Los Amantes de Teruel | Page 9

The Romanticist loved Nature for its
own sake, and many masterpieces of lyric poetry were due to its
inspiration. He loved Nature in all her aspects and moods; if these were
grandiose or violent, the greater was his admiration.
7. Freedom from rule and conventionality in literary forms and
technique. The foregoing characteristics, concerned mainly with the
content of Romantic literature, would naturally mean a corresponding
revolution in literary form and technique. Rules and conventions had
kept accumulating about literature, until by the middle of the eighteenth
century, when French Classicism dominated literary Europe, they were
so rigid that only a few of the many men of letters were able to produce
literature that was not wholly artificial and uninspired. Each kind of
literature was supposed to be written in a certain way; narrative poetry
had a certain prescribed meter; lyric poetry another; tragedy and
comedy should be carefully kept apart. The Romanticist proceeded at
once to throw overboard all these rules and conventionalities. Each
literary production was to be judged upon its own merits as literature,
not upon the closeness of its adherence to any set of rules, and each
author was to be at liberty to get his results in any way that he might
choose. Hence we find the mingling of literary genres, the neglect of
the dramatic unities, the invention of new meters and the revival of old

ones.
8. Richness of language. Because of the continual elimination of words
considered unsuitable for literary expression, the language of the
Classicists was becoming more and more impoverished, diction was
becoming more and more stereotyped and artificial. The Romanticists,
with their revolutionary ideas as to content, rebelled against any rule or
convention that would restrict their choice of words or diction; seeking
complete and effective self-expression, they turned to literary use all
the resources of the language of their own time and of any other age as
well. The result was a great enrichment of language through the
effective use of highly colored, picturesque words and diction, as fresh
and bright as newly coined pieces of gold.
Such are the general characteristics of the movement that had such a
profound effect upon the literatures of western Europe in the closing
years of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth. All
of them may be observed in the literature produced in Spain during the
twenty years from 1830 to 1850, although, naturally, they do not all
have the same importance there as in other countries. In a general way
it may be said that the movement was not so revolutionary as in France,
for example, where Classicism had taken deeper root. Moreover, in
Spain, Romanticism meant the revival of some of the literary ideals of
the Siglo de Oro, and to this extent at least could hardly be considered
revolutionary. The most complete representative of Romanticism in
Spanish dramatic literature is the Don Álvaro of Angel de Saavedra,
better known as the Duque de Rivas; in this play are to be found all the
above-mentioned characteristics, even those that have to do more
naturally with lyric poetry, subjectivity and love of nature. Not only
does it present Romanticism in its most effective form; it also shows
the pitfalls of exaggeration and improbability that even the greatest
Romanticists failed to avoid when the check of common sense was
removed and free rein was given to the imagination. But since we are
here concerned mainly with Los Amantes de Teruel, a play that
demands for its understanding and appreciation much less familiarity
with the Spanish language than that required by Don Álvaro, the extent
to which the masterpiece of Hartzenbusch is representative of

Romanticism will now be briefly noted.[5]
[Footnote 5: In order that the student may discover for himself the
essential differences between the two schools of drama, it is
recommended that he read a classical play such as Moratin's El Sí de
las Niñas before reading Los Amantes de Teruel. In comparing the two
plays he should bear in mind that, for the reason that they are both
artistic masterpieces, they avoid the extremes of Classicism and
Romanticism, and that they do not illustrate entirely the opposite
characteristics of the less artistic examples of the two kinds of drama.]
#VII. Romanticism in Los Amantes de Teruel.# That the appeal is
mainly to the emotions and imagination is quite evident. The plot is
based on a legend that owes its chief interest to the unusual and even
improbable ending; and the exceptional and improbable, if they are to
be effectively treated in literature, must appeal to the imagination, must
so stir the sentiments of the reader or hearer that the reasoning faculty
may be kept from becoming too active. Not only is the dénouement
itself improbable; the somewhat melodramatic