Percy Bysshe Shelley
(1792-1822)
As the textbook, The Longman Anthology, says Percy is one of the most radical visionaries of the Romantic Revolution era. You would think that a title such as that only is granted to a person because of there way of writing, but in actuality the way the Mr. Shelley lived his life played an integral part in that title. Even though he lived for only 30 years, his life was more than anybody could handle in any life time. I would say that he more than anybody hated authority. Furthermore, I would say that he hated it so much so that he would deny his own religion because he could not stand the fact that there was someone over him.
There are plenty of examples in his life that can show his rebellious nature. From his writings on atheism to his controversial open relationship with his wife, Percy's life would be a common theme on E's True Hollywood Stories. I found it particularly interesting when reading on how his lifestyle cost him custody of his child and his reaction he wrote Prometheus Unbound. Which I loved because it is based on Greek Mythology. So I did a little reading on Prometheus Unbound on http://www.english.upenn.edu/Projects/knarf/PShelley/prompref.html, since it is not in our textbook. In doing so I was amazed at how he used Satan as an equal to Prometheus in his Preface. Satan not being labeled as the anti-Christ or "bad guy," but as a person who goes against authority almost like a hero and Percy points out that if it were not for his " taints of ambition, envy, revenge, and desire for personnel aggrandizement," his faults would not have been "weighed" so heavily. I have read Paradise Lost and that characterization never crossed my mind. I think that type of lyrical freedom and thought made him on of the most radical poets in his era. But what put him over the top was that he not only wrote about freedom he also lived it.
4 comments:
Antoine,
Excellent comments on Shelley, and good work doing some additional reading about his works. I also like the way you focus on his words and connect them to your own thoughts on Paradise Lost and Satan. Good job!
Antoine,
Really good stuff! I am a big fan of mythology, so I am glad you chose this particular work to comment on. It is interesting how Shelley compares Prometheus to Satan- an analogy that had not crossed my small mind. You are correct in asserting that Shelley was radical and even over-the-top! The only thing I can even remotely compare reactions to might be the reactions we have seen concerning Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code?? Without a doubt, people living in Shelley's time looked at him with consternation.
-go calvs
I can't help but wonder if his reputation was well know at the time of his writing or if much of this information only became public knowledge later. I enjoyed reading your reaction to Shelley and wish that I could have harnessed some of your insights into his poetry.
Really good blog. After I read it I went back and reread the part about Shelley, and I do not know how I missed it before. The part about him not liking authority was a point that I never thought about while reading it the first time. I think it just goes to show how much people can be right even though now we view them as wrong.
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