An Analysis of Alfred De Vignys Chatterton and Victor...

Ruy Blas and Chatterton Both Alfred de Vigny and Victor Hugo were important writers during the Romantic period of literary history. The Romantics were a group of writers and artists who desired to see a return to beauty in the world. The imagery they used was designed to elicit strong emotion in their audience. Like all literary or artistic movements, there were a series of unspoken rules about what could and could not be included in a Romantic work. In both Alfred de Vignys Chatterton and Victor Hugos Ruy Blas, the author utilizes the techniques of the Romantic period to transform traditional stories of common men in uncommon circumstances into some of the most memorable pieces of literature ever written. French author Alfred de Vigny wrote the play Chatterton in the year 1835 and it was first performed shortly after. The drama is about the British poet Thomas Chatterton who also made quite a substantial living forging poems and claiming that they were from the medieval period of history. The play is by no means an historical piece and by no means attempts to be authentic and much of the facts of Chattertons life are left off of the stage. Even Chattertons crimes, the forging of medieval poetry, is made to seem understandable, as an activity committed by an intelligent man who was not so much a criminal as a man who was mocking the larger establishment of the unintelligent larger population. The reason for this is that the audience is meant to identify with Thomas