George Levine's Argument on the Conventions of Realism - Essay Example

Jude the Obscure describes a common scenario: a working-class man who aspires to become a scholar and a woman who embraces extreme realism. By and large, the themes used in the novel rotate around the matters of class, education, religion, and marriage. The novel exemplifies a real societal consequence as Hardy draws the storyline from the transformation of England from an “agricultural society to an industrial one” (Hardy 2000). Hardy portrays this transformation by writing about the movement of people from one town to another in order to find jobs.

Furthermore, the novel touches on the insecurity of the future and the doubt in the existence of God (Prentiss 1995). This is consistent with the plot of the novel wherein Sue and Jude are embracing avant-gardism and industrialism, which really took place during the time when Hardy wrote this book. Levine is accurate in this regard by describing the conventions of realism as deflation of ambition and passion and passion and more of what really happens in reality. And in Jude, the Obscure does not simply use a realistic narrative but links it to the prevailing developments in society, particularly in England.

Dickens’ Great Expectations likewise represents a certain level of realism. Upon closely reading it, one would observe that the life of Pip is one that is so difficult to describe in one phrase. There is so much fatness and complicatedness in the way the narratives are being patterned. The point is that so much is happening in the novel that it resembles day to day life of a random individuals. But despite this, Shaw (2006) describes it as “all of once piece and consistently truthful.” What could be truthful about this novel may be explained by filling up every angle of the story with things that happen in real life, which consequently allows for a good feeling of the daily realistic elements of a particular time and place. Levine argues that the conventions of realism deviate from the “preoccupation of surfaces, things, traits, and social manners”, which is clearly what Dickens did in this novel.

Dickens did not put more melodramatic themes on the story, for instance, because he is an orphan and has an abusive sister, he did not opt to include a heroic savior that would somehow deflate the burden he Pip experiences. These things simply do exist in real life. It is as if readers of the novel would automatically hook up to the story because of its constancy with truthful human emotions and perceptions: in the novel, Pip started off as a kid who is always afraid of what is out there; then, he ended up as an old man who fell in love and stuck in huge debt. It is merely a showing of natural human development and the common and rare issues associated with it. Read More