Understanding Romanticism: A Deep Dive
Irrationalism
Romanticism denies that reason can fully explain reality. Hence, the romantic inclination towards the supernatural, magic, and mystery. For romantics, the world is a hidden mystery where reason is incapable of reaching.
Subjectivism
Since reason has its limits, we need other forms of knowledge, like intuition, imagination, and flair. This focus emphasizes emotions, dreams, and fantasies, discovering hidden corners of the human spirit. Feelings are enhanced because the passion of Romanticism is a force stronger than reason.
Idealism
Romantics feel an absolute predilection for the ideal. There is an incomplete awareness of human existence, which makes them search almost desperately for that ideal, coupled with their need for action and vitality. But their desires are often unsatisfied, and this dissatisfaction causes them frustration and unhappiness.
Individualism
The Romantic is aware of being different from others and affirms their self against everything that surrounds them. This affirmation of the self leads to loneliness, one of the basic themes of Romanticism. In art, the artist’s ego is at the forefront of creation. Romantic works express the feelings of their creators: their dissatisfaction, their thirst for infinity, their passionate love, and the desire for freedom.
The Creative Genius
The artist is no longer the craftsman who produces their works after a pre-apprenticeship. Instead, art is the expression of the creative genius within. The artist is born, not made. Hence the value of spontaneity and originality, which is of the creative genius. The artwork will be the result of a moment of inspiration from its author.
Disillusionment
The clash between the self and a reality that does not satisfy their desire for the ideal produces a deep disappointment in the romantic artist. This drives them to confront the world and rebel against moral, social, religious, or political standards.
Evasion
The romantic seeks escape from this world that they dislike. This evasion can be to the past, like the Middle Ages, or to distant or exotic places, such as the East, America, or Spain itself, which for many European writers was a romantic country due to its old traditions and unique folklore.
Solitude
Romantics also flee from reality by taking refuge in themselves. They prefer solitary places such as castles, cemeteries, gardens, and secluded spaces. But loneliness also causes pain and leads the romantic artist to crave integration, the understanding of others, and love.
Dynamic Nature
In contrast to the contrived nature of Neoclassicism, the romantic artist represents nature in motion and prefers a nocturnal setting. Nature is identified with the moods of the creator and, depending on these, is tumultuous, melancholic, or somber, as a projection of their feelings.
A New Sensibility
The Romantic brings intimacy to the foreground. Feelings of nostalgia, melancholy, sadness, and loneliness are common. The feeling of transience and unhappiness of human life extends, causing the typical romantic angst, and hence the taste for the gloomy and the twilight.