Romanticism Synthesis

I chose to analyze the concept from the romantic era of valuing nature over man-made creations. By evaluating works such as “The World Is Too Much With Us” by William Wordsworth, “Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard” by Thomas Gray and “The Introduction to Frankenstein” by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, I understand the ideals these authors tried to depict through their writing. The common theme throughout each piece of literature was describing the importance of nature. Each author clearly depicted their ideas through poetry and prose.
In “The World Is Too Much With Us” by Wordsworth, human life is illustrated as a smorgasbord of materialism and ignorance about the true values in nature. Lines 3-4 of this somber sonnet read, “Little we see in Nature that is ours;/We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!”. The entire sonnet drives in the main point that Wordsworth was trying to make about the man-made materialistic mindset of the 18th and 19th century human race.
Thomas Gray attributed to the Romantic era of poetry with his elegy about the beauty of the countryside. In “Elegy Written in a Country Courtyard”, Gray describes the beauty of a simple rural life. He states in lines 99-101 that, “Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn/Brushing with hasty steps the dews away/To meet the sun upon the upland lawn.” Gray marvels at nature, and tries to open the eyes of his generation the importance of understanding the natural phenomenon of life rather than dwelling on what the world has to offer.
Finally, Shelley described that man-made creations are not as well crafted as natural parts of life. She shows that creations such as humans should not be messed with by man, but only nature, in “The Introduction to Frankenstein”.
It is apparent that the romantics of the romantic era viewed nature over man made creations. The authors and poets I selected illustrate this wonderfully.

Blake/Wordsworth/Coleridge/Romanticism

1. I do agree to a certain extent. We need to take both into consideration when making decisions. But sometimes our heart can lead us astray, and sometimes we need to listen to it over reason. It just depends and I think that both aspects need to be contemplated on before a final decision is reached.

2. They represent the two sides of the human heart. The innocence at one point in everyone's life, and eventually the experience of the world which taints everyone in some way.

3. Yes, I agree.

4. I don't have wild and exotic dreams. I actually don't dream very much. I had a dream that I was being chased down with my sister by a killer in a strange small town when I had a fever last week. We hid in one of those playground sets with a ton of little plastic balls.

Blake and Burns ?s

1. He used the well-known Scottish dialect in his writing.

2. In both poems he talks about just enjoying nature and time, taking it in with one another. This goes against the Age of Reason because his poems seem to be careless and free.

3. Hard times

4. His upbringing was full of visions, so he was a very visual poet and its obvious in his writings.

5. They both are the same in structure. One describes human innocence, and the other, experience. He felt they were both important because they're the two halves of the human soul. In a religious sense, it would be like the two sides of God, the Lion and the Lamb.

6. He looks past what is evident to the eye and goes deeper in both the lamb, tiger, and the city of London. He looks past what most see and in this way he reflects Romanticism.

Romanticism Questions

Mr. Mohr, I've been sick and was gone from school Wednesday, so here is the blog that was due!

1. 1785-1832. It was a rebellion in all kinds of artists against the norm. Instead of being all for the "Neoclassicism", people went against this in the Romantic era.

2. King George III was killed, France fought England and lost.

3. Thomas Gray, Robert Burns and William Blake tended toward Romanticism in their writings about nature being untamed.

4. "Lyrical Ballads", people were interested because it was written in the language of ordinary people. They tried to make the statement that everyday people are important and owed much to the writings about the war. 2nd generation of poets were George Gordon, Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelly and John Keats who celebrated emotion and nature over reason and science.

5. Long stories with suspense, mystery, magic and macabre with exotic settings.

6. She wrote novels of manners.

Pride and Prejudice

1. I think they're both proud, and both prejudice. Darcy seems proud, though not as proud as Elizabeth thought. He also was prejudice because the Bennets were only middle class, and he was not. Elizabeth was proud because she wouldn't put her feelings out there until the end, she wanted to stay strong and let everyone think she had it all together. She was prejudice because she judged him without even knowing him, just because he was rich.

2. Caroline Bingley said that the "accomplished" woman needed to have a knowledge of drawing, dance, reading, etc. They have to be very educated and pretty much do everything in order to be considered accomplished.

3. Charles Bingley fell for Jane but his sister said that he shouldn't even think about it. She looks down on the middle class. Lady Catherine de Burg acts like she can run everyone's lives, just because she is the upper class.

4. Women are supposed to just marry whoever they could. But Elizabeth refused to marry Mr. Collins. They're not supposed to engage in conversation, but Elizabeth was very independent.

5. Yes, she thinks it's rahter absurd to have arranged marriages and she makes that obvious.

"Candide"

1. Candide goes on little, adventures, as he's escaping from the baron. He goes to many different places, enduring wars and near death.

2. I think he's saying that life is not perfect, but it is just, and it's not always happy, because bad things happen to people for seemingly no reason.

3. A beggar begs for food and the "holier than thou" people say that they won't help. This shows that their religion had hypocrisy, and arrogance. They were killing each other over the simple idea of when baptism was done.

4. The irony is that at the end, he sees an old, poor person, which is Pangloss. His life didn't turn out as great as he thought it would!

5. I think he's too skeptical and pessimistic. Everything happens for a reason and he should be able to understand that. They may not happen for the best, but they happen for a reason.

Gulliver's travels

The world of the Liliputians in the beginning: Gulliver was viewed as stupid and ignorant just because of his size and what he looked like. They drew conclusions without knowing anything about him. They were royalty, and thought they were the best, even though they themselves were extremely clueless to the world around them. It was obvious that this was the point swift wanted to bring out because they kept making fun of Gulliver and talking down to him. Swift could have been comparing this to today's government system and kings and queens. I think the movie was a great way to show this point and to get it across to the audience. It made me think because it was so creative, and I had to really follow along well to keep track of the worlds and transitions and such. I liked it!