The Age of Enlightenment (or simply the Enlightenment or Age of Reason) was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state. Originating about1650- 1700, it was sparked by philosophers Baruch Spinoza (1632 – 1677), John Locke (1632 – 1704), Pierre Bayle (1647 1706), mathematician Isaac Newton (1643 – 1727) and Voltaire (1694 – 1778). Ruling princes often endorsed and fostered figures and even attempted to apply their ideas of government. The Enlightenment flourished until about 1790 – 1800, after which the emphasis on reason gave way to Romanticism’s emphasis on emotion and a Counter-Enlightenment gained force.
Elizabeth Barrett-Browning’s sonnet sequence Sonnets from the Portugeuse, explores the experence of idealised love in the patriarchal confines of the Victorian era, juxtaposed against F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, which comments on the unatanability of idealised love due to the corruption of the American dream. Through an exploration of love, both composers subvert societies preconcieved attitutdes to love through the reccurring motif of ‘Plato’s ladder of love’. Barrett-Browning’s poems highlight the realities of a spiritual, connected love, contrasting to Fitzgeralds commentary on the illusionary goals of ‘true’ platonic love in the post WWI hedonistic, materialistic society. Barrett-Browning conveys the Romantic ideals of platonic love, against the prudish rationalism of the Victorian era. The Petrarchan sonnet form has an inbuilt dialectic structure, enabling her to have a progressive narrative, which follows the path of the Platonic system.
The ideology of Thomas Paine, Revolutionary Period, and his book Common Sense. How and what ways did Thomas Paine made his belief in American Revolution accessible and or easy to understand in his pamphlet Common Sense? Political philosopher and writer Thomas Paine has helped shaped many of the ideas that marked the Age of Revolution or as many call today American Revolution, his highly popular “Common Sense” was the first pamphlet to guide American independence. And inspired people in the Thirteen Colonies to declare and fight for independence from Great Britain. The pamphlet explained the advantages of and the need for immediate independence in clear, simple language.
TO LOVE OR NOT TO LOVE? “The most interesting aspects of texts written in different times is seeing the difference in what people value.” Possibly one of the best known piece of American prose fiction of its time, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, develops an ironic but ultimately pessimistic point of view on the materialistic and superficial society presented in the 1920s which prevented the ideas of pure love. The form of a prose fiction does not have a structure which makes the novel unique. Sonnets from the Portuguese, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, presents a more idealistic and optimistic view about love and hope. She portrays her personal voice through the use of sonnets, specifically Petrarchan.
Romanticism and Neo-Classicism were looking at life from two different perspectives which were emotion and reason, respectively. Neoclassicism started in middle of the 18th century. It was a very educational movement for both its artists and its followers, who believed that arts should enlighten the path of knowledge and should have a reason for its make (Irwin, N.D.). Romanticism, even though it started in the same epoch as Neo-Classicism, but it’s style was more of modern than vintage. Romanticism saw things from a creative perspective which was beyond the actual appearance of things (Unknown, 2007).
Behnam Nemati Professor Nappo English 101 13 March 2012 The age of revolutions In 18th century, enlightenment philosophers such as Voltaire, Rousseau and Montesquieu, began to revolutionize the way of thinking in European world. The enlightenment was a movement in 18th century that questioned authority, religion and social hierarchy; enlightenment advocated reason, liberty and equality, and controlling one’s own destiny. The American and French revolutions were motivated by Enlightenment ideas; however, they were remarkably different in terms of subjective causes, types of leaders, progression, and outcomes. Seven year’s war was undoubtedly the matrix of the French and American Revolution; a war that was started by George Washington, killing French military officer, in New France territory. It soon became a global war, and after seven years, the British defeated the French.
Puritan vs. Enlightenment Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, which included the Puritan and Enlightenment Eras, writers used idealism and pragmatism in their literature. Idealism is defined as the impracticality by virtue of thinking of things in their ideal form rather than as they really are. Pragmatism is defined as the doctrine that practical consequences are the criteria of knowledge, meaning, and value. Writers during the Puritan and Enlightenment eras incorporated idealism and pragmatism in their writings because they had idealistic goals that ended with pragmatic results. Anne Bradstreet, a poet during the Puritan Era, wrote “Here Follows Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House July 10th, 1666”.
The Enlightenment was the root of many of the ideas of the American Revolution. The Enlightenment was an intellectual revolution in the 18th century that focused on rationality, natural law, liberty, and progress. The leaders of the revolution were inspired by the writings of Enlightenment philosophers such as Voltaire and Montesquieu. The values of liberty and equality were fought for as colonists strove to end British control over them. The American Revolution was greatly influenced by the Enlightenment.
Thematic Essay: Romanticism and Realism From the mid-18th to the late 19th century, dynamic transformations in European art mirrored turbulent political and social changes, including revolutions, imperial conquests, and the emergence of the modern industrial age. The expressive, emotional aesthetics of Romantic art echoed a form of artistic rebellion against the orderly Enlightenment era to assert individuality of the artist and reject the stoic subject matter seen in the style of Neoclassicism. Romantic artists were primarily focused on exotic and tumultuous themes, often executed with loose and colorfully bold brushwork. Later in the century, proponents of the Realist movement turned to sober depictions of working people as the Industrial Revolution swept through Europe. Some Realists turned to nature, using landscape to convey a sense of direct experience of a specific place and time.
According to Hampson, ‘It may be argued with equal plausibility that Rousseau was either one of the greatest writers of the Enlightenment or it’s most eloquent and effective opponent’. In this essay I will compare Rousseau’s writings with his Enlightenment contemporaries, and examine to what extent he represents Enlightenment and counter-Enlightenment thought. The main themes of comparison will include religion, knowledge and reason, systems of governance and nationalist sentiment. Max Weber’s appraisal of the Enlightenment as a “disenchantment of the world” is, perhaps, best exemplified in the philosophes dogged determination to banish superstititon, and rid society of the yoke of religious authority. The influence of philosophers such as Locke, Spinoza and Newton, resulted in a view of man as a quasi-divine entity,and the philosophes thus viewed religion as not only false, but superfluous.