Romanticism in Wuthering Heights

1/30/12 Romanticism

• 1798 to 1832 in England• Shift from faith in reason to faith in imagination,

senses, feelings• Shift from urban interest to rural and natural• From impersonal to subjective• From scientific/mundane to mysterious and infinite• Romantics were interested in the Medieval past,

the supernatural, the mystical, the “gothic,” and the exotic

Characteristics of the Romantic Period

• (1) Imagination, Emotions, and Intuition. Exaltation of intense feelings.

• Descartes: I think, therefore I am.vs

• Rousseau: I felt before I thought.

• (2) Subjectivity of approach; the cult of the individual; the absolute uniqueness of every individual.

Characteristics of Romanticism

(3) Freedom of thought and expression.• A revolt against authority and tyranny, against the ancien

regime, whether social, political, religious, or artistic.

• Thomas Paine: “The Rights of Man.”• Mary Wolstonecraft: “A Vindication of the Rights of

Woman” (1792)

• Alienation and rebellion: Cult of Youth, Energy, and Idealism

Characteristics of Romanticism

(4) Idealization of Nature• Embracing the uncivilized, the wild, the pre-civilized.• Rousseau: “Man is born free and everywhere he is in

chains.” In other words, civilization is in part the cause of our corruption. • The “noble savage,” and James Fennimore Cooper’s

Leatherstocking novels, I.e. The Last of the Mohicans.

But there were 2 views of Nature

• The first viewed nature as peaceful, calm, nurturing, a source for spiritual renewal. It often showed an innocent life of rural dwellers, a world of peace and harmondy which nurtures and comforts the human spirit. This is very much how Wordsworth viewed nature.

John Constable: The Hay Wain

But nature could also be frightening in its power, and cause a dizzying sense of awe and wonder.

J.M.W. Turner: Avalanche

Edmund Burke defined these two views of nature as:

• The beautifuland

• The sublime

Romanticism in Wuthering Heights

In Romantic Lit, there was emphasis on introspection, psychology, melancholy, and sadness. The art often dealt with death, transience and mankind’s feelings about these things. The artist was an extremely individualistic creator whose creative spirit was more important than strict adherence to formal rules and traditional procedures. • a. The Byronic hero • b. Emphasis on the individual and subjectivity.

Byronic HeroEnglish poet Lord Byron (1788-1824).

• dark, handsome appearance; brilliant but cynical and self-destructive

• "wandering," searching behavior, but isolated• haunted by some secret sin or crime, sometimes

hints of forbidden love• modern culture hero: appeals to society by

standing apart from society, superior yet wounded or unrewarded

• Heightened intellect, passion, sensitivity,

• With regard to his intellectual capacity, self-respect, and hypersensitivity, the Byronic hero is "larger than life," and "with the loss of his titanic passions, his pride, and his certainty of self-identity, he loses also his status as [a traditional] hero" (Thorslev 187).

• Of the Bronte sisters' background, Tom Winnifrith comments that a "study of the Brontes' juvenilia provides confirmatory evidence of the sisters' preoccupation with the aristocracy, their emancipation from Victorian prudery, and the attraction of the Byronic hero, beautiful but damned" (4).

• http://www.umd.umich.edu/casl/hum/eng/classes/434/charweb/CHARACTE.htm

MASLOW’S HUMAN THEORY OF NEEDS

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MASLOW’S NEED HIERARCHY THEORY

Specifies that there are five human needs and that these are arranged in such a way that lower, more basic needs must be satisfied before higher-level needs become activated.

Deficiency NeedsPhysiological

SafetySocial

Growth NeedsEsteem

Self-actualization

The needs that must be met in order for people to develop in a healthy fashion.

Physiological: Fundamental biological drives, such as the need for food, air, water,

and shelter.Safety: The need for a secure environment

and to be free from threats of physical or psychological harm.

Social: The need to be affiliative – that is, to have friends, and to be loved and accepted by

other people.

DEFICIENCY NEEDS

The needs that must be met in order for a person to reach his or her full potential.

Esteem: The need to develop self-respect and to gain the approval of others.

Self-Actualization: The need to discover who we are and to develop ourselves to the fullest potential.

GROWTH NEEDS

1.31.12 Tuesday – Byronic Hero: Is the flaw a fault or an infliction?

• To what extent are Catherine an Heathcliff a product of their environment, and to what extent is their “flaw” their own fault? Find specific textual examples.

• Divide in 2 groups, Label poster, draw a continuum, mark it for you character

• Support your “mark” by listing specific examples from the text with a “key word” as to what the example demonstrates

• Refer to/explain 2 Byronic hero traits & how they apply• Draw an image and/or create an epithet for your character.