Essay Sample on Evolution of Literary Styles

Introduction

Literature is a form of expression whose sequential structure, both in content and style offers a historical chronology of the evolution of culture. The times and atmosphere in which the writers wrote their works influences their style of writing from the theme, symbolism, and plot among others. This essay seeks to examine how literary styles have evolved across Romanticism, Realism, and Modernism. The comparison will be made based on, The Dead by James Joyce, I Wondered Lonely as the Cloud by William Wordsworth and A Simple Soul by Gustave Flaubert.

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The literary styles evolved depending on the characteristic of the era. Literary tone evolved with time. In realism and romanticism, the tone was optimistic while in modernism, the literary tone was pessimistic regarding various issues dealt in the writing. For example, with a discouraging title, The Dead, uses a sad and hopeless tone. The tone is specifically exemplified in the last few paragraphs. Gabriel, a character in the story is used pessimistic tone as he recollects the dead and looks ahead to the "shades" of other people that are soon to come.

Setting in the Romanticism inclined towards nature. In the poem, I Wandered Lonely as the Cloud the primary setting is the natural world characterized by rolling valleys, lakes, and trees. In realism, the setting is usually a familiar background such as rural area or urban place. A Simple Soul focused on simple, commonplace and powerless characters. The work aligns with realism's portrayal of middle and upper-class characters in an unadorned and brutally honest manner. The work depicts the everyday contemporary setting. Though the setting in modernism compares to realism, the setting involves mostly the city and or background associated with city components. The setting in The Dead shifts from a character's home to a cab and finally to a hotel room- settings normally associated with urban areas.

The point of view also evolved over the three eras. Romanticism point of view was subjective in that it was based on one's opinion, belief, and feelings. The poem I Wandered Lonely as the Cloud, the poets encounters with the daffodils and the feeling of enjoyment in the spellbinding beauty of nature. The Realist, Flaubert takes an omniscient, uninvolved third person narrator. This point of view was common in Realism and tricked the reader into having confidence that the author is giving a neutral and unprejudiced vision of the way things are. Moving into modernism the point of view evolved into a stream of consciousness that attempts to give the written equivalent of the characters thought process. James Joyce made use of stream of consciousness in The Dead. For example, whereas one person may see an army of people, Gabriel sees an army of food.

The Romanticism literature widely used the theme of nature where the landscape is portrayed as endowed with human, life passions and expressiveness. The poem, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud recollects about the daffodils that give the character peace of mind when he is lonely and bored. Realism shifted from imagination and nature characteristic in Romanticism to focuses on the themes of socioeconomic struggle by comparing the living circumstances of the poor with those of the upper classes in cities and towns as well as rural societies. The content in The Dead relates to the spiritual numbness and emotional paralysis of its character; these are common themes of modernist texts, for example, the story concludes with snow blanketing Dublin, signifying the darkness of its people. The snow falls upon all the living and the dead, connecting the living to the dead.

The works A Simple Heart and I Wandered Lonely as the Cloud have utilized the literary styles hence characterizing them according to the era they were written. By examining the text, we c show how they adhere to conventions of the era they were written in. In A Simple Heart, Flaubert in re-counting the room Mme Aubain occupies, writes, "an old piano supported under the barometer, a pyramidal heap of boxes and cartons" (100). The line describes a material too banal, ordinary and serves no purpose to warrant its inclusion in the fiction. The way that death and dying are depicted is also a realist. For example, Flaubert writes, "she noticed that the face had grown yellow, the lips turned blue, the nose was sharper and the eyes sunk in." (23). The reader exposure to vivid depiction of death is typical of realism literature. The text in I Wandered Lonely as the Cloud depict romanticism. There is a rhyme scheme of interchanging rhyme ending at the end of the poem, in the opening four verse lines of the stanza, coupled with the first two verse lines as feminine rhyming couplets with the penultimate syllable stressed leading to delicate lifted quality. This rhyme scheme coupled with the four beats iambic meter give the poem its lyrical structure. Lyrics are a key characteristic of the Romantic movement. Use of syntactical features of the language, archaic, was widely used by Romantic poems. In the poem, this feature is present as illustrated by the line, "Oer hill and dales." The language used by Romanticism captures the imagination of the author. The poem's first line says, "I Wandered Lonely as the Cloud." The simile shows the poet likening himself to a cloud, portrays the image of him floating proudly or absent-mindedly like someone in a romantic atmosphere.

The essay has examined how literary styles such as theme, the point of view, setting and tone evolved across Romanticism, Realism, and Modernism. The essay has cited how works from various authors adhered to the convention of the era they were written in.

Works Cited

Flaubert, Gustave et al. The Complete Works Of Gustave Flaubert. S.P. Magee, Pub., 1904.

Joyce, James. Dubliners. Alma Books, 2017.

Wordsworth, William, and Robert Creeley. I wandered lonely as a cloud. ProQuest LLC, 2004.