Romantic Era Vs Enlightenment

Throughout human history, different era’s have developed among societies, progressing mankind towards what it currently is today. Characterized by their many different newfound ideologies, these era’s show growth in the ability to think, act, and feel both as an individual, and also as a society. Topics such as religion, government, the economy, and philosophy were all stated, contested, and then evolved repeatedly, defining what people were like all throughout the different time periods. Two such era’s are the Romantic era of the eighteenth and nineteenth century and the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century. Although they share many similarities, the Romantic era is often described as the antithesis to the Enlightenment because of the many …show more content…
They kept some ideals, but the way people were thinking was beginning to evolve once more. The main contrasting concept was that they “emphasized emotion over intellect; the individual over society; inspiration, imagination, and intuition over logic, discipline, and order; the wild and natural over the tamed” (Murfin and Ray). In the previous era, they were more focused on finding new information through the scientific method and what they thought was reasonable. Now, the focus was directed on what people felt on the inside. People “praised self-reliance, and glorified the natural goodness of the individual” (Murfin and Ray), believing that it was society that corrupted the individual and everyone was born pure. Emotions were a huge topic in writing and philosophy, as seen through the many people who “celebrated romantic love as the natural birthright of every human being”(Brians), and felt it was “the most exalted of human sentiments” (Brians). The naturalness of feeling appealed to people and directed them towards what they wanted. Many writers “perceived themselves as both sensitive and unappreciated” (Murfin and Ray), and reflected it in their work. It was a time where people could be honest about themselves and express it accordingly. Because of this, some people began to have “an affinity with the Gothic and the grotesque” (Murfin and Ray), mainly because the strong emotions involved, that …show more content…
Like many other era’s to come, the Romantic era served as a stepping stone from the Enlightenment and let us evolve our way of thinking into what it currently is today. Valid points were brought up in these periods that are still relevant today and will only continue to in the