 1930, ‘’The Romantic Agony’’. Fallen man’s inability fully to comprehend haunting reminders of another, supernatural realm that yet seemed not to exist, the constant perplexity of inexplicable and vastly metaphysical phenomena, a propensity for seemingly perverse or evil moral choices that had no firm or fixed measure or rule, and a sense of nameless guilt combined with a suspicion the external world was a delusive projection of the mind—these were major elements in the vision of man the Dark Romantics opposed to the mainstream of Romantic thought. The Black Romanticism is characterised by the fact that it emphasises irrational, melancholy features and is also fascinated by the design of human madness and the evil, turning away from the enlightened by reason enlightenment and in response to the horrors of the French Revolution, Artists and authors of the current deal with the flip side of human existence, with their works having a sombre and resigned or even macabre, eerie, satanic character. Often a refined-decadent aestheticism serves to depict abusive-excessive behaviours and fantastic, grotesque phenomena into the Erotic-Sensitive and Exaggerated Morbid.
It found its expression in literature as well as in fine arts, but the boundaries between the joy of the picturesque and the yearning for death are fluid, so that the Black Romanticism cannot be clearly distinguished from the mainstream of Romanticism. The exhibition “Black Romanticism from Goya to Max Ernst” from September 2012 to January 2013 in the Frankfurt Städel Museum, however, counts in addition to the title Genannten u. a. Johann Heinrich Füssli in England, Caspar David Friedrich and Carl Blechen in Germany, the Swiss Arnold Böcklin, the Norwegian Edvard Munchto the painter-representatives of the black romanticism characterized as spirit attitude, in addition, cinematic works like the tired death (Fritz Lang), Nosferatu (FW Murnau), Dracula (death Browning) or vampire of Carl Theodor Dreyer, photographs (example: of Brassaï), sculptures (example: works by Paul Dardé, Jean-Joseph Carriès, Christian Behrens) and operas such as the Freischütz by Carl Maria von Weber found consideration here and recognition. Elements of dark romanticism were a perennial possibility within the broader international movement of Romanticism, in both literature and art.
Like romanticism itself, Dark Romanticism arguably began in Germany, with writers such as E. T. A. Hoffmann, Christian Heinrich Spiess, and Ludwig Tieck – though their emphasis on existential alienation, the demonic in sex, and the uncanny, was offset at the same time by the more homely cult of Biedermeier.
British authors such as Lord Byron, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Mary Shelley, and John William Polidori, who are frequently linked to Gothic fiction, are also sometimes referred to as Dark Romantics. Dark Romanticism is characterised by stories of personal torment, social outcasts, and usually offers commentary on whether the nature of man will save or destroy him. Some Victorian authors of English horror fiction, such as Bram Stoker and Daphne du Maurier, follow in this lineage.
The American form of this sensibility centred on the writers Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Herman Melville. As opposed to the perfectionist beliefs of Transcendentalism, these darker contemporaries emphasised human fallibility and proneness to sin and self-destruction, as well as the difficulties inherent in attempts at social reform.
French authors such as Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly, Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud echoed the dark themes found in the German and English literature. Baudelaire was one of the first French writers to admire Edgar Allan Poe, but this admiration or even adulation of Poe became widespread in French literary circles in the late 19th century.
| Romanticism | Gothicism |
| Romanticism celebrated the beauty of nature. | Gothicism focused on the darker side of mankind. |
| Romanticism was a reaction against the rationalism of the Age of Reason. | Gothicism in literature emerged as a sub-genre of Romanticism. |
| Romanticism focused on the individual rather than the society and emphasised on self-expression. | Gothicism, on the other hand, focused on the outcasts of the society and their personal torments. |
| Romanticism highlighted hops in the individuals. | Gothicism highlighted the potential of evil in the individuals. |
| Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Byron, and Keats were famous Romantic poets. | Walpole, Radcliffe, Mary Shelley, Poe and Stoker were famous Gothic writers. |
“But alas! my Lord, what is blood! What is nobility! We are all reptiles, miserable, sinful creatures. It is piety alone that can distinguish us from the dust whence we sprung, and whither we must return.” – The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole.
“The fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet even that enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone.” – Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
“I have, indeed, no abhorrence of danger, except in its absolute effect — in terror. In this unnerved — in this pitiable condition — I feel that the period will sooner or later arrive when I must abandon life and reason together, in some struggle with the grim phantasm, FEAR.” – The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe.
“I have little left in myself — I must have you. The world may laugh — may call me absurd, selfish — but it does not signify. My very soul demands you: it will be satisfied, or it will take deadly vengeance on its frame.” – Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.
“With every day, and from both sides of my intelligence, the moral and the intellectual, I thus drew steadily nearer to the truth, by whose partial discovery I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but truly two.” – The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde.
“Oh, the terrible struggle that I have had against sleep so often of late; the pain of the sleeplessness, or the pain of the fear of sleep, and with such unknown horror as it has for me! How blessed are some people, whose lives have no fears, no dreads; to whom sleep is a blessing that comes nightly, and brings nothing but sweet dreams.” – Dracula by Bram Stoker.
“The moment of crisis had come, and I must face it. My old fears, my diffidence, my shyness, my hopeless sense of inferiority, must be conquered now and thrust aside. If I failed now I should fail forever.” – Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier.
“A cheerful life is what the Muses love, A soaring spirit is their prime delight.” – William Wordsworth.
“I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart’s affections, and the truth of imagination.”- John Keats.
“A poet is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds. “- Percy Shelley.
