Romanticism

Question 1

Timeline

Answer 1

Start: 1780 - shifts within English political discouse; sense of turmoil caused by the French Revolution
End: Reform Bill 1832
1776: American Declaration of Independence
1789: French Revolution
1792-1802: Revolutionary Wars → Britain in war with France
1803-15: Napoleonic Wars

Question 1

Emergent class struggle

Answer 1

• Luddites (group): attacked and destroyed industrial machinery that were intended to replace human labour → class-struggle between working-class and ruling-class
• “Peterloo Massacre” 1819: peaceful mass demonstration for parliamentary reform; people killed & injured
• industrial revolution → social and economic unrest among the labouring classes who are living in abominable conditions in industrial areas → working classes had no political rights → economic distress and poverty widespread → social unrest → reaction against:
• Reform Bill 1832: lower middle class was given the right to vote → eased the tension by expanding
  suffrage; only included men

Question 2

The Revolution Controversy - Pamphlets

Answer 2

• pamphlets written in response to the key political events
• French revolution created deep division between radical supporters and conservative opponents → Revolution Controversy polarised political debate along conservative and radical lines and influenced political thinking
• Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, Mary Wollstonecraft

Question 3

Edmund Burke

Answer 3

• founder of modern British Conservatism
• A philosophical inquiry into the origins of our ideas of the sublime and beautiful (1757)

Question 4

Thomas Paine

Answer 4

Common Sense (1775): most widely distributed pamphlet of the American Revolution → took side with the Americans → independence was an obvious and necessary step

Question 5

Mary Wollstonecraft

Answer 5

• A Vindication of the Rights of Woman → argues that true equality and liberty can only be obtained if the ideals of the French Revolution also applied to women
• main focus: reform of female education → enable women to be treated as rational rather than merely beautiful

Question 6

Poetry

Answer 6

• The “Big Six”: Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge; Byron, Bysshe Shelley, Keats
• “The Greater Romantic Lyric ”Cyclical form (from the particular (= given concrete situation) to the general back to the particular)

Question 7

Wordsworth & Coleridge. Lyrical Ballads

Answer 7

• collection of poetry synonymous with a certain form of Romanticism
• title: paradox; lyrical = written poetry; ballads = oral tradition
• 1. return to nature: low & rustic life; situation from common life
• 2. revolt against neo-classicism: poetic diction; sensibility

Question 8

Comparison

Answer 8

• yearning for the past; romanticised Middle Ages
• focus on idyllic nature, rural life, common people
• interest in occult and supernatural elements
• themes of tragic love, death in the name of love, sexuality common subject

= emotion over thought;
nature over industrialisation;
spiritualism over science;
rusticity over wealth;
freedom over authority