Free Literature Review About Professional:

) The text’s author suggests that Charles Darwin, author of the theory of evolution, actually possessed a romantic view of nature. If this so, what do the passages from The Origin of Species on page 212-3 tells us about what Charles Darwin (and Romantics in general) may have thought of nature.
Gloria Fiero indeed suggests that Charles Darwin had a romantic view of nature. Before he authored the revolutionary but controversial theory of evolution, he had been exploring South America to the Pacific Ocean for a research on fossil. In his voyage, he had an intimate eye on every living organism he encountered. He saw every creature as distinct to others but all live complementing each other. Fiero,Gloria quoted him saying, “It is interesting to contemplate a tangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth” (213). With this quotation of Darwin, he indeed saw the nature in the eyes of a romantic. He observed every single difference of a specie from another, how they struggle for their life and how they succumb to natural defeat. Charles Darwin saw beauty in every wonder and blunder of nature. As Fiero explained, romantics found “solace, inspiration, and self-discovery” (213) with the nature. It is also in his romantic eye with nature that he had developed his theory of evolution through natural selection. He was not only awed with the wonders of nature but he became curious about how they are connected and how they may contribute in the dynamic changes of species. From his previous learning about the theory of creation, he rose above his previous knowledge and had a self discovery that challenges his previous knowledge.
It is the distinct and dynamic characteristics of every creature that inspired him in his theory that nature in itself selects the cream of the crop among the creatures. It means that the weaker the creature the lesser is its capacity to adapt to the environment. Those that withstand nature are the finest among them. This theory has been controversial until today because of it challenges the theory of creation that has been a belief of the majority long before Darwin. Looking back to the passages of Darwin in his theory of evolution, it all began from his romantic view of nature.
) Identify passages of John Keats’ Ode on the Grecian Urn that describes why all great works of art remain eternally “true.”
Ode on a Grecian Urn of John Keats describes that happiness and all emotions of mortal beings are flitting but it can be eternally true or an eternal reality if captured by works of art like the Grecian Urn have intricate images of mortal pleasures. Keats’ view of love, friendship, and beauty has been influenced by his personal experience of losing love ones early and his early ill health diagnosis. Life for him is fleeting and so is love. But these for him are become bigger than personal realities when transformed into art forms as it can transcend time. In his ode it stated, “For ever piping songs for ever new; More happy love! more happy, happy love! For ever warm and still to be enjoyed, For ever panting, and for ever young; All breathing human passion far above, That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloyed, A burning forehead, and a parching tongue” (218).
Based on the psyche of Keats on fleeting pleasures on earth, the ode means that love, friendship, and beauty which are captured or transformed into are forever alive in the lives of many generations which shall enjoy them. Lyrics of songs for example touches every lover’s hearts. It can even break the hearts of those who can relate to the experience that has been transformed into art. One lover’s pleasure or heartache is just a bit of larger realities which are love, friendship, and beauty themselves. They live forever through arts and transcends through generations.
Today, lovers feels the lyrics of old love songs deeply as the message transcends. Keats’ life experience taught him that it is not the individuals’ love or pleasures that counts or matters but those feelings that are bigger than the individuals which are love, friendship and beauty. They continue to live through arts and through lovers.
) How did the English artists, John Constable and Joseph Turner differ in their approaches to painting natural landscapes? What did each one of them want viewers to understand about nature?
In the history of English Romantic landscape painting there are two names that often ring a bell and these are John Constable and Joseph Mallord William Turner. They are both painters who are in love with the intricacies of nature. Constable is gives life to the mundane life in the countryside. He gives life to every detail like “water escaping from mill-dams, willows, old rotten planks, slimy posts, and brickwork” (223). He is fascinated by the life of common people which most people ignore. His artworks surprised viewers as it always makes the ordinary, extra-ordinary. He makes the toil and simple life of farmer folks appealing in the eyes of the viewers because of the element of happiness and peacefulness. He is always inspired in his memories of his childhood in the countryside where life was hard and frugal but at the same time, it is peaceful and fulfilling. His oil in canvas painting entitled Wivenhoe Park, Essex and The Haywain exudes a refreshing feeling of the life in the countrysides, away from the stressful cities. It is a perfect example of romantic landscape as the viewers can feel the painter’s solace.
If Constable paints the magic of solace from the views of mundane countryside life, Turner paints drama woven in nature’s wrath. He brings back variety of feelings with his paintings on the ruins and other tourist destination areas in England. His pencil sketch for example of monastery ruins in transmit the feeling of nostalgia from the medieval past. He has the expertise on capturing the emotions of natural catastrophes into painting. He fascinates the viewers with his prowess in making the ruins appealing to emotions. He pictures ruins of wars and disasters in a way that brings back the emotions back when the ruins were still alive. Also, his paintings on natural disasters exudes the Romantics’ belief that human beings are vulnerable to any wrath of nature. This is one of their difference with Constable because Constable is consistent in bringing the feeling of solace and peace with his paintings depicting simple scenes in rivers or on the farm.
His romantic imagination also gave life to the horrors of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade where he painted the sufferings of the Black people transported and how the English people made money out of them. Aside from the turmoil of nature that he wants people to feel from his artworks, Turner wants to portray the potential of man for evil.