Kate Morris

Box #1838

Dr. Kuhns

2/19/20

The Cultural Shifts of the Enlightenment and Romantic Eras

History is as important as the present, since it is what we as people used to be which

brings about what we are today. Looking back in time to a significant cultural shift in history, is

the Age of Enlightenment. An era of progress, rational thought, and equality; people in this era

wished to understand the world with the newfound science of the time and began to question

old traditions. Directly after, there was a pushback against this narrative through Romanticism,

which sought out imagination and the innate good in humankind and deeply valued the natural

world. These two points in history, the Enlightenment and Romanticism, developed new

perspectives and ways of thinking that brought about new culture; yielding some works that

will be looked over in this paper.

The Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, from the 17th to 18th century was a

movement focused reason rather than blind faith. Questioning the traditional roles that were

expected of people, be it gender roles, racial prejudice, or especially religion. Mary

Wollstonecraft was one prominent figure who passionately pursued ideas of freedom and

equality of women. In Wollstonecraft’s 1792 book, “A Vindication of the Rights of Women.” She

expresses her desire for a different educational system that treats women as capable people

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just as it does men instead of incompetent and fragile. “To carry the remark further, if fear in

girls, instead of being cherished, perhaps, created, were treated in the same manner as

cowardice boys, we should quickly see women with more dignified aspects.” (Reader 22) She

states that women would be just as good as working men if given the same educational

opportunities as boys growing up. “A Vindication of the Rights of Women” is a strong example

of the changing perceptions of women and women’s rights during the Enlightenment,

questioning the traditional role and perception of women and taking a step towards freedom

and equality. Another Enlightenment ideal is questioning of traditional authority, especially the

power a state has over individual people. In Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s 1762, Social Contract, he

states boldly that, “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.” (Reader 13) This sounds

contradictory, but he means that people are chained by power and possible loss. People often

give away their innate freedom for power, socially and politically. And the Enlightenment

opposes these individuals’ actions, that people shouldn’t give their freedom for “slavery.” That

power doesn’t come from the top down, from state to people. But instead power comes from

below, and that there should be a sense of duty to come together in a society. Rousseau speaks

of a different type of freedom from Wollstonecraft, but both are values of the Enlightenment

era.

In contrast to the high value the Enlightenment placed on reason, the Romantic era

sought after idealistic perspectives of human goodness, nature, and feeling.  Focusing on the

role of an individual in a chaotic world. Romanticism was a pushback against the Age of Reason;

one significant contrast was the emphasis of the natural world to get away from industrialized

and detached urban cities to the intimate and connected rural life. We see this way of thinking

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in a lot of art of the period. One such piece is John Constable’s 1821 oil painting, The Haywain.

Constable creates a scene of his own neighborhood, a painting of a lone cabin beside a stream

with a hay wagon sitting in it. The old man who lived in that cabin almost never leaving.

Constable’s paintings mostly consisted of familiar places around England. And this oil painting is

a good example of Constable’s enduring attachment to place. And it is this love and comfort of

familiar places that is fundamental to rural life. As well as a great appreciation of the beauty of

nature, we see this in his use of light to bring attention to natural features such as the water of

the stream or leaves of a tree. Along with the rise of glorifying nature, Romanticism saw a rise

of nationalism, praises of the “common man,” and the innate goodness of people. We see this

represented in Walt Whitman’s 1856 poem, Song of the Open Road. The main theme is the

appreciation and trust in the natural world, where Whitman is also emphasizing an individual’s

subjective experience in nature. In the poem he states, “Henceforth I ask not for good-fortune

—I myself am good fortune…The earth-that is sufficient; I do not want the constellations any

nearer;” (Reader 33) Who is in control of his own life and trusts in himself and has no need for

anything else, and will take any troubles he has in stride. Whitman himself is a romantic ideal,

he was considered a “common man,” born of a farm in New York he lived a down-to-earth life.

Romanticism values intimacy and closeness, in other words, feeling. Whether it be connecting

with nature, yourself, or to others alike, this emphasis on feeling is one of the main values of

Romanticism.

The clashing ideals of the Enlightenment and Romanticism is illustrated significantly in

Mary Shelley’s 1818 best-selling novel Frankenstein. In Frankenstein the ideas of the

Enlightenment and Romanticism are seen in the characters of Victor Frankenstein and his

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monster. Shelley first portrayed science as a noble pursuit, to question and chase an endless

search of knowledge. Shelley highlights the Enlightenments focus of reason by illustrating Victor

Frankenstein’s character as unrestrained in his desperate pursuit of science. Victor described

his obsession, “’That application, which at first had been a matter of duty and resolution, now

became so ardent and eager, that the stars often disappears in the light of the morning whilst I

was yet engaged in my laboratory.’” (Shelley 31) Machine-like in the early parts of the novel as

he worked himself to exhaustion, yet this showed an unsightly side to this Age of Reason as

Victor becomes sickly and mad. This then turns to illustrating the ideas of Romanticism, the

novel shifting to a focus of humanity, compassion, and the natural world as the creature tells

his story. The creature finds his only joys in the natural world from the beauty of it to the joy of

connection with other people. With the irony that the monster is an abomination of nature.

Where both the monster and Victor Frankenstein find joy in nature and the small things in life.

Shelley used Frankenstein and the monster to feature some of key ideals of the Enlightenment

and Romanticism during the time, using the pursuit of science and reason to contrast the

connection to the natural world.

The Enlightenment and Romanticism, both eras so impactful yet fundamentally

different. The Enlightenment valued progress and the importance of the individual in a society.

While Romanticism valued a connection to the natural world and to the self. Both equally

significant in today’s history, bringing about influential literary works spawned many artistic

pieces. The Enlightenment and Romanticism brought about new ways of life that made

significant marks in history.

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