Romantic Nature

Overall, I found Oliver Goldsmith's The Deserted Village to be far too contrived and overwrought for my tastes. While there is passionate feeling in Goldsmith's eulogizing of the village, the overall image that one receives is of an idealistic rural setting reminiscent of the Shire in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films. This feels far too perfect, as if Goldsmith's ideas of the countryside have no real grounding. The language describing the bucolic setting and the extreme emphasis on the simplicity of its denizens gives a sense of disconnect from reality, relying instead on popular views that romanticize elements of life in pastoral England.