Abstract:The Great Britain is one of the earliest countries in which the romantic literature prevails. British romanticism represents the highest achievement of the European romantic literature in the 19th century. The characteristics of British active romantic literature can be summarized as the following: Active romanticists express their dissatisfaction with the reality of the society, and show the revolutionary spirit to describe their own ideal; Active romanticists pay attention to expressing strong emotion through various rich imagination; Active romanticists the peace of nature to foil the ugly social reality. At the same time, the romantic writers use metaphor, hyperbole, symbol and comparison, and other figures of speech to show their strong feelings. This thesis tends to analyze the romantic characteristics reflected in Shelley's works by analyzing the themes and writing techniques of his works.

Key words: British romantic literature; Shelley; “Ode to West Wind”; Prometheus Unbound

CONTENTS

Abstract

中文摘要

1. Introduction-1

1.1 The Introduction to Shelley and His works

1.2 The Introduction to the British Romantic Literature

2. The Characteristics of the British Romantic Literature in Shelley’s Works-2

2.1Themes

2.1.1Revolutionary Spirits and Idealism

2.1.2 Emotion

2.1.3 Beauty of nature

2.2 Writing techniques

3. Conclusion-9

Bibliography-10

Acknowledgments -11