Romanticism in Spain: 1835-1850 and Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
Romanticism in Spain: 1835-1850
Romanticism is a movement that extends to all cultural facets of life. There is an identification between literature and the moment of political difficulties as seen in Spain. The Romantics rebel against the established order, especially the bourgeoisie. Materialism, which in that era had much power.
Two Attitudes
- Traditional: Writers who are a vindication of the past values, the medieval style, Christianity, and the monarchy.
- Liberal: Supporters of the democratic idea. It is one part of the movement where sentiment is expressed through exaggeration.
Characteristics
- Individual Liberty: There is a clear intention by the Romantics to break the rules, both social and moral. They reject the rules of literature above illustration, taking as a high benchmark the pirate, beggars, and thieves for the expression of liberty.
- Egocentrism: The subjective exaltation of the ego of the Romantics. For them, it is really important not what surrounds them or the vision they have, but their self-centeredness. However, their idealism clashes with the unromantic reality around them, and this leads to evasion.
Spaces and Time
- Space: The biography flees to a distant, exotic place, where they can live their personal experiences, such as oriental landscapes or South America.
- Time: Through evasion, the Romantic travels back in time to the medieval era, considered legendary and mysterious.
- Oriented World: The desire to escape leads them to take refuge in dreams with tragic ends and intimate experiences.
- Nature: Not a real nature, but a lively one, which is related to the sentiment of the poet’s state of mind. Every landscape is a state of mind.
Contextualization: Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (Seville, 1836 – Madrid, 1870) was a Spanish poet. Son and brother of painters, he was orphaned at age ten and spent his childhood and adolescence in Seville, where he studied humanities and painting. In 1854, he moved to Madrid with the intention of making a literary career, but success did not smile upon him. To live, he had to devote himself to journalism and to make adaptations of foreign theatrical works, mainly from French. During a stay in Seville in 1858, he spent nine months in bed because of an illness, probably tuberculosis, although some biographers show a preference for syphilis. In 1861, he married Casta Esteban, the daughter of a physician, with whom he had three children. The marriage was never happy. The most fruitful stage of his career was from 1861 to 1865. He was appointed editor of *El Contemporáneo* in Madrid, where his brother also worked as a draftsman.
Rhyme II
This rhyme was published in the journal *El Museo Universal* (1886). It is possibly based on the French writer Lamartine.
Metrics
Octosyllabic verses, assonance rhyme in the even verses, odd verses are free.
Theme
The poem serves to show the Romantic perspective that appears disoriented, and the poor development of the poetic subject in the 19th century.
Stanza VII
The harp is used to express Bécquer’s idea of poetic creation. The poet, like the harp in poetry whose mind is asleep in the same way the music is asleep in the strings of the instrument. The poem begins with the description of the harp, but the theme of the stanza is parked at the end. Each stanza signifies a style of quilting, and the structure is parallel between stanzas I and II.