Rebellion in Romanticism
The Romantics weren't conformists. No, they would be the kids in high school who wear strange clothes, listen to underground music, and don't hang out with anyone else. They're not trying to fit in with the cool crowd; on the contrary, they sneer at everything that everyone else considers "cool" or "hip" because they have their own, extremely sophisticated, standard of coolness.
And one of the Romantics' standards of coolness was to go against the grain. The Romantics didn't want to be constrained by social, literary, or political conventions. They believed, above all else, in being true to their own individuality.
Be true to yourself, Shmoopers.
Chew on This
Want to see the theme of rebellion playing out in Romantic literature? Check out the monster in Mary Shelley's famous novel Frankenstein cursing his creator and rebelling against him.
How did the Romantics rebel against the social, economic and political conditions of their times? By writing poetry about these terrible conditions, of course. Take a look at William Blake showing up the awful conditions of London in the late 1700s in his poem "London."