Religion in the Romantic and the Victorian Era

Religion in the Romantic and the Victorian Era

Introduction

The Romantic and the Victorian period are two of the major literary movements that defined the literature that surfaced during the 19th century. The two periods have some similarities, but the differences they had are far more. With literature in Romanticism being defined, according to Wordsworth, by an expression of 'spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings', literature in the Victorian era was characterized by self-consciousness. The Romantic period relied on direction coming from something spiritual to help and give them guidance, Victorian's was more relied on science and their direction and strength comes from ancestors of the 'survival of the fittest' not from God or spirituality, which is reflective in William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and Charles Darwin's The Decent of man, the two works belonging to the Romantic and Victorian period respectively.

Discussion

Romanticism was a movement that is regarded as a move away from the ideas and values of the earlier era known as neoclassicism and hence, instead of a focus on reason and intuition, the era placed more focus on imagination, feeling and senses in its style, themes and content. The imaginative and emotional quality, the interest in the rural society and the natural, subjectivity instead of impersonality and a move away from the scientific and mundane to an interest in the mysterious and infinite are all aspects that define the literature of the Romantic era. On the other hand, the Victorian period, which began formally with Queen Victoria becoming Queen, was characterized by changes and advancements in various fields, specifically in the area of medicine, science and technology, which also influence the themes and content of the literary works. The Industrial Revolution created deep changes in the economic and social spheres, which was among other radical changes taking place in Britain in those times (Shepherd, 2001). The advancements in the scientific knowledge, particularly of evolution brought significant changes in the thinking of people and literary artists, and challenges to religious faith were among them.

Two writers who demonstrate such differences in their respective eras are William Blake in his book The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (Romantic period) and Charles Darwin's famous work The Descent of Man (Victorian period). The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is a short account but has much to offer to the readers in terms of what characterized the Romantic Movement in literature. It is one of the most influential works of Blake and is well-known for the vision and imagery that is provided in the book in relation to the religious world, especially of Heaven and Hell. As the title suggests, the work, which is a combination of poetry, prose, aphorisms, and visual imagery, has a theme that is overtly religious. Written at a time when French and American had begun and the Industrial Revolution was about to begin, the response of Blake was not in the form of rejection to the age of reason, but by ...