Romantic Elements in First Love

The four elements of Romanticism are
1. Love of nature
2. Importance of emotion/imagination
3. Rejection of classic art forms
4. Rebellion against society

I think the importance of emotion and imagination is the most prominant element in Turngenev's "First Love." Throughout the entire novel, the author focuses on the main characters emotions, as well as the emotions of the father and of Zanaida. In addition, i believe that the games Zanaida created and the interesting things she came up with for the boys to do is another way in which an element of romanticism is used. The three most focused characters, the boy, the dad, and Zaniada, are the ones who most clearly portray romantacism. Throughout the book, these characters are dissected, evolving, interchanging, and discovering themselves. The whole movement of romanticism, besides for the whole revolting against the norms, was self-discovering. Along with self-discovery, the crazy emotional journey one will expirience while trying to find themselves. Love of nature is not very present in this book, but the use of nature is. Describing nature, and manipulating it for the different scenes in the novel. When you think about rebellion of society, Zanaida sort of sums that all up. To me, she is the definition of rebel. She wants to do everything her own way, and refuses to act like a normal girl in imperial russia. In that time, she was considered an anomile basically. She did everything her own way, breaking all the rules, and was in charge of every situation and the boys in her life--which was un-heard of in those times. She was a revolutionary woman who models romanticism in all the right ways.