Romanticism is a general characteristic


Romanticism – one of the most vivid and significant trends in art. Originating initially in Germany and a little later in England, it was then widely diffused in almost all European countries and had a huge impact on world culture.

Without exaggeration, romanticism can be called a revolution in art: the revolutionary era was the era of romanticism – from the end of the XVIII to the middle of the XIX century. It was a time of tremendous social upheavals, when the feudal and medieval world collapsed and a capitalist system was established on its fragments; the time of bourgeois revolutions and national liberation wars [4. 1.c.26].

But not only the social upheavals marked the alarming era. It can also be called a time of great disappointments and expectations, a time of drastic changes in the minds of people. The great French Revolution of 1789 did not justify the hopes placed on it. It did not lead to the construction of a “kingdom of reason” on earth,

which was predicted by philosophers-educators, so popular in the fifteenth century. The new, bourgeois society that emerged as a result of the revolution looked a little more attractive than the old, feudal society.

Faith in the omnipotence of the human mind, characteristic of the XVIII century, has now been undermined. To the thinking people of the new, nineteenth century, the further paths of social development seemed extremely vague. And this duality – the consciousness of the polarity of the ideal and reality, and on the other hand, the thirst for their reunification is the defining feature of romantic art.

At the same time, in the work of some Romantic writers (often called passive or conservative romanticists), the idea prevailed about the domination of some higher, fatal forces in the world that were beyond the control of the human mind, beyond his will. In the works of other Romantic writers (they are often called active or revolutionary romantics), the mood of struggle and protest prevailed against the evil that is prevailing in the world.

However, all without exception, romantics

were united in their denial of the existing society. The very word “romanticism” served initially to refer to something extraordinary, something that can not be met in reality. That’s why the romantics were attracted to fantasy, folk legends, they were attracted by distant countries and past historical epochs, the life of tribes and peoples still untouched by European civilization, the beautiful and majestic world of nature.

Personality for Romanticism has always remained free, unpredictable and most importantly – individual. The desire to help others see the invisible – all this was the ideological core of the romantics.


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Romanticism is a general characteristic