Is it Romantic?

by DMS

I asked my friend Peggy a question. What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word "Romantic"?
"Cuddling," said she.
For a moment, I looked at her.
"I swear," shouted she.
I laughed and hugged her.
It is common to equate the word romantic with cuddling. I personally agree with the comparison. However, in the world of literature, Romanticism means something else.

According to Britannica Online Encyclopedia, Romanticism is an "attitude or intellectual orientation that characterized many works of literature, painting, music, architecture, criticism, and historiography in Western civilization over a period from the late 18th to the mid-19th century. Romanticism can be seen as a rejection of the precepts of order, calm, harmony, balance, idealization, and rationality that typified Classicism in general and late 18th-century Neoclassicism in particular. It was also to some extent a reaction against the Enlightenment and against 18th-century rationalism and physical materialism in general. Romanticism emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental."
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/508675/Romanticism

Characters in Romantic literature often mirror the life and society in which the writer lives. Romanticism is a kind of expression of disagreement toward society. One message of Romantic writers is that people have to look at the broader picture to avoid demanding conformity, which can lead to the alienation of individuals. In addition, many Romantic writers focus on nature to express feelings, emotions, and the human experience.