Sublime

An experience of overwhelming greatness or power that produces awe and can also produce fear, especially in encounters with nature.

An overwhelming experience of awe and terror caused by something vast or powerful, such as mountains, glaciers or storms.

Mountains, glaciers and storms can produce the sublime: an overwhelming mixture of awe and terror. A pleasant garden may seem beautiful and manageable; a vast glacier can be magnificent while making a person feel small and vulnerable.

An experience of overwhelming greatness or power, especially in nature, which can produce awe, terror and a sense of uplift.

Connect the sublime setting to Victor’s changing feelings and the interruption of his hoped-for peace.

Connect Romanticism or the sublime to particular words and moments rather than adding a separate biographical paragraph.

Both parts: context earns no marks. Use the sublime only where it helps explain a reading of the setting, rather than adding historical background for marks.

An overwhelming experience of grandeur or power, often involving both wonder and fear, especially in encounters with nature.

An experience of awe, wonder and sometimes terror prompted by something so vast or powerful that it makes human beings feel small or limited.

An experience of overwhelming awe, often mixed with terror, produced by something vast or powerful, especially the natural world.

The overwhelming greatness of something, especially nature, which can inspire both awe and fear.

An experience of awe mixed with fear when confronted by something overwhelmingly vast or powerful, especially in nature.

Overwhelming greatness or power that inspires awe, often mixed with terror, especially when people encounter vast or threatening natural landscapes.

The sublime is more than pleasant scenery. A mountain range, glacier or violent storm can attract us while also making us feel small and vulnerable. Its scale or power produces awe mixed with terror.

An experience of overwhelming greatness or power, especially in nature, which can combine awe, pleasure and terror.

Overwhelming greatness or power that inspires awe, often combining admiration with fear and making the observer feel small.

An experience of overwhelming awe, often mixed with fear, produced by something vast or powerful.

An experience of overwhelming greatness or power that produces awe, often mixed with fear.

This mixture of wonder and terror is often described as the sublime. It helps explain the Romantic interest in nature as more than pleasant scenery. For Wordsworth, nature can challenge a person’s assumptions and educate the imagination through fear as well as beauty.

Definition

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AQA GCSE English Literature · 8702

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Edexcel GCSE English Literature · 1ET0

OCR GCSE English Literature · J352