Romanticism in literature

3.3 CELEBRATION OF ISOLATION AND MELANCHOLY:
 
Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of the very influential writers in the Romantic era; his books 
of essays has brought out many of the themes of the literary movement and codified them. 
His essay, ‘Self-Reliance’ in 1841 is a seminal work of Romantic writing in which he 
encourages the value of looking oneself and determining our own path, and relying on only 
our own resources. 
Related to emphasising on isolation, melancholy is an important feature of many Romantic 
works, usually seen as a reaction to inevitable failure—writers wished to elaborate the pure 
beauty they discern and the failure to do so adequately resulted in hopelessness like the one 
expressed by Percy Bysshe Shelley in A Lament: 
O world! O life! O time! 
On whose last steps I climb. 
Trembling at that where I had stood before; 
When will return the glory of your prime? 
No more—Oh, never more! 
3.4. INTEREST IN THE COMMON MAN:
 
William Wordsworth was one of the first poets to take up the concept of writing that could 
be read, enjoyed, understood, analyse and interpret by anyone. Instead of using stylized 
language, Wordsworth used and referred to classical works in favour of emotional imagery, 
that was conveyed in simple and elegant language, as in his most famous poem, ‘I Wandered 
Lonely as a Cloud’: 
I wandered lonely as a Cloud 
That floats on high o'er vales and Hills, 
When all at once I saw a crowd, 
A host, of golden Daffodils; 
Beside the Lake, beneath the trees, 
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. 
3.5. IDEALIZATION OF WOMEN:
 
In the works such as Poe’s, ‘The Raven’, women were always presented as idealized love 
interests, that is pure and beautiful, but usually without anything else to offer. Ironically, the 
most notable novels of the Romantic period were written by women for example Jane 
Austen, Mary Shelley and Charlotte Bronte, but that had to be published initially under male 
pseudonyms because of these attitudes. Much Romantic literature is marinated with the 
concept of women being perfect innocent beings to be adored, mourned and respected—but 
never touched or relied upon.