overall context

Question 1

romanticism

Answer 1

• introduced through friend of friend (Leigh Hunt - Shelly + Wordsworth)
• a part of the second wave (darker + based on human emotionality)
• accepted: freedom of individual expression ,sincerity spontaneity, originality, emotional directness, emotional intensity, power of imagination
• rejected: 18th C classicism, ordered rationality, impersonal + artificial feelings, ariistorctaric patronage, mechanical convention, conservative morality

Question 2

social and historic

Answer 2

• some claimed Keats reacted to horrors of his life by writing escapist poetry
• corn price high - affected w/c
• rapid population growth, 50% increase in 1801-31

Question 3

religious

Answer 3

• against religion - felt segregate from shred ideologies
• didn’t believe a higher being would cause such suffering

Question 4

politics

Answer 4

• born into politically turbulent Europe’s: French Revolution, Napoleonic Wrs, beginning of Regency
• War with France (1793-1815) covered life up till 20
• disruption to trade caused widespread poverty + hardship (particularly l/c)
• Peterloo Massacre: 1819

Question 5

religious expression

Answer 5

• methodism: attempted to reform church of england 18C, emotional endgame t of its adherence with Christianity linked to stress on feeling + passion in Keats (+ other romantics)
• evangelicalism: Keats ultimately rejected the Christian message - bus passionate strength of convictions is similar to energy found in religious movements of his time

Question 6

personal

Answer 6

• Fanny Brawn refused to call off the engagement despite knowing he will die soon.
• Experienced a lot of death
• 1804:father die in riding accident
• 1810: mother dies from TB – watched over by Keats himself
• Shows close connection with death + fist hand experiences seeing the deportation of those he loved
• Influenced desires to escape functioning of society into nature (death treated in a calmer sense)