FREE ESSAY ON NEOCLASSICAL VS. ROMANTICS

NEOCLASSICAL VS. ROMANTICS

Neoclassical, also known as, The Age of Reason and The Enlightenment was during 1660-1770.
They exhibit strong tradition and ancient values from the classical writers of Rome and
Greece. Who were thought to have achieved excellence in literary and ideas. Such as form,
balance, discipline, restraint, unity, order and the use of tragedy, satire and epic. In
their opinion, literature was a form of "Art", therefor must be perfected by long study,
practice and attention to details. The purpose of literature was to instruct the use of
reason over emotion. They prefer society to the individual and public life over private.
There are four major emphases in this age, firstly, emphasis on decorum, conventions and
defined codes of behavior. Secondly, emphasis on moderation, and thirdly, characters
type, humans were primarily subject matter of literature, therefor poetry was mere
imitation of humans life, and finally, neoclassic poetry emphasizes on general rather
than particular. They had rigid class system, women had no voice and children were
unimportant. Believed in divine order, a rational and moral universe, and in constant
human nature, overall effort towards stability.
While the Romantics, from 1798 until 1832, emphasized a number of ideas that were a
reaction against the proceeding Age of Reason. As Shelley stated, that the literature of
the age "has arisen as it were from a new birth". They concentrated on innovation rather
than traditionalism in their material, forms and style of literature, and introduced
symbolism. Wordsworth was one of the key poets in that age; his poetry was about his own
feelings, spontaneous and genuine rather than a mirror of men in action, therefor
concentrating on inner self and life but not society. In order to achieve that you have
to be in solitude. They believed in the power of imagination vs. cold reasoning. They
felt that both art and literature had become artificial, and that artists and writers
should return to nature for inspiration. Emotions or feelings were the source of true
moral guidance. They believed in individual liberty, and in people being true to
themselves. And that the natural goodness in people could change society. But mostly they
concentrated on inviting the reader to identify the protagonist with the poets
themselves.