Sleeping Beauty

Romanticism has many elements that can still be found in modern literature like movies, music, and books. In the movie Sleeping Beauty it has many elements of romanticism like nature, optimism, intuition, individualism, and a sense of magic.




  In the beginning of the story, the king and a queen were having a Christening for their new-born girl Aurora and invited the whole kingdom expect the evil fairy Maleficent, this shows intuition because you can sense that something bad is going to happen since they didn't invite Maleficent. When the evil fairy hears that she was not invited she becomes outraged and crashes the gathering and curses the young princess.
"Listen well, all of you. The princess shall indeed grow in grace and beauty, beloved by all who meet her. Before the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday, she will prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel, and fall into a sleep like death!"
 The fairy's were able to change the curse to were Aurora would only fall into deep slumber and well only be woken by a true love's kiss. This shows the sense of magic in the story with fairy godmothers and curses.

 
 

With the fear of the curse her parents send away her with the three good fairies to the woods. So Aurora goes escapes the castle and isolated in the woods. As Aurora goes up she begins find the beauty in the woods and often takes walks and wanders around throughout the forest where she meets many friendly creatures and later on Prince Philip who she falls in love instantly .This shows the element of love and nature.

"I know you, the gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam. you'll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream."

 

When Aurora got cursed and was put into deep sleep, Prince Philip showed individualism when he escaped the jail that the evil fairy put him in and goes to fight Maleficent and breaks the curse. He ends up defeating Maleficent and freeing Aurora and the rest of the kingdom.
"Now, shall you deal with ME, O Prince - and all the powers of HELL!"

Comparing & Contrast:
Sleeping beauty is a lot like the poems we read in class that were from romanticism writers. It included the idea of magic, love, individualism, and nature. It was different because it was more of a fairy tale unlike the poems.

Psalm of Life

  Longfellow's piece, "Psalm of Life," is as relevant today as it was when it was first written for many reasons. Longfellow talks about acting in the present, and that's how many young people think now. Many people don’t like dwelling past and overthinking what they did, instead they like the idea that you can only change the present and that you have to bury the past, as Longfellow says in his own words, and live in the moment. He touches on the idea that you can make what you want of your life and that you leave your own footstep on this world. That is a very common thought in these days. I think that in this poem, he touches on trite ideas, but I do not think that he is trite himself in this poem. I think he is spreading very good ideas in this poem and that he has very good ways of explaining common concepts. I think he simplifies everything and basically says that you can choose how to live your life, which is very different from the way that the age of faith authors wrote. I think that he had a refreshing point of view. It is like his other poems because he always has a positive view and focuses more on the future than the past like In the “The Tide Rises. The Tide Falls” he talks about the traveller returning in the future and he talks about how it’s always a new day.

Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow shows romanticism in all parts of his literature. He shows Individualism in his poem, "The Tide Rises and the Tide Falls" because he only mentions one traveler and the entire tone of the poem almost feels lonely to me. When he says "The traveler hastens towards the town" it shows that he was alone and far away from the town and the people, creating that lonely mood. In the same way, this poem could be used to show optimism because with the way that it repeats the sentence, "Efface the footprints in the sand, And the tide rises and the tide falls," it could be taken to show that no matter what changes you go through, some things are always constant. It shows that no matter what happens, you can always rely on that. It shows that their will always be a new day and a new start. Also it uses nature as a symbol. It uses the consistency of the tide to show the consistency of things in your life. Intuition is used because it alludes to the fact that the tide will rise later and then it will fall. It predicts the movement of the tide.

Bryant

William Cullen Bryant wrote many pieces of literature that could be categorized as Romanticism. One of his pieces of work, "To a Waterfowl," he demonstrates many components of romanticism. He demonstrates individualism when he say "dost thou pursue thy solitary way?" showing someone choosing to be on their own. Optimism is shown when he says, "While glow the heavens with the last steps of day," because though many people would describe the day ending as dark and use it as a symbol for something negative, Bryant used the heavens to describe it and described it as a "glow" which is a very positive way to describe it. People are always saying to "think on the bright side' and that is an optimistic phrase. Self-Reliance is used when Bryant says, "Lone wandering, but not lost." That shows self-reliance because someone is alone but they didn't get lost by themselves, they are wandering but not lost. Intuition is shown when he says, "Though the dark night is near" because he is foreshadowing the night and when the sun falls. But he could also be symbolizing something else drawing near, he could be foreshadowing something dark or bad happening soon. I think that in this poem he is trying to get people to realize that someone or something can try to bring you down, but it's up to you if you let it. Bryant shows this by the bird flying away from the hunter who is trying to kill him, the bird does not die showing the fact that you can overcome obstacles.

What is Romanticism?

 Romanticism, according to the dictionary, is a form of literature from the late 18th century that showed a movement in the arts and literature emphasizing inspiration subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual. My personal definition of Romanticism is a time when artists got their inspiration from themselves, and nature and the idea of nonconformity. I think the literature of this time was very beautiful. I think that the fact that they got their ideas from nature is much more fascinating than the time of the Age of Faith and the Age of Reason and modern literature where most of it is about technology . I think that this is right in the middle, and it is intriguing to read. It combine components of religion, and science. It shows you a bit of reality when reading it, like it shows you that the world will keep going, no matter what you do or believe. An example of individualism is when in the story, "The Devil and Tom Walker," when the wife told Tom Walker to take all of their silver to the dark man and Tom Walker said no, not because that's what he thought, but purely because he didn't want to do what his wife told him. So he did the opposite. Then the wife took it upon herself and took the silver to the dark man herself when her husband would not. Those are two good examples of individualism. They both did what the wanted to do not what the other wanted. Another example of Romanticism is the poem "The Cross of Snow" the author use nature to talk about his second wife's death. He talks about the seasons never really changing for him since she past and mount of the holy cross to the cross on his chest that he always wears.