Ecocriticism In The Romantic Era

The Romantic era in 1800-1850 was an artistic and intellectual movement, with an interest in nature, and emphasis on the individual’s expression of emotion and imagination. Many authors and poets explored the interconnection between nature and the industrial machine, which can represent society. Ecocriticism is a type of literary criticism that analyzes the relationship between the literary representation of nature and the human interactions with the natural world. William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Percy Shelley, and Mary Shelley are all Romantics who overall describe nature in his or her own way. They each express different and similar viewpoints of nature and society as one.
William Wordsworth was born in 1770 and was an older generation Romantic. For the Victorian’s Wordsworth was a poet of nature. He talks about the physical appearance of nature and how it affects the subconscious. He, along with Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote “Lyrical Ballads.” One of the poems in this compilation is “Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey.” In this poem, Wordsworth talks about his first time visiting the banks of the Wye and his revisit 5 years later. In the first …show more content…
In Switzerland in 1816 two great works were made, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Percy Shelley’s Mont Blanc: Lines Written in the Vale of Chamouni. Unlike Wordsworth who viewed nature as benevolent Shelley says it’s a powerful force. This force is in relation to the human mind and how it has the potential for destruction. Shelley then compares the “Ravine of Arve” to the consciousness in nature. The Ravine surrounding the river increases the beauty of the other. In the second stanza line 16-18…In line 35-40 he realizes that knowledge is a combination of sensory perceptions to the mind He also says while appreciating nature he warns man not to equate beauty with tranquility because that can cause many