Download English II Honors

English II Honors
Ms. Tziarri
Realism and Naturalism
Realism was a literary movement in the last half of the 19th century in which
writers opposed much of what the Romantics had stood for. Most critics give the
dates 1850s to 1880s as the dates for the strongest examples of Realism in
Western literature. (There is some overlap between the dates for Romanticism
and Realism.)
The words with and without capital letter stand for very different ideas. The words
"Realism" and "Realists" (note the capital letter 'R') refer to this particular literary
movement. The words "realism" and "realistic" refer to any work at any time that
attempts verisimilitude--that is, attempts to present the illusion in art (especially in
literature) of life as it really exists.
Some Characteristics of Realism
The age of Realism is characterized by some recognizable
ideas held by most of the thinkers and writers of the day.
These ideas listed below are generalizations, and--as with
most generalizations--need to be seen the light of a
particular piece of literature in order to present any verifiable
detail.
1. Whereas the age of the Romantics valued the
exceptional, the genius, and the uncommon individual, the
age of Realism values members of the middle class.
2. Whereas the age of the Romantics valued the contribution
of the genius and imagination of the writer/poet, the Realists
wanted to de-emphasize the contribution of the writer and
thought writers should "objectively" see contemporary life as
the material for their writing. They attempted to keep
themselves as writers from coming between the reader and
the life they presented in their art.
3. Whereas the age of the Romantics valued the details of
the present moment as a way to transcend the moment and
the present world, the age of Realism values the surface
details, the everyday life, and the common conduct of middle
class individuals. They do this with the purpose of creating
the illusion of reality. Henrik Ibsen said that the effect he was
seeking in his Realistic plays was to make "the spectator
feel as if he were actually sitting, listening, and looking on
events happening in real life" (Wilkie & Hurt 971).
4. While the Romantics valued the emotional, the intuitive,
and the feelings and insight of the innocent child and the
genius, the Realists explore the ethical choices made by
common middle class individuals and the effects and
consequences these ethical choices have on the lives of
their middle class heroes.
5. While the Romantics value nature as a way of seeing God
and man, the Realists question the existence, or at least the
importance of, God and discount the beliefs of organized
Christian religions. Instead of seeking transcendence as the
Romantics did, the Realists focused on ethical choices and
morality in the life of middle class individuals, often without
supporting Christian beliefs.
From Realism to Naturalism
In the world at large, the last half of the 19th century brought two thinkers, Darwin
and Marx, who heavily influenced literary views and values.
Charles Darwin applied the scientific method to biology and detailed his laws of
natural selection, survival of the fittest, slow speciation, the evolution of all
biological life, and the essential unity of all living things through evolutionary
descent. In his Origin of Species (published in 1859) he stated that species
change over time as a result of the action of natural selection (individual
members of a species survive if they are better adapted to their environment;
over time, species as a whole change as a result of the reproduction of "better
adapted" individuals within the species). The public interpreted this idea of
natural selection to suggest that human races and classes survive and prosper to
the extent that they are "fit" to survive. Social Darwinism, the extreme version of
the idea as applied to thought about mankind and society, suggests that races
and classes should prosper, live, or die according to how "fit" they were and that
such was the "natural" law of societies and cultures. To a social Darwinist, it is
useless to help people who cannot help themselves or who live outside
mainstream society because "nature" has condemned them to die, like the
dinosaurs, because they are not well adapted to their environment; they are not
"fit" to live.
Karl Marx in his Communist Manifesto (published in 1848) stated that history is
the story of the control by various classes of the economic means of production
and that as long as the upper classes hold the reigns of power over the means of
economic production the poor will grow less and less powerful and will be
crushed under the heels of those who do control the means of production.
These views and others gave rise in the last two decades of the 19th century to
the school of literature called the Naturalists. Anton Chekhov, a Russian writer,
compared the Naturalist writer to a chemist. He said, "To a chemist nothing on
earth is unclean. A writer must be as objective as a chemist; he must abandon
the subjective line: he must know that dung heaps play a very respectable part in
a landscape, and that evil passions are as inherent in life as good ones" (quoted
in Mack, et al. 1065). The Naturalists often concentrated on the dung heap in the
landscape of contemporary life.
Some Characteristics of Naturalism
1. Whereas the Realists portrayed middle class characters
in their work, the Naturalists portrayed the lives of working
class individuals and believed that members of the working
class were controlled, oppressed, and brutalized by the
societies in which they lived.
2. Whereas the Realists explored the ethical choices of
middle class characters, the Naturalists believed that their
working class characters struggled just to remain alive in a
way similar to the way Darwin saw animals struggling for
survival in the physical world.
3. Whereas the Realists focused on ethical choices and
morality in the contemporary life of middle class individuals,
often without supporting Christian beliefs, the Naturalists
often portrayed working class individuals as animals
struggling against an inhuman and unsympathetic universe
where they competed for scarce resources in the same way
as animals did in the physical world around them.
Works Cited
Mack, Maynard. "Realism, Symbolism, and European Realities." Norton
Anthology of World Masterpieces. Ed. Maynard Mack et al. Exp. ed. Vol.
2. New York: Norton, 1995. 1061 - 1073.
Wilkie, Brian and James Hurt. "Realism and Naturalism." Literature of the
Western World. Ed. Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. 4th ed. Vol. 2. Upper
Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 1997. 971-976.
“An Introduction to Realism and Naturalism” 12 March 2003.
<http://vc.ws.edu/engl2420/2001/unit3/intro.htm>
Gothic Literature
Gothic literature contains a combination of several of these elements:
o A deserted (or sparsely inhabited) castle or mansion (the bigger, the
spookier) in a state of ruins or semi-ruins
o Labyrinths/mazes, dark corridors, and winding stairs filled with cobwebs
o Hidden tunnels/staircases, dungeons, underground passages, crypts, or
catacombs
o If set in a broken-down modern house, the basement or attic becomes the
place of terror.
o Lights mysteriously go out.
o Threatening natural landscapes like rugged mountains, dark forests, or
eerie moors, exhibiting stormy weather
o Dark secrets surrounding some tormented soul who is left to live in
isolation
o Ominous omens and curses
o Magic, supernatural manifestations, or the suggestion of the supernatural
o A damsel in distress
o The damsel's rescuer, usually a lover
o Horrifying (or terrifying) events or the threat of such happenings