QUESTION FOR CONSIDERATION:

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• QUESTION FOR CONSIDERATION
• In todays society, what are some of the greatest
  concerns and changes taking place in the
  following areas? List several for each category
• gt Politics
• gt Medicine
• gt Education
• gt Technology
• What are some ways people respond to these
  concerns and changes?
• What are some potential solutions to the concerns?

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• Question What if society demands change, but
  authority refuses to allow it?
• All Write How To _____ In Five Easy Steps
• (Each step must be described in a 7-10 sentence
  paragraph. Must refer to one non-fiction
  credible source and provide source information.)
• A Live Happily in Isolation from Society
• B. Solve the Problem of Death
• C. Be Educated (Without Being Formally Educated)
• D. Renounce Liberty and Be Enslaved to Authority
• E. Live Happily Among the PeopleWithout a
  Governing Authority
• F. Allow Technology to Control Society

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The Romantic Period(1798 1832)

• English 11 Indicators
• Reading Applications Literary Text 2 Analyze
  the historical, social, and cultural context of
  setting.
• Reading Applications Literary Text 6
  Recognize characteristics of subgenres and
  explain how choice of genre affects the
  expression of a theme or topic.

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Background

• The Romantic Age was full of change. It was an
  age of political revolution (the American
  Revolution had succeeded along with an ongoing
  revolution in France). It was also an age of
  industrial and agricultural revolution,
  particularly for Britain.
• In 1807, gas street lights began to appear in
  London just over 20 years later, the principles
  of electromagnetic induction were discovered,
  which led to the Age of Electricity. Between
  1798 and 1832, railroads sprang up in England and
  continental Europe, photography was invented, and
  the first U.S. patent was granted for a device
  known as the typewriter.

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Romanticism A Movement of Protest

• Romanticism was the movement that reflected upon
  and responded to these dramatic changes. It
  dominated intellectual and artistic life well
  into the early 19th century and was considered a
  movement of protest.
• Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
• Father of Romanticism
• Human society is based on a contract between
  the government and the governed.
• His ideas helped inspire the French Revolution.
• Humans, left in their natural state, are
  essentially good and happy. (Noble savages)
• Evil is not a result of human nature, but of
  societys influence.

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• AssignmentBackground Reading
• THE SOCIAL CONTRACT
• OR PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL RIGHT
• By Jean Jacques Rousseau
• Book IParts 1-9
• http//www.constitution.org/jjr/socon.htm
• Select 5 quotes from the reading that evoke a
  response from you (agree, disagree, compare to
  today, relate to Frankenstein, say what you think
  it means, etc.). Write down each quote and write
  your response beneath it.

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Other Influential Intellectuals

• Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Britain)Rejected the
  world of science and industry
• William Wordsworth (Britain)Englands greatest
  Nature Poet friends with Coleridge
• William Blake (Britain)Poet who contrasted the
  innocence of childhood to the destructive effects
  of the Industrial Revolution
• Noah Webster (America)Made it his goal to prove
  that the new nations language was as good as its
  mother tongue.
• George Gordon Byron (Britain)Lord Byron British
  poet leading figure in Romanticism
• Mary Wollstonecraft (Britain)Philosopher,
  feminist, mother of Mary Shelley

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Lord Byron (1788-1824)

• IMPORTANT FACTS
• Considered one of the greatest British
• poets and philosophical rebels
• Celebrated for his wealthy indulgences
• including extreme debt and numerous
• affairs and scandals
• Respected by his followers for his
• radical and extreme rebellion (was
• once described as mad, bad, and dangerous to
  know)
• Contemporary of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin
  (Shelley), Percy Byssche Shelley
• Best Known Works She Walks in Beauty, When
  We Two Parted, and Don Juan

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Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-97)

• IMPORTANT FACTS
• She published Vindication on the Rights of Women
  (1792), which advocated equality of the sexes,
  and the main doctrines of the later women's
  movement. This work made her both famous and
  infamous in her own time.
• She ridiculed prevailing notions about women as
  helpless, charming adornments in the household.
  Society had bred "gentle domestic brutes."
• She believed that education held the key to
  achieving a sense of self-respect and a new
  self-image that would enable women to put their
  capacities to good use.
• Wife of William Godwin, philosopher and writer
  mother of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley
  (author of Frankenstein)

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Mary Shelley (1797-1851)

• IMPORTANT FACTS
• Daughter of William Godwin Mary
• Wollstonecraft
• Her mother died shortly after Mary was
• born raised by her liberal father
• Married Percy Bysshe Shelley, philoso-
• pher Romantic poet
• She Percy spent a summer with Lord Byron near
  Geneva, Switzerland, where she was inspired to
  write Frankenstein
• Wrote Frankenstein when she was 18 years old
• Lived a life surrounded by death (see handout)

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Key Characteristics of Literary Romanticism

• Focus on the Imagination Romanticism turned
  away from 18th century emphasis on reason and
  pretense and embrace imagination and genuineness.
  Many Romantics turned to a past or an inner
  dream world that they felt was more picturesque
  and magical than the ugly industrial age in which
  they lived.
• Focus on the Individual Romantic-era poets and
  writers rejected the public, formal, and witty
  works of the previous century they preferred
  language that spoke of personal experiences and
  emotions. Romantic writers championed the value
  of the individual human being. Because of this,
  Romantic writers turned away from organized
  authority and strove for individual freedom.

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Key Characteristics of Literary Romanticism

• The Byronic Hero Because of the focus upon
  the individuals freedom and the turning from
  pretensions, the heroes of Romantic literature
  were often passionate yet flawed individuals
  intellectually searching, incapable of
  compromise, forever brooding over some mysterious
  past sin, painfully yet defiantly alone.
  Romantics celebrated heroes such as Cain,
  Faust, Prometheus, and Napoleon. These rash
  rebels were hailed or resurrected in reaction to
  a world in which order and restraint ruled the
  day.

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Key Characteristics of Literary Romanticism

• Focus on Nature Romantics though of nature as
  transformative they were fascinated by the ways
  nature and the human mind mirrored each others
  creative qualities. They saw nature as
  beautiful, but they were more concerned with how
  nature could evoke strong emotions. Romantic
  writers had a strong sense of natures mysterious
  forces.

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The Gothic Novel

• With the focus on the imagination in Romantic
  literature grew a stronger and stronger
  concentration on the supernatural and the
  mysterious. A whole new genre of literature of
  this type became known as the Gothic. The
  earliest Gothic tales included The Monk by M.G.
  Lewis, The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe,
  and Frankentstein by Mary Shelley. The intention
  of the Gothic novel?To make readers blood run
  cold!

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Characteristics of Gothic Tales

• Eerie Subject Matter Gothic tales focus on the
  mysterious the eerie, the fantastic, the
  supernatural and the macabre (morbid). The
  Gothic novel was one way in which people of the
  Romantic Age expressed a sense of helplessness
  about forces beyond their control frightening
  revolutions and industrializations unsettling
  economic changes.
• Isolated Settings The Gothic setting is
  usually remotehaunted castles, eerie forests,
  graveyards, ruins, and wildly picturesque and
  often overgrown landscapes. Imperfection is, in
  a sense, glorified and ruin is enhanced. The
  unpredictable aspects of nature reflect human
  aspirations and failures.

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Characteristics of Gothic Tales

• Melancholy Atmosphere Gothic tales use dark
  atmosphere to create mood. The remote setting
  creates an often gloomy or pessimistic atmosphere
  and sense of despair for the reader. (Ex Mary
  Shelley uses the icy mists of the Arctic and the
  bleak windswept Alpine glacial fields to
  emphasize spiritual and social isolation of the
  characters.)
• Rebellious Protagontist (Byronic Heroes)
  Gothic heroes are usually trapped in gloom and
  unable to appreciate uplifting circumstances.
  They are descendants of Cain, Satan, and
  Prometheus. They are heroic in their rebellion
  but pathetic in their destiny.

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• DISCUSS
• Suppose you were invited to join a scientific
  project led by a very successful scientist and
  dedicated to discovering the secret of creation.
  You could become empowered with the knowledge of
  how to generate life. You could invent a new
  kind of being, eliminate aging, and perhaps even
  conquer death. You might give life to a new
  species, which would credit you forever as its
  creator.
• Would you be willing to dedicate your energy and
  intellect, forsake your friends, and give up your
  youth for the sake of such an experiment?
• What kinds of devastating results would such a
  discovery have on society?
• What good could such power bring to humanity?