Enlightenment And Romanticism

The periods of the Enlightenment and Romanticism have had a dramatic impact on humanity. Spawning a multitude of wonderful pieces of literature, numerous ideologies, revolutions, and countless discoveries. These two periods are without doubt, a key component of the human identity. These ideas influenced several key movements around the globe, and are still playing a role in the lives of people today. With the Enlightenment came ideas like the Scientific Theory, critical thinking, a resurgence of old or long lost knowledge, and a period that showed the power of man over his environment. It was an ideology that dictated order, scientific progress, and reason. Romanticism on the other hand, was the exact opposite of the enlightened period. Rather

The ideologies, while both different, have been immortalized by some great authors of their periods. Swift, Blake, Wordsworth, are but just a few named individuals that captured the essence of these periods, and helped to solidify them forever in history. Though, not only are these periods immortalized, they are also are distinguished by the unique periods of human advancement, individual or collective issues in society, and the reemergence of old

Starting around the 1790’s and ending about a century later, Romanticism is system of beliefs that value simple, primitive side of life. It rejected the political and scientific changes that the previous movement had brought, for the free will and value of the individual, not so much society as a whole. It capitalized on the ideas of expressing emotion, the appreciation of untouched nature, the individual, and the usage of one’s imagination. If Kant had been a romantic his saying of have courage to use you reason, would likely be the same, but “reason” replaced with imagination. However, these set of beliefs put Romanticism in direct confrontation with the enlightenment. Even so, Romanticism had its share of great thinkers, and artists, as well, to name a few are: Emerson, Dickinson, Keats, Coleridge, and many more. These people, like the ones of the enlightened period, managed to take what these movements stood for, and put them into words, sculpture, paintings, and many other forms of art. These people strove to make their audiences feel emotions such as wonder, to appreciate the world around them for what it is, and to just have them feel “human” for all the good and bad. One such author that strove to capture the world as he saw, and protest the changes that the industrial revolution brought, was William Blake and his poem “Chimney