Fahrenheit 451 connects to Romanticism through its element of fantasy. Though, theoretically, Ray Bradbury's novel represents a warning, not a mystical land, it still holds the elements of un-reality. Since the entire book is set in the future, it serves to warn people about the dangers of giving up knowledge for the contentedness of an "ignorance is bliss" ideology. Fantasy almost always contains a moral or a warning, and Fahrenheit 451 is no different. The elements of Romanticism play out in the unreal elements of the story, such as the mechanical Hound, the Firemen that burn books, and the conflict within protagonist Guy Montag. The connection shows that even books written in Post-Modernism, two time periods after Romanticism, contain elements of previous styles of writing.
However, one of the other important elements of Romanticism is the focus on nature. Fahrenheit 451 is set in a city for roughly the first half of the novel. Even in the city, though, there is a focus on the natural. When Guy meets the girl, Clarisse McClallen, she immediately begins to point out the beautiful pieces of the natural world, right on their street. Blowing leaves, shining stars, and even dandelion pollen enter their conversations with frequency, and Guy begins to notice the simple beauty of the world around him. No longer does his stare at his toes as he moves down the sidewalk, but he sees. He sees what his country, his culture, is missing through their obsession with speed, technology, and ignorant content. The novel ties nature to knowledge, as through Guy's newfound attention to the world , he finds himself wanting to know more, wanting to read, to learn, to discover. Romanticism is a large element of Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, even though it was written a century after the time period slipped away.
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