romantic idealism
Starry-eyed love notions
Romantic idealism is the tendency to view love, relationships, or life through an elevated, often unrealistic lens—emphasizing passion, destiny, and emotional intensity over practical considerations.
Someone with romantic idealism might believe in soulmates, love at first sight, or the transformative power of devotion: Her romantic idealism kept her waiting for a connection that felt like fate.
The term can be admiring or gently critical, depending on whether the speaker values such beliefs or finds them naive.
- longingIntense, persistent desire
- passionIntense emotional drive
- true loveAuthentic romantic connection
- courtly loveChivalric romantic ideal
- yearningIntense prolonged craving
dream · unrequited love · sentimentality · transcendentalism · utopianism · noble savage · Platonism · knight-errant · quixotism · rose-colored glasses · head in the clouds · chivalry · myth-making · allegory · utopian communities · perfectionism · fairy tale ending · hopefulness
- love conceptstrue love, soulmates, eternal love, unrequited love, forbidden love
- romancelove story, amor, love, boyfriend, courting
- Lovesicklovesick, lovelorn, heartsick, pining, yearning
- RomanticismWilliam Blake, the sublime, J.M.W. Turner, Eugene Delacroix, emotionalism
- CervantesDon Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes, Sancho Panza, Cervantes, Rocinante
- medieval romancecourtly love, Arthurian legends, Arthurian legend, knightly quests, knighthood
romantic idealismcynicism
Distrust of human sincerity
disillusionment · nihilism · defeatism · fatalism · pragmatism
romantic idealismnaturalism
Worldview excluding the supernatural
realism · social realism · literary realism · rationalism · positivism