INDEX
1. THE ROMANTICISM
1.1 INTRODUCTION TO THE ROMANTICISM AND ITS MAIN CHARACTERISTICS
1.2 CHARACTERISTICS OF ROMANTIC LITERATURE
1.3 MAIN AUTHORS IN THE ENGLISH ROMANTICISM
2. AN EXAMPLE OF ENGLISH ROMANTIC NOVELIST: EMILY BRONTË
2.1 BIOGRAPHY
2.2.HER MAIN NOVEL WUTHERING HEIGTHS
THE LIBERATION OF FEELINGS IN ROMANTIC NOVEL
1.THE ROMANTICISM
1.1. INTRODUCTION TO THE ROMANTICISM AND ITS MAIN CHARACTERISTICS
If the Renaissaance made theh man to discover himself, it is necessary to note that the Romanticism drives him to the conquest of his plenitude. In this way, liberty in all the orders is one of the most important romantic ideals.
There is an exaltation of the person and a preference for the natinal aspects, what implies a rupture with the formulas and patterns of the classicism, and a penetration in the nebulous past in which the expression was something that fused together whith the environment, the mythologic sense and native roots. It is a moment in which the manner of conceiving the world changes,
A change in culture, politics and arts.
It starts at the beginning of the 19th century (with precedents in the 18th century) and finishes near the middle of it.One of the greatest romantic contribution was to bring the nature to a close-up, and it also constitutes an ideal way for the expression of the feelings; there is a relation between the person and the nature.Importance of the subjectof destiny. Liberty, imagination , feeling and movement are the characteristic elements.
Fundamentos de la Literatura Universal
HISTORIA- CRITICA- ANTOLOGIA
Ed. Playor
1.2. CHARACTERISTICS OF ROMANTIC LITERATURE
In Romantic literature , the essential features can be summed up in te following way:
Firstly, there is a supervaluation of the person. Autobiographic confessions proliferated and the authors didn´t hide their intimate feelings.
Secondly, appears a free expression of sensitivity.Emotional and imaginative aspects are more important than the cold critical analysis.
Romanticism also looks for its matters in the Middle Ages; the historic novel is inspired on it.Because of that,Romantic philology starts the investigation of the Middle Ages´ legends and, in general of all the popular aspects.In this sense, romantic movement performs a task of reaffirmation of the national values.
On the other hand, romantic literature shows a strong pleasure for the exotic, misterious and colorist subjects.
Finally, concern for expressing the plenitude of the emotional effusion makes literature very little careful with formal aspects.
Fundamentos de la Literatura Universal
HISTORIA- CRITICA- ANTOLOGIA
Ed. Playor
1.3. MAIN AUTHORS IN THE ENGLISH ROMANTICISM
English Romanticism , just like German´s, is the product of an harmonious developement of the cultural and literary expression. Inside the pre-Romanticism, the book of James Macpherson Ossian is more important.Ossianic ballads were soon a source of inspiration of thematic order for authors of all the latitudes.
Other poets were William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge and Robert Southey.They were called the Lake poets because they inhabited in the lake´s zone at the english north-west.Perhaps is the turbulent Coleridge the most exciting.In spite of his fragmentary task, the greatness of his poems Kubla Khan and The Ancient Mariner continues dazzling us.Wordsworth , who wrote his Lyrical Ballads ,The excursion and Michael,considered that all that had been provided by the nature was possible to bring to the poetry.
Southey was more remembered for his essay Life of Nelson than for his extensive poems.
W.Blake is previous to them, and his brilliant lyrism is apreciated in his Songs of Innocence and Experience.
Percy Shelley and Keats are the most everlasting poets. Among the greatest poems of Keats are the Ode on a Grecian Urn or Hyperion.
Lord Byron became, because of his work and his life, a model of romantic poet.His turbulent life is reflexed in Don Juan, Childe Harold...
Inside the English Romantic movement, Walter Scott occupied a singular place. Although he met the success as a poet , his glory is due to the creation of a gender: the historic novel. His historic novels are cheracterized by strenght, imagination and descriptive values.The most famous is Ivanhoe. Likewise, appears in the period the novelistic called black or gothic that has its main representatives in Mathew Gregory Lewis,Ann Radclife and Horace Walpole.
Finally, inside the Romanticism, the Brontë´s sisters ( Charlotte, Emily and Anne )are authors of three exciting novels that had a wide effect in their epoch : Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey, respectively.
Fundamentos de la Literatura Universal
HISTORIA- CRITICA- ANTOLOGIA
Ed. Playor
2. AN EXAMPLE OF ENGLISH ROMANTIC NOVELIST: EMILY BRONTË
2.1. BIOGRAPHY
She was born in Hartshead-cumClifton (Yorkshire) in August 1810, and died in Haworth the 19th of December 1848. She was the third daughter of an Irish Anglican parish priest.
When her mother died in 1821, the family consisted of five girls and a boy that were unhealthy , precocious and full of artistic qualities.The two elder girls died of tuberculosis. The other three ( included Emily ) were looked after by their matenal aunt in the wild and desolated vegetation of the country; and, in this way, the spirit of the little Emily began to discover,in the silence and in the voices of that nature, supernatural correspondences, to perceive , in the grey evens of her days, metaphisical and devil vibrations and to experience,in the true heart of loneliness and melancholy,silent ecstasies of wild happiness.With her two sisters,she shared the passion for poetry and reading.When they were adolescent yet, the three girls wrote verses and fantastic stories.
In 1842, Charlotte and Emily travelled to Brussels to study French;this was a period of bitter exile for Emily, tortured for the nostalgia of her country.When she returned to Haworth, she wrote poems,lirical confessions of her ingenuous and tenacious soul, published in 1846,thanks to the interest of Charlotte in a collection of poems of the three sisters: Poems of Curre, Ellis and Acton Bell (only two copies were sold).
Her novel Wuthering Heights ,published the following year, didn´t have much success than the other.This novel was possibly the most genuine, deep and restrained expresion of the Romantic English soul.
In 1848, Emily died victim of intense pains.
Diccionario de autores
Tomo I
Bompiani
Ed. HORA, S.A. Barcelona
Good versus Evil--
(also love and hate) The power of good is stronger than the power of evil and good will someday dominate. Also that all
our striving here on earth amounts to nothing, and it is not until we are dead and face to face with our creator that we shall
find our happiness or doom. Brontë is most interested in the spiritual feelings for her characters, making contact with an
existence beyond this life on earth. The difference between that feeling that Catherine has for Heathcliff and the one she
feels for Linton is that Heathcliff is a part of her nature while Edgar is only a part of her superficial love. It is a spiritual love
rather than a physical one that binds Heathcliff and Catherine together.
Revenge--
This is the most dominant theme of the second half of the novel, although in the last chapter Heathcliff abandons his plan
for revenge. Heathcliff first believes that if he can avenge the death of Catherine that he will somehow grow closer to her.
However, the exact opposite occurs. When Heathcliff gives up on his plan for revenge, he is soon reunited with Catherine
in eternal bliss.
Crime and Punishment--
All the characters have sinned in one way or another and in the end they are all punished for their crimes. However, Cathy
and Hareton are not corrupt in any way and they are the ones who finally destroy the evil between their families in the next
generation.
Passion versus Rational Love--
Passion is what divided Catherine from Edgar. Catherine's passion for Heathcliff ruined the lives of so many people at
Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. The whole story revolved around the passion that Catherine and Heathcliff
felt for each other. Edgar, on the other hand, felt a more reasonable love for Catherine. Catherine was devoted to Edgar,
yet was in love with Heathcliff.
Ignorance versus Education--
From the beginning, the reader can deduce that the Lintons are at a higher social status than the residents at Wuthering
Heights. This is partly due to the fact that the Lintons are better educated than the laborers at the Heights. Young Cathy's
love for reading has a direct effect on Hareton Earnshaw's pursuits at becoming literate.
Selfishness--
The selfishness was first introduced when Mr. Earnshaw brought home Heathcliff and presented him to the family.
Because he took a fancy to this young waif, the rest of the generations following Mr. Earnshaw's life will suffer. Heathcliff
was probably the most selfish person in all of Wuthering Heights. He ruined Catherine's life when he disappeared for
three years. He also ruined Isabella's life by marrying her only for revenge. Heathcliff forced young Cathy to marry Linton
and then later killed the poor sickly boy through neglect. These are only the major actions that show Heathcliff's
selfishness. Catherine's selfish character was depicted when she wanted both Edgar and Heathcliff at the same time.
Catherine wanted Edgar for his life and Heathcliff for his soul. She didn't want to choose between the two of them, and
therefore she never did. Thus, she caused pain for Heathcliff and Edgar.
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