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Romanticism and Realism Romanticism is the idealism for a better world. Writers believe that they can portray their beliefs and emotions though their writing. They hoped that this would encourage the people of the world to become something more than what they are now. They valued the human imagination and imposed emphasis on individual freedom and political restraints. They also had a great interest in the middle ages. The emphases on emotion lead to Dark Romanticism such as the poetry by Edgar Allan Poe.
Poe wrote with extreme emotion about death and the loss. While realism s more about the attempt to represent events and social conditions as they are. There is no idealization of events instead writers attempt to be as factual as possible. Writers of this form of literature stress reality over fantasy. They value the attention to detail and an effort to recreate the true nature of reality. This is the reason that most realist literature is written according to the time period of the writer.
It is not to say that what realist writes is a true story exactly but rather it is to convey what is happening in the world at that moment in time. They write about the hardship and the malice with no sugarcoating of events but rather the brutal truth. The individual is an important aspect in the writing of romanticism. The writers view the individual as an important part of society. They reject authority and look to have self reliance. There is no need to have society accept them in order to have the life that they want.
Emerson wrote “Great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude” giving credence that social acceptance is not needed (Emerson 578). While in realism the individual idealism is not as important as the realistic portrayal of the individual and the society. Realistic writers write about how self reliance is portrayed in society. Whether it is oppressed or whether it was achieved. Chopin writes about self reliance as an aspect that the American women at the time have not been able to achieve to its fullest.
Instead self-reliance is something that eludes women due to the social hierarchy that has been established for centuries. In both romanticism and realism pride is a preemptor to the loss of whatever good is one’s life. In while in romanticism this is portrayed with exaggeration of potions ND death in “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Realist writers such as Chopin use real situations of slave owners and the issue of race in their lives.
Government and politics has been a subject in literature for a long time. In realism it is the description of the governments and the actions taken by them. It is about the truth of what that the political machine has done to the world. There is no idealism as there is in Romanticism. Politics in romanticist writing is about the hope for a better society. Their way of achieving this betterment is also a part of the romanticism in the literature. GOD By hoosegow