Romanticism In Litrature

Running head: ROMANTICISM IN LITERATURE
ROMANTICISM IN LITERATURE
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The romantic movement that began in the late eighteenth century and the early
nineteenth century in Europe managed to encompass holistic aspects of the world, including
literature, arts, philosophy, religion and spirituality (Chase). The romantic movement is
marked different from the other intellectual movements that emerged in Europe. It is because
the romantics rejected the ideals and philosophies of French enlightenment movement, which
were highly based on rationalism, reason, science and order in understanding nature, world
and universe. The romanticists (or the romantics) took refuge to the tradition based upon
feelings, thoughts and spontaneous expressions of, in and by nature. The works that are
termed as romantic works are highly based on natural world and natural human emotions.
The respective paper is an argument that tries to find out the similarities of typical
characteristics of romantic literature that highlights superiority of nature in
Wordsworth’s literary works and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The paper would go
through intrinsic and instrumental details of romantic aspects, digressions and complexities in
both the literature to find out the similar romantic characteristics between the two. The paper
is in an essay format which would utilize literary devices and theories to understand romantic
literature thereafter.
The areas of art, literature, science, religion and philosophy, in the late eighteenth
century Europe, was highly dominated by the romantic movement. The movement became a
genre altogether in every studies that existed in Europe at that time. Among all the
intellectual movements that happened all over the European continent, Romanticism was a
different one because of its unique and remarkable philosophy which was completely
opposite to the mundane ideals and philosophies of enlightenment movement in Europe,
especially in France. The enlightenment movement that was highly dominated by rationalism,
reason, science and order in understanding nature, world and universe was opposed by
romantic concepts of passion, divinity and love for simplicity. The romanticism ideals upheld

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the tradition based upon feelings, thoughts and spontaneous expressions of, in and by nature.
The works that are termed as romantic works are highly based on natural world and natural
human emotions (Chase).
Pre- romantics and romantics of the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth
century believed in naturalism and realism over garrulous and fustian morality. Romanticism
is based on the idea of “natural beauty” and “rustic beauty” which is a sharp difference from
the mediaeval highly superficial and fantastic beauty standards. Romantics derived pleasure
from the movements, behaviour, mannerisms and aesthetic beauty of the rustic men, women
and children. According to many scholars of literature, nature had a special place in the arts
created by the romanticists where nature is shown to be uncontrollable, powerful,
unpredictable and an energized, spontaneous being/ aspect which invokes passion and
feelings in the minds of men. Romantics believed in the fact that men should not confirm to
the stereotypes of the society but rather, derive pleasure from what nature gives them or
shows them. “Art for art’s sake” can be called as the pioneering theme of romanticism.
Romantics considered nature to be a piece of art, “a thing of beauty is a joy forever”.
Sometimes, romanticists considered nature to be magical, enchanting, charming or a
constructed outcome of divine imagination. Romanticists were actually awestruck by the
beauty and power of nature. Therefore, they interpreted nature according to their passion and
imagination.
Wordsworth’s poems and Mary Shelley’s science- fiction Frankenstein has
quintessential romantic qualities in them. A poem named “Tintern Abbey” that was
composed by Wordsworth begins with the line “five years have past; five summers, with the
length of five long winters! And again I hear these waters” that shows how passionate

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Wordsworth was with his life, surroundings and the ambience where he dwelt. Romanticism,
again is peculiarly noted for the subject and concern of passion that it upholds. The time
when Wordsworth wrote most of his poems was the time during French Revolution and
Wordsworth was so impressed and fascinated by the rebellions that he started incorporating
the ideals of a passionate man/ woman in his poetry, making it a separate genre itself
(McFarland). However, his artistic bent did not make his art pieces garrulous. Rather, his art
pieces were simple, understandable and gullible to the common man. Wordsworth wrote
about and for common men and this is what romanticism is all about.
As far as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is concerned, it is based on the storyline that a
scientist, who was passionate about modern science, decided to create a better version of
humankind and ended up creating a monster. The novel Frankenstein is a romantic novel. A
romantic novel, according to Marshall Brown, “Romanticism in romantic novels cannot be
defined” which means that romanticism is an abstract idea altogether which has paradoxes
and symbols everywhere, which is simple, down to the earth, yet lofty and ethereal in nature
(Brown). Romanticism was a stark response to the values of French (or rather European)
enlightenment (Roe). In the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley shows how distorted the world
can be without the beauty and rustic elements of nature. Through the depiction of the monster
named Frankenstein, Mary Shelley showed how futile can mankind be with and only with
rationalism and not idealism in their mind and ways of life (Vedder). Defining romanticism is
defining anything which is absolutely opposite to enlightenment. Certain points that have
been highlighted by Brown regarding romanticism and the central themes of romanticism are
“transcendentalism” and “idealism” where nature, natural elements, piece of art, natural and
rustic people play the central role of the protagonist or the object of love or pleasure. On the
other hand, the eighteenth century philosophy of France and Europe, which was materialist
and empiricist was highly opposed by the romantic ideals thereafter. In the novel

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Frankenstein, the story shows how obnoxious can science sometimes become without the
motherly, affectionate touch of nature (here the metaphor of mother is put while showing
Frankenstein who was born without a woman) (Miller). Certain peculiar characteristics of
romanticism are, romanticism values nature, dreams and day dreaming in a dark environment
which is very much present in the novel Frankenstein. The exalting feeling shown in the
novel is a complete depiction of romanticism and passion which knows no boundaries of
reason and logic. Romanticism tends to uphold the idea that logic does not define the world
and there are certain aspects of the world that cannot be judged or deduced by logic.
Certain critics argue that romanticism is irrationalist and completely relies on
romantic aesthetics. In the poetry of Wordsworth, transcendentalism is found. Nature is
worshipped and always personified into something great or mighty. Science experts and
enthusiasts might call such lofty ideas to be irrational, utopian and imaginary and not reality
at all, yet romanticism upholds the idea that life, world and universe is always and all the
time, might not be guided by logic, reason and rationality. There are some elements that are
beyond what men have discovered to deduce, which means that certain elements in the world
cannot be deduced by men or beyond their imagination and thinking capabilities. Esoterism
but in a simplified way can be called as one of the main characteristics of romanticism (Roe).
The relation between beauty, truth and goodness and pursuit of unity among diversity are
some of the main themes that were inculcated by the romanticists. To understand
romanticism preached by poets such as William Wordsworth, Kantian theory of absolutism is
to be understood first. According to Kant, absolute can be defined as “Unconditioned totality
of all conditions” meaning a whole that encompasses everything and which does not have/ or
keep access to any reason. Such absolutism is the basic foundation of romanticism. As it is
impossible to understand what is absolute by the human beings, similarly, it is completely
impossible to understand what romanticism is actually about, hence, as critics, humans can

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only understand certain characteristics of romanticism which is exhibited in the respective
paper. William Wordsworth found happiness in isolating and detaching himself from the
world to the other world of nature which is filled with peace, joy, happiness, health, love and
empathy. He considered the cradle of nature to be the only source of comfort and beauty in
his life. The elements in William Wordsworth’s poetry says that he was a lover and an
admirer of nature (Fulford). However, in the romantic novel Frankenstein, aesthetics play a
very important role. Frankenstein is shown as a monster, which means that the grotesque
aesthetics of Frankenstein is always a stark difference from the pristine and simple aesthetics
of romantic movement. Through the differences of aesthetics, Mary Shelley has tried to
portray the idea that any entity without natural instincts is a grotesque, diabolical and a
fiendish entity. However, as far as God or religion is concerned, the romantics were mostly
deists and did not consider God to be a religious being presented by the religions but a
supreme being that does not interfere in the current matters of universe. Thus, in the novel
Frankenstein, we do not see any divine intervention as such that changes the course or shape
of the novel altogether. For the romantics, God or religion is a supreme energy that is present
everywhere (omnipresent) and has its essence everywhere. God cannot be taken away from
nature and nature cannot be taken away from God. For romanticists, nature was a
manifestation of beauty, abstract ideas, higher ideals, God, spirits and even ethereal beings.
Romanticists derived ultimate intellectual pleasure from the nature itself and they worshipped
nature through the composition of their art and poetry. Antithetical statement of Frankenstein
can be said that Mary Shelley was so concerned about the beauty of the romantic movement
or romantic elements in literature that she made a grotesque character in her novel in order to
uphold the ideals of romantic aesthetics and romanticism as a whole. The recognition of pure,
rustic and natural “art and beauty” was the primary principle of the romantic aesthetics of the
romantic writers, including Mary Shelley and Wordsworth. The romantics found the

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possibility of ideas of beauty from art. Romantics believed that beauty was the only factor
that contained truth and goodness that surpassed morality. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein,
the grotesque and monster like looks of Frankenstein was symbolic to the death and decay of
simplicity, naturality and simple joy of life among the Europeans after the advent of French
enlightenment period that was strictly based on concepts such as materialism, machine- like
qualities of human body and rationalism. The spread of science and the submission of
creativity, imagination and innovation at the hands of science and technology was the
allegory of Frankenstein’s face and physical features. To cut it brief, it needs to be said that
Romantic Aesthetic is a philosophy that romantics used as a response to the philosophers of
enlightenment because reason is shut down by beauty when it is spread in an artistic form in
poetry and literature.
Romantics are mainly concerned about “reason” and how to “control the reasoning”.
Defining romanticism on the basis of “reasoning” is defining anything which is absolutely
opposite to enlightenment. “transcendentalism”, “idealism”, “realism” and “naturalism” are
not just mere jargons that define romanticism. These words are actually the essence of
romanticism that have helped the writers build beautiful poetry and novels and gift them to
the mankind that restores faith in beauty and might of nature. Such high ideals are considered
the central theme of romanticism where nature, natural elements, piece of art, natural and
rustic people play the central role of the protagonist or the object of love or pleasure. Thus,
Romantic ideals had hugely opposed materialist, scientific and mundanely rational ideals of
enlightenment of Europe. Defining and classifying romanticism is a tough work for the
literary critics and scholars. According to Marshall Brown, romanticism is something which
cannot be understood but felt, expressed and perceived. Marshall has stated that,
Romanticism in romantic novels are beyond any stark definition or any “ism” beside it,
which means that romanticism is an abstract idea altogether which has paradoxes and

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symbols everywhere, which is simple, down to the earth, yet lofty and ethereal in nature.
Romanticism was a stark response to the values of French (or rather European)
enlightenment. In the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley shows how distorted the world can
be without the beauty and rustic elements of nature. Through the depiction of the monster
named Frankenstein, Mary Shelley showed how futile can mankind be with and only with
rationalism and not idealism in their mind and ways of life (Munday). Nobody knows why
“controlling the reasons” were important for all the romanticist and romantic writers.
Probably it was done by them deliberately to bring out the mystic and metaphysical beauty
and essence of the world that stated everything in the world does not revolve around logic
and binary, and that contradiction, paradoxes, esotericisms and mystic phenomenon of the
world is something which is a reality but needs to be perceived and felt thereupon. One of the
most important factor of romanticism is that it always tries to “re-enchant” or “re-mystify”
nature because it thinks nature to be divine. In Wordsworth’s poems, it is seen that he derives
a separate, peculiar and mystic feelings when he comes in contact with the nature. He
considers Daffodils to be his “bliss of solitude” whenever he is in “pensive mood” that shows
he considers nature to be a thing of beauty that gives him joy whenever he looks at it, just like
the divine smile of a baby, or sweet smell of a flower, or chirping of a beautiful bird which
are divine and gives us happiness. Why they are divine and how do they give us happiness is
something that has no answers. Not even the great romantic poets and poetesses have replies
to such baseless questions. Thereby, it is assumed that romantic ideals are something to be
imagined, created, sensed, felt and perceived (Richard).
Wordsworth’s poems and Mary Shelley’s science- fiction Frankenstein has
quintessential romantic qualities that highlight superiority of nature in them. Going by
the thesis statement of the respective assignment, it has to be made clear that both
Wordsworth’s poems and Mary Shelley’s novel are highly romantic in nature and style. The

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theme both the literary figures have used in their work, which is upholding nature and fearing
modern science because it alienated human beings from nature are certain quintessential
qualities every romantic poetry and novel has in it. Through the eyes of modern science and
rationalism, nature was viewed in a highly materialistic manner. Nature was regarded as “an
inanimate, mechanical and abstract domain of meaningless and contradictory matters and the
elements in it have a particular logic which is determined by efficient casualties”. In the novel
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley has talked about potential threat to humans by modern science
and what casualties can human beings face when they get completely detached from the
philosophies and spirituality of nature. Wordsworth, at the same time, has shown how the
themes of “idealism” and “transcendental qualities” of romanticism that consists of natural
elements, which include a natural piece of art or rustic, simple people can play as the central
character in his works. Kant had stated that without the balance between reason and passion,
“humans would be reduced to mere animals” and without any romantic feeling in them, they
would eventually “lose their humanity”. Mother nature is very feminine, divine, caring and a
supreme being that upholds all the elements of the earth and the world. The romantics have
always upheld the lofty ideals of nature, the lofty yet simplistic lives led by the rustics, the
beauty and importance of natural instincts, processes and behaviours and how humanity is
shaped when it comes to permutation and combination with the nature (Richard). The
imagination of romantics and the literary works of the romantic poets and writers have
always encouraged and inspired human beings to feel passion and emotions that might as
well be highly based on past memories, perceptions or projections, allowing human beings to
approach nature in a natural manner, devoid of any garrulous polishness or materialistic
sternness.
To conclude the essay, it has to be said that the romantic pieces of Wordsworth and
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has similar quintessential characteristics and features of

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romantic literature which was outcome of romantic movement in European continent in the
late eighteenth and early nineteenth century that upheld the ideals of naturalism, idealism and
realism dethroning the garrulous morality concepts and stern rationalism. The respective
paper is an argument that tries to find out the similarities of typical characteristics of
romantic literature that highlights superiority of nature in Wordsworth’s literary
works and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The paper has gone through intrinsic and
instrumental details of romantic aspects, digressions and complexities in both the literature to
find out the similar romantic characteristics between the two. The paper has been put in an
essay format which has utilized several literary devices, undertones and theories to
understand romantic literature thereafter.

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References:
Brown, Marshall. Romanticism and Enlightenment. na, 1993.
Chase, Cynthia. Romanticism. Routledge, 2014.
Fulford, Tim. The late poetry of the Lake Poets: Romanticism revised. Vol. 104. Cambridge
University Press, 2013.
McFarland, Thomas. Romanticism and the Forms of Ruin: Wordsworth, Coleridge, the
Modalities of Fragmentation. Princeton University Press, 2014.
Miller, Elisabeth. "Feminine Romanticism In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein." (2016).
Munday, Allison. "The Romantic Colonial Hero: Criticisms of Romanticism and Colonialism
in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein." (2019).
Richard, C. Sha. Imagination and Science in Romanticism. JHU Press, 2018.
Roe, Nicholas. The Politics of Nature: Wordsworth and Some Contemporaries. Springer,
2016.
Vedder, Catherine. "Reading and Misreading in Frankenstein: A Primer for Domestic
Romanticism." The Victorian 4.1 (2016).