Ms. Oville
English III Honors- 1st Hour
December 7, 2012
Essays: Option 1
Romanticism
Write an essay that classifies Theodore Gericault’s painting The Raft of the Medusa and William Woodsworth’s poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” as romantic by identifying and explaining how specific examples from both works reflect three different characteristics of the Romantic period.
In class we talked about Theodore Gericault’s painting The Raft of the Medusa in reference to the story to along with the painting. We also discussed and analyzed the poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” written by William Woodsworth. The story was about how 3 ships were headed in the same direction and one of them wanted to beat the other who to there destination. Along the way they hot the bay and the boat was sinking so the built a raft for the people on the ship and the rich were on the life boat. The people on the life boat soon realized that they were again sinking so they cut the line connecting them to the raft and left the people stranded while they reached safety. This story in correspondence to the painting is an example of romanticism. The many characteristics of romanticism is the interest in the common man and childhood., strong senses, emotions, and feelings, awe of celebration of the individual, and the importance of imagination. I feel that the painting shows very well the celebration of the individual. In the painting, you can tell that each man is fighting for there lives. They have there own unique way of the story being that they are not all one person. I also feel that it celebrates the people by including them in the painting. I think that the painting also expresses interest in the common man. These men in the painting seem savage and crazy but romanticism describes and “believed that the savage is noble.” The belief of this characteristic is that all men were born with good in them and pure but some where down the line of life they fall