Realism Essay
By Julia A. Keirns
Realism was an artistic movement that actually began in France. It was the era, or period, of literature after the Romantic Era. Realism began in the 1860’s when the harshness of the American Civil War was setting in. The brutalness of the war knocked people out of their romantic ideas and shocked them back to reality. This was the beginning of the Realist Era in American Literature (Realism).
One of the main characteristics of Realism was that it more truly represented normal everyday life as it actually was, instead of portraying it as all roses and candy. The realist writers made their characters more realistic to everyday life, dealing with normal everyday issues. The writers tried to capture the true essence of the type of life their readers were living, including the area, the dialogue, the dress and the customs of a certain place and time (Realism).
Realism was about recreating life in literature. It focused on the truth of any aspect of life and it stressed reality over fantasy. The characters in the stories were completely rounded and served a purpose in the plot. The writers focused more on the characters and their morality in dealing with their problems. It was insistent about defending the commonplace. The characters were more important than the plot and emphasized the moral choices they made. The authors perceived the individual characters as simply people who lived life (Realism).
Some of the best known realist authors include Henry James, William Dean Howells, and Mark Twain.
Henry James’s novels have been criticized as not being true to reality, but actually they were. Some of the readers were trying to say that it was not true to their type of life, but if they just ascended to James’s world of people, they would have seen that the characters actually were very real for where he was coming from. The actions of his characters were true to their own nature. Readers of Daisy Miller learn about her character through the story and then can predict how she will act in a certain situation (Daisy Miller).
William Dean Howells actually influenced author Henry James. His most famous work was “The Rise of Silas Lapham” in 1885, but his status as the major American theorist of realism was established by his book “Criticism and Fiction” in 1891. Howells was influenced by other realist writers from Europe and Russia as well as America (Mambrol).
Finally, Mark Twain’s Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn novels are great examples of the realist style of writing. He helped pioneer and foster this type of writing as he incorporated his own life into the characters and stories. No other writer ever had as much influence on the realist era as Twain did (Mark Twain).
Works Cited
“Daisy Miller.” The Realism of Henry James, www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/d/daisy-miller/critical-essays/the-realism-of-henry-james
Mambrol, Nasrullah. “The Realism of William Dean Howells.” Literary Theory and Criticism, 21 Jan. 2018, https://literariness.org/2018/01/08/the-realism-of-william-dean-howells/
“Mark Twain’s Influence on Realism.” UKEssays.com. 11 2018. All Answers Ltd. 02 2020 https://www.ukessays.com/essays/english-literature/mark-twains-influence-on-realism.php?vref=1
“Realism Assignment.” EGCC. “https://egcc.instructure.com/courses/2987/assignments/47847?module_item_id=143555
“Realism PDF.” EGCC. https://www.dvusd.org/cms/lib011/AZ01901092/Centricity/Domain/4781/Realism.VL.2.pdf