The Romantic Period

1
The Romantic Period

• 1798-1832

2
Romantic Period

• During this time period Mary Shelley published
  Frankenstein
• (Published in 1818)

3
Romantic Period

• You may be wondering
• What does the word ROMANTIC
  mean in the context of this period?

4
Romantic Period

• The word romantic comes from the term
  ROMANCE, and romance was one of the most
  popular genres of medieval literature.

5
Romantic Period

• Medieval Connection
• Romantic writers self-consciously used the
  elements of romance in an attempt to go back
  beyond the refinements of neoclassical literature
  to older types of writing that they saw as more
  genuine

6
Romantic Period

• The romance genre allowed writers to explore new,
  more PSYCHOLOGICAL AND MYSTERIOUS aspects of
  human experience.

7
Romantic Period

• The writers of the Romantic period lived in
  England during a time of SOCIAL UPHEAVAL.
• The INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION in England changed the
  way people lived, where people lived, and how
  business was done.
• (England changed from an agricultural society to
  an industrial nation w/ almost everyone living in
  the city)

8
Romantic Period

• Writers before this time period tended to rely on
  SCIENCE and REASON to base their writings
  on(This period was called Restoration,
  Englightenment or Age of Reason)
• Writers soon after this time period, such as the
  Victorian era, wrote to AFFECT CHANGE in society.

9
Romantic Period

• In contrast, the Romantic writers focused on
  PERSONAL EXPERIENCE and IMAGINATION in their
  work. (This change in thinking was thought to be
  NEEDED b/c of all the political, economic, and
  social changes taking placeremember INDUSTRIAL
  REVOLUTION)
• Thus, they were not as concerned with REASON
  Imagination was superior!

10
Characteristics of Romanticism

• The predominance of imagination over reason and
  formal rules
• Primitivism
• Love of nature
• An interest in the past
• Mysticism

11

• Individualism
• Idealization of rural life
• Enthusiasm for the wild, irregular, or grotesque
  in nature
• Enthusiasm for the uncivilized or natural

12

• Interest in human rights
• Sentimentality
• Melancholy
• Interest in the gothic

13
Romantic Period

• Mary Shelleys Frankenstein calls into QUESTION
  THE AIMS and METHODS OF SCIENCEwell explore
  this more while we study the novel..Muah Ha HA
  HAAA

14
Romantic Period

• Romantic literature that included the elements of
  mystery, horror, and the supernatural is known as
  GOTHIC
• Frankenstein is a Gothic Novel

15
Gothic Context

• The gothic was first used as Medieval
  architectural term to describe a style of
  building that included gargoyles, scenes from
  Hell, and souls in torment

16
(No Transcript)
17
Gothic Literature

• The characters INNER EMOTIONAL
  LIVES receive a lot of attention.

18
Gothic Plot Elements

• Ancestral Curse
• The current generation suffers for the evil deeds
  of ancestors
• Example Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher"

19

• Body-snatching
• Stealing corpses from graves, tombs, or morgues
• Illicit trade in cadavers
• Violation of religious space
• Commercially motivated by science
• Example King's Pet Semetery

20

• Dreaming/Nightmares
• Dredge up strong emotions ecstasy, terror, joy
• Reveal urges, impulses, desires, even truths
  about oneself that one tries to hide
• Reveal the future premonitions
• Example Freddy Krueger

21
Signs/Omens

• Reveal the intention of cosmic forces
• Often represent psychological or spiritual
  conflict

22

• Entrapment/Imprisonment (often physical but
  sometimes psychological)
• Being confined or trapped, shackled to a floor or
  hidden away in a dark cell
• Heightens the psychology of feeling there is "no
  way out"
• Example Saw movies

23

• Setting and "gadgets"
• Physical elements allowing supernatural to
  display uncanny presence and abilities
• "Supernatural props" vocal and mobile portraits,
  animated statues and skeletons, doors (portals)
  which open and close independently, secret
  passageways, secret messages manuscripts,
  forbidden/sealed chambers, etc

24

• Gothic Counterfeit
• Playful fakery of authenticity
• The text is presented as a discovery or recovery
  by the editor, sometimes of an ancient or
  forgotten text
• Cloaks the real writer's authorship
• Complicates the point of view (makes things fun
  and intriguing)

25

• The Grotesque
• Mutations, deformities
• A mix of two separate modes, such as comedy and
  tragedy, creating a disturbing fiction, in which
  comic circumstances often preclude horrific
  tragedy or vice-versa.
• Example The Hunchback of Notre Dame

26

• Mystery
• An event or situation that appears to overwhelm
  understanding
• Example Sherlock Holmes' mysteries, elements of
  The Picture of Dorian Gray and Frankenstein

27

• Necromancy
• The dark art of communicating with the dead
• Examples Ouija boards, "Bloody Mary", séances
• Also may involve journies to Hell Odysseus,
  Dante, among others

28

• Revenge
• Examples Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" or
  Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride
• Somnambulism (sleepwalking)
• Hidden sources of stress may be revealed or acts
  of guilt replayed
• Superstition
• Considered a belief in the supernatural or
  mystical and valuing ritual or miracles

29

• Supernatural
• Events or phenomena that defy the rules of
  natural law
• More often (and intriguingly) could be explained
  or dismissed by the laws of everyday reality
  (however ambiguously)

30

• Transformation
• A striking change in appearance a change in form
  or function of an organism by a natural or
  unnatural process
• Example Stevenson's Mr. Hyde, King's It, Count
  Dracula

31
Gothic Characters

• Devil
• spirit of incarnate evil
• Ranges from
• tragic villain-hero
• punisher of sinners
• tempter and deceiver
• pure evil

32

• Doppelganger
• German doublegoer
• Ghostly counterpart of another person
• Body double, alter ego, identical other person
• ExampleDr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

33

• Assorted monsters (supernaturally malignant
  beings)
• The Pursued Protagonist
• a force relentlessly, terminally and unavoidably
  pursues, persecutes or chastises another for a
  real or imagined wrong
• Crime and retribution cycle
• Hero-villain can be both pursued and pursuer

34

• Unreliable narrator
• Narrator's ability to accurately relate events is
  suspect
• Narrator makes incorrect assumptions or
  conclusions, or misunderstands situations or
  other characters
• Example Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart"

35

• Villain Hero
• The villain poses as a hero at the beginning of
  the story or...
• The villain possesses enough heroic qualities to
  be seen as more than just a bad guy.
• Example Dexter

36

• The Pursued Heroine
• A virtuous, idealistic and usually poetic young
  woman is pursued by wicked older, potent
  aristocrat
• The pursuit threatens the young lady's morals and
  ideals (and often her virginity)
• She usually responds with passive courage
• Modified Twilight series

37

• Revenant
• the return of the dead upon the living
• a ghostly being who returns to life

38
Settings

• Cemetery
• Haunted house, castle, estate
• Presence of mist/fog

39
Other components

• Often the protagonist is searching for
• Forbidden Knowledge or Power/ Faust Motif
• Attempts to turn himself into a god-figure
• This usually causes the protagonist to become a
  "Fallen Man "

40
Thats all folks

• THE END
• Any Questions?