Romantic Era Synthesis - Asher P1 T2

The Romantic Era was, more than anything else, a return to the elevation of human emotion and natural beauty. Art and literature during this period were an escape from the restrictiveness of Enlightenment philosophies and the burgeoning industrial lifestyle. Rather than use religion as a means for aesthetic exploration as they had during the Renaissance, however, Romantic artists relied on truly imaginative themes to achieve the same feeling of freedom. The secular focus of the period signals a departure from the heavily religious undertones of previous eras.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein illustrates this new secular representation of man. The premise of the story – a mortal man creating another man – is almost sacrilegious. Victor Frankenstein’s obsession with creating life is completely at odds with the teachings of the church. Science and the supernatural have replaced Christianity as the driving philosophies, and as a result the novel is widely considered to be the first of the science fiction genre. The book also deals with finding oneself, not in the context of faith, but rather through the exploration of nature. Robert Walton travels to the frigid arctic, not to the cathedral, to complete his spiritual journey.
The spirit of romanticism is also captured in Caspar David Friedrich’s oil painting, “Wanderer above the sea of fog.” It depicts a lone man gazing along the cloud-line at a tumultuous horizon. The openness of the scene and the sense of beauty and emotion that it instills in the observer are characteristic of the Romantic Era. There are no references to God or the Bible, just a sense of awe and an emphasis on man’s relationship with nature.
Even when religion is included in Romantic literature, it reveals the diminishing importance of the church. The Castle of Otranto, a novel by Horace Walpole considered by many to be the first piece of truly Gothic writing, includes in its cast a clergyman named Father Jerome. Jerome is portrayed as a weak and fearful individual – traits that reveal the insignificance of Catholicism and Christianity in general. The protagonists and main characters are not tied to any religious institution.
- Asher Period 1 Team 2 (Adrian Little, Seth Moore, Max White, James Kawakami)