The Romantic Era
The Romantic Era
Have you ever heard of the word romance? Love is the 980th most commonly used word in the English language, which connects to the word romance, so there is a very good likelihood that you have. The real question, however, is do you really know what romance means? Romance has several different meanings and the Romantic Era encompasses them all. Despite the fact that the Romantic Era was a hundred years, the Romantics contributed so many things, some of those being romance, the religion of the whole of Europe, and how people thought and felt, and therefore, influenced Europe back then, and how the world is today. The definition of romance varies. In some definitions it means a medieval narrative, originally one in verse and in some Romance dialect, treating of heroic, fantastic, or supernatural events, often in the form of allegory. In other definitions it means to court or woo romantically; treat with ardor or chivalrousness. Both are correct and both apply to the era. When the Romantic Era first started in 1750 it had originally adapted the medieval meaning, which was a type of ballad or legend. It started this way because at about this time people started to record folktales and fairytales from all over the world. In these tales, they saw that love became one of the most important themes to the story, which is how the Romantic Era includes the definition of agape (Dearborn, The Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era, Vol.2 955). The reason this era was started was because of the Age of Enlightenment. The Age of Enlightenment was a time when justice and the government (and basically anything and everyone else) were ruled by reason and logic. The Romantic Era is the complete opposite of everything that the Age of Enlightenment is, and that was exactly the effect that the Romantics were trying to accomplish. The Romantic Era was a retaliation against the endless reason and logic that had to be applied to everything, including the art of the Age
Have you ever heard of the word romance? Love is the 980th most commonly used word in the English language, which connects to the word romance, so there is a very good likelihood that you have. The real question, however, is do you really know what romance means? Romance has several different meanings and the Romantic Era encompasses them all. Despite the fact that the Romantic Era was a hundred years, the Romantics contributed so many things, some of those being romance, the religion of the whole of Europe, and how people thought and felt, and therefore, influenced Europe back then, and how the world is today. The definition of romance varies. In some definitions it means a medieval narrative, originally one in verse and in some Romance dialect, treating of heroic, fantastic, or supernatural events, often in the form of allegory. In other definitions it means to court or woo romantically; treat with ardor or chivalrousness. Both are correct and both apply to the era. When the Romantic Era first started in 1750 it had originally adapted the medieval meaning, which was a type of ballad or legend. It started this way because at about this time people started to record folktales and fairytales from all over the world. In these tales, they saw that love became one of the most important themes to the story, which is how the Romantic Era includes the definition of agape (Dearborn, The Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era, Vol.2 955). The reason this era was started was because of the Age of Enlightenment. The Age of Enlightenment was a time when justice and the government (and basically anything and everyone else) were ruled by reason and logic. The Romantic Era is the complete opposite of everything that the Age of Enlightenment is, and that was exactly the effect that the Romantics were trying to accomplish. The Romantic Era was a retaliation against the endless reason and logic that had to be applied to everything, including the art of the Age
Cited: Dearborn, Fitzroy. "Canova, Antonio 1757-1822." Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era. 1st ed. Vol. 1. New York: Taylor & Francis Group, 2004. 149-50. Print. Dearborn, Fitzroy. "Shakespeare, William: Britain, Sickness, Oersted, Hans Christian 1777-1851,Religion: Christianity, Romance." Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era. 1st ed. Vol. 2. New York: Taylor & Francis Group, 2004. 822-1049. Print. Kreis, Steven. "Lecture 16: The Romantic Era." The History Guide. 4 Aug. 2009. Web. 12 Dec. 2010. . "Romanticism." Romanticism. English Department, Brookyln College., 12 Feb. 2009. Web. 13 Dec. 2010. . Sherane, Robert. "Music History 102." Ipl2: Information You Can Trust. Intel and Sun Microsystems, 1 Nov. 2008. Web. 16 Dec. 2010. .