Heinrich Von Onterdingen Analysis

Born in a transitional, alienating historical period of specialised sciences, social reform, individualism and political revolutions, Novalis believed in the idea that poets are born at a time of conflict in the history of humanity (1:264). Heinrich von Ofterdingen is one of the earliest illustrations of a German Romantic hero’s destiny in a tumultuous time: an elevation of himself above the stifling social conventions by his creative force and the expansion of his mind into the mysterious and unknown. It is a pure poetic exemplification of Novalis’s significant philosophical fragments: “Die Welt muß romantisiert werden. So findet man den ursprünglichen Sinn wieder. . . Indem ich dem Gemeinen einen hohen Sinn, dem Gewöhnlichen ein geheimnisvolles …show more content…
Heinrich von Ofterdingen paints the portrait of a young, socially isolated man’s initiation into an artist, which was a common occurrence in the literary works of German Romantic fiction. This prominence of an emerging artist as the Romantic protagonist primarily stemmed from: Goethe’s Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, and the early Romantics’ challenge to its conclusion that they deemed …show more content…
Such instance occurs by anecdotes, stories, and songs. An example occurs during an episode of Heinrich’s visit inside a hermit’s cave. Heinrich discovers a manuscript in a language that is unrecognizable to him, and it apparently describes the future events of his life. Heinrich’s finding of this book mirrors Wilhelm Meister’s discovery of Turmgesellschaft’s recording in a scroll about his education; however, the depiction of future and otherness of the book in Heinrich von Ofterdingen signifies Heinrich’s departure from his previous perception of