Romanticism1780-1836

Beginnings of a New Era• Industrial Revolution in Europe• French Revolution• American Revolution• Time of renewal and freedom!• Satirized politics• Shift in focus on Individual place amongst

all of the factories and sprawling industry• Man is Machine/ Man vs. God

• Revolt against the Age of Enlightenment

• Reaction against rationalism

• Confronts the sublimity of nature

• Turned to Nature for self-fulfillment– Relied on self and individual freedom– Embraced imagination and feeling – Embraced the gory and the imperfect– Embraced the exotic

• Gothic Elements in Literature• Byronic ideals: gifted, imaginative loner

1st Generation -Major Literary Figures

• 1789 – Mary Wollstonecraft – “Vindication of the Rights of Women”

• 1798 – Lyrical Ballads– “Lines written a few miles from Tintern Abbey”

• William Wordsworth– “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (handout)

• Samuel Taylor Coolridge

William Wordsworth• Born April 1770• Lost mother at 8 and

father at 12• Separated from

neurotic sister Dorothy• Attended Cambridge

University• 1795 met Samuel

Coleridge• Published “Lyrical

Ballads” and “Prelude”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge• Born 1772• Father died when he was 9• Joined military to escape a

woman• Made plans to make a

utopian commune• Unhappy marriage• Suffered from many

ailments• Became addicted to Opium• Died of heart failure in 1834

“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”

• Audio of the Poem• An old mariner relates

events while at sea• Gothic Tale• Albatross• Ghostly visitations• Death personified• Sea monsters• Video of the Poem

The Byronic Hero• Exile or outcast• Conflicting emotions;

bipolar• Self-critical• Distaste for social norms• Troubled past• Rejected by society

• Self-destructive

• Lack of respect for rank

• Cynical; demanding; arrogant

• Loner

GothicGothic: inspired from the Middle ages.Supernatural connotations of Good and EvilInspired art, architecture, literature

Macabre: literary quality that is characterized by a grim or ghastly atmosphere. In these works, there is an emphasis on details and symbols of death

Elements of MacabreRepellent descriptions of the

destructive effects of sinI.e. Pardoner’s macabre trade in

bones and relics I.e. Mysterious and dark figure of the

old man who has a supernatural ability to stay alive

2nd Generation -Major Literary Figures• 1816 –

– Percy Shelley– John Keats– Lord Byron

• 1818 – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley– Daughter of William Godwin andMary Wollstonecraft

FrankensteinBy Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley

Some things you need to know:

• Author’s background• The gothic novel• The Byronic hero• The cautionary tale• Doppelganger

The Villa Diodati The Granger Collection, New York

Who was Mary Shelley?• Born in London to MaryWollstonecraft and WilliamGodwin in 1797• Mother died 11 days laterof puerperal fever• Mary married Percy Shelley• They had 4 children

– 1st was born prematurely– The dream

• Telling ghost stories• She was 18 when she wrote it.

Mary ShelleyCorbis-Bettmann

The Gothic Novel

• Set in castles, dark towers, and torture chambers

• Reader passes from everyday world into the dreadful and supernatural

• Romanticism

• Psychological and physical terror

• Doom

• Death

• Decay

• Madness

The Byronic Hero• Exile or outcast• Conflicting emotions;

bipolar• Self-critical• Distaste for social norms• Troubled past• Rejected by society

• Self-destructive

• Lack of respect for rank

• Cynical; demanding; arrogant

• Loner

The “cautionary tales” in literature• Teach morals• Warn readers of dangers in society• What cautionary tales do you know?

Doppelganger• German for “double

image”

• Two characters mirror each other

• Represents a divided self or two alter egos who are more similar than dissimilar

To Begin• Read: “Rime of Ancient Mariner”• Read: Frankenstein Letters 1-4• Answer Responding Questions

Framework Story• A story within a story• Used in Canterbury Tales and many

Shakespeare plays.• Frames the story

Arctic Travel

“Wild Fancies”• Alchemists: field of philosophy that

speculated about natural processes• Involved chemical experiments

• Medieval Alchemists• Believed they could transform ordinary

metals into gold or • Create drinks that would extend life or

youth forever• Discovered mineral acids and alcohol• Invented lab equipment

Alchemists• Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa

• imagined as having created an elixir allowing his apprentice to survive for hundreds of years.

• Magnus (1260)• Believed in the peaceful coexistence of

science and religion• systematic thought and exposition.

Alchemists

Philippus Aureolus Paracelsus (1493-1541)• advocated the use of specific remedies

for specific diseases, • introduced many chemicals (e.g.,

laudanum, mercury, sulfur, iron, and arsenic) into use as medicines

The Author’s CraftSuspense• Produces tension for the reader• Reader grows curious about what will

happen next• In a plot it depends on

• Uncertainty about which of the two opposing forces will win

• Desire to see one force defeat the other

Images of the Creature