Romanticism

1. 1780-1836 Romanticism

2. 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 Beginnings of a New Era

3. Revolt against the Age of Enlightenment • Reaction against rationalism • Confronts the sublimity of nature

4. 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

5. 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 1st Generation -Major Literary Figures

6. 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” William Wordsworth

7. 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 Samuel Taylor Coleridge

8. 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 Rime of the Ancient Mariner”

9. 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

10. Gothic: inspired from the Middle ages. • Supernatural connotations of Good and Evil • Inspired art, architecture, literature Gothic

11. Elements of Macabre • Repellent descriptions of the destructive effects of sin • I.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 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

12. 1816 – • Percy Shelley • John Keats • Lord Byron • 1818 – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley • Daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft 2nd Generation -Major Literary Figures

13. By Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley Frankenstein

14. 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

15. Who was Mary Shelley? Born in London to Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin in 1797 Mother died 11 days later of 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

16. The Gothic Novel Set in castles, dark towers, and torture chambers • Decay • Romanticism • Death • Doom • Psychological and physical terror • Reader passes from everyday world into the dreadful and supernatural • Madness

17. 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

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

19. Doppelganger • German for “double image” • Two characters mirror each other • Represents a divided self or two alter egos who are more similar than dissimilar

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

21. Framework Story • A story within a story • Used in Canterbury Tales and many Shakespeare plays. • Frames the story

22. Arctic Travel

23. “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

24. 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.

25. Alchemists • PhilippusAureolus 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

26. The Author’s Craft • Suspense • 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

27. Images of the Creature