The Humanistic Tradition, Book 5 Romanticism, Realism, and the Nineteenth-Century World

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Chronology

48 CHAPTER 28 The Romantic Hero

48

the vague reveries of the imagination? Nothing is

more arbitrary than the understanding of true love.

All loves are true, whether they be fiery or peaceful,

sensual or ascetic, lasting or transient, whether they

lead men to suicide or pleasure. The loves of the mind

lead to actions just as noble as the loves of the heart.

They have as much violence and power, if not as

much duration.

Sand’s writings explore a variety of contradictory ideas

concerning the fragile relationship between men and

women; they also provide a wealth of information about

nineteenth-century European life and culture. In addition

to her novels and letters, Sand also left an autobiography

and dozens of essays and articles championing socialism,

women,and the working classes. She explained the power

Goethe’s Faust: The Quintessential Romantic Hero

• Faust, the literary hero who symbolizes the quest to exceed the
  limits of knowledge and power, became the quintessential figure
  for Romantic writers, painters, and composers (discussed in
  chapter 29).


• Goethe envisioned the legendary Faust as a symbol of the ever-
  striving human will to master all forms of experience, at the risk
  of imperiling his eternal soul.

Romantic Love and Romantic Stereotypes

• Romantic love was a popular theme among nineteenth-century
  writers, many of whom tended to stereotype females as either
  angels or femmes fatales.


• The nineteenth century, the first great age of female novelists,
  produced such outstanding writers as George Eliot, Mary
  Shelley, and Jane Austen.


• In the novels of George Sand, the Romantic heroine might be a
  self-directed creature whose passions incite her to contemplate
  (if not actually exercise) sexual freedom.

Nationalism and the Hero

• For nineteenth-century Romantics, the hero was an expression
  of the expansive subjectivity of the individual. Characterized by
  superhuman ambition and talents, the hero, whether a historical
  figure or a fictional personality, experienced life with self-
  destructive intensity.


• Napoleon Bonaparte’s remarkable career became a model for
  heroic action propelled by an unbounded imagination and
  ambition.


• To a great extent, Western literature of the early nineteenth
  century resembles a personal diary recording the moods and
  passions of the hero as a larger-than-life personality.

The Promethean Hero

• Prometheus, a Greek deity who selflessly imparted wisdom
  to humanity, influenced the Romantics as a symbol of heroic
  freedom. Mary Shelley, Byron, and other Romantics found in
  Prometheus an apt metaphor for the creative and daring human
  spirit. Byron in England and Pushkin in Russia took Napoleon as
  their source of inspiration.


• In America, Frederick Douglass, champion of the abolitionist
  movement, served as a prime example of Promethean defiance
  of authority and defense of human liberty.

ca. 1804 Napoleon is crowned emperor

1812 Napoleon invades Russia

1814 Napoleon is exiled to Elba

1815 Battle of Waterloo

1829 Greece achieves independence from Turkey

1832 Goethe completes Faust

of Romantic creativity with these words: “The writer’s

trade is a violent, almost indestructible passion. Once it

has entered a poor head, nothing can stop it... long live

the artist’s life! Our motto is freedom.”