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.
I would argue that beauty is not deceitful. Superficial beauty may be based off of lies in many ways, but anything superficial isn’t really beauty, it’s merely attractive.
Real beauty is more than just something nice to look at. Beauty is the essence of a thing.
Personally, I believe that at its core beauty is based off of truth, not deception.
I enjoyed reading your post. Thanks!
I too always think of the word as another for being romantic and not the true meaning so this was helpful. I also agree with your point about the ‘ugly truth” and how sometimes the truth can hurt a person. It sort of relates to ignorance is bliss and how not knowing the real truth, which is often times ugly, can cause someone to be blissful and happy.
I don’t believe beauty is founded on deceit. Beauty in it’s purest form is raw and unfiltered. The glorified standards of beauty may be founded on deceit, but the real, human beauty originates from within.
I absolutely love the introduction to this blog post because it’s creative and gets me imagining romantic scenes and songs. I believe that beauty should be based on truth and should be raw in its purest form, however, I also understand that sometimes beauty can be based on deceit.
I love the way you began your blog post, but honestly, I’m conflicted when it comes to agreeing with you on your argument. I do agree with the fact that more often than not, beauty is deceitful, at least the society’s definition of it. However, I also believe that truth is beauty, or it’s meant to be. I think with the way society is wired, sometimes the truth is ugly or confrontational simply because yes, ignorance is bliss, like Xhesika pointed out. All in all, this post really made me think.
Your post did definitely shed some light on romance for me, yet I do believe that romanticism still has to deal with that “lovey dovey” stuff, as romance stems from the beauty we see in one another. Also, since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it does take some imagination for romance, hence why it is unique to each individual idea rather than an universal acceptance of actions or words. I love you to one person may mean the world, but to another person it is just 3 words.