Are the American Realist and Naturalist Writers Breaking away from Romantic Literary Tradition - Essay Example

Are the American realist and naturalist breaking away from romantic literary tradition or are those later still infusing romantic spirit in it Romanticism, an intellectual movement has its origin in the 18th century in Western Europe. In a sense, it was a revolt against social and political norms of enlightenment as well as reaction against rationalization of nature in art and literature. It emphasizes on strong emotions, horror, fear, feelings etc. and is influenced by the idea of enlightenment. The term “romantic” derives from the word “romance” which is prose or poetry originating in medieval or romantic literature. In the American context, it refers to a separate group of artists, musicians, poets, and writers, who lived between the 18th and early 19th century in Europe. Romanticism refers to a strong link between animals and nature, and relies on emotion, exotic settings, unrequited love, heat, ocean, and birds for telling a story. On the other hand realism refers to depiction of subjects as they appear in life without ornamentation. Literary realism has emerged as a trend in early 19th century in French literature and focused on the manifestation of contemporary life and society as it is, instead of giving a romanticized view. Realism is a reaction against romanticism, stressing the ‘real’ over the ‘romantic’- illustrating the everyday life of the characters and revealing their of real thoughts. Regionalism and sexuality are portrayed as a feature of character identity rather than being ignored. Naturalism “Naturalism is as a metaphysical theory that holds that all phenomena can be explained mechanistically in terms of natural (as opposed to supernatural) causes and laws.” (Naturalism © 2006 Robert Todd Carroll). In literature, it tries to apply detachment and scientific principles of objectivity to its study of human beings. Naturalistic writers believe that through objective study of human beings, it is possible to understand the forces that control human lives. This theory considers that human beings are governed by their passions and instincts. Kate Chopin is a strong willed American feminist writer whose stories cover themes like regionality, marriage, infidelity and sexual freedom. Her short story, ‘The Storm’, portrays the affairs of two married persons, and illustrates how the world keeps going despite infidelity. It also tries to depict the sexual environment exiting of the 19th century American society while clearly giving a strong indication of human beings’ normal proclivity towards sexual infatuation. The author uses the representation of “Storm” to symbolize the undercurrent of sexual feelings that build up throughout the story between Calixta and Alcee. It can be discerned from the writings of Kate Chopin, especially in this story that she clearly follows the romantic nature of writing as it is evident in several instances in her short story. Some of the characteristics of romantic writers are that they invariably depict nature, emotions, exotic settings and unrequited love and heat. Most of these elements are found in the short story “The Storm.” The main characters, Calixta and Alcee loved each other before the events narrated in the story takes place. However, circumstances don’t allow them to get marry each other and they are forced to share their lives with somebody they don’t love. The story begins with the illustration of a storm and Calixta’s husband, Bobinot and their son are away and trapped in the storm. Meanwhile, Alcee reaches Calixta’s home but the storm forces him to stay back. The favorable conditions provide the opportunity to unleash the sexual passions churning in them. The storm begins to abate once they exhaust their sexual energy and strangely, instead of regretting both feel refreshed. “ As Alcee leaves, he turns and smiles, and Calixta laughs out loud; her passion is seen to be natural, experienced without guilt or shame" (Lynn, Langdon. Faust. American Women Writers. New York: Inger, 1983). Being a feminist writer, Kate herself seems to clearly understand female sexuality. “Through her writing of this story, she was able to not only express her own thoughts about sexuality, but she was also able to make a private statement about her feelings on the sexual mores of the current time period.” (Bartee, Joanna. The Storm: More than Just a Story). On the other hand, Charlotte Perkins Gillman’s “The yellow wall paper’ is more inclined towards a realistic way of writing rather than strengthening romanticism. The main character in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is a lady who probably suffers from ‘Postpartum Depression’ and therefore confined to a special room in the upstairs. The room is adorned with yellow paper that triggers manic depression in the woman. She believes that the wallpaper possesses demonic traits which can leave yellow marks on the body of anybody who touches it. She develops an intense hatred towards the wallpaper and regards it as the cause of all her miseries. She believes that the wallpaper keeps changing in the moonlight and there are many shadows behind the wallpaper which are trying to escape. She comes to the conclusion that shadows are all women and she is one amongst them. Finally, she becomes purely insane and believes she is the only woman who has escaped from the clutches of the wallpaper. She is completely disconnected from the reality so much that she is not able even to recognize her husband. He becomes terrified of her and falls unconscious. Feminist critics interpret the story as a disapproval of ‘Androcentric Hegemony’ of the 19th century medical profession. Some of the suggestion of the narrator regarding how she should be treated is dismissed as though she is mad by saying that, being an irrational person she is not eligible to entertain ideas about her own wellbeing. An important characteristic of the short story is that it illustrates gut feelings and real thoughts of the character. For example, the female protagonist who is the main character and whose suggestions about her recuperation are the innermost feelings about herself. She feels that she should work instead of rest, she should be sociable, and instead of being separated from her child, she should be reunited with him. Since the short story relates to day-to day events in the character’s life and also reveals the real thoughts of the character, which are the salient features of the realistic writing, it can be stated the story is leans towards realism. Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne, a 19th century American novelist, has been considered as a prominent figure in the development of American literature. He is remembered for his short stories and four romantic novels written between 1850-1860. Some of his famous novels are Scarlett Letter, The House of Seven Gables, The Blithedale Romance and The Marble Faun. Most of his works belongs to romantic category which is characterized by laying stress on individual’s freedom, social customs and political control. Moreover, his works are also considered as a revolt against 19th century concept of logic to support all beliefs. Almost, all of his writings have been based on the Colonial New England and most of his short stories are characterized as moral stories influenced by his puritan background. In Young Goodman Brown, the conflict between good and evil in human nature is brought to the forefront. The story begins with the protagonist, Young Goodman Brown meet in with an eerie figure in the forest while traveling. As they both proceed deeper into the forest, Goodman realizes that his companion is a devil and the purpose of their trip is to take part in an evil ritual. Though Goodman expresses reluctance, he is compelled to proceed, as they move forward Goodman sees other people coming for the same purpose, many of whom are familiar figures. Those include his pastor, deacon, and the lady who taught him catechism. He is astonished and troubled and tries to go back. Suddenly, he hears the voice of his wife, and understands that she is going to be initiated and he reluctantly joins the gathering. In a bizarre ceremony in the forest, all the new converts are anointed with blood to proclaim their new faith in the wickedness. Goodman Brown and his wife are set to be initiated to the new order. Suddenly, Goodman shouts to his wife to look upwards at the heaven and resist the devil. In the very next moment, he finds himself alone in the forest. There is a possibility that whatever happens might have been a dream; but Goodman is deeply shaken and troubled. He becomes an invertebrate pessimist and views everybody with suspicion. The story concludes with the statement that "and when he had lived long, and was borne to his grave a hoary corpse, followed by Faith, an aged woman, and children and grandchildren, a goodly procession, besides neighbors not a few, they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom.” (Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Young Goodman Brown). In the short story Young Goodman Brown, the settings take place and there is a good depiction of nature. Moreover, the aspects of unrequited love between he and his wife have also been portrayed. This heightens the romantic image, and therefore this short story would belong to the genre of romanticism The Devil in Manuscript On a cold bitter night, the protagonist arrives at the office of his intimate friend, who, during his youth was a gifted poet, but now is practicing Law. Pointing to a sheaf of papers, his friend tells the protagonist that there is a devil in this pile of unpublished returned materials. The materials related to tales of the character and exploits of a villain who practices witchcraft. His friend tells the protagonist that he would now burn the returned manuscripts and thus destroy the devil in it. Apparently, he had sent them to 17 booksellers, but only one bookseller deemed it fit even to read it. The protagonist suggests to his friend to publish it himself, but the friend retorts that “their reach has made him to loathe the books.” (Hawthorne, Nathaniel. From The Snow Image, 1852. The Devil in Manuscript).And he considers it as his arch-enemy. The romantic nature of this book is quite evident from the emotional outbursts of his friend when questioned about the manuscripts of his story. His heated arguments to destroy the manuscripts claiming that there is an evil spirit in it are also of high romantic value. When the protagonist tries to stop him from consigning the manuscripts to the flames, he asks him whether he should retain it in order “to undergo sneer tauts, abuse and cold neglect and faint praise, bestowed, for pity’s sake, against the giver’s conscience.” Hawthorne, Nathaniel. From The Snow Image, 1852. The Devil in Manuscript). After he succeeds in putting the manuscripts into the flames, it turns into ashes. Here again the emotion of anger and unbridled rage of the person can be visualized, confirming the display of emotion which puts in to the genre of romantism. Soon after the papers are set on fire, the cries of’ fire’ sound from the road below. There emerges a cacophony of sounds, including the clanging of fire engines and the roar of the public below. General pandemonium prevails over the area. Then the truth dawns upon the friend. He becomes overwhelmed with joy and happiness and concludes that his brains have set the town on fire. In the above story, Nathaniel Hawthorne has portrayed strong contrasting emotions of rage and joy over the writing manuscripts prepared by the protagonist’s friend. There is seething anger and discontent over its rejection and also joy when he finally gets rid of them by burning them in the fire-place. He feels lighthearted as though a heavy burden has been lifted from his shoulders and gives way for expressions of joy. Therein lies the true expressions of romantism Thus it can be seen that these American writers indeed do break away to a certain extent from the Romantic literacy genre by portraying life in a realistic manner albeit with a punch of fantasy element. The female patient is actively engaged in hallucinating thoughts that women are confined behind the wallpaper, which in fact, epitomizes the oppression women were facing. She is having romantic concepts about how life should be. On the other hand, despite the depiction of raw human nature with sexuality in the form of infidelity in The Storm, the primary cause that instigates the illicit relation is the element of love between the man and woman­­­­. In both stories by Hawthorne, though nature and fantasy play a vital role, the underlying factor is social criticism, and yet he takes a romantic view by which he makes the husband call to the wife to defy the devil and go by heaven’s ways. Thus it can be stated that while American writers have used literary devices of realistic representation of human life, which could be construed as breakaway from romantic tradition, yet partly, they also infuse romantic spirit in their writing, as all the characters are motivated by an element of romantic ideals in them. Work Cited Naturalism. ©copyright 2006 Robert Todd Carroll. 19 Mar. 2006. 20 Mar.2007 . Lynn, Langdon. Faust. American Women Writers. New York: Inger, 1983. Bartee, Joanna. The Storm: More than Just a Story. 20 Mar. 2007 . Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Young Goodman Brown. 20 Mar. 2007 . Hawthorne, Nathaniel. From The Snow Image, 1852. The Devil in Manuscript. 20 Mar. 2007 . Read More