Los Amantes de Teruel | Page 7

delineation of character, improved
motivation of action, correctness of diction, and literary finish. The
play in its first form is undoubtedly a better example of Romanticism in
all its phases, its tendencies toward exaggeration, its crudities of
thought and expression, combined with qualities unsurpassed in any
other period of literature; in its revised form it is a more artistic
production, is still a Romantic play, and one of the best in Spanish
literature.
#VI. Romanticism.# Generally speaking, an author belongs to his own
age and country, is moved by the prevalent ideas and sentiments; his
outlook upon life is similar to that of the majority of his contemporaries.
Ordinarily then, a piece of literature of a past age is understood and
fully appreciated only by the student who is able to view it in its proper
historical perspective, to see it through the eyes of those for whom it
was written. Especially is this true of Romantic literature, the
production of ardent and youthful enthusiasts who found themselves
suddenly emancipated from the rigid rules and formalism of French
pseudo-Classicism of the eighteenth century. The tendency in literature,
as in political and social life, is to pass in a pendulum swing from one
extreme to the other, so that to appreciate the fine and enduring
qualities of Romantic literature and to make due allowance for its
exaggerations and other apparent faults, the student must know
something of the Romantic movement and of the Classicism that
immediately preceded it. Moreover, his purpose in reading a literary
masterpiece is not merely to understand and appreciate it in itself, but
also to gain through it some understanding of the age or literary
movement of which it is a representative. In order, then, that Los
Amantes de Teruel may be more fully appreciated as a dramatic
masterpiece, and in order that through it the student may come to a
fuller understanding of Romanticism, his attention is now directed to

the essential characteristics of this important literary movement.
Romanticism in Spanish literature is the name given to the literary
revolt that began about 1830 against pseudo-Classicism. A similar
revolt had already freed the other literatures of Europe, so that the
many Spanish exiles who had been forced to seek refuge for political
reasons in England or on the Continent there became familiar with the
new ideas in literature. Ardent converts to the new literary ideals, these
political exiles, when permitted to return to Spain at the death of the
despotic Ferdinand VII in 1833, became the leaders in a literary
revolution that soon swept away all opposition. The logical reaction
from the rigid rules and formalism, new ideas in political and social life
weakened opposition so rapidly and effectively that the Romantic
poetry and plays of the Duque de Rivas, Espronceda, García Gutiérrez,
Hartzenbusch, and others found a ready and enthusiastic welcome.
In the comparison that is to be made of Romanticism and Classicism,
romantic and classic are to be used in their technical, literary sense. As
ordinarily used, romantic means the extreme opposite of prosaic or
commonplace; in literary history, Romantic is used to describe the
movement known as Romanticism. Classic, in its oldest and ordinary
acceptation, means the best of its class or kind; in its literary sense,
classic, or classical, is usually applied to the type of literature that
harmonized so completely with eighteenth century rationalism, the
Classicism, or rather pseudo-Classicism, which, enthroned in France,
ruled all literary Europe until the closing years of the century. In the
following comparison, Classic, Classicist, and Classicism are the
opposites of Romantic, Romanticist, and Romanticism.
Romanticism, in its general application to all kinds of literature and to
the literatures of all countries where it made itself effectively felt,
shows the following characteristics:
1. Subjectivity, the introduction of the personal note, the expression by
the author of his own individual feelings and ideas. The Classicist,
aiming at universality and completeness, considered only the typical
and eternal as suitable material for literature and carefully excluded
whatever seemed peculiar to himself; his ideal was to give perfect

literary form to ideas and sentiments acceptable to mankind generally,
truths of universal application. Originality of idea or sentiment was not
of prime importance with him; his aim was rather to give finished form
to "what oft was said, but ne'er so well expressed." The aim of the
Romanticist, on the other hand, was to turn to literary uses his own
individual experiences, to give forceful and effective, rather than
elegant, expression to his own peculiar feelings and ideas. This
subjectivity led naturally to many abuses; it also led to the production
of some of the masterpieces of literature. Lyric poetry, that had almost
died of inanition during the period of Classicism, took on new and
vigorous life and became again one of the