The Romantic Period (1798 – 1832)
George III, a 22 year old man succeeded to the throne of England in 1760 and ruled through 1820 after the death of George II. He was a handsome young man, very idealistic, and enjoyed the advantage of speaking English fluently as his first language. He was well-educated and determined not to make the same mistakes as his father and grandfather did. He believed that his grandfather had been victimized by powerful councilors; therefore, he himself decided to choose independent individuals who did not belong to Tories or Whigs as his ministers. But actually, his ministers were not that much powerful. George III"s reign was a tremendous period during which everything was under some sort of changes. The first important change which was of great significance was The American Revolution (1750 – 1789).
Great Britain held two colonies, America and India. These were the major economic sources of England"s trade. Great amounts of raw material, especially cotton, were taken to England from these countries which had to be kept limited and unimproved; moreover, they had to pay large taxes to British government who owned mechanized factories–improving machinery happened during this period i.e. The Industrial Revolution - and England exported great amount of textile; whereas the colonies had no chance of growing. They did not even have the advantage of having a representative in England"s parliament. Consequently, this condition led to a revolution by the Americans and they managed to establish Continental Congress in 1775 which announced the independence of America and it also published a Declaration of Independence. Shortly after that, a war of independence started in 1783 and the British government became defeated. As a result, a treaty called The Treaty of Paris was signed between the two countries and America became independent.
The second significant revolution happened in France toward the end of the 18th century: The French Revolution, beginning in 1789 and ending in 1799 with the coming to the power of Napoleon.
The major problem of this period was that of great class clashes, i.e. in France, we could observe the absolute majority of people who were poor and hungry and a very small part of population who lived in absolute luxury; and the poor had to pay high taxes for the luxury of the minority; consequently, great class clash took place. Actually, the major causes which paved the way for the revolution are as following:
1. The French king, Louis XIV (the 14th) led to the overthrowing of Louis XVI (the
16th) because all the money used for the wars during the reign of Louis XVI had
been paid by the people of Louis XIV.
2. In 1788, there was a harsh winter, a catastrophe which infuriated the people.
3. Voting belonged to the minority i.e. the upper class, and a very small number of
the middle class; consequently, a national assembly was established in France who
voting for every individual, and gradually, it became the voice of people.
To show their fury, and to achieve their initial aim which they announce as the Declaration of the Rights of Man, people attacked Bustille, the prison they saw as a symbol of oppression in which only 17 prisoners were kept. It was a sort of symbolic act and a sign for the king to know that someday they might also attack his palace. Gradually, educated liberals gathered in the National Assembly, but when the power came to the hand of the illiterate and hungry people, it turned into a bloody consequence.
The French Revolution in known as a bloody revolution; many innocent people were killed and any person could be suspected of being a Royalist. They even killed the king and his wife, Marie Antoinette and even Robes Pierre who was the leader of the movement was executed.
At first, many intellectuals of England were fascinated by the revolution and wanted to solve their problems in their own country but gradually, they became disappointed.
Meanwhile, France had to defend itself against other European countries which intended to defeat the revolution, but there came a time when a young general, Napoleon came to the political stage and was announced emperor in 1804. Actually, the situation was somehow ironic, because after 15 years of war against the king, again an emperor started ruling over the country.
In England, at first many English poets including Wordsworth were the supporters of the revolution; but later on, as they witnessed its bloody consequences, they became disappointed. Two extremes, i.e. The French Revolution on one side and the disapproval of any reforms by the English government kept them in repression and any kind of reform would be harshly reacted by the government
George III was mentally quite a normal guy when he started his reign in 1760. He was rake and had a wild life; but occasionally, he got mad and finally in 1811 he lost his mind. His son, George IV, Prince of Wales who had become a regent by the parliament during his father"s madness, came to the throne. 1811 through 1860 is The Period of Regency during which the nobility had a beautiful and happy life. They were always engaged in gambling and hunting in countryside and giving balls; while the lower class lived with hardship and needed a great reform. But it was a reactionary period and any reform was condemned to be suffocated.
People in town worked in factories 6 days a week and each day for 13 hours; among them, even 7 year old children could be seen. The employment of children was necessary and had 2 advantages for the employers 1. They acquired low wages since they employers were not able to pay high wages and 2.Their flexible and small hands were essential to the textile industry to produce high quality products.
On the other hand, an economical theory, Laissez Fair i.e. Free Economy, meaning the policy of freedom from government control, especially for private commercial interests, made it a hard time for poor villagers who lived in shacks and suffered diseases and starvation and worked under a hard condition. Moreover, there used to be common lands in villages out of which each villager had a share; whereas the parliament which was the parliament of land owners issued The Enclosure Act, due to which land owners were able to posses the common lands and this led to the immigration of villagers to towns.
William Blake (1757 – 1827)
William Blake was the third son of a London hosier (i.e. a person who sells stockings). Due to financial problemsو his father was not able to afford a very good education for his extraordinarily talented son. William was sent to drawing school when he was 10 years old and there, he remained for 4 years. During this time he also studied verses.. At 14, he apprenticed a well-educated engraver (i.e. one who cuts and curves design on hard surfaces). He was learning the craft for 7 years and later on, he was sent to another school; The Royal Academy.
He married Catherine Boucher at 24; she was an illiterate girl to whom he taught to read and write and in return, she also helped him with his engraving activities. Primarily, they had some sorts of disagreement but later the marriage became more stable; they came to know each other and it proved to be a happy but childless life. He printed his poems and at the same time decorated them himself.
Blake had visions. Once in a dream vision he saw God who showed him a tree full of angels. Since then, he was seeking to find the truth not in the world of senses but in the world of contemplation. He was a mystic and a very profound thinker. Later on his works seemed chaotic. Since he was a visionary, it was difficult for him to convey his visions to people. Some scholars analyzed his works and in them, they could observe his own specific mythology, religion and philosophy.
He remained an obscure poet to the end of his life, just regarded as an engraver. He believed in freedom, no constraint and limitation and this is probably why he thundered at oppressive rules such as the exploitation of man and child labor. In "Life of the Soul", he conveys his close contact with practical life. Blake was also against theologians and preachers and believed that they had distorted the real picture of God and that they were the sources of people"s ignorance.
"Poetical Sketches"
It is a collection of poems the writing of which began when he was at 12 years of age and was finished at 26. What is obvious from the book is that the poet was not under the influence of the dominant poetic tradition i.e. Augustan; and that he had a restless quest for new forms and techniques. He seemed not to belong to the 18th century; it was as if he was living in the Elizabethan Age and was untouched by Augustan Age.
"The Songs of Innocence"
This is a collection of the most beautiful pieces of poetry accompanied by decorative designs. The songs are about the soul in its innocent state, when it is still pure, harmless and inexperienced. So, in order to materialize the subject matter, he chose childhood but he did not emphasize that childhood means innocence.
"The Book of Thel"
"Thel" in Greek means "will". The book is a series of poems with the story of human soul which is on the threshold of innocence and has to go to another stage, that of experience. The Greek meaning of the word; "will" is ironic since the soul is actually unwilling to go to the stage of experience i.e. human soul"s destiny. In this story Blake represents the failure of Thel to go to the new world.
"The Songs of Experience"
In this series of poems, the soul is indicated in the stage of experience and is introduced to evil, cruelty and all sorts of terror. He becomes familiar with the knowledge of good and evil i.e. human soul"s destiny.
"The Marriage of heaven and Hell"
In this poetic work, Blake emphasizes the unity of innocence and experience. He believes that human body and soul should be united; otherwise, the soul is incomplete. The soul must know both good and evil and make a harmony between them.
William Blake was a poet, overpowered by his great visions and themes. He was somehow crushed by them and was not able to convey them to ordinary people who never experienced such dreams and ideas. Though he was a profound idealist, his works seem confused. Later, he gave up writing and devoted his life to art as if he found a better vehicle to express his thoughts. He died in obscurity, but to those who knew him, he was a gifted but an insane man. In the 19th century, he was rediscovered as an independent thinker, an original artist and an absolutely great poet.
William Wordsworth (1770 – 1850)
William Wordsworth, the son of an attorney, John Wordsworth, was born in The English Lake District of Cumberland. He was the 5th child of the family. He lost his mother at 5 and his father at 13. William was sent to a grammar school and grew up in a beautiful landscape among reapers, cottagers, farmers, etc. and took delight in all sorts of sound around him. This association with nature played a great role in his life and later became a source of inspiration within him. He was an ardent reader and read a lot of books. He was sent to St. John College in Cambridge University. During the summer of the third year of studying in the college, he went on a tour to Italy, Switzerland and France on foot. After the trip he came back to England and received his degree.
During his vacation, Wordsworth was brought in the revolutionary atmosphere of the continent and became a supporter of it. In France, he made acquaintance with the young ardent passionate supporters of The French Revolution. He attentively listened to them, was fascinated and he himself became a devotee to the revolution and its republican ideas. In France, he met a beautiful girl, Annette Valone, the daughter of a French surgeon, and fell in love with her despite their religious differences and different political inclinations.
Annette belonged to an old Catholic family and was a Royalist. Without a marriage, they lived for a short while and almost immediately after a daughter, Caroline was born; lack of funds forced Wordsworth to return to England. Following it, the outbreak of the war between England and France made it impossible for him to rejoin Annette; and as a result, they drifted apart for ever. Wordsworth tried hard to hide this part of his life from the public but in fact he was not able to do so; and he was always suffering form the sense of guilt. (The subject of a woman left alone with a child by her lover is repeated in his works).
Wordsworth"s agonies of guilt and his gradual disillusion with the course of the Revolution in France which had become bloody; and his becoming an entirely anti-revolutionist took him to the verge of an emotional breakdown. At this critical point, he settled in a rent-free cottage in a beautiful landscape with his affectionate sister, Dorothy who devoted her life to protect her brother and became his dearest friend. She began her long career as a confidante, an inspirer and a secretary of her brother and helped him to experience peace and comfort. Meanwhile, Wordsworth met Samuel Taylor Coleridge with whom he became an intimate friend despite their different personalities. In fact, their differences made them closer and they helped each other very much. Dorothy played the role of a link in this friendship.
Wordsworth and Coleridge decided to publish a book together and they accomplished it and published this greatly significant book in literature in 1798: "Lyrical Ballads".
The book opens with Coleridge"s "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", included 3 other poems by him and a number of Wordsworth"s poems. Actually, the main differences of the poems by these two was that Wordsworth tried to make ordinary things seem magical, yet Coleridge talked about supernatural and extraordinary things in a way that they seemed natural and common. "Lyrical Ballads" was published again in 1800 and in this edition Wordsworth included his outstanding "Preface".
In "The Preface to Lyrical Ballads", he defended his viewpoints as a poet. Some of them are shortly as following: "Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of emotions, so it is free; and it cannot undertake any rules. It must talk about common man and should be concerned with rustic and country life. The language of poem should be the one used by ordinary people." "Preface" is an important document since it contains the first moral attacks against Neo-classicism.
Wordsworth married Mary Hutchinson who was a country girl and whom he knew since childhood. Although she was a very good wife, she was not that source of inspiration to him as Dorothy and Coleridge. During a certain period, Wordsworth"s life grew disastrous and gloomy; he lost 2 of his children; his brother, John, died in a shipwreck, and his friendship with Coleridge started to deteriorate and it culminated in an open quarrel which did not made up for 20 years. Moreover, Dorothy"s mental and physical condition grew weak. But in 1843, he was made a Poet Laureate and at old age he became more famous and prosperous. The passionate revolutionary Wordsworth became a serious opponent of any kind of political change, any parliamentary reformation and freedom of press. He was a conservative in politics and religion; and felt contemptuous toward some young Romantic poets as Byron and Keats. His other works are as following:
"The Prelude"
It is an autobiographical work. It was revised by Wordsworth to the end of his life and was published posthumously.
"The Excursion"
It is a long poem in 9 volumes, concerning the poet"s views and philosophies about man and the universe, rural life, solitude, the beauties of nature and so on. It is not a complete work.
"Poems in Two Volumes"
It contains more difficult and complicated poems by him as "Intimation Ode" and "Revolution and Independence".
Sir Walter Scott (1771 – 1832)
A romantic novelist (the founder of historical novels) and poet, was the son of an attorney from Scottish background. He was born in Edinburgh; educated to become an attorney himself. He studied law but there came a time that he realized that law was not his main interest. He discovered literature through Spenser and was totally fascinated by him. Meanwhile, he started writing poetry but later on he embarked writing novels. He read about 30 popular novels among which there were many great novels of the 19th century.
Scott"s novels were set in historical backgrounds, and they are concerning with the history of Scotland or England. He was a lover of romance from early childhood and was in close contact with its elements for example knights, princes and so on. In his works Scottish dialect and scriptures can be traced. Tolstoy and Balzac considered themselves as his students and acknowledged him as their masters.
His works are as following:
Historical Novels:
1. Waverly
2. The Two Drovers
3. Old Morality
4. Rob Roy
5. The Heart of Midlothia
6. Ivanhoe
7. Guy Mannering
8. The Antiquary
9. The Old Mortality
Long Narrative Poems:
1. Marmion
2. The Lady of the Lake
Short Lyric Poems:
1. Jock of Hazeldean
2. Proud Maisie
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 – 1834)
Coleridge was born into a family of 18 children; he was the 13th child of a country parson. His father was a bookworm and remarkable for his knowledge of books and his ignorance of practical affairs. At the age of 3, Samuel was able to read Bible. One of the books that played a great role in inspiring him and improving his imagination was: "Tales from 1001 Arabian Nights". The book gave a chance to his imagination to wander in a world of magic and mystery. The father and the son grew to become very intimate; consequently, the death of the latter was a great blow to the 9-year old son. Immediately after it, he was sent to Christ Hospital School, the one for the poor gifted children; so, he had to leave his dear countryside, Devin shire.
At school, he had the chance to have a very good education and familiarity with Charles Lamb, the Romantic essayist who later on became his intimate and life-long friend. He was sent to Jesus College, Cambridge, and since he was still poor; there he was accepted as a sizar, i.e. student who works in return for the food and educational service, due to his poverty. Then he started a rather reckless life; he became an ardent republican and the leader of a group of ardent students who were more interested in having wine parties than studying; accordingly, he left Cambridge and enlisted in the cavalry. Being a good writer, he wrote the soldiers" love letters; but in fact, he was just a dreamer who could not even mount a horse; consequently, when his brother came to take him, the authorities accepted willingly. He returned to Cambridge, but left it in 1794 without a degree.
Afterwards, Coleridge met Robert Southy, a student at Oxford who like he himself, had poetic inspiration, was a radical in religion and politics and also an ardent republican – later, he became a Poet Laurete. Together, they planned to establish an ideal democratic community in America for which Coleridge chose the name Panistocracy, signifying an equal rule for all.
He started enlisting virtuous men and for perpetuation of their scheme, they required virtuous ladies. Therefore, Coleridge became engaged to Sarah Flicker, sister of Southy"s fiancée. In fact, his marriage was a Panistocratic one; he needed a woman to accompany him.
Coleridge and Southy were both under the influence of the Romantic idealists as Voltair and Rousseau. But gradually, they fell apart due to some disagreements and their scheme collapsed. Later, Coleridge"s radicalism waned and he became a conservative – just like other republicans.
He settled in a cottage where his son was born. Meanwhile, he met Wordsworth and this acquaintance became one of the important incidents of his life. He worshiped William and Dorothy; they shared ideas and enjoyed the beauties of nature and gradually, they became three people in one soul. Coleridge learned from Wordsworth to limit himself to regularity and discipline – even for a short time – in order to work on poetry. He also learned the directness and simplicity of language.
Wordsworth was in contact with Coleridge"s marvelous imagination and affected him greatly but he never encouraged him and regarded his poems. Coleridge openly admired Wordsworth, yet, he suffered his friend"s neglect toward his poetry. The outcome of their poetic collaboration was: "Lyrical Ballads". In this collection, his magnificent "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and some other shorter poems appeared, while some others were not included by Wordsworth.
Coleridge, William and Dorothy Wordsworth took a trip to Germany from which William and Dorothy returned after a short while but Coleridge remained to study German language and the works of philosophers such as Kant which had a great impact on him. He introduced German philosophy to English nation.
Back in England, he had been gradually disaffected to his wife and in 1799 he fell helplessly and profoundly in love with Sarah Hutchinson, whose sister, Mary Wordsworth married 3 years later. During this time, his health was increasingly deteriorating him; consequently, in order to endure his psychological and physical pain he started to use laudanum i.e. alcohol plus opium. At the beginning, he used it as a drug to lessen his pain but gradually, it became an addiction to opium. On the other hand, his unhappy marriage, his declining poetic power and hopeless love affair and finally his quarrel with Wordsworth which caused their separation, made him come to London. He separated from his wife and resided in the household of a surgeon and under his control he could avoid a breakdown.
The last phase of his life was that of a philosopher and a critic not a poet. His famous work: "Biographia Literaria" with the subject of philosophy and criticism was written in this phase. The first part of the book is autobiographical in which he wrote about his life, his friends and German philosophers. The second part contains his own theory of criticism. Actually, it was Coleridge who theorized Romanticism and established Romantic Doctrine. Later, when Romanticism had no supporter among critics, Coleridge was accepted and his view became influential – even by a modern critic who discussed the psychological process of making poetry.
Coleridge composed only 9 pieces of poems which are quite outstanding. He was a genius, had a marvelous imagination; introduced us the world of magic and mystery in a way that everything seems natural and familiar. But his mind was not disciplined and he could not make himself write all sorts of ideals in his mind. The reasons for his failure were: First, he needed patience and labor which he lacked; the second reason was opium which deteriorated his mental power; and third: instead of writing, he gave lectures and expressed his ideas in conversations and prose pieces of criticism. Maybe that is why his collection of writing is slender.
"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
This is a lyrical ballad and a narrative poem. It is the story of an old sailor who comes to a house in which a marriage fist is being held. He stops one of the guests to tell him the story of the ship in which he worked. The ship was stroked by a storm blast; but all of a sudden an albatross came to the ship and the storm stopped and there was only a firm breeze. As long as the sailor gave food to the bird which was flying around the ship, there was no danger to threaten them; but unexpectedly, on the 9th day of their journey, the old sailor killed the bird and from that time on, a curse fell on the ship; there was no breeze anymore but the hot sun. After a while, they saw a skeleton ship in which two figures were playing dice. These figures were Death and Life-in-Death. When the ship vanished, all the sailors died except the old mariner with the alabaster, now dead, hanging around his neck. A little longer, he saw a few eels moving beautifully in the water. With the coming of the eels the curse vanished and the ship came home and he was rescued but with a sort of penance within. Now he feels the need to teach people to love and respect all the creatures in the world.
"Kubla Khan"
It is an interesting visionary poem the composition of which was unfinished. Once Coleridge read about Kubla Khan who ordered the destruction of a castle. After reading the story, he took opium and slept. In his dream he found out that a poem of 300 lines was written about him and after he woke up, he started writing the poem. But the composition of the poem was interrupted by a person and Coleridge forgot the rest of it. The poem does not have a very straight kind of narration.
"Christable"
It is another unfinished poem in which we can trace medieval romance and settings. Christable goes to a wood and there she prays for her lover to be safe. She meets Geraldine who tells her that she has been stolen from her father"s palace by some warriors. Christable takes her to her own home and her father promises Geraldine to find her father – who was also his friend – and to avenge her on those who stole her. During the night, Christable is bewitched by Geraldine. She understands it but is not able to persuade her father not to trust her. Her father does not like the attitude toward Geraldine, turns away from her and again decides to help Geraldine.
Charles Lamb (1775 – 1834)
Lamb was the first Romantic essayist. The major characteristics of Romantic essays are:
1. Confessional; egoism and self-centeredness are aspects of Romanticism.
2. Truthful; since a Romantic writer is confessing, he tells the truth about his
affairs, ideas, emotions and so on.
3. Not satirical as Neo-classicists. A Romantic writer is interested in his own world
not in his society.
4. Concerning the inner world of man.
5. Not based upon reason. A Romantic essayist is a man whose experiences are deep-
rooted in his emotional life.
6. Aiming at raising emotions.
Charles was born in an ancient section of London. His father was a clerk working for a lawyer and had a lot of financial problems. Charles was sent to Christ Hospital School but he left it before he was 15 and became a clerk in the accounting department of the huge commercial house, the East India Company, where he remained for 33 years. However, he never gave up learning and a great knowledge of his life was self acquired.
His adult life on the surface was unadventurous and dull. When he was 22 he faced a catastrophe; his beloved sister, Mary, killed their mother and wounded their father in a fit of insanity. After she recovered, Charles undertook the responsibility of nursing her at home; thus he never married to the end of his life. Mary"s attacks recurred and due to the curiosity of neighbors, they had to move continually.
However his life was not so void of joy, for when Mary was normal, she was a very good companion to him and had similar interests with him and also she collaborated him in his works. Besides, Charles had a group of good friends including Coleridge, Wordsworth, Sauthy, etc who gathered in his house on Wednesday nights and had fun. Meanwhile, Lamb tried to restore his strength in studying and writing; he also studied composing poems but he was not good enough at poetry. In collaboration with his sister, he produced an excellent children"s book: "Tales from Shakespeare". Together, they gathered Shakespeare"s plays and wrote the plots in a simple language for children. Lamb also worked on critical projects. His most impressive achievement were the brilliant comments in his anthology of dramas in which he had gathered extracts, speeches and scenes from different dramatists. The book is titled "Specimens of English Dramatic Poets". It was actually a revival of Jacobean and Elizabethan dramatists- except Shakespeare - to whom he gave a very brief but illuminating comment.
In his 40s, Lamb was able to find a suitable medium to express himself as an artist; he started to work for London Magazine and signed his essays as Elia. His essays were gathered and published. They concerned his experiences in Christ Hospital School, Mary, his childhood, his friends, etc. In fact, it was a confessional work, full of truths and was centered on his ideas, desires and hopes.
Thomas De Quincey (1785 – 1859)
He is another prose writer of the period. De Quincy"s father was a wealthy linen merchant who died of tuberculosis when Thomas was 7 years old and he left enough money for his family to afford themselves. Thomas was a shy and sensitive boy who mostly lived in his dream world. He was also under the influence of his older brother. He was sent to the house of clergy who taught him Greek and Latin so well. Then he was sent to Manchester Grammar School and there he excelled in these languages and his knowledge astonished everybody; he was able to write perfectly and speak fluently in Latin. But in Manchester Grammar School gradually he grew tired of discipline and routine so he fled and after a summer spent tramping through North Wales and wandering among farmers and enjoying the scenery, he returned home.
At 17 he broke off completely from his family and guardians and went to London with the hope that he could obtain from money lenders an advance on his prospective inheritance. There, he spent a terrible winter of loneliness and destitution and was in contact just with a few kind street walkers. He experienced the most difficult phase of his life and was astonished at how indifferent the large city was toward the miserable. It was during this period that he met Anne, a prostitute, who became quite close and dear to him. Once Thomas left London for a few days and when he returned, he never met Anne again; hence, this affectionate relationship stopped abruptly.
After reconciliation with his guardians he entered Oxford and was promised to be paid 100 pounds a year by them. But he left Oxford without a degree. It was at Oxford that he took the first doze of opium to release him of his pain and later, he became an addict to the end of his life. In the meantime, he met Coleridge whom he admired and following that, he met Wordsworth.
Thomas was taken to Lake District where he settled in Wordsworth"s cottage after Wordsworth left it. 21 year old Thomas married Margaret Simpson, the daughter of a local farmer, who brought him 8 children. He spent 12 years in the Lake District but when he faced financial problems he decided to settle in London and wrote for journals. "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater" a piece of prose work, brought him great success and enabled him to support his family.
His prose is different from that of Lamb. It is a sort of poetic prose in which we can trace elements of poetry such as music, rhythm, rhyme, etc. He is mostly concerned with the dreams, the experiences and the pleasure which were brought to him by opium. His works are psychological and concerned with his own experiences. He confesses everything in an intimate manner.
George Gordon, (Lord Byron) (1788 -1824)
Though not the greatest, Byron is the most famous among romantics due to some reasons: 1. His works were translated into different European language and were given a better translation than other literary works, for they were not very complicated. 2. His life, career and personality are more interesting than his works and, 3. He owes his fame to his characters i.e. Byronic Heroes, who though similar in characteristics, were quite influential.
Byron was descended from well-known parents. His father, Jack, known as Mad Jack was an adventurer and a fortune-hunter. He was handsome and married a wealthy woman, exhausted her wealth and left her alone. He eloped with a marchioness who was the wife of Lord Chamberlain and she bore him a daughter named Augusta. He spent all her money and left her. Then he went to Scotland and married Catherine Gordon of Gight who bore him a son: George. Again, Jack exhausted his wife"s wealth and in order to escape his creditors, he deserted his family, went to France and died.
The 3 year old child, George, was brought up by a neurotic mother who was of an unstable character and ill-fitted for motherhood. George was born lame and his deformity would have created psychological distortions, especially in such a sensitive child as him. But he survived all his distresses and was sent to a grammar school. When he was 10, the death of his great uncle who had no heirs brought him the state and the title Lord Byron. Due to his new eminence, he was sent to Harrow School where he practiced boxing and cricket eagerly and energetically. He wanted to seem normal despite his deformity.
After he received his MA degree from Cambridge, he started an extravagant wild life: he was extraordinarily handsome and was besieged by women. He returned to his estate and assumed his seat in The House of Lords. In 1809, he set out on a tour through Portugal, Spain, Albania, Greece and Asia Minor. He went to places strange to English people.
His first literary product was:
"Child Harold Pilgrimage"
Byron wrote the opening two cantoes of the book on tour. This is the story of Child Harold"s travel around Europe, his characteristics, emotions, adventures, and so on. Actually the book describes his own travels. Soon after its publication, he gained fame and became the literary and social celebrity of London He himself quoted: "I woke up one morning and I found myself famous."
He was greatly involved in love affairs. Even a child was born to his half-sister, Augusta, who was suspected to be his child. This sort of life gradually prepared him for marriage and he chose a beautiful, virtuous, wealthy and educated woman named Annabella Millanke as his wife. She believed in moral aspects of life, so, naturally, she found her marriage hopeless and after she bore a daughter, she separated legally, Many scandals led to his divorce (one might have been his relations with Augusta). He left the country for ever and settled in Switzerland for a short while, where he met Percy Bysshe Shelley. There, he lived with Shelley and Mary, his wife, as well as Shelley"s sister-in-law Jane Clairmont who forced herself upon Byron and their affairs led to the birth of a daughter. Under the influence of Shelley, Byron composed the third contoe of "Child Harold Pilgrimage".
Then he went to Italy where again he led a wild life full of love affairs. He met Teresa Guicciolli, the young wife of the elderly Count Alessandro Guicciolli and with the consent of her husband, he had relations with her. In Italy, he completed the fourth contoe of "Child Harold Pilgrimage" as well as another work:
"Manfred"
It is a poetic drama. Manfred is a Faustian figure living alone in a castle in the Alps. He has a horrifying secret in his heart but is not able to talk about it. Therefore, he decides to commit suicide. But as he wants to hurt himself down from a cliff, he is saved by a hunter. Then he goes to the underworld and confesses his secret: he has an incestuous love for his sister. Then the vision of his sister comes to him and tells him he will die the next day. He is recommended to repent but he does not and finally he dies.
"The Vision of Judgment"
It is a satire in which Byron attacked Sauthy. He was a writer with a book titled the same; in which he attacked Byron and his works and referred to him and his followers as Satanic School. Byron"s satire was written in response to Shanty"s attack.
Byron"s masterpiece is:
"Don Juan"
It is an unfinished story of a 16 year old boy, Don Juan, who is forced to leave his country and is cast to a Greek island; after his ship is wrecked. He is restored to life by the help of a pirate"s daughter to whom he falls in love later. The girl"s father who was supposed to be dead, returns and after he discovers the love between them; sends the boy to Constantine Pole where he is sold to a Sultana as a slave. Sultana is affectionate toward the boy and releases him. But later she becomes jealous of him and threatens to kill him. Don Juan escapes and takes refuge in Russian army and due to his gallantry; he is sent to St. Petersburg and is introduced to Empress Catherine. Then he is commissioned to go to England. The last contoe is the description of the English society-a satire.
"Cain".
It is another poetic drama. Cain always has a question in mind: "Why do I have to toil for someone else"s fault?" He goes to Lucifer, and asks questions about God, world, etc. As a pupil of Lucifer, he grows into a rebel and becomes mad at his brother, Abel. Abel scarifies animals to God, a barbaric action in Byronic Cain"s view. The story goes on with Cain"s murdering Abel; but later, remorse comes to him.
Byronic Heroes are all outcasts and against society. Byronic Hero who appears in all his works is a sort of person disillusioned with all social institutions. He just seeks pleasure in women but respects certain kinds of them. He has a deep-rooted grief in his heart about which he never talks to anybody. He is very profound in appearance but looks cruel; yet there can be found traces of affection in his heart. By and large, he is proud, moody and cynical.
Byron he gave a lecture in defense of workers and since that moment, he was considered a dangerous radical by his enemies and remained revolutionary to the end of his life. He had no system of political ideas and hated all sorts of institutions, politicians, lords, etc – a rather nihilist view.
After publishing all his works and Shelley"s drowning, Byron grew weary of his life. Thus, he sold his properties in England and organized an expedition to assist in the Greek war for independence from the Turks. He arranged Byron Brigade in Greece but he became sick in malaria swamps of Greece and died at 36 as a result of the sickness and a high fever.
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 – 1822)
Shelley was born in Sussex to an aristocratic family who were conservative conventional land owners. His father Timothy Shelley was a hard headed and conventional member of the parliament and then became a baronet.
Percy"s elementary education was at home. He was a strange little boy, mischievous, beautiful and brilliant but wayward and independent and had a dream-like childhood. He was sent to be educated at Eton – he himself was in line for becoming a baronet – thus, he had to have a good education. But he was not a good student at Eton and was against all sorts of authority and routine at school; he was a non-conformist.
After Eton, he went to Oxford, but there again he had the same problem of non-conformity and could not accept the framework of discipline. His stay at Oxford was quite short, for he wrote a pamphlet by the title of "The Necessity of Atheism". Shelley wrote it under the influence of William Godwin who was an atheist, against government and religion. The publication of the pamphlet led to his being expelled from Oxford. The pamphlet was written along with Thomas Jefferson Hogg, Shelley"s friend; despite the insistence of his father, he did not break up with Hogg and thus he was expelled from his father"s household, too. He went to London and by the aim of his sister"s pocket money, he found a room and settled.
Then he met the daughter of a tavern keeper named Harriet Westbrook who fell in love with him and became his disciple. Moreover, she had plans of matrimony and in order to flee from the pressure at home, she took refuge in Shelley"s house. They eloped to Scotland and there Shelley married her though it was against Godwinian philosophy.
Shelley"s first plan of saving the universe started in Ireland; that is, he decided to rescue Ireland from England. Despite his attempts and his pamphlets, the Irish seemed reluctant to be saved; thus, he left Ireland and returned to London. After 2 years, Harriet who was not a revolutionary became tired of her unsettled life, her husband"s ideas and his friends, so they became at odds with each other.
Shelley"s acquaintance with Godwin led to his acquaintance with his brilliant daughter Mary whose mother was Mary Wollstonecraft, a pioneer of feminine movement - who campaigned for the right of equal education of women with that of men – and who died at the deliver to her daughter. Later, Godwin married a lady named Ms. Clairmont and they named their daughter Clair Clairmont.
Shelley fell in love with Mary Godwin with whom he shared values, ideas and interests of the same kind; yet, he could not marry her since he was married to Harriet. He tried his best to convince Harriet that their matrimony would be immoral while he is in love with someone else. He also proposed her that they could live together, Mary as his wife and Harriet as their friend. Still, Harriet refused, and Shelley, who had become quite despaired, tried to commit suicide with laudanum but he failed. Afterward, he married Mary and eloped with her and they fled to France. After a short while, Shelley, Mary and Clair Clairmont went to Switzerland where he started his friendship with Byron and resumed composing poetry.
When Shelley returned to London, he found that he was generally considered not only as an atheist and a revolutionary, but also as an immoralist. Two years later, when Harriet drowned herself in a fit of despair, the court denied Shelley the custody of their 2 children. He moved to Italy for good and thereafter, he found himself in the role of an alien and an outcast, scorned and rejected by the people to whom he had dedicated his powers and his life. (Romantics concentrated on outcasts and they themselves were the outcasts of their societies).
Shelley"s four years of settlement in Italy were intensely creative and the composition of the majority of his works is attributed to this period. However, during this time his family life was shattered; his little daughter and his son, Clara and William died and his wife could never recover from the nervous breakdown resulted by such a catastrophe – even the birth of their third child was of no use. Despite all these difficulties he had a peaceful life in Italy. He was interested in fishing and boating but he did not know how to swim; and once, he set out for boating with a friend Edward William, a retired lieutenant, and never returned. Ten days later, their bodies were washed ashore and Shelley"s body was burned in presence of his friends and his ashes were buried in a Protestant cemetery near the bodies of his son, William and John Keats in Italy.
Shelley"s works as a poet has different characteristics from other poets. Several motives recur in his works: He believed that all the accepted institutions are sources of evil. Such institutions as government, school, marriage, church, etc. were considered by him to be the sources of man"s misery. Of course he was not a pessimist and believed that man can have a peaceful life and can be free, provided that he loves; love was his clue for the future. According to him, man has to change in order to make things better i.e. man is the first to be improved through the miracle of love that has a regenerative power to establish justice, peace, equality and freedom. These clues were the themes of his poems. Shelley was a great lyric poet. His poetry is full of powerful emotions and in them, he discusses certain ideas in a quite passionate way, trying to arouse emotion in the readers. He was also a perfect craftsman and rhythm came to him just like breathing.
His first important work is "Queen Mab", an idealistic and a prophetic poem in which he expresses his viewpoints and attacks monarchy, religion, marriage and commerce and advocates atheism, republicanism, free love and vegetarianism. This is the story of a disembodied soul through space, to whom the fairy Mab reveals in visions, the woeful past, the dreadful present and the utopian future; announcing that "there is no God". She (Mab) denies all institutions and emphasizes man"s return to his natural state of goodness and felicity.
Then he wrote "Alastor", meaning the evil spirit of solitude. In this poem, there is a poet who is not able to find joy with people, in love or in presence of any man; but he is doomed to be in solitude by the evil spirit of solitude. He is an outcast poet, not understood by others.
"Prometheus Unbound", his masterpiece is a lyric drama in four acts about Prometheus, (a mythological figure). Prometheus is a rebellious character; he brought fire from heaven to man; and accordingly, he was punished by Zeus. He is bound to a crag and everyday an eagle tears his breast and takes out his liver. This act is eternal, for Prometheus is immortal. Shelley"s Prometheus is a mixture of mythological Prometheus and Satan of Milton who rebels against the oppressive God. Shelley"s hero tries to save mankind and finally succeeds in ending the tyranny.
Shelley also wrote a fine tragedy titled "The Cenci" as well as numerous lyric poems, the greatest of which is titled "Ode to the West Wind", a visionary call for proletarian revolution: "The Mask of Anarchy" as well as a satire on Wordsworth: "Peter Bell the Third", a penetrating political essay: "A Philosophical View of Reform" and an elegy on the death of Keats, "Adonais".
Shelley"s prose work is "A Defence of Poetry", a critical work about the nature of poetic creation, inspiration, the relation between politics and poetry and the difficulties of the translation of a poem.
John Keats (1795 – 1821)
The last Romantic poet, John Keats, was born to a family whose father was head ostler at a London livery stable who married his employee"s daughter and inherited the business. Keats" mother was lively and strongly sensuous. The parents were uninterested in art and had little familiarity with literature. John himself was not interested in literature. He was rather a high spirited boy who adored playing.
When Keats was 8, his father died after a fall from a horse and when he was 14, his mother died of tuberculosis. As a result, the brothers and sisters became close to each other. The children"s guardian was a practical-minded businessman; so, he took 15 year old Keats out of school and bound him apprentice to a surgeon. After 5 years of apprenticeship, Keats was qualified enough to start his medical career, but almost immediately, despite his guardian"s protests, he abandoned medicine for poetry. Almost everything happened suddenly in his life, even his reading literature. When he was 14, he was introduced to book and soon he began to read the books in the school library.
The first major incident of his life was his studying Spenser"s "Fairie Queene" which had a great impact on him and made him start writing. Keats" first poems were shown to Leigh Hunt, editor of several journals, a critic, an essayist and a poet of minor aristocracy who had a great art of detecting artistic genius and who was a radical supporter of Romanticism. Hunt could detect the token of genius in young Keats and published his poems in his journal, "The Examiner". Keats, who was merely a disciple to Hunt, was greatly happy and continued working on "Endymion A Poetic Romance".
The publication of this book of poems brought him the brutal attacks of critics. The major reason was that the critics were against Hunt and tried to attack him through Keats. But Keats had a very tough personality despite his tender appearance and was self critical. Thus, in his preface to "Endymion", he pointed out his own faults.
The year 1818 was a cruel time to Keats during which his favorite brother, Tom caught tuberculosis. Keats spent time nursing his brother and in the closing month of the year he lost him while he himself caught the disease. George, his other brother, left the country due to financial problems; moreover, Keats fell in love with Fanny Brawne, an 18 year old brilliant girl; but their love was disastrous for there were obstacles to their union; in addition to his disease, he had financial straits. The intermingled theme of love, the beauty of love and the inevitability of death can be traced in his works. In order to release himself, Keats started working on poetry and created works which placed him among the greatest poets.
The year 1820 passed miserably. He spent the first half in the country with Fanny nursing him, and in the second half he left his homeland for Italy, hoping that his health would be restored there. He died in Italy and was buried in a Protestant cemetery at 25 years of age. His premature death was a great loss in the history of English literature.
Keats was a different literary man from his contemporaries. Unlike Shelley and Byron who used poetry as a means toward their aims - the former using it for explaining political doctrines; – Keats was a pure poet writing poems for expressing beauty and rendering the experience of beauty. Beauty was a great joy for him.
His most important poem was written in 2 years: "Endymion". In the Greek mythology, Endymion is a shepherd with whom Synthia, the goddess of the moon falls in love. Whereas in Keats" work Endymion falls in love with Synthia; but it is a hopeless love. He seeks her throughout the world and at last, when he gets disappointed, he finds Phoebe, an earthly real woman and falls in love with her, and later, he finds that Phebe was actually Synthia herself. They have a Platonic love and Phoebe takes him to the eternal territory.
"The Fall of Hyperion" is an unfinished epic in 2 versions (both incomplete); also inspired by mythology. In Roman mythology, Saturn, the god of gods, is dethroned by his son Jupiter. Keats" story of Hyperion is that of the fall of Saturn. Saturn talks to his fellow Titans and tries to retain his kingdom, so he asks the help of Hyperion, the God of the Sun. The story reminds one of "Paradise Lost" by Milton although Keats did not mean to be after anybody"s fashion.
Other works by Keats are as the following:
Ode to Psyche
Ode on a Grecian Urn
Ode to Melancholy
Ode to Nightingale
Ode to Indolence
Ode to Autumn
Keats was a pagan; he was mostly concerned with mythological figures rather than Christianity.
Differences between the Prose and Poetry of the Romantic Period
Before Romanticism it was believed that prose is plain, dull, commonplace and dealing mostly with facts. But the Romantic Movement made a great change in prose. During this era, prose was not simple or practical anymore; it was emotional and subjective and it concerned with the writers" experiences. Their prose works were mostly imaginative and poetic. A common form of essays during this period was: Familiar Essays.
Familiar Essay is a kind of essay dealing with a sort of imaginative fact – not general facts – which is considered only by the writer to be a fact. A Familiar Essay is a very confessional type of writing; conveying personal interests. It is analytical since in these works the writers analyze everything.
The Romantic writers were very personal and egoist and a veil of their imagination falls between them and the fact they express.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797 – 1851)
The Gothic tradition is completely in the mood of Romanticism; concerned with supernaturalism and strange things. The best English Gothic novelist is Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, the 19 year-old wife of Shelley. Together with Byron, the couple spent a summer in Switzerland where they read Gothic novels. Each one decided to write one but only Mary succeeded to finish hers. Her work was titled "Frankenestein" and was considered the best among the Gothic novels.
Dr. Frankenestein is a genius student of natural philosophy who tries to achieve immortality. In university, he discovers the secret of parting life in inanimate objects. Thus, he gathers different parts of the bodies of different people, puts the together and structures a Creature similar to a human being but in a gigantic size and very ugly and horrible in appearance. Opposite to his countenance, The Creature is very friendly at heart; he is also a literate one since his brain belongs to a professor. He feels lonely, so he asks Frankenestein for a mate but his request is refused. Consequently, he takes revenge on Frankenestein who just created him regardless of his emotional and spiritual needs. He kills his brother, friend and bride. Frankenestein pursues him to destroy him but he fails and dies and finally The Creature ends his life.
"Frankenestein" is considered a Gothic novel. It has a very profound philosophical idea. The Creature is a symbol of human being and the Frankenestein himself represents God. The loneliness and misery of man is conveyed through the story.
Mary Shelley was only 19 when she wrote this novel. So it is very surprising of so young a girl to have such a profound insight.
Jane Austin (1801 – 1858)
Although this novelist lived during the Romantic period, she remained detached from romanticism. Her father, Reverend George Austin was a cultivated clergyman who encouraged her in reading and writing. Jane led an ordinary life without any noticeable incidents. She wrote about the limited experiences of the lives of the southern English villagers to whom she was in touch with; the upper- middle class gentlemen who have good incomes, seeking wives and the young girls trying to find husbands for their mothers or aunts and gentlemen trying to induce young girls to elope with them.
The superficiality of Austin"s subject matters might appear very surprising; but great critics recognized her in one of the two greatest novelists of the period.
Unlike Bronte Sisters, Austin is detached from feelings and is not under the control of passion. She is a great realist. To her, literature is not the imitation of life but is making an illusion of life through imagination. She can render this illusion especially by her use of everyday language. Her humor is so delicate that if not being a professional reader, one might miss her witty turn of mind i.e. the satirical aspects of her works are difficult to detect. Her prose is subtle, exact and straight to the point. It is more beautifully constructed than that of Addison. She is regarded as the best successor of Addison. Austin"s type of writing is conversational rather than descriptive. Her novels are as follows:
Sense and Sensibility
Pride and Prejudice
Ema
Northanger Abbey
Mansfield Park
Persuation
Neo-Classicism versus Romanticism
1. Reason / Feelings and Emotion
Reason is the most important and the dominant factor in Neo-Classicism. It was greatly regarded by Plato and Aristotle and all their followers in the Neo-Classical period. According to them, reason is the only voice to answer and to obey; it is the source of evaluation to be distinct from animals. They believed that man should act just according to his mental power.
On the other hand, Romanticists, especially Wordsworth (the father of Romanticism), believed that poetry is nothing but the overflow of emotions. It originates from the poet"s feelings and its aim is to produce the same emotions in the readers.
2. Urban Life / Rural Life
In all works of the Neo-Classicists as Pope and Johnson we could observe traces of urban life. They were not interested in the wild nature; whereas the Romanticists were deeply interested in nature especially in its wild aspects. To them, a beautiful garden or landscape, meadows and country sides are components of nature and they were influenced by the secrets which existed in nature. Neo-Classicists cared for nature as man"s nature but a Romanticist cares for nature as the natural world as a stimulus for thinking and as a source of inspiration and imagination.
3. Aristocracy / Simple Characters
Neo-Classicists mostly wrote for and about the upper-class gentlemen and ladies. Their subject matters were about the aristocratic life of such people while there is no trace of such characters in Romanticism. In the latter we have humble people, little country girls and boys, farmers, etc. The reason for choosing such common people instead of courtiers is that a courtier is much more able of hiding his personality whereas a Romanticist is in search of human desires and common people are easier to reach to their desires. They are not able to hide their true selves.
4. External / Internal Life
In Neo-Classicism man is mostly important regarding his social and external personality. In other words man in his social and external aspects is considered more important than in his individual and internal life; whereas the Romanticists" aim is to penetrate the internal life of man not his external one. Thus, man"s hopes, wishes, desires, love, pains and philosophy are important to them. Therefore, as far as human life is concerned, a Romanticist is more profound than a Neo-Classicist. The former is egoistic and self-centered. A Romantic writer or poet believes that every human being has a hidden life which is much more active than his external life. The predominant genre of Romanticism was Lyric. The Lyric poets express their own feelings openly. On the other hand, to the latter, man among men is important; he deals mostly with Social Satires.
5. Limitation (Rules and Laws) / Freedom
A Neo-Classicist believes that a poet is a maker and an imitator who should have a model (like Virgil) in order to create. He should use certain rhythm, rhyme scheme and figurative languages. He has a framework of strict, oriented rules. According to the supporters of this school, art is created only when the artist is able to limit his imagination according to his masters.
On the contrary, Romanticists believe in no limitation for anything in life and all of them led a wild life. According to them, poetry should be free and imagination should go wherever it wants to go. A romantic poet is limitless and a free creator who is able to experience unbelievable experiences. According to Wordsworth, poetry is the overflow of emotions; it is spontaneous and nobody, even the poet himself is able to stop it. Romanticists believed in no limitation for genre, subject matter and also versification but absolute freedom of artist.
6. Stock Diction / Simple and Fresh Language
Neo-Classicism started with simplicity (prose of Addison and Steele) but did not remain so up to the end. Its followers used repeated words i.e. stock diction, and the same phraseology. They divided the words into poetic and non-poetic ones and used the poetic words repeatedly. But Wordsworth believed that all words are poetic even those spoken by farmers and villagers. He was sick of ordinary daily language which was used since the time of Chaucer up to his time.
The Dominant Religious Beliefs
Deism
It is applied to a sort of religious belief according to which all the incidents observed in this universe are the results of some causes. There are a few principles in Deism:
1. First Cause
There is a supreme being, i.e. God (all the creatures must have a creator)
2. Order and Wisdom of the Creator
The universe is an ordered system in which we can perceive law and regularity; it is not a chaotic one; consequently, there must be wisdom.
3. Purposefulness
The whole universe is planned wisely; therefore, the creator must have a purpose. (According to Deists, Scripture is a part of the universe).
4. Benevolence
In the process of the purposeful world"s going to its end smoothly and beautifully, God"s gift to all creatures are perceptible – that of existence and that of freedom to live.
Deism spread in the Augustan Age and was appropriate for the Neo-Classicists and many people both Christian and Neo-Classicist believed in it. The Christian Deists believed that the world is perfectly built and one must go after the model of the Supreme Being – i.e. one has to have order, wisdom and purpose, so that one would become happy in life.
Methodism
This religious viewpoint was spread after the age of reason, during the age of sentimentality, emotion and feeling (i.e. the period of Emotionalism). The founder of Methodism was John Wesley.
John Wesley (1703 – 1791)
He was the 15th child of a clergyman and educated at Oxford. Together with his brother Charles and his friend, he founded a society of 20 young men who started series of self examination according to an orderly life. He started preaching Bible to common people in open fields, bars, cities, streets and so on – not inside a church. Primarily, Methodism started in the Anglican Church but later on, it was parted from the church. John Wesley spread it as an individual religious movement but Charles never abandoned his tendency to the Anglican Church.
In one of his sermons, he asserted that human being has to awaken the love of God inside his soul; through his heart and his faith to Bible, he is able to achieve salvation. Wesley"s ideas were somehow attached to Puritanism. He gave 400 sermons and rode miles to preach. It was a tremendous religious movement which stressed on the working class, sympathizing with them and encouraging a pious life. His audiences were really influenced by him, trembling, crying and experiencing convulsive emotions. This powerful movement influenced many Anglican preachers.
Evangelicanism
It is another religious movement very similar to the previous one. It has the same method of preaching but is performed inside the Anglican Church. The title is related to Bible. It refers to those 4 people who reported the Gospels: Peter, Luke, John and Mathew, the original evangelists. They believed that The New Testament should be taken to people. They started preaching the gospels to them and putting the central significance on faith as a means for salvation. They also believed in a life of individual piety and in Sabbatarianism i.e. avoidance of any worldly activities on Sundays. They believed that anything but religious affairs would be a sin. Besides, they believed in the abolition of slavery but not in a radical form. A Sabbaterian never cared about what a factory owner did to poor children working in a factory, but they interrogated him why he had read a fragment of literature instead of a verse of Bible on Sunday. They just cared for slogans irrelevant to the condition of people.
These three religious movements had great significance in the next age, The Victorian Age.
