Ideas of the Romantics
Romanticism in itself is a current that manifested itself in the late1700s and quickly swept throughout Europe. One of its characteristics isits universality: its field of manifestation was widespread and went formpainting, art, music to literature. The Romantic current generally hassome common features that can be traced across all its areas ofmanifestation. I am referring here to its sources of inspiration(generally folklore and popular art) or to the nationalistic innuendos thatthe romantic works make (for example, let us consider the French Romanticpaintings, full of such themes). Some of the Romantic works, especiallythe literary ones, call upon the Middle Ages as a source of inspiration, aperiod that best encouraged the Romantic imagination. However, one of the most important elements of the Romantic Movementis the romantic character himself. A romantic character generally hasseveral common characteristics which make him recognizable from the everybeginning. One of these is individualism. The rise of capitalism andmercantilism destabilized the old medieval patterns and it was most oftenthe case that the new bourgeois refused to fit into the old order and
[6] It is also common to see in romantic writingshow dream and reality come together and this is the case here as well: thethree "lucky cards" appear to Hermann in a dream. The absolute is the secret to how one can guess threecards in row. In this case, it is a pure mean that Hermannintends to use to see his dream attained. From the very beginning of the short story, we see Hermann asbeing out of place in the high Russian society of the end of the 18thcentury and beginning of the 19th century. In order to have a complete image of the romantic characteristicsthis short story has, we need to make a reference to its end. However, this is not the case here: we need to rememberwhat Hermann's quest has been, what his idea of the absolute and of idealswas and we will probably believe that Hermann lacks something otherromantic heroes have: a noble ideal. The second distinctive characteristic that makes Hermann seem out ofplace is his social and financial position. The world has not been prepared for him and hasnot been ready for his ideas. We are faced here with characters that either cannot findtheir place in everyday society or who have been rejected by it. In other situations, we cannot help to see theromantic hero as an inadaptable character of his times, someone who hasbeen rejected by society and lives alone, isolated. wn tastes in the arts and created new social and artisticmovements alien to the old aristocracy"[1]. The lines here above seem to sustain this argument: Whitmanspeaks on behalf of the prisoners, slaves, diseased, etc. It is almost like a mission, a grand missionto speak the pain, desires, wishes, thoughts of humanity and to send out acommon message. However, this doesn't seem to be enough premises for Hermann not totry his luck. As I havedescribed here above, the writer uses many of the usual elements of aromantic work (I have discussed symbolical appearances, the use of thedream, the 'love story', etc.
Common topics in this essay:
Queen Spades,
St Germain,
Romantic Movement,
Russia Germans,
,
romantic hero,
Hermann Russian,
French Romantic,
Middle Ages,
short story,
whitman's poem,
romantic character,
romantic story,
queen spades,
hero excellence,
entire society,
hermann's quest,
heroes faust,
romantic hero excellence,
|
Acceptance Essays
