Personification is the first feature of the Romantic Movement that the story illustrates. The emergence of the Romantic Movement during the early part of the 19th century transformed how society perceives animals. Before the Romantic Movement, society perceived animals as creatures, which have no rational capacity. However, the Romantic Movement changed such a perception and made society perceive animals as creatures with human attributes.
The story personifies nightingale because it illustrates her having human attributes. After all, she can sing and communicate with people. Travelers and fishermen have enjoyed the sweet songs of the nightingale and they have written books and poems about the beautiful bird. The court and the maid looked for nightingale and informed her about the request of the emperor. Nightingale agreed to come and sing to the emperor.
Moreover, when the emperor was on his sickbed, nightingale visited him, sang a sweet song, sent away Death, and soothed the emperor. In all these actions, nightingale conversed with the court, maid, and the emperor as a human. Hence, personification is a feature of the Romantic Movement that is evident in the interaction of nightingale and people in society.
Emotionalism is the second feature of the Romantic Movement that is apparent in the story. Humans in society and animals share emotions that their nature presents to them. In the story, there are instances, where emotions emanate from the relationship between nightingale and people in society. The first instance is that the maid confesses that nightingale sings to her daily whenever she feels tired.
The song of nightingale soothes her because she makes her feel motherly kiss and become emotional. The second instance is when the nightingale sang to the emperor and made him shed tears of joy and happiness. When the emperor wanted to reward the bird, she objected saying that tears are the greatest reward because they have power. Thus, nightingale appreciates the emotions of humans and believes in their power as a worthy reward anyone can achieve in society. In this view, the story illustrates the feature of emotionalism, as an element of both humans and animals.
Forgiveness is the third feature of the Romantic Movement that the story illustrates. Before the Romantic Movement, society assumed that animals cannot love or forgive. When the emperor requested the nightingale to visit the palace and sing sweet songs, she joyfully agreed to do so. Nightingale sang so well to an extent of making the emperor shed tears of joy and causing people to celebrate her in the palace. However, when the emperor received the artificial nightingale, he banished the real nightingale.
As expected, the nightingale would never sing to the emperor because he banished her from the beautiful palace. Nevertheless, when the emperor was ill and the palace was grieving his imminent death, nightingale came and sang to him. The songs did send evil forces and Death away from the palace, making the emperor regain his health and rule again. Hence, the story illustrates forgiveness, as a feature of the Romantic Movement, which depicts animals as loving and caring, and thus, they can forgive humans.
Autonomy is the fourth feature of the Romantic Movement that is evident in the story. Given that the Romantic Movement led to the recognition of animal rights, the story effectively illustrates how society bestows autonomy to a nightingale. With the recognition of autonomy, the maid and the court requested nightingale to visit the palace and sing to the emperor, to which she autonomously agreed. Chambermaids and footmen in the palace constructed a cage for nightingale and planned to give her enough freedom to go out once during the night and twice during the day. Moreover, the emperor requested the bird to remain in the palace and sings as she pleases.
However, the bird preferred to stay outside the palace and promised to visit the emperor whenever she likes. Such a form of freedom indicates that society respects the autonomy of animals by giving them enough freedom to explore their nature. Hence, autonomy is an integral feature of the Romantic Movement because it requires society to respect animal rights by granting them their autonomy and freedom.
The love of nature is the fifth feature of the Romantic Movement that the story illustrates. Although the palace has the most beautiful garden, which people cross the world admired, what stood out was the nightingale. As part of nature, nightingale made the garden very beautiful and attractive because her regular songs dominated the ambiance. The poor fishermen would spend their invaluable time enjoying the songs of the nightingale because they termed them as beautiful songs.
Travelers did acknowledge that the garden of the palace is the best place in the world because nightingale songs were matchless. Learned travelers went to their countries and describe the beautiful garden without forgetting to describe the nightingale. Poets made beautiful poems, which describe nightingale in the palace’s garden. Eventually, the nightingale has become a lovely bird that lives in the palace’s garden and sings beautiful songs. In this view, the love of nature is a feature of the Romantic Movement that the story illustrates in describing the role of the nightingale in the garden.