REALISM AND NATURALISM

Realism

Realism, or literary realism, is the representation of a subject matter in the most realistic and objective manner.
It does not employ artistic conventions or improbable and supernatural events. Realist authors tell stories about
everyday experiences of ordinary people without too much of glamour or overly dramatic tones.

As a literary movement, it emerged in France in 1848 and later spread throughout Europe and the rest of the
world. It was seen as an attempt to depict the lives of the middle and lower classes and as a reaction to
romanticism, which tells stories of royalty, the rich and even divinity. Realism broke this traditional style and
instead presented stories of the working class. There were no romantic heroes or enthralling deities, just stories
about ordinary people the masses could easily identify with.

Leo Tolstoy, regarded as one of the greatest writers of all time, was a realist. He wrote “Anna Karenina” (1877)
and “War and Peace” (1869), both considered the best realist fiction ever written.

Naturalism

Naturalism was the evolution of realism that became popular during the 1880s. It took realism’s adherence to
logic, objectivity and facts and brought it to a new level by focusing on the scientific method and observation.
Naturalists avoided the supernatural, symbolism and fantasy. While authors of naturalism aligned themselves
with realism, they chose to write about the harsher, darker side of society. They wrote about corruption,
poverty, violence, immorality and misery. It is because of these dark themes that naturalists were often
criticized for being too pessimistic.

Literary naturalism was founded by Émile Zola, a French novelist, journalist and playwright. He is best known
for the twenty Rougon-Macquart novels he wrote about the Second French Empire. Other naturalist authors
include Theodore Dreiser, Thomas Hardy, Frank Norris and Stephen Crane.

Comparison between Realism and Naturalism

A) Similarities: While being two separate literary movements, realism and naturalism have been at times used
as interchangeable terms, sharing some deep-running similarities:

1) They are both "basic" views of life and humanity, stripping away the layers of romanticism to present a "
natural" or "real" outlook of the work. They refuse to idealize or flatter the subject. They avoid artificial,
fantasy, or supernatural elements.
2) Both of these pessimistic views emerged in the 19th century, a period known for its trials and turmoil.
3) God is absent from most of the writing in either category, with writers opting for a focus on the real world.

Therefore, both Realists and naturalists strive to describe reality as it is, want to separate man from god and talk
about society in an objective manner, free of unnecessary figures of speech, far from the idealistic views of
romanticism.

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B) Differences: So what’s the difference between realism and naturalism? Although realism eventually
developed into naturalism, both literary styles still have significant differences. Indeed, for many historians
and literary critics, Naturalism is only a variant of Realism.

1) Realism began in France in the 1850s and existed up to late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
Naturalism is believed to be around 1880 to 1930s.

2) Realism is a literary movement characterized by the representation of real life. It was depicting life as it is in
real life in the works of fiction including theatre. It therefore focused on truthful and objective
representation of real life and the presentation of familiar subjects as they were.
Naturalism was a literary movement that evolved from realism. It is an outgrowth or form of realism but
it was influenced by scientific theories. It still depicted subjects as they really were, but added a scientific
aspect to the literary piece. So it was truthful, objective and scientific. It focused on explaining things in a
more scientific way. It shows how science and technology affect the society when we take it as a whole.
Also, it focuses on how society and genetics affect an individual.

3) Realism dealt with subjects that depicted the daily lives of common people; it was more of an account of the
everyday goings-on of society. Realistic novels therefore used themes like society, social class, mobility,
etc.
Naturalism focused on darker topics that involved the lives of the common man. These topics included
violence, corruption, vice, immorality and other taboo or darker topics.

4) Realism sought to be a faithful representation of life.

Naturalism was more like a "chronicle of despair." It can be seen as an exaggerated form of realism; it
shows humans as being determined by environment, heredity, and social conditions beyond their control,
and thus rather helpless to escape their circumstances.

5) Realism has a superficial analysis of society. It explores whatever happens to individuals within due to
society.
Naturalism has a more in-depth approach, as it works with the idea that men are conditioned by the
environment they were born in (genetic, environmental and social factors will determine the fate of a
character in a naturalist novel). So it explores whatever happens to individuals within and due to society,
social conditions, their own human nature, genetics, heredity, and natural environment (animals, natural
calamities, natural elements).

6) Realism exhibited characters’ actions and beliefs. Naturalism identifies the underlying causes for a person’s
actions or beliefs.

7) While in Realism the main focus was usually on the middle class and its problems, Naturalism often focused
on poorly educated or lower-class characters or characters with poor education.

8) While realistic works do attempt to exhibit authorial subjectivity and positive outlook of life, Naturalism
makes reality its only obsession which is never positive.

9) Realism was more sympathetic in its approach towards story and as a result could gain the attention and the
liking of the audience. Naturalism, as it was more focused on a more clinical approach to the story, was not
that heart-felt or passionate as a realistic story. As a result, products of naturalism were not that popular with
the audience.

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Realistic Drama V/S Naturalistic Drama
Realism
characters are believable, everyday types
costumes are authentic
stage settings (locations) and props are often indoors and
believable
settings for realistic plays are often bland (deliberately
ordinary), dialogue is not heightened for effect, but that
of everyday speech (vernacular)
the drama is typically psychologically driven, where the
format or structure and plot is secondary and primary
focus is placed on the interior lives of characters, their
motives, the reactions of others etc.
realistic plays often see the protagonist (main character)
rise up against the odds to assert him/herself against an
injustice of some kind (e.g. Nora in Ibsen’s A Doll’s
House).
the realist movement in the theatre and subsequent
performance style have greatly influenced 20th century
theatre and cinema and its effects are still being felt today
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Naturalism
characters are believable, everyday types; but are
more miserable and pitiable
costumes are historically more accurate and very
detailed
sets and props are historically more accurate and
very detailed, attempting to offer a photographic
reproduction of reality (‘slice of life’)
as with realism, settings for naturalistic dramas
are often bland and ordinary;
stage time equals real time – e.g. three hours in
the theatre equals three hours for the characters in
the world of the play
naturalistic dramas normally follow structural
rules set out by the Greek philosopher Aristotle,
known as ‘the three unities’ (of time, place and
action):
the action of the play takes place in a single
location over the time frame of a single day.
jumps in time and/or place between acts or scenes
is not allowed.
naturalism explores the concept of scientific
determinism (spawning from Charles Darwin’s
theory of evolution) – characters in the play are
shaped by their circumstances and controlled by
external forces such as hereditary or their social
and economic environment
often characters in naturalistic plays are
considered victims of their own circumstance and
this is why they behave in certain ways (they are
seen as helpless products of their environment)
nature as also seen as a destructive force that
overpowers the characters, who never win
as a theatrical movement and performance style,
naturalism was short-lived
THEMES OF NATURALISTIC LITERATURE

The logical outgrowth of literary Realism was the point of view known as Naturalism. Naturalism sought to go further and be more
explanatory than Realism.

Realism Naturalism
Whatever happens to individuals within due to Whatever happens to individuals within and
society due to society, social conditions, their own
human nature, genetics, heredity, and natural
environment (animals, natural calamities,
natural elements)
Exhibits characters’ actions and beliefs Identifies the underlying causes for a person’s
actions or beliefs

Theme One: Naturalism, for better or worse, is in some respects a form of Social Darwinism played out in fiction.

Social Darwinism is the theory that persons, groups, and races are subject to the same laws of natural selection as Charles Darwin had
perceived in plants and animals in nature (though Darwin never applied this theory to human beings and their social behaviour).
.
According to the theory, which was popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the weak were diminished and their cultures
delimited, while the strong grew in power and in cultural influence over the weak.

Social Darwinists held that the life of humans in society was a struggle for existence ruled by “survival of the fittest.”

Theme Two: One of the pioneers of the movement, French author Emile Zola, summed it up well with the title of his 1890
novel, The Human Beast. In naturalism, humans are analyzed like any other beast. Animal without free will.

(Tip 1: divergent than Darwin theory of evolution of species. He never said humans were
animals. Just that they had descended from animals. BIG DIFFERENCE).

(Tip 2: exactly like national geographic documentaries on animal kingdom)

Did you ever watch one of those animal documentaries where you see how animals behave in their natural environment? I saw one
once about tigers in India. This tiger was stalking a deer in a forest. There were monkeys in the trees that were howling, which I guess
they do to alert the deer that a tiger's coming. But the deer got stuck in some brush. And, well, it didn't end well for the deer.

Now imagine this kind of documentary where it's not a deer but a human. That's the essence of naturalism. This does not mean that
people are getting eaten by tigers in these stories (at least, not normally), but they are analyzed like animals in a documentary.

Humanity is thus a higher order animal whose character and behavior are, as M. H. Abrams summarizes, entirely determined by two
kinds of forces, hereditary and environment. The individual's compulsive instincts toward sexuality, hunger, and accumulation of
goods are inherited via genetic compulsion and the social and economic forces surrounding his or her upbringing.

Theme Three: "The conflict in naturalistic novels is often 'man against nature' or 'man against himself' as characters struggle
to retain a 'veneer of civilization' despite external pressures that threaten to release the 'brute within' " (Campbell). Nature is
indifferent to man. It always wins.

Naturalists emphasize the smallness of humanity in the universe; they remind readers of the immensity, power, and cruelty of the
natural world, which does not care whether humanity lives or dies.

Stories written on, e.g.:

• A Civil War soldier who deserts his unit;
• Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat," which pits a crew of shipwrecked survivors in a raft against starvation, dehydration, and
sharks in the middle of the ocean.
• People trapped on a deserted frozen mountain, who survive by eating their dead mates flesh; still die in the end because of an
avalanche.
• A man who avenges the murder of his dead family members by killing the daughter of a rich business tycoon; then plans to
do the same to her sister. Dies in the end though.

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Think about any Charles Dickens novel. These are from the Victorian era, which also preceded naturalism. What happens to Oliver
Twist? Born with nothing, he lives happily ever after in the end. In a naturalist story, he'd never escape poverty. He might not even
survive the orphanage. In Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie, the girl makes it big, but then falls hard - she can't change who she is: a
poor, country girl.

If class doesn't get you, nature will. In naturalist works, nature is indifferent to humanity. Consider Jack London's 'To Build a Fire.'
What does the freezing man need to do to survive when he's stuck in the Alaskan winter? Build a fire. It's right there in the title. Does
nature help him out? No, not at all. He falls through some ice. Now he's wet and freezing. Then he gets a fire going under a tree. But
snow falls from the tree and the fire is gone. It keeps going like that.

You may be wondering, 'Why are these writers such jerks to their characters?' Think about what they're trying to do. They want to
expose the world as it really is. People don't really win the lottery and then have awesome lives. When you end up in a lifeboat, as in
Crane's 'The Open Boat,' there isn't a helpful dolphin like Flipper to save you.

Theme Four: Although it took various forms, in fiction, drama, and the visual arts, and subsequently in film, naturalism’s
primary aim was to explore and exploit (physical, moral, and social) 'lowness.'

(Tip 2: almost like art movies instead of commercial cinema)

The power of primitive emotions to negate human reason was also a recurring element.

Stylistic Characteristics:

i. The Naturalist simply takes the world as it is, for good or ill, without artificial distortions of emotion, idealism, and literary
convention, ethics, morality, didacticism, etc.
ii. Typically, naturalist writers avoid explicit emotional commentary in favor of medical frankness about bodily functions and
biological activities that would be almost unmentionable during earlier literary movements like transcendentalism,
Romanticism, and mainstream Victorian literature.
iii. Naturalistic writers--including Zola, Frank Norris, Stephen Crane, and Theodore Dreiser--try to present their subjects with
scientific objectivity. They often choose characters based on strong animal drives who are "victims both of glandular
secretions within and of sociological pressures without" (Abrams 175).
iv. Naturalistic styles cannot be defined in a clear-cut manner: however, they can be listed as documentary, satiric, sensational,
etc.
v. The documentary style of narrative makes no comment on the situation, and there is no sense of advocating for change.
vi. English writers of realistic and naturalistic novels attempted to understand the numerous aspects of individuals as well as
individuals as well as individuals' relationships to society; then depicted individuals adjusting or not adjusting to the
developments and changes that rapidly shaped society.
vii. Naturalistic writers used a version of the scientific method to write their novels; they studied human beings governed by their
instincts and passions as well as the ways in which the characters' lives were governed by forces of heredity and environment.
viii. Plot or story was subservient to character and their psychological motives
ix. The end of the naturalistic novel is usually unpleasant or unhappy, perhaps even "tragic," though not in the cathartic sense
Aristotle, Sophocles, or Elizabethan writers would have understood by the term tragedy.
x. The Naturalist believed in studying human beings as though they were "products" that are to be studied impartially, without
moralizing about their natures. In short, this literature has following characteristics:
• Objective
• Detached method of narration
• Language--formal; piling on of images ("wretched excess")
• Human beings unable to stand up against enormous weight of circumstances.
• Deterministic--natural and socioeconomic forces stronger than man.
• Heredity determines character
• Animal imagery
• Attention to setting to the point of saturation
• Characters--lower socioeconomic class
• Static characters
• Naturalists observe, then write. Often about the black, darker side of life.
• "Pessimistic materialistic determinism" (Pizer)
• Characters conditioned or controlled by environment, heredity, instinct or chance. They do not have free will (determinism).