Fear and Romanticism - Essay Example

Fear and Romanticism Since the English language has been formed, many literary works have contributed to the heritage of the language. These works are categorized into groups by the themes which run in these works. In the early works like Jane Eyre, the major theme was the freedom of females in the society. This was due to the fact that during the author, Charlotte Bronte’s times women were not considered equal to men and even Bronte had to publish her book under a pseudonym because it was considered immoral and rebellious in that society. Through this example, we could make out that any theme which runs in the story is actually the picture of the social and cultural context of that society. During the course of time many themes began to get introduced in the literary works but the biggest progress could be seen in the Romantic literature produced during the era of Romanticism. Firstly, literary term “romantic” or “romanticism” should not be mixed or confused with love stories, Harlequin romances, or anything of that particular genre. Even though love, as in any literary movement, plays a very important role in “romanticism,” but the term itself signifies something much more vast and different. (Lewis) Romanticism was actually a complex intellectual movement consisting of artistic and literary advancements. The movement has its roots back in the latter half of the eighteenth century in Western Europe. Charles Baudelaire, the famous poet and critic wrote "Romanticism is precisely situated neither in choice of subject nor in exact truth, but in a way of feeling." Romanticism could really be called as a revolution against the aristocratic norms of the society which was largely dependent on class differentiation. (Kelly, 1989)The Romantic period observed huge political and social turmoil with notable political proceedings and social processes as the American and French Revolutions, the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, the prosecution and criticism of the transatlantic slave trade. Thus the themes in Romantic literature reflect the cultural and historical context of that period. Romantic literature stressed upon emotions which were previously alien to the previous authors. The themes stressed upon the emotions of love, romance, trepidation, wonder and fear. (Curran, 1993) A person can easily see the birth of romanticism tracing back to burgeon in the middle of the 1700s. As a matter of fact, one of the supreme influences on the growth and expansion of romantic literature came from one of the most serious supporter and believer of Reason in the Enlightenment, the great author and poet, Edmund Burke. He is the writer of the famous, The Sublime and Beautiful, in which he ostensibly argued that there are definite experiences for which Reason fails to explain or articulate to give a better understanding of them. He explained “sublime” experiences as anything which we see or encounter in nature or within or personalities that make us stop in wonder, fear or horror like a huge precipice, a giant waterfall, a huge beast or a dreadful nightmare. (McGann, 1983) According to Burke, certain experiences engulf the ability of the mind to rationalize and distinguish the reality of what we encounter. Some experiences leave us in a state of shock and wonder. Some experiences are accountable for being simply irrational, which become actually responsible for leaving us in a sea full of doubts. Without any intention or deliberation, Burke provided a spark of gigantic interest in all things which are ‘sublime’. In the latter half of the 1700s, writers became gripped with writing about great waterfalls, gigantic stretches of mountains and dangerous experiences or anything which left the feeling of fear in the reader. (Butler, 1981) Many writers and poets contributed in the romantic literature which includes great poets like Edmund Burke, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Romanticism contains a multitude of themes encompassing Libertarianism, Nature, Super-natural, and fear. As quoting Victor Hugo, Romantic literature could actually be seen as ‘liberalism in literature’. Women wrote many books and published great number of poetry masterpieces in the Romantic literature during the Romantic period. A good deal of their compositions was tremendously admired and influential. Even though their periods of activity were different yet their works easily fit into the aesthetics of ‘Romanticism’, as it has been conventionally defined. Important women writers include Mary Wollstonecraft, Dorothy Wordsworth and Mary Shelley. It is important to comprehend that women writers were publishing at the same time as their male counterparts, and frequently using creative dialogues with them. This removed the boundary which divided the works of men and women since a very long time and ushered them into a new era of liberalism and their efforts made the Romanticism so liked and so successful. (Alexander, 1989) Out of all the themes, the themes of Romance and fear got most fame and recognition. A new form of writing was developed with the combination of themes, horror and romance which came to be known as the ‘Gothic fiction’. Gothic fiction forms a different genre of literature believed to have been invented by Horace Walpole who was the first writer to build up a story, ‘Castle of Otranto’ on this theme. Gothic fiction revolves around the fear, portraying different characters reflects the fear and horror present in the theme. The Gothic fiction combines the themes of romance and fear through the use of different characters which include tyrants, rogues, outlaws, fanatics, Byronic heroes, victimized maidens, femmes’ fatales, madwomen, magicians, vampires, werewolves, monsters, fiends, angel, fallen angel, the beauty and the beast, revenants, spirits, perambulating skeletons, and the Devil. Further contribution to Gothic fiction was made by the romantic poets and this type of genre still remains to be a popular choice among the writers. (Paulson, 1983) ‘Fear’ and ‘Horror’ both are the themes which are present in the works of the Gothic writers. ‘Fear’ grows out of suspense and ignorance of a person about something while ‘horror’ is a mixture of ‘fear’ and ‘disgust’ which is felt when a person has faced something fearful. As Charles Darwin put it into his book, “Fear is often preceded by astonishment, and is so far akin to it, that both lead to the senses of sight and hearing being instantly aroused. In both cases the eyes and mouth are widely opened, and the eyebrows raised. The frightened man at first stands like a statue motionless and breathless, or crouches down as if instinctively to escape observation. The heart beats quickly and violently, so that it palpitates or knocks against the ribs…” (Bristow, 2000) Fear and Gothic fiction: From the start, writers of Gothic fiction were aware of the excesses in their works which would inevitably lead them to be centre of attraction and interest. Gothic writers use many tools to generate or inspire fear. In the middle of the ‘Castle of Otranto’, the villain Manfred is seen to become frustrated by a plague of miracles. Trapped in Udolpho castle, Radcliffe’s Emily St.Aubert sees her life is ‘like the dream of a distempered imagination, or like one of those frightful fictions in which the wild genius of the poets sometimes delighted’. Throughout what is surely the most excessive eighteenth-century Gothic novel, characters are surrounded by different characters and surroundings but all inspiring fear. (Siskin, 1988) In Gothic fiction, these self-conscious moments intensify terror by strengthening the illusion of reality. A real person caught in a ‘haunted house’ would probably try to reassure himself by noting the fictional quality of his experience. Alone at night in an old mansion with the wind wailing over the gables, we think, trying to laugh, this is just like a ghost story. If we see a horrifying film, we remind ourselves that it is only a movie. However, when a character in a story tries unsuccessfully to gain reassurance, that character and the reader sinks deeper into terror. Gothic writers use the same tool and leave no room for alternatives or safe passages in their story from which the reader can get reassured. This is what plays an important part in generating fear in the readers. (Mellor, 1993) Gothic fiction exaggerates the inherent self-consciousness of its satirical object in two basic ways: by creating even stronger contrasts between the real and the fictional world, or by breaking down the contrast altogether. (Botting, 1996) Many books exemplify how the authors create fear in their books. The best examples in this regard are the most popular books written in this genre which include ‘Dracula’, ‘Dr. Jekyll’, ‘Mr. Hyde’, ‘Frankenstein’ and ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’. One of the methods used by the writers to generate fear includes the use of foreshadowing which is highly illustrated in the novel ‘Dracula’ by Bram Stoker and in Marry Shelly’s Frankenstein. Foreshadowing is a very important part of a gothic novel as it is used to create a heightened sense of suspense in the reader’s mind. Foreshadows inspires fear and anxiety in the reader as it hints the reader about something which is going to happen in near future. Throughout ‘Frankenstein’, the main narrators Victor, the monster, and Walter each employ the use of foreshadowing. In ‘Dracula’, the strange wounds on Lucy’s neck foreshadowed her link with the vampire and her falling to the dark side. Similarly in Frankenstein, the most important foreshadowing was in the lines ‘But I forget I am moralizing in the most interesting part of my tale; and your looks remind me to proceed’. (King, 1978) Another example of such literary tools is of degeneracy. A degenerate is a person who has gone below his normal condition and capabilities and thus no longer possesses normal or higher qualities or the ability to think or make proper decisions. This makes these people to think and work differently and that is what accounts for their strange and sometimes vicious actions. In Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Mr. Hyde is shown as a degenerate. Similarly in Stoker’s Dracula, the degenerates are Dracula and Renfield. The way these degenerates think and put their plans into actions is what inspires fear as their abilities are not equal to that of a normal man. (Stevenson, 2005) A similar yet another concept, which is used to generate fear in the Gothic fiction is Atavism. Atavism is a concept in which the humans reverse back to their ancestral traits like the most unlikely possibility of having a tail! Atavism can actually mean unnatural growth of ears, long nose and other facial features which are above or below the normal level. These people normally possess criminal traits and are called as atavistic criminals. In Gothic fiction, the concept of Atavism is used in the strange or aloof characters who inspire fear in the people. The Dracula is clearly an example of an evolutionary regression or Atavism. The theme of Atavism could be seen throughout the writings of Gothic fiction as it is through the use of ‘Atavism’ that the Gothic writers portray a fearsome picture of the character. The Gothic fiction has an important place in the literary heritage of English language. It teaches us to revel in perfect prospects of distraction and makes our hearts hard against the influences of living misery by making us so polished and refined so that in our real lives, we should rather be disgusted by some sudden turn of events rather than to get scared or horrified by it. (Roe, 2005) The English language witnessed the rise of many writers and observed its literary heritage to grow at an immense works by the addition of new works by these writers. However the ‘Golden era’ of the English was seen during the romantic period in which, not only a wide range of writers and a wide variety of books came to the front but it also saw the birth of new genre of literature which is the Gothic fiction and the introduction of new themes as well. Fear became an important theme in the literary world. Out of all the advancements made in literature during the romanticism era, the most famous was the recognition of the themes of romance and fear as seen in the Gothic fiction. The works of Gothic writers continue to be widely read, recognized and become a subject of interest for the new writers. Works Cited Alexander, M. (1989). Women in Romanticism. London. Barrett. Heroine, or Adventures of a Fair Romance Reader. 1813: David Brass Rare Books. Botting, F. (1996). Gothic (The New Critical Idiom). London. Bristow, J. (2000). The Cambridge Companion to Victorian Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Butler, M. (1981). Romantics, Rebels, and Reactionaries. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Cornwell, N. (1990). The Literary Fantastic: From Gothic to Post-modernism. Curran, S. (1993). The Cambridge Companion to British Romanticism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kelly, G. (1989). English Fiction of the Romantic Period. London: Longman. King, S. (1978). Frankenstein, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Signet Classic. Lewis, P. (n.d.). Laughing at fear. McGann, J. (1983). The Romantic Ideology: A Critical Investigation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Mellor, A. K. (1993). Romanticism and Gender. London : Routledge. Paulson, R. (1983). Representations of Revolution, 1789-1820. Yale: Yale University Press. . Roe, N. (. (2005). Romanticism: an Oxford guide. Oxford: Oxford University Press . Siskin, C. (1988). The Historicity of Romantic Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Stevenson, R. L. (2005). The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Broadview Press. Read More