Romanticism and Realism

1.  To understand the literature, it is important to understand how writers looked at the world at the time they were writing.

2.  From 1865-1900, American literature was dominated by a realistic approach.

A.  Romanticism dominated literature in the first half of the century.

1.  It was characterized by a focus on emotions, nature, and the exploration of the imagination and the mind.

2.  It was highly symbolic and subjective.

3.  It was abstract.

4.  It also motivated social action, such as the abolitionist movement, women’s rights movements, and the drive for universal education.

B.  Realism followed the horrors of the Civil War.

A.  The great emotional issue of slavery had been decided in the Civil War.

B.  America now focused on growing physically, socially, and economically.

C.  Industrialism took over from agriculture as the dominant force in America.

1.  It brought great mechanical and material advances for the nation.

a.  The Atlantic cable was laid in 1863.

b.  The transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869.

c.  The telephone was invented in 1876.

d.  The internal combustion engine that made automobiles possible was refined in the 1890s.

2.  However, there were also problems inherent in industrialism.

a.  There were labor disputes, economic depression, and violent strikes for better wages and working conditions.

b.  The influx of immigrants and rural Americans to the cities led to slums and poverty.

c.  The focus on capitalism meant the abuse of women, children, and men in the factories.

d.  The emphasis on money meant that political positions were bought and sold rather than made the choice of the electorate.

e.  Women, who comprised more than half the population, still had little political and legal power.

B.  Darwin, Marx, and Herbert Spencer changed the way humans saw themselves in relation to the world.

1.  The Romantics had emphasized the perfectibility of humans and the belief that progress was inevitable.

2.  Evolution and the knowledge that humans were part of the natural world changed humanity from its idea that it was special and dominant.

3.  Humans were now analyzed according to their ability to adapt to a world that was not made for them but of which they are only a natural part.

a.  There was a sense of the survival of the fittest.

b.  Writers looked to see how humanity would fit into a world that would treat them as merely another part of the world and not as the ultimate end.

3.  Realism in literature is a faithfulness to actuality.

A.  It is “the truthful treatment of material” (William Dean Howells).

1.  Truth, however, is a subjective term and is determined by the writer herself.

2.  It is the truth that is established by the writer’s selection and manipulation of details.

3.  For example, when Twain selects the details about the twins and the murder case in Pudd’nhead Wilson, he can manipulate those details in time and place and action to lead to his truth that racial prejudice is evil.

B.  Realists have common characteristics.

1.  They are believers in democracy.

2.  As a result, they generally describe the common, the average, and the everyday—not in a heroic sense, but as these elements really are.

3.  The realist centers his attention on the immediate, the here and now, the specific action, and the verifiable consequence.

C.  Realists are interested in the effects their works have on their audience and its life.

1.  They want the audiences to see the situations and draw conclusions.

2.  They are concerned that audiences get the effects that they seek from their works.

3.  For example, William Dean Howells was so concerned with his audience of young ladies that he felt an obligation not to do them moral injury and, thus, refused to describe any aspects of life connected with passion and sex, although such aspects are a natural part of his subject matter of the relationships between men and women.

D.  Because the central issues of life tend to be ethical—issues of human conduct—realists focused their subject matter on ethical issues.

1.  They attempt to present these issues accurately as they affect men and women in actual situations.

2.  Thus, when reading a realist, ask what ethical issues are being analyzed and what truths the writer wants the audience to glean about these ethical issues.

E.  The surface details, the common actions, and the minor catastrophes of a middle-class society constituted the chief subject matter of the movement.

1.  Most of the realists avoid situations with tragic or cataclysmic implications.

2.  Their tone is often comic, frequently satiric, seldom grim or somber—such darker tones will arise with the naturalists.

3.  Their general attitude is optimistic since they feel that humanity can learn ethical lessons and improve.

4.  However, some writers, like Mark Twain, found that humanity’s ability to improve is limited to humanity’s being able to accept its limitations and working within them.

F.  The movement is dominated by “local color” writers—regional authors interested in depicting the life and times of their own regions of America.

1.  Mary Wilkins Freeman focuses on New England.

2.  Hamlin Garland focuses on the Midwest.

3.  In some aspects, Twain focuses on the South, although his writing is far more universal.

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