Romanticism and Realism: A Comparison Michael Butterworth

John Keats England Endymion Ode on a Grecian Urn To a Nightengale

“When I Have Fears” When I have fears that I may cease to be Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain, Before high-piled books, in charactery, Hold like rich garners the full ripen'd grain; When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face, Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance, And think that I may never live to trace Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance; And when I feel, fair creature of an hour, That I shall never look upon thee more, Never have relish in the faery power Of unreflecting love;--then on the shore Of the wide world I stand alone, and think Till love and fame to nothingness do sink

Preoccupied with love Wondering about his fate. He knows he is going to die: “And think that I might never live to trace their shadows…”

Henrik Ibsen Norway A Doll’s House Ghosts Enemy of the People

From An Enemy of the People Petra. You don't understand me. The burden of this story is that there is a supernatural power that looks after the so-called good people in this world and makes everything happen for the best in their case—while all the so-called bad people are punished. Hovstad. Well, but that is all right. That is just what our readers want. Petra. And are you going to be the one to give it to them? For myself, I do not believe a word of it. You know quite well that things do not happen so in reality. Hovstad. You are perfectly right; but an editor cannot always act as he would prefer. He is often obliged to bow to the wishes of the public in unimportant matters. Politics are the most important thing in life—for a newspaper, anyway; and if I want to carry my public with me on the path that leads to liberty and progress, I must not frighten them away. If they find a moral tale of this sort in the serial at the bottom of the page, they will be all the more ready to read what is printed above it; they feel more secure, as it were. Petra. For shame! You would never go and set a snare like that for your readers; you are not a spider!

Talking about media and politics, language is simpler and direct.

Henry Fuseli The Nightmare Switzerland 1781

William-Adolphe Bouguereau The Nutgathers France1882

Involves all the arts Cares about everyday people. RomanticismRealism

Works Cited