Wylie. P5. T5. Romanticism

by Lorena Huang Liu, Diana Huang, Rachel Yeo, Isabel Kim
Period 5 Team 5

One of the main characteristics of the Romantic Era was that it placed a great amount of respect on the authors of the works of art that were produces. Artists were given a lot more credit than they had been given before, and being an independent artists was no longer shameful, but a source of pride. In fact, the artists who had patrons and who were paid to do certain works of art were reproached because they would not be necessarily expressing themselves freely. This is one of the main characteristics that the Renaissance and the Romantic era have in common. Although there are several artistic forms in which there was a typical Romantic representation of man, it is the branch of literature in which these features truly stand out. In the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, the author displays one of the characteristics of romanticism, the love of nature. The characters pay attention to the weather at Wuthering Heights and sometimes, the weather seems to reflect the mood of some of the people in the book. Also, Wuthering Heights displays one of the most prominent characteristics of romanticism: the “noble savage.” Heathcliff is a homeless boy who is rescued by the head of the family but he is then treated badly as the father dies. He then becomes the epitome of “noble savage” because even though he is not as refined and rich as the people who rescued him, he seems to be the hero in the book. Despite the fact that Heathcliff does perform some questionable actions, his character can still be thought of as “noble” because he does not lose sight of what he wants and of his opinions of life. These characteristics are seen in the writings of Emily Bronte and later on, in the films that have been adapted from the book.