ROMANTIC TENDENCIES IN “THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER” BY AMELIA OPIE

Abstract

The article reveals specific features of a novel “The Mysterious Stranger” (1813), written by an English writer of the Romantic era Amelia Opie. Key motifs of romanticism, such as duality, a break from convention, wandering, fate, loneliness, mystery, love, tragic worldview, disappointment and untimely death, are widely implemented in the prose of Amelia Opie. Her creative literary method is determined through the context of romantic aesthetics. The conflict between dreams and reality, transformation of the romantic ideal category, the main character’s non-conformity determine the narrative system of “The Mysterious Stranger”. The novel reflects the artistic and ideological imperatives that characterize English literature at the beginning of the 19th century and Western European literary process of this period. Specific functions of romantic categories, Amelia Opie’s individual manner and approach are described. “The Mysterious Stranger” is a representative example of English romantic prose, where a wide range of ideological and social problems of the 19th century is depicted.