In the following essay, the topic of Enlightenment in relationship with Romanticism will be discussed and examined in a thorough manner. First, let’s distinguish the difference between both time phases. The Enlightenment era, known as a time of illumination by the light of reason, consisted of individuals who valued reason above all else. It was the faculty that was distinctively human.
It was the most important aspect of human nature, thanks to the scientific confidence to be able to answer unanswered questions with regards to nature. It also consisted of science, logic, academics, and a rationalistic way of thinking. Romantic thinkers on the other hand had different reactions when it came to perceive the world and its nature.
During the Romantic movement, they realized that there is more to being human than rationality. Having a foundation off of irrationality, emotion and imagination, this also included their belief on the supernatural; the things that cannot be explained through reason.
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They based their decision on emotion rather than relying on their sole instinct of logic. It was all about self-expressionism and enjoying life, which resulted in the upcoming popularity trend of art and music. This phase seems like the laughy romantic and happy phase, almost sounding like it was the hippie phase. The Enlightenment era celebrated human progress, technology, and culture.
When compared to the Romanticism, it can be portrayed as an outdated way of thinking. It’s as though, there was an enlightenment phase within the enlightenment era, which brought out the new way of thinking, which resulted in Romanticism. People still had questions, people still thought about the human nature, and still believed that science was not always the answer to all our problems.
They opened their eyes even wider and saw the true beauty of nature, individuality, and opened up so many doors in the fields of art, with regards to poetry, music, and actual arts and crafts. Romanticism was less objective and traditional and became its own unique style of thinking and creating. It valued the art of expressing one’s self and was more of a subjective form of art in contrast to the Enlightenment phase.
The Enlightenment got people thinking more abstractly, outside of the box of what can be seen. Although Romanticism isn’t really associated with theology like the Enlightenment is, it is also characterized by more abstract thinking, more fiction, more nature, less science, less hard facts and logic. In this way, Romanticism is sort of like a looser adaptation of the Enlightenment in that people made a transition to the unseen and its beauty.
In my opinion, Romanticism as a movement of arts and ideas had an extremely useful role, with regards to its contribution towards the 19th century. It is the reason for changing how millions of people look at nature, children, love, sex, money, and work. We are all now more or less in some aspect of our sensibilities romantics. It can be portrayed as a reaction to the birth of the modern world.
A core romantic belief is that civilization is what has made us sick. The Romantic movement has permanently changed our sensibilities as the world has grown ever more technological and rational romanticism has come to stick up for the irrational, untrained, the exotic, the childlike, and the naive.
The Romantic movement occurred because some felt the ideals of the Enlightenment had taken humanity and human agency out of mankind’s view of the universe. Romanticists felt regardless of mankind’s greater and growing understanding of the basic mathematical laws that govern the universe.
The most important truths for humans still remain and what we can learn from the analysis of human emotions and the human experience. Nature and the natural world were important but only in so far as how humans interacted, appreciated, and were shaped by nature. As I would suspect, poetry was an important part of the romanticist’s movement in the early 19th century, like the poets Lord Byron and William Wordsworth.
To conclude, a noticeable connection has been proclaimed between the Enlightenment era and the Romantic movement, both having heavily played a factor in our society. Our world is ever so adapting and transforming, from the way we express ourselves, to the way we think. Although Romanticism comes after the Enlightenment era, it is not evident enough to disregard the Enlightenment era’s importance in modern day history.
It shows us today the evolvement of our society and how it has come to be today. Personally, I value both time periods to be equally as important of each other. One era depicts the notion of thinking in a logical manner and applying scientific methods to resolve our problems, while the other values expressionism, individuality, and emotion.
References
- https://www.history.com/topics/enlightenment
- https://www.britannica.com/event/Romanticism
- https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2015/entries/enlightenment/
- http://worldhistory.org/The_Enlightenment/
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/ahr.100.2.393-a
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlightenment_(spiritual)
- https://www.poetryfoundation.org/features/articles/detail/69336
