Shanaz nadhim kadhim
Group B
Rise of the English novel
Tayeb Abdulrahman Abdullah, MA
January 5th, 2022
History of realistic Victorian novels
History of realistic Victorian novels
The realistic novel and its formation
Earlier literature was different from realistic novel. Poetry was the most popular form of
literature. However, the realistic novel changed that. This new form of literature tried to use
journalistic techniques to exhibit real life, facts and human nature in literature. The focus was on
describing the scene or the character with facts rather than judging or commenting on them.
Ordinary life of regular people was the major theme of realistic novel, which described the
struggles of lower class. The struggles were about poor people trying to climb the social ladder.
These struggles lead to the birth of a subgenre called social realism. One of the well liked novels
of that time was influenced by social realism genre. In Charles dickens great expectations, the
novel is about the life of a boy named pip, as he suddenly gets money and is wanted to become a
gentleman. The writer continues on narrating about pip’s struggles, and puts attention on the
character’s actual personality, as it talks about both good and bad behaviors of the character
alongside with the motive behind them. He was intended to be a very materialistic person, one
that a normal person of that time could relate to materially. with all his flaws and positive
attributes, pip was meant to be a very real character.
The rise of the novel
Before the Victorian era, the dominant form of literature had been poetry. However, some
changes in the class structure led to the rise of novel popularity. The expansion of the middle
class made more people educated, and the novel’s popularity increased. Industrial revolution,
newspaper’s expansion and periodical press resulted these works to be more known. Especially,
Charles dickens works were published in series form on newspapers and journals, like his first
serialized novel “pickwick papers” written in 1836. The main subject of Charles dickens works
made the works more likable. Dickens specifically wrote about the lives of the working people to
attract middle class readers that expanded at that time. The focus in realistic Victorian novels
was on characters and themes such as the bad situation that poor people were in and the ability of
middle class to reach social mobility which led the rising middle class to read and like these
novels.
Evolution of the realistic Victorian novel
Until 1901 queen Victoria had power over UK and at the beginning of the new century the
literature that was being produced shared some characteristics with the works of the Victorian
era. the novelists of the end of Victorian era such as Oscar Wilde and Thomas hardy continued to
research on English social life matters at the turn of the year, and they explored some other
themes as well. Such as sexuality and how science and technology would take over the world in
the future.
What is realism?
Realism is devoted to differentiate real from what is not real. Literary realism exists before and is
separate from human thought or speech. Thus, to accurately interpret and represent reality is
literature’s responsibility. As literature does that, at the same time it portrays the desires,
anxieties, and achievements of the Victorian period. While realism has its own characteristics,
the genre still continued to benefit and use the strengths of romanticism and empiricism. For
example, nature is still talked about, but realistic literature supports the idea that human mind is a
separate entity from nature. Therefore, realistic literature’s goal is to answer the question of how
the human mind can comprehend nature. Two main theories answer this question.
Realism began as an opposite and departure genre from romantic period. realism appeared in the
second half of nineteenth century, it was used mostly in novels. Realism was known for its
attention to detail and retelling the reality as it was. Thus, the author no longer completely
focused on plot but on creating interesting and complex characters. As opposed to natural world
in romanticism, realism focused on describing the material and physical details of life. softer
aspects of romanticism were not used by many realistic novelists, such as kindliness and
fantasizing, because they thought that these characteristics doesn’t represent the cruel realities of
life. Defining setting, dress, and character in realism would have Been inappropriate to earlier
authors. In conclusion Realism emphasizes on the value of the ordinary people and common
situations; it doesn’t care about heroic and the aristocratic.
References:
https://sites.udel.edu/britlitwiki/the-realistic-novel-in-the-victorian-era/
