Los Amantes de Teruel | Page 8

most important literary
genres. The mere mention of such famous poets as Byron, Shelley,
Heine, Musset, Leopardi, Espronceda, indicates the extent and
importance of lyric poetry in the first half of the nineteenth century.
2. Emotional appeal. Classicism made its appeal to the intellect;
Romanticism to the emotions. The aim of the Classicist being to give
perfect literary expression to the accumulated wisdom of mankind or to
reform social, moral, or political conditions by means of ridicule, he
accepted logic as his guide. The Romanticist, whose aim it was to
express his individual sentiments and ideas, rebelled against the
restraints of logic and common sense; his purpose was not to persuade
his reader or hearer by logical reasoning, but rather to carry him off his
feet by the onrush of his passions and sentiments. The Classicist
mistrusted the imagination for fear that it might lead him away from
common sense and moderation; the Romanticist turned to it eagerly as
the most effective means of conveying to reader or hearer his ardent
sentiments and vague aspirations. For the reason then that the Classicist
made his appeal to the intellect, mistrusted the imagination, and usually
avoided all strong passions except that of indignation, Classicism
tended to become more and more prosaic. Romanticism, because of its
appeal to the emotions and to the imagination, put new life and power
into literature, and immeasurably widened its range. On the other hand
the tendency on the part of writers of little ability and less judgment to
go to absurd extremes in their efforts to express strange and original
ideas and sentiments, to get as far away as possible from the logical and
commonplace, led to the production of much absurd writing. This and

the attempt of many of them to apply the extreme principles of
Romanticism to daily life as well as to literature resulted in the
derogatory sense that the word romantic came to have in its ordinary
acceptation. The results of Romanticism in its exaggerated form may
be seen in the satirical article written in 1837 by Mesonero Romanos,
El Romanticismo y los Románticos. This article, highly recommended
in this connection, may easily be found in his collected writings Obras,
Madrid, 1881, or, better still, it may be studied in the excellent edition
of Professor G.T. Northup, Selections from Mesonero Romanos.
3. Spiritual awakening. The latter half of the eighteenth century was a
materialistic age. The realities of life were limited to such as could be
understood by the five senses and the reasoning faculty. Life and
literature for the Classicist meant reasoned submission to things as they
were; achievement was the accepted basis of judgment for his life or
literature. The Romanticist rebelled against this materialistic view of
life; for him the real truths lay beyond the apparent realities; he grasped
at the impalpable and infinite, and wished to have his life and literature
judged by his aspirations, rather than by his achievements. Hence, too,
the vague longings, the gentle melancholy or violent revolt, the
spiritual uplift. The new sense of the wonder and glory of the universe,
as well as the spiritual reality behind the material, has suggested as a
definition of Romanticism the "Renascence of Wonder."
4. Revival of the Middle Ages and national traditions. The Romanticists
were inclined to turn away from the prosaic present and to seek
material for their writings in the Middle Ages, the time of unrestrained
feelings and emotions, of chivalrous adventure and romance, of strong
religious faith, of miracles and superstition. The historical novel, in
which the powerful imagination of a Walter Scott made the past live
again, became popular throughout Europe; innumerable dramas sought
their plots in medieval history and legend. Spain, with her rich
literature of popular ballads and drama, a storehouse of picturesque
legends and traditions, attracted the attention of Romanticists
everywhere, so that for Spaniards the movement came to have a
patriotic significance. The best Romanticists did not limit themselves to
the Middle Ages; they broadened their vision to include the whole past

of the human race, whereas the Classicists, fixing their eyes steadily
upon ancient Greece and Rome, whenever they were inclined to turn
away from the present, ignored entirely the medieval period and the
early modern.
5. Picturesqueness. Seeking to give polished expression to the probable
and typical, the Classicist abhorred exaggeration and violent contrasts.
The Romanticist, on the other hand, was attracted to the grotesque,
mingled the ugly and the beautiful, the commonplace and the fantastic;
he delighted in striking antitheses.
6. Love of inanimate nature. The Classicist, instead of going directly to
Nature for individual inspiration, was content to repeat in new ways the
generally accepted ideas regarding natural scenery. His interest lay
almost wholly in mankind, so that inanimate Nature usually served as a
merely conventional background.