Romanticism in the 18th and 19th Century Great Britain

Introduction

Romanticism as a cultural phenomenon was formed in Great Britain earlier than in other countries of Western Europe. Pre-romanticism took shape in a single ideological and artistic system in the second half of the 18th century. Its components took on concrete outlines – the Gothic novel, sentimental poetry, the aesthetics of the Enlightenment crisis, and other phenomena.¹ Pre-Romanticism awakened the British interest in national history, reinforced by archaeological, ethnographic, and antiquarian discoveries. All this, in turn, changed the thinking and way of life of the British.

In the 19th century, the idea of an empire began to have a significant impact on British culture. Many British writers, primarily R. Kipling, R. Haggard, and G. Henty, turned to the theme of empire.² They formed a new image of a literary hero, an enterprising and courageous Briton whose field of activity was the colonies.^{3 4} The Romanticism of the colonial novel of the 19th century provided an alternative to both the realism of the social novel and the pessimism of the works of the British decadents. In popular novels, the mission changed from a burdensome duty to a plot similar to exotic adventures. Expressed in this way, the imperial idea represented something related to compensation for people who lived in the by no means romantic realities of an industrialized and urbanized society.⁵ Many authors of the time expressed similar ideas, although some writers and poets offered unique views. The glorification of the empire and the propaganda of colonial romance appealed to the feelings of the population, increased the degree of ownership, and also contributed to the development of imperial patriotism and nationalism.

The Rise of Romanticism in British Literature

One of the well-known and most original poets of that time was William Blake, who is considered the founder of Romanticism. In Blake’s works, the connection with educational literature is obvious, which is manifested in the affirmation of the human right to happiness.⁶ However, in the condemnation of a straightforwardly rationalistic approach to reality, the romantic beginning is already evident.⁷ The poet writes about the inevitability of social change: “Love seeketh not itself to please, / Nor for itself hath any care, / But for another gives its ease, / And builds a Heaven in Hell’s despair.”⁸ Samuel Coleridge, another representative of early British Romanticism, expressed similar ideas, emphasizing love as the driving force of any life striving.⁹ In his poetry, passion was accompanied by an undisguised call to fight for freedom and feelings: “All thoughts, all passions, all delights, / Whatever stirs this mortal frame, / All are but ministers of Love, / And feed his sacred flame.”¹⁰ The ideas of both poets are in many ways similar, which indicates a common outlook on life at the time of the birth of British Romanticism.

Distinctive Views of Romantic Authors

Romanticism in Great Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries was not a homogeneous phenomenon. There were three main currents in it, which were represented by different authors: the Lakists, or conservatives (Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey), revolutionary romantics (Byron, Shelley), and London romantics (Keats, Hazlitt).¹¹ Distinctive in views were clearly visible in their works, and despite the fact that all the authors belonged to the same literary movement, their positions in relation to political and social aspects differed.

By opposing the laws of bourgeois society, which, in their opinion, increased people’s suffering, the Lakists turned to the image of the English Middle Ages and England before the industrial-agrarian revolution. Wordsworth, being a representative of early romanticism, draws attention to people’s morale, which has changed due to social changes: “O raise us up, return to us again, / And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power!”¹² Southey, another Lakist, agreed with Wordsworth and incorporated social themes into his work, using the ballad genre as a common form of versification supplemented with new elements. Both Wordsworth and Southey sought to follow the truth of nature and evoke compassion and sympathy in the reader, considering the appeal to the lives of ordinary people as the key task of poets.¹³ Southey writes the following: “And wherefore do the Poor complain? / The rich man asked of me,” thereby emphasizing the social and class inequalities that existed at that time.¹⁴ Thus, Lakist creativity in regard to political and social ideas was focused on the mundane aspects of life.

Unlike the Lakists, the revolutionary romantics were rebels, challenging the essence of the bourgeois-feudal state. They defended the ideological legacy of the Enlightenment, defending the French Revolution and seeing it as a progressive period in the history of humanity. It is in Byron and Shelley that the connection with the most significant phenomena of English literature of the past was most clearly revealed. They did not sing mundane themes but sought to emphasize the higher themes of the struggle for the nation. While stirring up the revolutionary theme, Byron writes the following: “And men were gather’d round their blazing homes / To look once more into each other’s face.”¹⁵ Shelley supports Byron in his work, denying the peaceful ideas of the Lakists and calling for revolutionary sentiments in society, being inspired by the experience of France. He writes as follows: “With folded arms and steady eyes, / And little fear, and less surprise, / Look upon them as they slay / Till their rage has died away,” thereby seeking to create an appropriate mood in society.¹⁶ Thus, their work differed significantly from the ideas of early romanticism.

The London romantics strove to maintain a clear, cheerful outlook on nature and humans. However, they were soon replaced by authors promoting more rational views, namely utilitarians.¹⁷ For instance, the ideas associated with the cult of individual self-fulfillment were promoted by Bentham in his position of utilitarianism. Martin et al.¹⁸ quote one of Bentham’s main slogans: “It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong.” The idea of a reasonable coexistence of a person with other people, proposed by Mill, was similar to that of Bentham.¹⁹ Nevertheless, his thoughts differed from the theses of earlier views on society and its structure. Mill insisted that a person was to strive for individual self-realization but not forget about the interests of other people²⁰. As a result, one might say that 18th-19th century British romanticism went through several stages. It ranged from simple ideas about the strengthening of the human role in society to serious philosophical discussions about the empire and the importance of preserving identity within the framework of a common national idea.

Conclusion

Appeal to the feelings of the people through the promotion of imperial thinking and the strengthening of nationalist ideas was a prominent theme in British Romanticism in the 18th and 19th centuries. Romanticism as a cultural movement in Europe first originated in Great Britain, and many poets and writers were innovators. Compared to earlier ideas that glorified the traditions of the Enlightenment and the role of humans in the world, the later theses of Romanticism were aimed at analyzing more rational concepts, such as utilitarianism. The strengthening of imperial thinking and the promotion of national freedoms were significant postulates of the authors of that time. This study has made it possible to identify differences between authors’ views of different eras and prove the relevance of past studies regarding the gradual social and political shifts in the era of British Romanticism.

Bibliography

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Blake, William. “10 of the Best William Blake Poems.” Interesting Literature. Web.

Canli, Mustafa. “William Blake’s “Songs of Innocence and Experience” as a Practice and Manifestation of the English Romantic Movement.” Eurasian Journal of English Language and Literature 1, no. 1 (2019): 15-22.

Churms, Stephanie Elizabeth. “Robert Southey’s Conservative Occult.” In Romanticism and Popular Magic: Poetry and Cultures of the Occult in the 1790s, 215-61. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

Cogan, Lucy. “Naomi Billingsley, The Visionary Art of William Blake: Christianity, Romanticism and the Pictorial Imagination.” The BARS Review no. 58 (2022): 1-2.

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. “Love.” Poetry Foundation. Web.

De Marino, Tiziano. “The Ethics of Empire: HG Wells Re-Writing RL Stevenson.” Science Fiction Studies 48, no. 2 (2021): 243-262.

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Martin, Rose, Petko Kusev, Joseph Teal, Victoria Baranova, and Bruce Rigal. “Moral Decision Making: From Bentham to Veil of Ignorance via Perspective Taking Accessibility.” Behavioral Sciences 11, no. 5 (2021): 66.

Mathes, Carmen Faye. “Coleridge Tripping: The Biographia Literaria and Proprioceptive Self-Possession.” Studies in Romanticism 59, no. 2 (2020): 185-208.

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Footnotes

1. Ismat Jafarova, “Sentimentalism in English Literature: A Brief Analysis of the Genre and Its Representatives,” Scientific Collection «InterConf+» 29, no. 139 (2023): 88.
2. Tiziano De Marino, “The Ethics of Empire: HG Wells Re-Writing RL Stevenson,” Science Fiction Studies 48, no. 2 (2021): 243.
3. James Watts, “Land Reform, Henry Rider Haggard, and the Politics of Imperial Settlement, 1900–1920,” The Historical Journal 65, no. 2 (2022): 422.
4. Caroline Koegler, “Posthumanism and Colonial Discourse: Nineteenth Century Literature and Twenty-First Century Critique,” Open Library of Humanities 6, no. 2 (2020): 3.
5. Mustafa Canli, “William Blake’s “Songs of Innocence and Experience” as a Practice and Manifestation of the English Romantic Movement,” Eurasian Journal of English Language and Literature 1, no. 1 (2019): 15.
6. William Paul Simmons, Joyful Human Rights (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019), 34.
7. Lucy Cogan, “Naomi Billingsley, The Visionary Art of William Blake: Christianity, Romanticism and the Pictorial Imagination,” The BARS Review no. 58 (2022): 1.
8. William Blake, “10 of the Best William Blake Poems,” Interesting Literature, Web.
9. Carmen Faye Mathes, “Coleridge Tripping: The Biographia Literaria and Proprioceptive Self-Possession,” Studies in Romanticism 59, no. 2 (2020): 186.
10. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Love,” Poetry Foundation, Web.
11. Michael J. Neth, “English Romantic Poetry’s Clash of the Generations,” The European Legacy (2023): 1.
12. William Wordsworth, “10 of the Best Political Poems Everyone Should Read,” Interesting Literature, Web.
13. Stephanie Elizabeth Churms, “Robert Southey’s Conservative Occult,” in Romanticism and Popular Magic: Poetry and Cultures of the Occult in the 1790s (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), 250.
14. Robert Southey, “The Complaints of the Poor,” Poetry Foundation, Web.
15. Lord Byron, “Darkness,” Poetry Foundation, Web.
16. Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Mask of Anarchy [Excerpt],” Poets.org, Web.
17. Zoe Beenstock, “Reforming Utilitarianism: Lyric Poetry in JS Mill’s “Thoughts on Poetry and Its Varieties” and Autobiography,” Journal of the History of Ideas 81, no. 4 (2020): 611.
18. Rose Martin, et al., “Moral Decision Making: From Bentham to Veil of Ignorance via Perspective Taking Accessibility,” Behavioral Sciences 11, no. 5 (2021): 66.
19. Peter Niesen, “Speech, Truth and Liberty: Bentham to John Stuart Mill,” Journal of Bentham Studies 18, no. 1 (2019): 2.
20. Jan Svoboda, “Ethics in Masaryk’s Classification of the Sciences,” Human Affairs 32, no. 3 (2022): 349.