The Romantic age ( or revival )

The Romantic age ( or revival )

The French Revolution

In 1789 French Revolution broke out, because the people couldn't stand the heavy taxation no more. So they rose against the king ( Louis XVI ) and the queen ( Antoinette ). The Bastille was attacked, and all the privileges of clergy and nobles were abolished. Austria and Prussia invaded France, but their armies couldn't enter France people were afraid of the other countries; and the king Louis XVI was beheaded. Firstly England was an ally of the France, but when English people saw that Louis was executed, they were scared, and England was at war with France and Austria and Prussia, somehow France managed to win.

The Napoleonic wars

After the French Revolution, in France Napoleon took the power from 1769 to 1821. He was born in Ataccio a few days after Corsica became French possession. He had Italian roots, and he was a general. He led the French army against U. K. In 1805 was protected from French invasion by the admiral Nelson, who defeated France in the battle of Trafalgar, in which I died. In the same year, Napoleon won also the Battle of Austerlitz. But there was a turning point, in the was against England, fought in Spain. So he decided to invade Russia (1814). But it was an unsuccessful , and he was defeated at Lipsia, together with the defeat inflicted by Wellington, and so he was sent in exile to the Island of Elba, but he escaped an collected an army, and he was at Waterloo. He passed away at St. Helena in 1821.

The post war years

England went through an economic crisis, the price of cereal went now, because they import It from America (abroad). Many farmers invested everything into field corn, but the war ruined the fields. In 1815 a law was passed (corn law), in order to protect their interests and limit the import of cereals from abroad. Industry ran into difficulty in changing from war. People were starving, an there were agitations, and they brought to the "peterleo massacre", when the dragons, a part of police, killed some people.

George IV (1820 - 1830) & William IV (1830 - 1837)

King George IV, came to the throne, and he was insane, he succeeded to king George III. During his reign, since he was insane, there was another king the son of George III, and his son was price regent, and this period was called regency. During the reign of George IV, was fought the Battle of Navarrino by England, France and Russia against the Turks for the independence of Greece (1827). In 1829 the catholic emancipation was passed by O'Connell. With it catholic's and protestants get the same rights. After George IV, William IV came to the throne. Under his reign there 3 important events:

The reform bill èI.E the kind of small cities that have power and representation in Parliament. They lose their power, and other towns got the same importance in Parliament.

Abolition of slavery

Factory act èChildren under nine years cannot be hired

General literary introduction (1800 - 1837)

During this period, nature became the focus, and the relationship between man and nature changed. While in the Augustan age, nature was just a background, the relationship was between man and society. As a matter of fact they give realistic impression of society, and they say how to behave. The poets of the Romanticism were more interested in nature than the city, because of the industrial revolution, that makes the city ugly, and everyone wants to escape. In the romantic poetry, the thing that is import the most is images, symbolism, on the other hand for Augustans was irony. Romantic poetry is subjective, and the individualism is very important. They wanted the man to rebel against the society. Before Romanticism there was still a feudal society, even thought England wasn't  in medieval ages anymore. This last until the middle of the 18^th century premously  economy and agriculture were handcrafts, and everything was produced in the house. The Romantic society was different because of 4 changes: moving to the city, factories, machinery, religious. There was a revival of the evangelism, all these people, who want a return of the world of Bible. Blake(1757 - 1827) was considered the first romantic poet. The individual who challenges the society. He underlines the importance of children, they are important because they live in an imaginary world, and imagination, is one of the most important element for romantic poets, while in the Augustan age children weren't important, because they empathized the power of reason.

Difference between Augustan and Romantic literature

Romantic empathized the irrational, where as Augustan the reason. Romantic uses fantasy to describe experiences, that couldn't be explained with reason.(The rime of the ancient mariner)

Childhood is very important, because child is spontaneous, and innocent. Every man has a unique aspect of his personality "childhood"

Opposition between the individual and the society, now the individual can think freely in a religious way, and he can rebel

More importance was gilled to poor men in the ordinary people. They thought poor men were sort of wise, because they were in contact with nature, then with God. Where as in the Augustan age poor were ignored

Poetry is the expression of emotion, not society, as the Augustan

Changes are not in the contexts only but also in the language, that is easier while the Augustan age poetry was based on fixed schemes, so that the poems were considered "artificial", I.E. not spontaneous, in the lyrical ballads, which is the manifesto of Romantic movement, Wordsworth wanted to speak just like the people of the streets. They wouldn't care less of society. Poets thought poetry was a product of poet's imagination. Coleridge and Wordsworth thought because they have this creativity they were similar to God, because they could see things ordinary people couldn't. The material of poetry was poet's personal experiences, and the poem was spontaneous. The good poet wasn't meant as the Augustan age, that is the one who studied.