Romanticism

            The Renaissance was a rebirth to many things: art, music, literature, even religion. Overall the Renaissance could be seen as a rebirth of human thought, as man once again began to express themselves. This resulted in what was almost a backlash in the Enlightenment as men began to express the idea that men tend to be full of it. If you are wandering what it' is, add an sh'. Even now though Romanticism is pulling it all together, and spitting it out in every way imaginable. .
             They say the Renaissance was the beginning of modern culture, which is true. However it was a renaissance, and these new thoughts had to catch up with the past first. Machiavelli called back to the kings of old, and spoke of how rulers should truly act. But toward the end Don Quixote expressed the revolutionary idea of life being what you make of it. The differing views of the Renaissance were, for the most part, all accepted simply because people saw their time period as the reawakening of the human mind and spirit. Of course Machiavelli was banned in England, since his views didn't quite fit in with what the British Royalty liked to think. Despite that particularly loud negative feedback, the general idea that man and his creations were things of great beauty, and came from God became the general consensus. .
             " became the general consensus."" Oh you have GOT to be kidding me! Well, that seemed to be the idea behind The Enlightenment. Works like Tartuffe' pointed out that not all men are good, and brought to light the corruption men are capable of. In the new found world of optimism, men like Moliere(whom penned Tartuffe') and Voltaire were not pecimists, but realists. Voltaire was actually run out of France for his satirical view of the optimistic world, Candide'. Candide' focused on the falsehoods in the positive' theories developed in the Renaissance; if everything comes from God, then disease comes from God and we should rejoice in being ill.