Thursday, October 21, 2010
Romanticism Vs. Realism
This passed week our World History class talks about the Revolution of the Arts which indicated two different types of groups; The Romanticism and The Realists. This related a lot to the way the author Charles Dickens writes his books. They're similar because The romanticism believed that imagination and emotion was a great strategy to their working skills. As for the Realists they believed that work should not be interfered with 'unrealistic' subjects; because imagination will take you no where. This is also relevant to the way Charles Dickens writes because through his first couple chapters he's talking about how Gradgrind wants to root nothing but facts in his students education. Therefore, do you think Charles Dickens would be a Romanticist or Realist? Explain your reasoning.
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In think Charles Dickens was a Realist because in the beginning he established that facts were always the way children should be taught and the way children should think and comprehend different subjects. Throughout the book Dickens present different situations that facts influenced people decisions and their rights. Realists interpret the general attempt to depict subjects without embellishment or interpretation. In the book their have been many instances that include the idea of Realism. Like in the beginning of the book, Gradgrind pushed the children to interpret every subject using facts. He presses that the only way they would understand subjects would be only through facts and imagination wasn’t good for the students mind. There were other times where social statuses would interfere with the things they wanted to and the higher classes would deny them the right to what they wanted. These people would be classified as Realists because they stayed with the basic forthright way of viewing people and didn’t look at the “what if’s.” They always thought that what was already happening would stay and they would remain at their social positions. Dickens portrays realism through people and their diverse situations, such as these.
ReplyDeleteAs learned from the Humanities activities, during the early 1800s, artists focused on ideas of freedom, individual rights, and an idealistic view of history. After the great revolution of 1848, political views focused more on "realism"-in which the rich pursued selfish interests while ordinary people struggled and suffered from the deprivation of their rights to "emotion". But, at the end of the 18th century, the idea of reason gradually shifted to a movement called "romanticism". This movement reflected deep interest in nature, thoughts, emotions, individuality, love,etc. One of the ideas heavily taught in this movement was "to focus on the mysterious, the supernatural, and the exotic, grotesque, or horrifying". I must say that I disagree with Geana's comment here. Charles Dickens did in fact write in a way of a "realist" through his portrayl of some of the characters in "Hard Times". But, I strongly believe that Dickens was a Romanticist. Charles Dickens lived during the Industrial Revolution; this era of time is quite evidently shown in many examples/descriptions in this novel. We witness the deprivation of imagination/childhood in the school system that only teaches mechanical "facts, facts, facts." We also see the lack of rights allowed by the working class simply because they could not afford it. Love is also an issue in this novel (for both classes). Although Dickens may not have obviously shown romanticism, I think his use of satire may have done just that. I think Dickens used this literary device during this time period to address social injustices that were occurring that he found to be inhumane. Although he did not publicly speak about these issues, he used his cleverness and wit of satire to imply his emotions/feelings on aspects in the English society he found to be "mysterious,exotic, grotesque, or horrifying". This satire can be seen through the characters, conflicts, and of course the dialogue amongst these characters differing in their social classes. In a way, Dickens is "making fun" of realism.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Dickens was indeed a Realist. He addressed very real situations that were issues during the Industrial Revolution. He opens up showing students having their imaginations discouraged, and continues to illustrate social class distinction "in which the rich pursued selfish interests while ordinary people struggled and suffered from the deprivation of their rights to 'emotion'," as put as something recognized by realism by Anissa Garcia. Dickens does not ignore the bad of reality like a Romanticist would. He most definitely recognizes the struggles of his time era, as cited by Geana and Anissa.
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