Romanticism :: Romantic Period Essays

Romanticism It was a reaction against the Enlightenment and yet akin in thatthey both assumed life was designed for human happiness. However theEnlightenment situated reason at the center of human achievement.Romanticismm distrusted the human intellect and placed its value on theemotions and intuitive qualities. The natural and spontaneous was deemedgood. The highest truths would be derived from the instantaneous of theindividual. It gloried in the unlimited potential of the individual.There was an ov geological erall feeling of optimism and belief of a utopia.Romanticism reinforced the emotionalism of the period and its philosophiesinfluenced the Transcendental movement.Romanticism began in the early 19th century and radically changed theway people perceived themselves and the severalise of nature around them. UnlikeClassicism, which stood for order and established the foundation forarchitecture, literature, painting and music, Romanticism allowed people toget away from the const ricted, rational views of life and concentrate on anemotional and sentimental side of humanity. This not only influencedpolitical doctrines and ideology, but was also a sharp contrast from ideasand harmony featured during the Enlightenment. The Romantic era grewalongside the Enlightenment, but concentrated on human diversity andlooking at life in a new way. It was the combination of modern information andClassicism that gave birth to Romanticism and introduced a new outlook onlife that embraced emotion before rationality.. Romanticism began to show the peoplethat the Enlightenment had overstayed its take by leading the people toa future that offered a vision of mankind as being part of a group ratherthan an individual. G. W. F. Hegel, a German philosopher, rejected therational philosophy of the 18th century because he believed in Idealism.This involved looking at life in damage of the importance of ideas, notthought the narrow tunnel of materialism and wealth. By advocating Ideali sm,Hegel concluded that mankind could be led by his spirit, his soul, ratherthan the establishment or the status quo. Although Romanticism was perhapsconservative in nature, every participant of this swift and silent movementcould relish in his own free and storied vision of nature.Romanticism was not a political movement or a reformist package offered by a group of dissidents Romanticism was a time when mankind couldrestructure his outlook on life so that he was able to reach new heights of