Introduction
During the second half of the nineteenth century, the paradigm in novel
writing was no longer the Romantic idealism of the earlier part of the century
but a new approach to character and subject matter, a school of thought which
later came to be known as Realism. Realism is exactly what it sounds to be: the
attention to detail and an effort to portray the true nature of reality in a
way that novelists had never attempted before. It was believed that the
function of the novels was simply to report what happened, without any comment
or judgment.
Similarly to what happened with Romanticism, which was a reaction
against the Enlightenment, Realism was a reaction against Romanticism. Realists
rebelled against the exotic subject matter and exaggerated emotionalism and
drama of the Romantic movement. For this reason, its aim was to portray real
and typical contemporary people and situations with truth and accuracy, not
avoiding the unpleasant or sordid aspects of life. Realist works described the
ordinary life of people from all social classes in situations that arose in
everyday life. Moreover, it often reflected the changes brought by the Industrial and Commercial Revolutions which affected the lives of the common man.
Historical Background
In England, Realism coincided approximately with the
"Victorian Era", a period ruled by Queen Victoria (1837-1901) and
which meant the height of the British Empire and the Industrial Revolution. The
United Kingdom expanded its borders into America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania and
became the first economic and political world power of the time.
The 1880’s was the decade that came to
be known as "The Hungry Years," as industrialization spread and the
lower classes became more firmly established. During the preceding years,
industry had spread gradually and had led farmers away from the countryside; it
had also eliminated gradually the jobs of countless workers with inventions
that made their jobs redundant. These people found themselves competing for a
few available jobs in what was becoming a highly mechanized economy. A middle
class of merchants was formed out of the aristocracy who found their taxes
reducing, and of the lower class that aspired to get more. Business ventures
collapsed, but other commercial ventures, flourished. Ideologically, this was a
time of trouble, as the many discoveries of science led to a crisis of faith in
God. Soon, educated men divided themselves into two principal schools: the utilitarians,
who based everything upon the utility of the objects; and those who were firm
believers in faith. Although we have the impression that the Victorian Age was
the time of a repressive and repressed society, it was one of the most vital
periods of English history, lively and full of controversy. Belief in
technology was at its height and medical science was improving radically, while
the superstitions of magic had been swept away. Living conditions were terrible
but England was by that time well on he way to become the dominant nation in
the world, and London the jewel in the crown of the British Empire.
Industrial Revolution: causes and consequences
The industrial revolution is considered
to be a period of accelerated structural change in the economy, involving a
rapid rise in the industrial output, in the share of manufacturing in national
product, in factory-based activity (which meant a different kind of economy),
and based on major technological innovation. It was a period of time when the
replacement of manual labor for machines occurred, thus leading to significant
social upheaval: it was believed that machines would take over the job of
thousands of people making them search for other ways of living. The changes of
the time were drastic to the agricultural economies which were transformed into
industrial and urban-based systems. The consequences were so severe that they
led to the emergence of a new social class structure. Besides, the nature of
production was evolving including what was produced, where it was produced and
how it was produced. This was all due to the emergence of factories, and the
application of power technologies to the workplace. The introduction of power-led
machinery greatly increased productivity and technical efficiency. This had two
major consequences: the growth in business enterprises and the growth of
existing urban settlements as populations migrated from rural areas into urban
communities in search of employment.
Contributing Factors
There were many factors that allowed for
the Industrial Revolution to occur. Firstly, industrialization had begun in
rural areas, which led to the rise of capitalism, a major driving force of the
Industrial Revolution in the countryside. Secondly, there was also a change in
the farming methods, a result of the Agricultural Revolution. Besides those,
the increase in the amount of food also led to a growth in the British
population with increasing numbers of the younger population every day. This
led to a vicious cycle: improved agricultural technology meant that less people
were required to work the lands; at the same time, there were more and more
people reaching working age. This drove agricultural potential laborers to look
for employment somewhere else. Besides the development of agriculture, major
regional and institutional changes in the banking and financial sectors also
coincided with this timeframe.
Causes and Effects
Transportation
The Industrial Revolution began to
change England, and subsequently the rest of the Europe, into the modern world
we live in nowadays. Beginning in mid-late 18th to early 19th century,
different means of transportation began developing. Originally, the primary
focus was on the construction of canals which began on an unprecedented scale
during this time. Canals were very functional as they provided an inexpensive
means to connect landlocked regions to the sea where trade could occur. This
growth in infrastructure allowed for improved connections from one place to
another where they previously isolated from each other.
Technology was developing and during the
19th century trains began replacing smaller canals as the predominant method of
transport. There were heavy investments in trains and in order to further their
process, train companies began buying canals and halting their transportation.
This allowed trains to begin monopolizing the transportation market.
Knowledge
Education was one of the fields most
influenced by the Industrial Revolution. This improvement can be best accredited
to the increased accessibility to books and to the enlightenment that had
occurred soon before. As the technology of printing and publishing matured, the
amount of books and journals being published reached high records. This led to
an enhanced spread of new ideas within the general public. Information recorded
by industrialists and technicians of the period provided a great amount of
information beyond compared to previous ages.
There were several major evolutions in
learning and knowledge during this period of time. Firstly, technological
improvements had led to the development of science in the modern sense. Because
of their faith in the new technologies, people had begun to view to universe as
being ordered. This meant that institutions were becoming increasingly secular
and scientific. Secondly, the importance of education had changed drastically
over the past hundred years as the availability of books had increased the
literary rate. This was significant as this period also coincided with rapid
economic growth. Newly wealthy individuals and the recently emerging middle
classes without an aristocratic upbringing needed another ways to demonstrate
their improved social statuses. Wealth began pouring into academies and
publications which directly increased the speed with which knowledge could be
transferred from one individual to another.
Thinkers of this era were united under a
common objective: social reform. They trusted in science to transfer Europe
from a feudal society to the modern society we have today. With this mind, it
is obvious that they perceived themselves as social engineers in a New Europe,
a modern Europe. It is important to remember that despite the emergence of additional
riches and hence, more prosperous individuals than previously, many of these
people had an affluent upbringing. However, their abundance also reflected the
limitations and social injustices of Europe at the time. Furthermore, nepotism
and corruption was the norm because democracy and liberty simply did not exist:
absolutism ruled the day. The primary purpose behind this new age of thinkers
was to overthrow the system of the day and instate a new form of government and
society, one that is guided by liberal and democratic factors. The best way to
do this was through science and education.
Technology and Engineering
With increased knowledge came improved
technology. Unlike previous times, innovations had allowed for the appearance
of mechanical energy on demand. Man/animal power no longer placed a limitation on
production. This became possible with the invention and usage of steam power in
1712 with the invention of the Atmospheric Engine. Particularly, steam energy
significantly enhanced the efficiency of cotton spinning and iron
manufacturing. These two industries were the staple industries of the time. It
was because of these two fields that steam power spread across Europe. This new
technology allowed the creation of powered, automatic and continuous machines,
which meant that industrial production was no longer done in small homes but in
large-scale factories.
The usage of factories greatly improved
the means of production of the day and by 1850, it had permeated through all
layers of industry and not just iron and cotton production. While waterpower
was still the norm in most industries, the invention of steam power had made
industrial expansion spread into areas where other forms of power could not
supply. This meant that production could occur away from rivers in areas with
little wind.
This was perhaps the greatest cause of
the Industrial Revolution. New technology and its potential for significant
increasing output announced the change to come. The end result was a creation
of an entire new social class, the urban population. This began a cultural
change that continued well in the 1900s and persists to this day in
underdeveloped regions.
Realism and the Cultural Representations
Such a whirlpool of changes could not go unnoticed by the cultural
movements, and this new moment in the history of mankind found different
manifestations in the fields of arts. Painters started picturing reality as it
really was and their works had nothing to do with the bucolic pieces of the
Romantic age. When we studied Romanticism, we had the opportunity of analyzing
the effects that Romanticism had on Arts.
Realism is not a term that can be applicable to music.
There are verismo (realistic) operas such as Umberto Giordano's Andrea
Chénier created in the last decade of the 19th century in Italy, but what
is said to be realistic is the plot rather than the music itself. As
"pure" untexted music is not usually representational (with the
controversial exception of "program" music), it cannot be said to be
more or less realistic.
The most important representation of Realism is
fiction, as it is through the writers’ works that artists could describe their
reality as it was and the reader could perceive the crude reality being
described. As poetry is the language of the heart, it did not lend itself for
realistic writing.
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