Romanticism influenced a major impact on literature composed during the 1800s, promoting individualism in the writings of many authors during this time period. Romanticism can be best described as a large network of sometimes competing philosophies, agendas, and points of interests (Romanticism). Before the romantic era occurred, people thought only about society and social classes. As the romantic era began to occur, people began to think more about self instead of society. People didn’t agree with the idea of individualism in the early stages of the romantic era, with some favoring the idea of individualism and some wanting to retain the current idea of society. This made a slight struggle for the idea of individualism to be completely …show more content…
Rousseau created the social contract, in which Rousseau argues that the existence of all states is based on a “social contract” which may be simply understood. In this contract, the members of the state surrender their individual rights to the “general will” (Rousseau and romanticism). The social contract became one of the most influential political treatises of all time (Rousseau and romanticism). Other important books published by Rousseau that impacted the romantic era are New Heloise, Emile, and …show more content…
Lord Byron, Percey Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, and John Keas constituted another phase of Romanticism in Britian (Romanticism). Since Romanticists opposed the Enlightenment, they often focused on emotions and dreams as opposed to rationalism (Romanticism). Romanticism was less pronounced in Roman Catholic countries, and tended to develop later, after the rise of Napoleon (Romanticism). Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand is often called the “Father of French Romanticism” (Romanticism). Beginning in the 1820s, the romantic era greatly contributed to the composition of music. Beethoven’s musical compositions were greatly influence by the romantic era. Beethoven’s use of tonal architecture in such a way as to allow significant expansion of musical forms and structures was immediately recognized as bringing a new dimension to music (Romanticism). It is the period of 1815 to 1848, which must be regarded as the true age of Romanticism in music-the age of the last compositions of Beethoven and Schubert