Enlightenment/Romanticism Essay

The long time of earth is rife with varying motivations and individualised reasoning. Over millions of years, life shifted from mere survival, with our minds pinched to food and shelter, into times of political catch and welfargon reform. Buried in the layers, the ripen of reason and the (difficult to define) Age of Ro piece of musicticism atomic number 18 found. Within these cardinal periods are nearly of our historys or so abstruse shifts in thinking.The Age of Enlightenment brought scientific reasoning to the forefront of everything. Life was distinct, comprehensible and predictable. Man contemplated his purpose empirically, studied methodically to come to a true conclusion.harmonize to Anne Branham, the enlightenment allowed our founding fathers to question mans natural overcompensates in the creative activity of the living. She uses Benjamin Franklin as the incomplete paradigm of true enlightenment. The one and only(a) man who had his custody into all things sc ientific and technological fought actively for the earthly sooner than heavenly rewards (55). Our well-nigh important living document, the American Constitution, finds its epicenter in the license to choose our throw representation after careful reflectivity and consensus-driven selection (59).Paintings reflected life as a physical entity. Portraits of people became the chosen artistry of the day, a marking of life in that moment. American History portraits painted by John Trumbull show the events in a concise manner, the emotions of the people stern and musing. advanced(prenominal) artists, to include Anton Van Maron and Antonio Visentini, of this period (late Enlightenment) retrace this same theme of capture rather than sensitize (Grove artwork On line).Writers such as Locke, Paine, and smith questioned preconceived beliefs, broke them down in their parts, studied them empirically, then transformed them into new ideals and theories changing the way things were done for c enturies. Their articulations of judgment alternated the way business and politics were conducted, a system we still hold to today. Burnham suggested when we scratch a good look at these writers (Locke in particular) we can see the come of transformation that inspired Thomas Jefferson (58).The line between the Enlightenment and Romanticism appears kind of blurred. It is not as though populace stopped short all of a sudden and agreed to transmit their thinking. What is evident, however, is that change took place. Today, we are no longer as ideal in questioning what is right for man.This period began as a force punt of sorts against the aristocracy and their accepted norms. People began to look up themselves with emotions and the t echt sensationings of things. Psychologists such as Freud and Jung came into play. Not only when what is wrong with you, plainly also why, and how does it feel to shake that problem?Peckham questions the validity of an actual movement in that the need and sequent fight for revolution does not in fact mean an actual change in thought amongst the worlds people. Was there in fact a change in mind out from the scientific and toward the ideal and the emotional (6).In terms of government, America found itself festering out of control. States began to fight over the fill in of slavery and valuing one mans right to property over rough other mans right to hauteur and the pursuit of happiness as it were. polished War breaks out, the basis set against the colder ideas of the Enlightenment. These ideas one can conceivably see as justifying slavery if numbers add up. fatherhood offered a new selection during this era, the novel. bloody shame Shelley writes about the timeless battle of man versus temperament with her creation of Frankenstein. Mans emotional struggles in life tag the center of Mark Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Edgar Allan Poes The Raven, Jane Austens Emma, and Henry David Thoreaus Walden.Peckham , writing in the time of Picasso, states Picasso has in his painting expressed profoundly the results of the freedom that romanticism has given to the creative imagination, but he is detested by most people who provoke seen his cubist or post-cubist painting as well as by a great galore(postnominal) who has not. He is at home in the universe, but not in his night club (21). This simple statement takes us back to a time when the questioning of fundamental things, like shapes and colors, was not appreciated. One forgets Picasso died in 1973 only 33 years ago.Although these two distinct ages followed to each one other in general timeframe, there are some obvious similarities. In some ways, the transcendentalists, modernists and post-modernists, have all maintained the basic apparent motion in life, which is to ask questions and present the answers in a way that society allow gain from them as well. The questioning existence the most serious of crimes against the calm nature o f a society, with the actual answer spare-time activity a close second.The difference lies in the questions asked, the answer given and the format preferred. For each successive generation, the questions drive a half-size deeper, the context of the situations a little overmuch complicated. The answers are increasing more personal, much to the chagrin today of the older citizens. Art today is far racier and stressing in it nature. Artists have the freedom to push the observer to his or her max. Life seems to be struggling toward a certain height where all questions are ok, all answers accepted.Works CitedBranham, Anne K. Teaching the Enlightenment in American Literature cast Light on Faith and Reason. The side of meat Journal 87.3 (1998) 54-59.GroveArt Online. (18 Oct 2006). Peckham, Morse. Toward a Theory of Romanticism. PMLA 66.1 (1951) 5-23.