Realism and Naturalism are two similar literary movements of the 19th and 20th century that deal with the real, cruel world. Realism was developed in the early 1800s as a branch off of Romanticism which also dealt with ordinary, “natural” life. Realism most straightforwardly is “the truthful treatment of material.” Writers in this movement focused mainly on everyday, natural incidents involving ordinary people, nothing too extreme or out of the ordinary. This movement put most emphasis on detached, precise observations of human life. Some such writers were Mark Twain and Dean Howells. Naturalism was just a more extreme, darker version of Realism. However Naturalism is based on very different philosophy in which people are prisoners of their inheritance and social environment, a result of Darwinian influence of scientific reasoning. In Naturalism, life is viewed more as machine like than humanistic; man is simply just another animal on planet earth driven by his chemistry and environment. Spirituality has no part in this literary movement; it is all scientifically based. A few writers in this movement were Theodore Dreiser and Ambrose Beirce. Although Realism and Naturalism are quite similar movements, they are still two very distinct philosophical views on life as illustrated in two pieces of such literature: “Hedda Gabler” by Henrik Isben and “Chickamauga” written by Ambrose Beirce.
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“Hedda Gabler” is a play written in 1890 by Henrik Ibsen, a Realistic writer, in which Realism is displayed and its principles qualified. Since Realism is a movement dedicated to revealing the vulgarity and cruelty of society to the people this story is likewise an account of a perverse, earthy society. It is based and names after the main character, Hedda Gabler. Gabler is her maiden name, but using it as the title sets the Realistic tone that all she ever did was care for herself and her formerly comfortable, aristocratic lifestyle. She is a prime example of how perverse society and its morality really is. Hedda was married to George Tesman and apparently pregnant with his child which morally is supposed to mean that she has some sort of binding love with him, however, she confessed to Mrs. Elvsted that even after all that, she really had no true feelings for Tesman. Not only does she not love her husband but she has no problem with cheating on him with his scholarly archrival, Eilert Loevborg. This is a prime illustration of the Realistic view of a perverse society. Although this story is pointing out the perverse nature of mankind, it is not taking and humane traits out of the characters like Naturalism; it is a much less extreme example of an ultimately corrupt humanity.
“Chickamauga” is a short story written by American Ambrose Beirce, a sardonic author obsessed with death, a Naturalism characteristic, which can blatantly be seen in this story. Naturalism comes from a desire to shock the middle class with thorough and vivid depictions of sadistic, animalistic characters. First of all, Beirce’s attitude towards the six year old boy in the story, referring to the boy as “it”, qualifies the Naturalistic principle that man is merely just another animal, no more than a lab case study. Naturalists do not believe than humans possess any kind of otherworldly soul that separates them from all other life forms. This is portrayed especially by the boy and also somewhat by the soldiers and other characters in the story. Already has Beirce started dehumanizing the boy by calling him “it”, but also they way he writes about him in such an annoyed, insufferable manor it is plain to see that to the Naturalists, the boy is worthless. It is even more appalling considering the inconsiderate tone Beirce took with the boy to find out at the end that he was a deaf mute. Naturalists have no more care for poor children with handicaps than they do with anything else. This detached tone is also taken with the maimed, dying soldiers dragging themselves to the creek. They are plainly observed by the young boy who was amused and intrigued, not aghast, by the awkward way their maimed bodies approached the creek and by how the men who’d let their heads down to get a drink had been too weak to lift their heads back out and had drowned in the water. Realists do not take the human factor out of mankind like Naturalists do; they simply observe without any kind of emotion or attachment to the characters and setting.
Not only are these soldiers being described and treated inhumanly, the child’s reaction to these images were solely influenced and determined by his past experiences, his environment. These men were suffering incredibly and the young boy just laughed as he saw them approaching and thought nothing of their disfigured features until one of them aggressively pushed him off of his back onto the ground. At first he thought of them as amusing because the red blood that covered their faces and bodies reminded him of a clown he had once been entertained by, and the way some of them were crawling reminded him of the way some of his family’s slaves had pretended to be horses for him to ride. Because of his past experiences with seemingly similar circumstances, the boy was not afraid and even jumped on the back of one of the crawling soldiers he thought was also pretending to be a horse. However, after the man shoved the little boy off onto the ground and the boy saw his disfigured face he finally became afraid. The man’s jawless, bloody face reminded the little boy of a carnivorous bird after its kill. Both of these reactions were not based on any kind of feeling; they were simply reactions to the boy’s environment, another principle of Naturalism. Realism does not try to give any reasons for a character’s actions whether they are results of their environment or moral responsibilities. Naturalism is a scientific philosophy rationalizing how and why man works the way he does; Realism simply tries to put an accurate emphasis on humane understanding, leaving the character’s motive to himself.
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Although Realism and Naturalism do branch off from each other, they are very different in that Realism leaves the humanistic qualities and just focusing on true observations of a corrupt society whereas Naturalism is a scientific philosophy that mankind is nothing more than another life form on earth acting upon only his chemistry and environmental circumstances. “Hedda Gabler” and “Chickamauga” were two very suitable examples of each literary movement. They both clearly exhibited the principles of each movement to the reader.
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