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In this article, Fallon talks about Romanticism and the Romantic Era.
The romantics
The romantics
By Fallon Rosebraugh
By Fallon Rosebraugh
The Romantic era emerged during the late 18th century, producing the rebels of their time– poets, painters, composers, and thinkers who rejected the rigid logic of the Enlightenment. They were wanderers and visionaries, drawn to the mysterious, the untamed, and the tragic. Romanticism was more than just an artistic movement: it was a revolution of feeling, emphasizing emotion and the power of nature over reason and order.
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At the heart of Romanticism was rejection of the mechanical world that had begun to take shape in the wake of the Enlightenment and industrialization. The Romantics saw reason, science, and industrial progress not as triumphs– but as forces that stripped life of its depth and mystery. A Romantic painter of the time, Casper David Friendrich, once stated, “I have to stay alone in order to fully contemplate and feel nature.” They tended to recoil from the stiff structures of society, which they saw as those who sought to measure and control the world, and instead turned inward– to the realm of emotions, dreams, and unspoken truths of the soul. In their eyes, logic could never truly capture the weight of grief, the thrill of love, or the terror of the unknown. They sought not to explain these feelings, but to surrender to them completely-- to let them shape their art and their understanding of life itself.
At its core, Romanticism was about feeling– deep, untamed, and unapologetically human. As the poet and critic Charles Baudelaire stated, “Romanticism is precisely situated neither in choice of subject nor in exact truth, but in a way of feeling.” For example, Percy Bysshe Shelley was not a poet content with mere beauty– as his words spoke of much more. Born into privilege, he abandoned the expectations of his aristocratic family in favor of revolutionary thought and artistic freedom. Mary Shelley was no different– with a mind too restless for convention and too haunted for peace. Running away with Percy at only 16, she lived in exile, surrounded by poets yet often alone– grieving child after child. From her sorrow, Frankenstein was born– an incredibly relevant piece from the Romantic era.
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And yet, for all its passion, Romanticism could not last forever. The Romantics burned with an insatiable hunger for beauty, for love, for the infinite– and their work remains a testament to the depth of human longing. Though the world has changed and grown, their spirit lingers in every artist who chooses passion over convention– and serves as a reminder that to live fully is to embrace both ecstasy and the ache of being. Because as long as there are hearts that burn with longing, Romanticism will live on.
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