Temple Theaters Presents
ARCADIA
By Tom Stoppard
February 11-21, 2015
The Decline from Thinking to Feeling:
Enlightenment versus Romanticism
Enlightenment
Time Period: 1650s-1780
Also known as: The Age of Reason
Precursors: Humanism; the Renaissance; the Protestant Reformation; the Scientific Revolution
Principles: A belief in the power of human reason and rational questioning to solve problems and explain phenomena; an emphasis on the individual, and individual's rights; a celebration of order and logic in all things.
Influences on...
Art & Design: The two major visual art styles that coincided with the Enlightenment were Rococo and Neoclassical. The Rococo style developed in France in the early 18th century as a response to the very elaborate, opulent Baroque style that was popular in the 17th century. While still very grand, the Rococo style sought to be more delicate and natural than Baroque. It is characterized by curves and scrolls; natural motifs, and asymmetry.
Neoclassicism developed out of the renewed interest in ancient Greek and Roman art and culture. This orderly, symmetrical, clean style dovetailed perfectly with the principles of the Enlightenment. Artists and architects were inspired the classical works they saw in Italy and Greece while on their Grand Tour, a traditional coming-of-age trip around Europe.
Throughout England, grounds and gardens were designed to mimic the neatly patterned geometrical Classical landscapes. These gardens were characterized by parterres, rows of trees, pools and fountains in geometrical shapes, and classical statues and Roman-style buildings with columns and cupolas, all placed intentionally to maintain a sense of balance and symmetry.
By the latter half of the 18th century, the more naturalistic, unstructured style of landscape design, popularized by Lancelot "Capability" Brown and William Kent, began to gain traction. This style of landscaping worked in opposition to Neoclassicism, focusing on the natural elements that were already there rather than imposing a specific design on the ground, and would pave the way for the even more sublime, picturesque designs during the Romantic period
Sources/Further Reading: Encyclopedia Britannica - Rococo Style; Art Encyclopedia - Neoclassical Art; Art Encyclopedia - Rococo Art; The Sister Arts: British Gardening, Painting & Poetry - Neoclassical
Literature: Reading and writing were key components of the Enlightenment, as revolutionary ideas were spread through letters, books, pamphlets, newspapers and more. Since the invention of the printing press nearly 300 years before, mass publication had been steadily increasing. During the Enlightenment, new manufacturing innovations meant books could be produced faster and cheaper than before.
Many of the great literary works of the Enlightenment were written to espouse the philosophies of their writers: Voltaire's Candide; Rousseau's Emilie; Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels; Edmund Burke's A Vindication of Natural Society; the poems of Alexander Pope.
Satire was an extremely popular form, with Pope and Swift as its main English practitioners. Along with several other writers of the period, Pope and Swift formed the Scriblerus Club; this group of witty intellectuals sought to satirize and draw attention to issues of the day.
The modern-day novel was born during the Enlightenment as well. Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe and published in 1719, is widely considered the first modern English novel. Other important works in the genre from this period include Gulliver's Travels; Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson; The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding; Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne, and The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, considered to be the first Gothic novel.
Sources/Further Reading: Wikipedia - 18th Century in Literature; The Literature Network - The Enlightenment;
Essential Humanities - The Enlightenment
Philosophy: The Enlightenment was, at its heart, a philosophical movement. The focus on rational thinking meant that people were looking at the world and its issues in completely new ways. After centuries in which spirituality dominated how people thought and acted, the Enlightenment introduced a worldview that was centered on reason, rationality and proveable fact. Great minds like Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, Rene Descartes, John Locke, Baruch Spinoza, Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Immanuel Kant, among many others, focused on the here and now - what rights individuals had, and what we owe to ourselves and society; how governments and societies are best run; how the universe works, in measurable terms.
The ideas developed during the Enlightenment branched out into all realms of philosophy - Epistemology (the study of truth and how knowledge is acquired in the world: Metaphysics (the study of the nature of existence); Ethics (the study of man’s role in existence): Politics (the nature of man’s relationships with other men), and Aesthetics (the physical expression of people’s philosophical views).
Some of the main philosophical ideas that are hallmarks of the Enlightenment include:
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Any ideas that can be doubted should be looked through a lens of experimentation and deduction, so that they can be proven or disproved. Authority should be questioned. (Rene Descartes)
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If God created the world in his image, and God is perfect, than any world He creates is perfect, meaning the world we inhabit is the best world possible. (Gottfried Leibniz)
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Human nature is characterized by reason and tolerance, and it is possible for individuals to act in their own self-interest, and the interest of others. All people are entitled to life, health, liberty and property, and it is an individual's right to defend those things. Individual components of a person may change, but the majority of components are the same from moment to moment, explaining how an individual maintains the essence of his or her identity. (John Locke)
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It is God's intention that individual's act in their self-interest, and seek knowledge and happiness. (Joseph Butler)
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"The only antidote to suffering and despair is to work to cultivate the human garden." In other words, suffering is a part of life, and the only way to eradicate or ease that suffering is by elevating ourselves intellectually through art, science and culture. (Voltaire)
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The idea of Utilitarianism - the greatest good for the greatest number, in which individual's were supposed to revoke their self-interest for the greater good. (Jeremey Bentham)
Sources/Further Reading: Michael Dickey - Philosophical Foundations of the Enlightenment; Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Enlightenment; Encyclopedia Britannica - Enlightenment
Politics: It's no surprise that by the end of the 18th century, both the American and French revolutions occurred. Both were the result of Enlightenment principles like questioning authority, equality, and the pursuit and protection of individual rights and freedoms.
American revolutionaries Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson were greatly influenced by English philosopher John Locke, who argued that the power of authority is derived solely from the consent the governed. Increasingly disillusioned with the taxes and laws imposed on the colonies by England's King George III, American patriots decided they did not consent to be governed by King George anymore, and declared America an independent nation. This led to the American Revolutionary War, which lasted from 1775 to 1783. When all was said and done, and America had won its independence, the Founding Fathers set out to establish a government based on Enlightened principles like freedom from oppression, natural rights, authority granted by consent of the people, and religious tolerance.
Meanwhile, in France, Enlightened ideas fueled unrest that was caused by heavy taxes, social inequality and food shortages. The French Enlightenment philosophers watched the American Revolution closely, seeing in it evidence that the ideals of equality, personal liberty, and a representative government could be implemented.
The French Revolution began in 1789, with the convening of the Estates-General and the subsequent declaration of the National Assembly. What followed was ten years of upheaval and bloodshed, leading to the coup in which Napoleon Bonaparte seized control of France. This would lead to another fifteen years of war between France and other European nations, before Napoleon was permanently exiled, and the monarchy restored, albeit now as a constitutional, rather than an absolute monarchy, a significant changed based on Enlightened principles.
Sources/Further Reading: Article Myriad: The Influence of the Enlightenment on the Formation of the United States; For Dummies - How the Enlightenment Affected Politics and Government; History Today: The French Revolution - Ideas and Ideologies; Wikipedia - The French Revolution
Religion: The Enlightenment had a profound effect on religion. For centuries, Western culture had revolved around Christianity. Religion was used to explain natural phenomena, impose codes of conduct, and justify the rule of monarchs whose powers were supposedly ordained by God.
The Enlightened belief that all authority should be questioned included questioning God's authority. When scientists and philosophers began theorizing that the universe was a mechanism governed by its own physical laws that could be identified and explained, it undermined the belief in an all-powerful, monolithic God that Christianity had supported for over 1500 years. Suddenly, there were rational explanations for natural occurrences that had previously been mysteries which only religion could interpret and explain.
Furthermore, the Enlightenment built on humanistic principles that attached more importance to the individual and his/her earthly life than divine or supernatural powers, and what happens to us in the afterlife. Philosophers like Joseph Butler argued that it was actually part of God's divine plan for humans to seek knowledge and fulfillment on Earth, rather than suffering in hopes of being rewarded in the afterlife. Other philosophers like Jeremey Bentham and Immanuel Kant proposed new ethical philosophies, in which people should act morally not to gain God's approval or out of fear of Hell, but because it was in their best interest, or the best interest of society.
The Enlightenmen saw the development and rise of Deism, the belief that while there is a single creator of the universe, or God, that figure does not intervene in the functioning of the natural world, allowing it to run according to the laws of nature. Deists further argued that reason and observation were the only true way to know God. Deists rejected traditional religious dogma and were skeptical of reports of miracles and other supernaural phenomena, preferring to find rational, scientific explanations.
Sources/Further Reading: Encyclopedia Britannica - Enlightenment; History.com - Enlightenment; Michael Dickey - Philosophical Foundations of the Enlightenment;
Science: Precipitating, and later coinciding with the Enlightenment was the Scientific Revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries. In many ways, the Scientific Revolution direclty led to the Enlightenment. This was the period in which scientists (called "natural philosophers" at the time) like Galileo, Nicolas Copernicus, Sir Isaac Newton and Sir Francis Bacon began to use observation, deduction, experimentation and reasoning to explain the inner workings of the world, rather than relying on religious explanations.
The Scientific Revolution began with the introduction of the theory of a heliocentric universe, proposed by astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, and corroborated by Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei and German astronomer Johannes Kepler. Their findings, that the Earth and all planets, moons and stars revolved around the sun, overthrew centuries of belief in a geocentric universe in which everything revolved around the Earth.
Sir Isaac Newton, perhaps the most famous figure of the Scientific Revolution, used the findings of Galileo, Copernicus and Kepler as a springboard for his research into the mechanics of this new model of the universe, leading to his Laws of Motion and Law of Universal Gravity. Newton, along with other mathematicians like Rene Descartes, Pierre de Fermat and Gottfried Leibniz were discovering mathematical techniques for defining and explaining the universe and its elements. These discoveries led to advancements in the fields of physics and mechanical engineering, which would in turn ignite the Industrial Revolution during the Enlightenment.
Probably the most important invention of the Enlightenment period is the atmospheric steam engine, patented by Thomas Newcomen in 1712. Thanks to the steam engine, humans no longer had to use manual labor to generate reliable power, and soon steam engines were being used to fuel manufacturing and transportation.
All of these discoveries were born of the Enlightenment principles of observation, rational inquiry, and reasoning.
Sources/Further Reading: Explorable Pyschology Experiments - Science and the Enlightenment; Education Portal - Science During the Enlightenment Period: Innovations, Discoveries & Major Figures; About Money - 18th Century Timeline 1700-1799; Wikipedia - Science in the Age of Enlightenment
Romanticism
Time Period: 1790s-1850s
Etymology: In the mid-18th century, the term "romantic" was used regularly to describe natural phenomena. It was first applied to literature in Germany in the 1790s, to differentiate new styles of poetry from classical. The term was not actually used to describe the movement until the 1820s, when it had already been around for decades.
Precursors: The Age of Enlightenment; German Sturm und Drang ("Storm and Drive") literary and musical movement of the mid-18th century
Principles: The importance of emotion (particularly intense emotions like apprehension, terror, and awe), which was given precedence over logic and reasoning; a connection with and appreciation of nature; respect for the past including folk tales and mythology; a celebration of the individual and imagination.
Influences on...
Art & Design: Romantic artists rejected the orderly, balanced compositions of Neoclassicism, preferring to explore the extreme, unpredictable power of nature and create images that would express and inspire strong emotions. Romantic artists were interested in capturing a state of mind and expressing it visually. Romantic paintings are characterized by rich color, visible brushstrokes, crowded compositions and images of turbulent, unrestrained, rugged nature.
Whereas the Neoclassical movement was more concerned with the objective, Romanticism leaned heavily towards the subjective - the individual interpretation of an experience was what mattered, not necessarily the facts of the experience.
Major artists of the Romantic movement include Caspar David Friedrich, Joseph Mallard William Turner, John Constable, Eugene Delacroix, and Theodore Gericault.
Although he lived well before the Romantic movement, in the 17th century, Italian painter Salvator Rosa is considered a forerunner of Romanticism due to his landscapes, which rejected the gentle pastoralism en vogue at the time for darker, rugged terrain full of ruins and disorder, which would come to be a key component of Romantic art.
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Under the umbrella of Romanticism, the picturesque ideal developed; the term was first used in 1768 by English artist William Gilpin, to describe the aesthetic that bridged the "beautiful" ideal, with its emphasis on smoothness, regularity and order, and the "sublime," which focused on qualities of almost incomprehensible power and vastness.
As with Neoclassicism during the Enlightenment, the Romantic aesthetic influenced how people designed their homes and grounds. Inspired by the images of rugged, untamed wilderness they saw in Romantic art, people moved away from the carefully crafted designs of Capabiliy Brown and William Kent, towards landscapes that more closely resembled ruins stumbled upon in the woods. While the pastoral aspect of Neoclassical design meant to evoke man's dominion over nature, in Romanticism, the sublime aesthetic served as a reminder that nature is really all-powerful. Therefore, Romantic and picturesque landscapes meant to celebrate that awe-inspiring power of nature, rather than tame and shape it like Neoclassicists had done.
Sources/Further Reading: Metropolitan Museum of Art - Romanticism; Wikipedia - Picturesque; The Sister Arts: British Gardening, Painting & Poetry; The University of Arizona - 19th Century Landscape - The Pastoral, The Picturesque and The Sublime
Literature: While Enlightenment ideals found their greatest outlet in philosophical debate and political discourse, Romanticism flourished in the arts, particularly literature. Some of the most famous poets and writers of any era were writing and publishing during this time - Lord Byron, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Sir Walter Scott, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley.
As with Romantic visual artists, Romantic writers were focused on capturing the breadth and intensity of human emotion. Their works celebrated individualism and idealism; nature and mythology; tragically flawed heroes and heroines. These writers, many of whom embodied the passionate, free-spirited attitude so prevalent in their works, were opposed to the increasing mechanization of the world as a result of the Industrial Revolution (Mary Shelley's Frankenstein provides good insight into the Romantics' view on the increasing use of technology).
Frankenstein is also a popular example of the Gothic novel, a sub-genre of Romantic literature that focused on the deteroriation of the world and creating feelings of horror and dread. The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe, and by John William Polidori are all examples of early Gothic literature.
The novel, which first gained prevelance as a literary form during the Enlightenment, continued its development during the Romantic period. With his Waverly series, Sir Walter Scott essentially created the historical novel. Later in the Romantic period, the Bronte sisters (Charlotte, Anne and Emily) would publish their novels, full of passionate characters and brooding imagery. Interestingly enough, the most famous writer of this period, Jane Austen, had little in common with the Romantic aesthetic, as her works dealt with traditional social values, and people who lived within the social constructs of the period.
Despite their disdain for the Industrial Revolution, Romantic writers owed much of their success to it. New technologies meant that books could be printed faster and cheaper than ever before, and the rising middle class had more time for leisure activities like reading, and more disposable income to spend on books.
Source/Further Reading: The Literary Network - Romanticism;
Wikipedia - Romantic Literature; University of California - The Gothic Novel; Poets.org - A Brief Guide to Romanticism; The Sister Arts: British Gardening, Painting and Poetry
Philosophy: The philosophies of Romanticism did not have as revolutionary an effect on the world as did the philosophies of the Enlightenment. Tenents of Romantic philosophy included:
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Emotion above reason. The Romantics argued that the Enlightened way of looking at the world through a totally logical lens was unnatural, and that awareness and expression of emotions led to the full human experience.
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The universe as a single, unified connected whole, which is best experienced and interpreted through intuition and individual emotion. Romantics favored subjectivity over objectivity as the way to truth and knowledge.
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Freedom and creativity of the human spirit. The Enlightenment's emphasis on cold logic and mechanization left little room for creative expression. The Romantics reacted against this sort of conformity, championing imagination, creative expression and originality.
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A reverence for nature. The Romantics saw nature not as something to be studied or defined, but sought commune with it, as a way to connect with their feelings.
Sources/Further Reading: The Basics of Philosophy - Romanticism; Phiosopher.org - Romanticism; Wikipedia - Romanticism
Politics: The Romantic movement did not shake up politics and governments the way the Enlightenment did, although it exert influence on, and was influenced by, social contexts of the time.
As the Romantics did support the Enlightened ideals of individual liberty and pursuit of happiness and knowledge, many Romantics were sympathetic to the French cause during the French Revolution. Nationalism was a key component of the Romantic movement, spurred by renewed interest in the folklore and mythology of individual countries. In England, this meant a revival of Arthurian legends and the works of Shakespeare.
Meanwhile, the Enlightened ideas of equality and individual liberty meant that segments of society that had previously been restricted - namely women and slaves - began to ask for their share of the freedom. Although the feminist and abolitionist movements would take many years to achieve their goals of equality, the seeds of those movements were sown during the end of the Enlightenment and beginning of the Romantic period.
The increased urbanization of England and detachment from nature was disillusioning to the Romantics, who longed for simpler times in more natural settings, away from the crowds and busle of cities. Romantic writers struggled with the rapidly developing consumer-based economy, expressing their desires for the unattainable while trying to reject materialism in favor of idealism.
Sources/Further Reading: Wikipedia - Romanticism; Gerard Cohen-Vrignaud - Romantic Politics; Washington State University - Romanticism
Religion: While the Romantic movement didn't outrightly reject religion, it did (not surprisingly) take some issue with the rules and imposed conformity of organized religion. The belief in Deism, which had been developed during the Enlightenment, was popular during the Romantic period, although some Romantic writers, like Percy Bysshe Shelley and William Godwin publicly declared themselves atheists. Although the overall influence of Christianity was somewhat weakened in Western culture during the Enlightenment and Romantic period, it still remained a powerful force in society.
Sources/Further Reading: University of Tennessee (Knoxville) - Romantic Politics; FroebelWeb.org - Christianity and the Romantic Movement
Science: Science during the Romantic period held that the Enlightenment had actually encouraged the abuse of the sciences, by obtaining knowledge by force rather than observation, and trying to control nature. Scientific progress continued its march forward during this time, but with an underlying principle of co-existing harmoniously with nature, rather than man trying to dominate and control it. Casual experimentation and observation were the main modes of scientific inquiry, as opposed to the very controlled experiments and strict reasoning of the Enlightenment.
There was also a shift in focus from mechanical sciences to natural science, as the Romantic movement saw the world as composed of living organisms, rather than machines. This led to the development of sciences such as biology, organic chemistry, and natural history.
Sources/Further Reading: Wikipedia - Romanticism in Science