Romanticism
A waterfall flows through a mountain rage just as seamlessly unending tear would flow from one’s heartbroken face. The grass is as green as her eyes and the slowly blackening sky filled with mystery makes me wonder where I fit in all of it. I love the mystery, the excitement, and the expression. I am Romanticism. You can’t find Romanticism in any book or rational ideal. It’s a feeling that has to be expressed through the arts and one’s life. Many artists such as William Blake, writing an ode to ferocity in his poem, “Tyger”, and Mary Shelley who wrote the monstrous novel “Frankenstein” are some of the greatest Romantic works of all time. These works are emotionally moving, but as powerful and free-lanced as Goya’s “Sleep of Reason”, in which he displays the true element of Romanticism: individual imagination and the freedom of expression.
Mary Shelly’s Romantic novel, “Frankenstein”, is a “tall tale” about a monster, an individual who is rejected by society for having a different appearance. This idea deals with individualism in the depressing context of the novel in which the creature of Frankenstein is shunned and alone. “I am alone and miserable, man will not associate with me, but one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me” (M. Shelley 103). At this moment he expresses the pain of isolation, of being an individual without love in its life. As said by a late Romantic poet, Alfred, Lord Tennyson once quoted, “Tis better to have loved and lost/than to never have loved at all.” The monster is feeling that pain of loneliness, which leads us to another theme of Romanticism, expression.
The natural expression of the poem, “Tyger” by William Blake, and the questioning behind the reasons of creation and nature are a large part of Romantic foundations. The poem directly says, “What immortal hand or eye/ Could frame thy fearful symmetry?” (3-4). This means that Blake questioned the very nature of why a god would create such a beast. He even went further with this concept to later write, “Did he smile his work to see?/ Did he who made the lamb make thee?” (14-15). This statement shows that Blake wonders of why the natural world works the way it does, and why certain beings are created to be to die by the hand of another being. It also shows the Romantic sensibility toward life, which is why the god’s motives are questioned by creating beings that simply want to kill each other. This theme of turmoil and fascination with nature is one of the greatest parts of Romanticism. Even though nature is a huge theme in Romanticism, there are still pieces of Romanticism much stronger than this theme.
The last two pieces that have been described have both been works of great Romantic writers, but not works of visual art. The “Sleep of Reason”, a Romantic painting by famous painter Goya, sheds new light on even stronger Romantic themes, such as the individuality of imagination and the freedom of expression. These values were extremely important to the Romantics, and this painting in one of the best representations of that. In the work, Goya sketches a self-portrait of himself, asleep and surrounded by several creatures. There were owls, which represented folly and bats, which were the symbol of ignorance. It is said by many interpreters that this piece is both the horrors that can come from one’s imagination (a nightmare) and the Romantic spirit of creativity and the emotion coupled with it. Goya’s “Sleep of Reason” is an amazing example of the openness and power of one’s mind, and it’s also shown through the interpretation of others that it sparks creative thinking. This is why “Sleep of Reason” is the most Romantic work.
These works are different and unique in their own special way, and they all display a different side of Romantic flare within themselves. “Tyger” shows the fear of nature and the questioning of human intellect towards why things are the way they are. That is the element of human curiosity. “Frankenstein” is the pain and difference behind being an individual misunderstood by humanity. This is the element of individualism, the power to be different. Lastly, the “Sleep of Reason” is the very display of human fear but also the interpretive and creative mind that controls one’s feelings and emotions. All of these are Romantic, but element wise; one seems to be more Romantic than the other three.
All three pieces, “Frankenstein”, “Tyger”, and “Sleep of Reason” are powerful works, but the most representational display of Romanticism comes from Goya’s “Sleep of Reason”. Compared to the other works, Goya’s piece shows not only a visual and more deep understanding of the Romantics but also opens others to the type of thinking that Romantics believe in. The other works do show smaller displays of Romanticism, “Frankenstein” being individual and the fear associated with that and “Tyger”, which is a poem of the natural cycle. With that knowledge though, it is easily shown that “Sleep of Reason” encompasses a larger spectrum of what it means to be truly Romantic.
Works Cited:
“Romanticism." http://dictionary.reference.com/. Collins English Dictionary, Web. 1 Jan. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/romanticism>.
"Alfred, Lord Tennyson." http://en.wikipedia.org/. N.p., Web. 15 Sept. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred,_Lord_Tennyson>.
"The Caprichos." http://eeweems.com/. N.p., Web. 16 Sept. 2011. <http://eeweems.com/goya/sleep_of_reason.html>.
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