A mellow scene from a movie. Alluring lyrics of a song. The gentle warmth of a person. These are the things that may pop into our heads when we hear the word “Romanticism.” Because the word romance has the overtone of lovey-dovey feelings, a lot of us quickly relate the word romanticism into state of being romantic. However, in many cases we interpret the word incorrectly. According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, romanticism is a literary, artistic, and philosophical movement originating in the 18th century which puts emphasis on the imagination and emotions.
In this article, The Beautiful and the Ugly are One Thing, the Sublime Another: A Reflection on Culture, the author, Stanley Diamond, uses the word romanticism to characterize Keats’ epigram of “beauty is truth, truth beauty.” By categorizing Keats’ idea as romanticism, the author is criticizing Keats’ remark as an imaginative paradox that needs to be argued against.
I agree with the author. Keats argue that beauty equals truth and truth equals beauty, but I believe that more often than not, beauty is established by deceits. What may look pretty on the outside may be unattractive on the inside. Also, the truth does not have to be pretty. The common phrase, “ugly truth” speaks for itself.
