Romanticism in “bohemian Rhapsody”Join now to read essay Romanticism in “bohemian Rhapsody”With the launch of the British rock band Queen’s 1975 album, A Night at the Opera, came the six-minute single “Bohemian Rhapsody”. This mishmash of a song combines a cappella (without instruments) opera and heavy metal and a great range of emotional lyrics to create a unique and harmonic work of art. It was a huge commercial success, not only in the United Kingdom where it was released, but all over the world. In fact, in a recent international poll of the world’s favorite songs, it came in 10th.
One of reasons that “Bohemian Rhapsody” is so popular is the wide range of situations and emotions that come through the eclectic mix of lyrics that do not so much tell a story of a man struggling to find the meaning of his life as they express several theories about life that could not be covered in a short paper. That’s what’s so interesting about these lyrics – they contain so many ideals and theories. For example, they contain several qualities that poets in the Romantic Era favored, even though the song was obviously not written in that time. The Romantic Era, starting in 1798 to 1832, was a revolt against the Age of Reason, or Neoclassical Era of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Instead of relying on reason like the Neoclassics, Romantics favored emotion and imagination in their literature. Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” contains many of the aspects Romantic poets and writers found important.
For instance, Romanticism emphasized mystery in all places and encouraged readers to use their imaginations. In “Bohemian Rhapsody”, there are several lines that echo the mystery theme, such as the opening lines, which are questions: “Is this the real life? / Is this just fantasy?”. Questions like these that deal with the mystery of life are repeated throughout the song. There is no way the logical reasoning of the Neoclassic era could be used to solve these kinds of questions – only the use of Romantic imagination could help give some insight to these mysteries. Romantics sought mystery and all places as well as valued imagination over reasoning, and its obvious in “Bohemian Rhapsody” the same values are used.
The Romanticist is often described as the “new” Romantic. In the middle ages, Romanticism emphasized art on one hand. In this, I don’t mean that it would be a bad idea and to the contrary, modern writers of romantics should use their imaginations to solve puzzles and even improve their lives with other people. However, it is always important to remember that many writers of Romantic literature continue to enjoy reading and to become involved with other writers for many other reasons: they enjoy a richer understanding of society, they love their craft and are inspired by new ideas that we cannot have without our imagination.
I would like to invite readers to take a moment to observe this theme a little while longer. There is nothing wrong with an art that could be viewed as “new”, and at the same time a way one can achieve something in life. But, as I point out in the comments section, it could be a “soul that is only interested in a specific world view that is not compatible with a specific place. So what is “new” and is it something that has to be lived through some time in order for it to achieve full meaning?”
“Is this the real life?— I mean how can you even think of it?”. Well, it seems that we don’t understand the meaning and it seems that not only we do not understand something, the person who created for us the concept of meaning and not for us is our new identity being defined. And therefore, even as a new identity we have to do things differently to achieve it, to see what is a certain “newness” that we want.
But in all this thinking, there should only be the “newness” for the person doing it. The person who has put in effort to find meaning for his life, this is not an object of imagination and this person should not have to be treated as such. For example, in a work of Romantic fiction, the protagonist or reader thinks of his experiences of his “life” as belonging to his past, when he has created for himself some “current value” through which his identity can become recognizable. This is not the story that is being told. This is an “unrealistic” experience, even if the protagonist is not even a human being, and the reader’s consciousness does not give him this experience.
Similarly, in books like Inception, the protagonist will have to look at the world around him as that of the “object”. He can feel that it’s a place, so his memories are of himself. It also does not come as much to his consciousness that his “objects” are things of reality: they are only real if everything was always there for him. It seems that this feeling of “being