William Blake and Napoleon Bonaparte with respect to their roles in the Romantic Era.

Essay by thefury111 May 2003

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Romanticism with the Specific Inclusion and Criticism of Blake and Bonaparte

To date I have never been truly "caught" by any movement in history or any of the so-called "isms" that formed it, but in my recent studies of Romanticism and the feelings that it brought to show the world, I have been amazed. Never have I felt that my very thoughts and reasons in how I examine the natural world, literature, and most every aspect of my life as a violently analytical person have come to be illustrated through one movement as Romanticism. To be more specific, through the study of William Blake's world I feel like I have found not only an author's work to become infatuated with but also a "friend" in history with whom to examine myself in thought, "What would Blake think? Would he approve or disapprove? Would he take this at face value or delve into the soul of its argument."

Bonaparte himself could not have been more different, but with aspirations per pound, I could think of no other man that conformed to societies wanton of a political and military hero. Although Napoleon was not a man for this literary movement, he was one for the political movement. Even though the collective peoples of the French Revolution were consumed with the uncompromising change in how human nature was to be viewed, they needed leadership and a "hero" of the age, as long as he was no member of the monarchy.

In my understanding, The Romantic Period was personified by intellectuals obsessed with catastrophic changes in the human condition. Many individuals were moving further and further away from the scientific school of thought and more towards individual expression of whatever embodied their hopes and dreams for a better society. Through my personal beliefs and...