Essay Sample on Characteristics of Literally Realism

Introduction

During the nineteenth century, realism started in France before spreading to the rest of the world. The main idea with realism involved removing fantasy in literature and art and inserting what was real. Realism replaced Romanticism, which relied on emotion and intuition to understand the nature of things. The movement showed what was wrong with society, describing the actual problems. Realism had several characteristics.

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First, realist authors mainly concentrated on the middle class and the poor, unlike their predecessors. In the novel, A Simple Soul, Gustave talks about a servant, Felicite. "She cooked and did the housework, washed, ironed and remained faithful to her mistress" (Flaubert 1). Charlotte Perkins also talks about the ordinary middle-class life, as the wife of a doctor in her novel, The Yellow Wall-Paper. Secondly, critical realism involved the use of simple language that could be understood by everyone. Since the books were about ordinary people, the authors had to use regular expressions. Sometimes the authors would even use dialogues to depict real live conversations. There are dialogues between the characters Charlotte's novel (Gilman 3).

Also, realism involved description by including details. The realist authors were different from other authors because they used a lot of more information to show that what they were writing was real. "About twelve o'clock, when the market was full, there appeared at the front of the door a middle-aged peasant with a hooked nose and a cap on the head." (Flaubert 4).Realist authors described the activities of the characters and their feelings.

Furthermore, the authors dug deep into the characters' psychology, actions, motivations, and emotions; trying to understand life. Gustave describes Felicite's life through her actions and feelings, like the agony she felt when Theodore left her. The case is not any different for Charlotte. "He seems queer sometimes, and even Jennie has an inexplicable look. It strikes me occasionally, just as a scientific hypothesis, that perhaps it is the paper" (Gilman 9). The character cares about what is happening to the other characters and tries to explain it. Realism was therefore characterized by full development of characters.

Conclusion

Realism was a different age as compared to other schools such as Romanticism and Naturalism. Several attributes made the realist authors different from other authors as they were critical in identifying the problems facing the society; such as the effects of industrialization and social imbalances. Since the authors wrote in simple language about the poor people and the middle class, there was an increase in literacy levels as the majority could identify with the written works.

Works Cited

Flaubert, Gustave. "A simple soul." Compact Anthology of World Literature: The Long 19th Century. University System of Georgia, n.d. 1-27.

Gilman, Cherlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wall Paper." Compact Anthology of World Literature: The Long 19th Century. University system of Georgia, n,d 1-17.