Percy Bysshe Shelley And Romanticism

Towards the end of the 18th century, Europe was agitating with a new movement, namely the Romantic Movement. Although we call the period in which this movement takes place the romantic era or the romantic period, the poets, novelists or playwrights of that era are surely not the representatives of their contemporaries. They were the group of people, who afterwards were called “ The Romantics”, standing up against the industrial revolution and all kind of suffering. Percy Bysshe Shelley, born 4 August 1792 in Horsham, England is one of the well known and important figures of the Romantics. Shelley’s eccentric lifestyle, his radical political views and the themes he covers in his works made him a member of Romanticism. Like many other romantic

Unlike his prosperous childhood, his adolescence years passed a bit harder in the Eton College. In his college years Shelley had an alias from his peers “mad Shelley” due to the tales he wrote under the impression of the gothic style and because of the mob torment he was subjected to at the college. His interest in scientific experiments grew and he started to make mischievous jokes, for instance he blew up a tree at the college with gunpowder. Despite of his childish side he spent his college years in loneliness and solitude. At the age of sixteen Shelley was able to enter Oxford University. A year after his entrance to the university Shelley published a pamphlet titled “ The Necessity of Atheism” together with his friend Thomas Jefferson Hogg. This action leaded to the expulsion of both the writers. Moreover, Shelley’s father cut ties with his own son. On 29 August 1811 Shelley eloped with a girl named Harriet and married her. Soon Harriet was pregnant with their second child. But considering the fact that romantic figures always admire the untouched, Shelley fell in love with a fifteen-year-old Mary Godwin. At that moment Percy Shelley

Like the other romantic poets, Shelley emphasized the power of nature. He didn’t link natural phenomena with religion, but admired the nature itself. We can find references of nature in his poems “ Ode to the west wind”, “ To a Skylark”, and “Ozymandias”. Another theme that is beloved by romantic poets is oppression and injustice. In contrast with the first generation poets, Shelley wanted an action and change in society. This desire was also brought up as a topic in Shelley’s works. Although Shelley was calling up people to stand up for their own right and justice, he couldn’t escape of being a derelict. The common folk didn’t accept him mostly because of his atheistic beliefs. In his poems “ To a Skylark”, “ Song to the Men of England”, and “Ozymandias” are examples of those poems. Another feature of Romantic works is the gothic novels and supernatural elements which are also easy to find in Shelley's works like “Zastrozzi” , “Ozymandias” and