Literature - A Mirror Of Society :: essays research papers

The literature of a nationis affected and influenced by how the people of thatcountry live. This paper leave behind substantiate that The French conversion greatly influenced 19th Century FrenchRomanticism. First, the ethnic values of the revolution willingbe identified. Then, the different aspects of Romanticismwill be presented. The cultural values of The FrenchRevolution and Romanticism will then be linked. Finally,literary examples will be shown to support this confederacybetween the two fecal matters. Before the Revolution, thecitizens of France lived in a strict, confined confederacy with nofreedom to express their feelings. Government had imposedstrong, unfair laws on the common people (ComptonsInteractive Encyclopedia French Revolution). Theywanted a voice in a stable regimen with a strongeconomy (Johnson 105) and a strong sense of personal identityand independence within the people. (Moss and Wilson180) Eighteenth- century literature was much like the order in whi ch it was produced, restrained. Society wasdivided into privileged and unprivileged classes, (Leinward452) with Eighteenth- century writers focusing on the livesof the upper class. (Thompson 857) These writers followedformal rules(Thorlby 282), and based their works onscientific observations and system of logic (Thompson 895). TheRevolution gave the common people and writers morefreedom to express feelings and ablaze them to usereason. According to Thompson, The Revolution had amajor impact on Nineteenth- Century European Life.(895) It sent a strong wave of perception and revivalthroughout France (Peyre 59). This lead to new laws andstandards for the citizens, including newer, less imposingliterary standards. Romanticism marked a profound changein twain literature and thought. Romanticism, according toWebsters Dictionary, is defined as a literary movement(as in early 19th century Europe) marked especially by anemphasis on the imagination and emotions and by the useof autobiogra phic material. Although this may be true,there is no single commonly authorized definition ofRomanticism, but it has some features upon which there isgeneral agreement. First, it emphasized upon sympatheticreason, feeling, emotion, and expression (ComptonsInteractive Encyclopedia, Romanticism) whileemphasizing the jockey of nature, beauty, and liberty.(Leinward 528-529) Thompson defines Romanticism as a major literary and cultural movement that was inspiredby the imaginations, inner feelings, and emotions of theRomantics. (895) If one term can be used to describe theforces that have shaped the modern world, it isRomanticism. (Peyre, 2) Romanticism has had such(prenominal) aprofound effect on the world since the late eighteenth centurythat one author has called it the profoundest culturaltransformation in human beings history since the invention of thecity. (Comptons Encyclopedia, Romanticism) Harveyand Heseltine state that The outstanding lineament of18th-century French literat ure had been attached to