LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 23:12 December 2023
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

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Percy Bysshe Shelley: Romanticism and Enlightenment Philosophy of Liberty

Dr. S. Sridevi

Abstract

This paper aims at studying Shelley’s poems as exemplifying the philosophy of Enlightenment. Shelley’s poems on ‘Napoleon,’ ‘Ozymandias’ and his ‘Poetical Essay’ show him as a Romantic writer who strongly believed in European Enlightenment philosophy. His poems are musical treats, highly spontaneous, metaphorical, allusive and romantic in style, but the core content of his poems is the Enlightenment philosophy of his contemporary Eurocentric thought. Shelley was a voracious reader, as exemplified by Mathew Arnold, and absorbed the ideologies of philosophers and thinkers hailing from the middle classes and universities, and his poems reveal the highly volatile period during which Europe shifted from monarchy to democracy through revolutions.

Keywords: Percy Bysshe Shelley, Romanticism, Enlightenment. Philosophy of Liberty

1. Introduction

Percy Byshe Shelley (1792-1822) was a very talented young man who wrote great poetry that reflected the core philosophy of the Romantic ideal – eulogising the individual ego, and invoking the native stories with natural metaphors. Each of his poems can be read or sung aloud and their musical quality is supreme, as vouchsafed by Mathew Arnold. Though Arnold dismisses Shelley as a poet of high seriousness, we have to re-read his poems to understand the subtle emphasis on liberty which has been viewed as a tendency for anarchy. This paper presents an argument that Shelley’s poems reveal his core faith in Enlightenment philosophy of democracy and also they show the rise of the political power of the middle classes. Analysing a few of Shelley’s poems might help us locate him as an Enlightenment thinker, reflecting the ideologies of David Hume and other philosophers of his age. Shelley’s poems belong to nineteenth century, an era of high colonialism and Britain had empowered itself as an empire, and economics had emerged to identify the changes in the way money flowed across continents, and science had been institutionalised as a method of observation to master nature. Romanticism grew as a parallel movement signifying the power of the individual, and the slowly developing concept of nation that celebrated local customs and traditions. The Romantic poet wrote in psychological isolation, separating himself as a superior being. Shelley also falls in this framework of loneliness, death, depression, invoking nature and other such styles of Romantic writing.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Dr. S. Sridevi
Professor of English and Principal
Chevalier T. Thomas Elizabeth College for Women
Chennai 600011, Tamil Nadu, India
sridevisaral@gmail.com
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