To
display the romantic age of theory this week we read Shelley and Poe. While
both were contemporaries, I was more intrigued by their differences of opinion
than their similarities. Edgar Allen Poe, a noted American poet, seems to
protest (though not entirely convincingly) that the creation of good poetry is
a science. Reflecting much more of the modernists and formalists to come, he
seems to fly in the face of what Shelley held most dear: a true, aesthetic
expression from the artist. Percy Bysshe Shelley was a renowned English poet at
the same time. His works conveyed his passion for passion. For Shelley,
everything was about feeling more. Poetry is a gift given to only a few, but to
be enjoyed by many. Although approaching poetry from two vastly different
avenues, they both share the one thing that makes them such obvious exemplars
of the Romantic Era: a focus on emotions, not logic. The film, Die Nibelungen: Siegfried
(1924), although produced well after the Romantic Era, lauds the same respect
for the romantic ideals of the 19th century -- most notably through the emphasis placed on melancholy as well as a preoccupation with the aesthetic achieved through strong emotions. It proves that no matter when or how a work of art is created, when
it’s made with the purpose of encouraging imagination and individual reactions
and emotions, it relates to the romantic era.
The
film begins by introducing the audience to Siegfried. He seems somewhat simple
and of humble means. It is revealed, however, that he is a prince and has just
mastered the skill of forging the perfect sword. Right away the story draws the
reader in and basically begs him to think of himself as Siegfried. Through a
religious lens, the connections are clear: we come from a God and are heirs and
heiresses ourselves, but find ourselves in less than ideal situations. This also
plays on the desire most humans feel (particularly some in Europe at the time of its release) to
accomplish more, be more than their circumstances. Siegfried hears of the
princess and decides to up and marry her. The jealous hairy troll/blacksmith
leads him towards a dragon, which Siegfried kills with no problem (nor
provocation). Again the audience, who has imagined itself as the prince, feels
empowered at this feat of strength. Unfortunately, none of us has had the
opportunity to defeat a dragon and so we must imagine the sensation that
accompanies such an act.
The
film goes on to find Siegfried in all number of shenanigans and tomfoolery,
taking a huge treasure from some creepy stone dwarves, tricking the scary queen
of Iceland, and wooing his princess, all while defending his own life. The
blood of the dragon has made him invincible, all but a spot on his back covered
by a leaf during his literal blood bath -- and herein lies the tragedy.
Something that both Poe and Shelley vehemently agreed on is the importance of
melancholy. Sadness, they both argue, is the strongest emotion. There is a
sort of twisted joy in horrible things and both choose to explore the theme
often and thoroughly. Shelley, who proposes that the more we feel, the truer we
are, knew that sadness was the surest way to make a reader or viewer feel
something deep and real. Poe, a depressive himself, declares, “Melancholy is
thus the most legitimate of all the poetical tones.” From the first story told ("How Siegfried Slays the Dragon"), we
are being set up to be sad. This weak spot is exploited and leads to the death
of Siegfried at the end. Although the romantic poets (of course mostly men)
claim that the saddest event possible is the death of a beautiful woman, I
argue that Siegfried was a beautiful man and was still an appropriate sacrifice to
elicit the correct amount of melancholy from the audience. This sadness, this
eventual “failing,” is by far the most important aspect of the story.
Everything else Siegfried does forebodes his tragic demise – from the spear thrown
to win Brunhild to the overly optimistic farewell he bids to his wife. This
conclusion was so important, in fact, that the film’s cover is a drawing of
Siegfried by the stream with a spear through his heart. The Romantics are not
afraid to feel and are not afraid to force their viewers to feel either.
Shelley’s
emphasis on the power of individual imagination and Poe’s affinity for the
truly depressing are just a few of the prominent thoughts surrounding
romanticism. The aesthetic experience, vastly important, was to be achieved
through strong emotion and Siegfried brought that emotion out not through
stunning sunsets, expensive tricks, or spectacle at all. It was all from the
relation the audience felt to the characters (achieved through imagination) and
the events they experienced in their journey. It’s easy to see how elements of
romanticism have influenced the subsequent dominant philosophies and continue
to percolate into today’s theory. Die
Nibelungen: Siegfried, produced a good 50 years after the Romantic Era,
makes it clear that viewers and filmmakers alike still place an importance on
the imagination and the emotional experience of all involved in the creation of
art.
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