What Aspect Of Romantic Writing Did Realist Writers Disapprove Of?

What Aspect Of Romantic Writing Did Realist Writers Disapprove Of?

A) Idealization of nature and human emotions

B) Focus on individualism and heroic figures

C) Supernatural and mysterious elements

D) All of the above

Answer: D) All of the above

Realist writers refused many aspects of Romantic writing such as the heroic picture of nature and feelings, individualism and heroes, and supernatural and mysterious components. This general disapproval resulted from the Realist’s thought process that works on the perception that literature should depict the mundane lives in society, the common people and ordinary life struggles without exaggeration. For instance, one of the arch-Restorationists, Charles Dickens in his work “Hard Time” painted this approach by depicting fiction on the Industrial Revolution in a northern English mill town where he portrayed poverty, sufferance and exploitation of the lower class of people. Thus, Realist concentration on recovery of the most typical and believable character is evident in the case of Dickens’ character Stephen Blackpool, the destitute weaver struggling with the tyrant master and personal misfortune. The portrayal of nature and emotions in the play is quite in contrast with the sort of presentation provided by Romantic poets such as William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. This is well depicted by Wordsworth through his poem titled, ‘Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey’ through his portrayal of nature as an ideal and a pure world and constant emphasis on the potency of memory and imagination. While the earlier writers idealized the subjects of their creations, Realists dismissed such a tendency by noting that literature’s primary function was to show nature, emotions, and conditions as they are, so that people can appreciate the real world.