Custom essays: Literature Comparison Paper

A theme of unhappy love and undying devotion has always attracted writers of different movements and epochs, styles and views. On the one hand, they could hardly escape going through heart dramas themselves, and on the other hand we can undoubtedly state that this is here where an author can fully use his imagination and sense of word to describe the sufferings of a broken heart, that is to say to practice fully his or her talent and psychological input.

Being so popular, this subject however receives a very special sounding at the times of Romanticism. It was an epoch to protest against the rationalism of the Enlightenment, to go deeper in investigating human nature and to create a new world of impressive colors. The literature of this time was an escape from reality, the attention of an author was all turned to feelings and senses, and therefore love could not be left out. What is more, the adherents of the movement were bold to look at a person from a new, frightening side (Berlin55-114). They enjoyed depicting his weaknesses and helplessness in the face of rock and such an admission made the works of the Romanticists psychological and often full of devouring mystery. Another essential feature of the Era was high attention to folklore, application of ancient legends and fairy-tales receiving new understanding and showing their everlasting topicality. The ideology also included escape from civilization and belief in supernatural forces (Abrams 133).

The American literature inherited this tradition afterEurope, and thus enriched the world treasury with new unforgettable names and unsurpassed works.

Among the most important writers of this period we should probably single out Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) and Washington Irving (1783-1859). On their example we can assume how the theme of unhappy love is developed in fiction and in poetry.

As we have already stated, this topic have been often touched by adherents of various movements. The roots of the disaster have been found in social and political injustice, the heroes have been blamed themselves, and happy endings have been so desirable (we can recall the Romeo and Juliette by Shakespeare, a lot of examples from Russian literature, Chekhov for instance, numerous poems by George Gordon Byron or Jane Air by Charlotte Bronte to name just a few). Fiction is mostly based on the effect of the plot itself, expressive means of language are par excellence used to depict the situations, relationships, and conditions of the heroes more vividly and true-to-life. In poetry the aim of the author is different. Usually the poet is eager to express his own feelings or the state of the imaginative character. A fiction-writer is eager to fascinate the reader with the twists and turns of life, to share his ideas and thoughts with the audience, to attract their attention to some outstanding facts or to make them enter the dispute. At the same time a poem may contain no facts of objective reality, no prelude and no conclusions. There is often much space left for a reader to imagine what could have caused these or that feelings and worries of one, compare them with his or her own experience and get emotional effect to more extent than rational one.