Jared Cartier
Carson High School
B6 AP Literature
September 19 2017
Mr Macy Cartier 1
The Romantic era was a time when people focused on their own self improvement of art and literature and receded the the era of Enlightenment which was focused on philosophical thinking of human nature. Both era’s were times when many great works of literature and art were produced. However the Romantic era was the hegelian antithesis of the Enlightenment era because the Enlightenment was about society as a whole while the Romantic era focused on self improvement. The Enlightenment is what caused the Romantic era to be what it was. The Enlightenment era took place in the seventeenth century with France and Great Britain as the center. The Enlightenment is defined as the belief that human reason could serve as a guide for religious, philosophical, and scientific reason(Norton Anthology). During this time many great philosophers began to ponder about human nature. These people used their knowledge to better society. With many great philosophers such as …show more content…
Many of the ideas and values in the Declaration of Independence were originally from enlightenment thinkers. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness came from John Locke who said that all people deserve life liberty and property. Baron de Montesquieu was the person who said that there needs to be a balance of power between government (William Bristow). These two philosophers played a major role in shaping American government. The Enlightenment era was a time when many new political ideas came to be. Many of these people went against the traditional European monarchs. Other Enlightenment thinkers such as Thomas Hobbes said in his book the Leviathan that people are all born evil and needed to be controlled by a strong set of laws (William