"Solitude in the crowd", which is considered as the fate of modern man, was positively representd by Romanticists for the first time through the melancholy image of "Child of the Century". Henceforth, the conflicts between individual and society and between elite and mediocrity became a major subject of the modern literature in the West. With a probe into the connection between the notion of "solitude in the crowd" and the unique fate of artists, Romantists produced tragic legends about the obliteration of poets by the relentless society and the mediocrity that surrounds them. It is based on the Romanticists’ portrayal of eccentric characters, who appear to be both melancholy and paradoxical, that Kierkegaard redefined the notion of "solitary experience" as the individual essence or fate in his philosophical inquiry and developed it into a core element in the concept of "Absurdity". Also, thanks to its persistent concern over the mental conflict and emotional paradox of the solitary individual, the Romantic literature clearly paved the way for the Existentialist philosophy to further elucidate the nature of "irrational man".