Transcript The Romantic Period - Arrowhead Union High School District

The Romantic Period
French Revolution (1789) – 1832
Pages 620-638
Historical
Transition
Period
Charles Dickens / from A Tale of Two
Cities
Turbulent Times Caused by the Haves
and Have Nots
• American Revolution / French Revolution
• Overthrow of the Haves
• Conservatives in England became more rigid
– Repressive measures:
• Outlawed collective bargaining
• Imprisoned suspected agitators
Industrial Revolution
• Goods made by hand verses mass production
• Communal land owned by many farmers was
taken over by wealthy individuals
– Turned into private parks for hunting/recreation
• Large numbers of landless people, go to the
cities to find work
Laissez Faire Economic Policy
• “Let the people do as they pleased” / Hands
off Policy
• Economic forces should be allowed to operate
freely without government interference
Laissez Faire Economic Policy
• Result? – rich grew richer and the poor
suffered even more
• Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations – basis for
capitalism / justification to ignore the
suffering of millions
Attitude of the Day
• Most members of the upper class believed
that they deserved their worldly success
• And, the poor must be innately evil,
deserving of the hunger
and appalling conditions
that they endured
Romantic Poets
• Frustrated by England’s resistance to political
and social change
• Responded through public poetry emphasizing
emotion and imagination rather than bottom
line reason
• Wrote poems about ordinary people
– Truths about the heart
– NATURE
William Blake
• He cried out against the social problems he
saw
• He warned against the growing divisions
between the classes, working conditions, and
child labor
• “No one should go hungry in a land as green
and wealthy as England.”
• Most thought he was crazy.
Romanticism
1798-1832
• Pages 620-621, 622
• What can you infer about the Romantic
artists?
• The divine arts of imagination: imagination,
the real and eternal world of which this
vegetable universe is but a faint shadow.
– ~William Blake