3. Victorian poetry and poets

The Common Man/Woman
Romantic writers felt that the average reader should be able to understand and enjoy their works. This sentiment often extended to the relatability of characters they created. Heathcliff Linton from Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, for example, is a servant; Charlotte Brontë’s titular protagonist in Jane Eyre is a governess. Virtually all of Jane Austen’s heroines were average young ladies, usually looking for love. While Romantic characters may have uncommon adventures or exceptional experiences, they are not larger-than-life personalities of towering might or intellect.
The Idealization of Women
The exception to the common woman in romantic literature was the idealized woman. Romantic writers would represent certain female characters as innocent, naïve bundles of perfection that needed sheltering and, in some cases, outright worship. Their admirers were nothing short of haunted by them. Take Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “Annabel Lee”: Poe’s narrator puts his lover on a pedestal, enamored by her beauty and, in many ways, he was obsessed with their “love that was more than love.” Not even death can keep Poe’s narrator from loving and glorifying Annabel; he even insinuates that angels were so jealous of the love he and Annabel shared that they killed her.Characters and their internal lives were a priority for Romantic writers. They gave readers access to the characters’ innermost thoughts and desires, emphasizing the minutia that made them tick. This hyper-focus on subjective thoughts and experiences opened the doors for an increased perception of the spiritual—and, sometimes, the supernatural.
Wuthering Heights is a classic example of Romantic individualism, most notably in Heathcliff. He is an example of a Byronic hero—a figure in Romantic literature who is miserable yet affectionate, moody yet proud and defiant. Heathcliff is so passionately in love with Cathy that even after her death, he can think only of being with her:
Heathcliff’s loss leads to become a tortured, vengeful man, and much of Wuthering Heights focuses on his evolution from a solitary youth to a besotted young man, to a bitter, heartbroken individualIsolation and its accompanying melancholy played a key role in the experiences of romantic characters and, often, their authors. This loneliness and estrangement from the rest of humanity gives the character a way to express the uniqueness of their experiences and thoughts.
John Clare, often called the quintessential romantic poet, wrote about the beauty of isolation and nature on the farm where he spent his life in the poem “I Am!”:
Clare characterizes himself as a long-forgotten entity who receives no regard except from himself. As such, it’s almost as though he doesn’t even exist—his emotions dissipating to nothing for no one is there to experience them.NatureNature was a source of endless inspiration and beauty for romantic writers. They often viewed nature as a teacher; a living, breathing entity; a god or goddess; or some combination of them all. For example, in the poem “Auguries of Innocence,” William Blake celebrates nature and its awe-inspiring majesty: This kind of reverence for nature is what makes Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein a prominent example of romantic writing.⁷This is an offshoot of the reverence for nature characteristic of romantic works. Pathetic fallacy is a type of personification where romantic writers attributed human feelings and thoughts to aspects of nature. In the poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,” with the title itself giving human characteristics to a cloud, William Wordsworth writes about coming upon a field of daffodils: Literary romanticism honors universal human emotions like love, loss, triumph, and failure. These works did not center on bold religious statements or scientific theories; instead, they highlight a collective sense of morality and right versus wrong. They existed as accessible pieces of literature that featured the common man as a character to attract the common man as a reader. The result was that ordinary people were considered worthy of respect and even celebration. Romantic works also underscored the value of nature in the richness of the human experience, as well as the need for isolation to attain emotional or spiritual growth.Naturalist works use scientific theories of observation and detachment to tell their stories. This approach is, in many ways, the opposite of romanticism, which concentrates on emotions, feelings, ideals, and the singularity of lived experiences.Naturalist literature is usually gritty and intense, and outside forces like heredity and environment determine the fate of the characters. In romanticism, destiny and spiritual guidance influence what happens to the characters.