Theatrical Romanticism - Necessary or Superfluous?
As a Dramatic Arts student, I am exposed to a great deal of playwrights. The playwright that comes to mind when I begin to wonder about the Romantic Movement is, none other than, Victor Hugo. The man famously known for creating the beautiful and undeniably tear-jerking Les Miserables. Then my mind begins to challenge my association - how is Victor Hugo possibly a literary romantic when Les Miserables is desperately sad and grim?
Theatrical romanticism is defined as ''An idealistic fantasy exploring human emotion, dreams and control''. Victor Hugo's works do fit under this general definition. But why? Well, Les Miserables is riddled with emotion - hope, love, fear etc. It also provides an untarnished, unchanged view of war. It accurately documents the smaller revolutions occurring in post-revolution France. These reasons sound like realism to me, so why is Les Miserables then classified as a romantic piece?
To put it bluntly, the revolutionaries are glorified - having been portrayed as dreamers, innovators and great thinkers, readers in the modern era are left thinking that these young men were martyrs for the cause when actually their deaths did not achieve much and their beliefs of equality were hardly inclusive. Jean Valjean's unfortunate daughter Cosette is also unflinchingly annoying - not doing much and yet receiving the most out of all of the characters. Because of Victor Hugo's narrative, readers see her as a symbol of love, I see her as a symbol of entitlement. She has been romanticized, just like the Revolutionaries.
So why do we need stories like this? Why do we feel the way we do about Hugo, Goethe and Lessing? When we know that they were in some ways, liars? We need them because they shield us away from the harsh realities of the world. They give us something to believe in, something to hope for.
The realistic part of my psyche is screaming at me whilst I write this, demanding to know why I am encouraging the sale of false dreams. I am encouraging it because I believe in people and I believe in happiness. Romanticism provides happiness for people. It's that glorified album that we love, it's the Jennifer Lawrences of this world, the paintings that leave out the poverty and paint the sky that keeps the world turning. It is these seemingly false images that keep us satisfied.
The realist in me agrees that people will always need some sort of comfort. The romantic in me provides it.
- Mila Brkic, 2016.
