Entry 62: Romantics v Realists

The shift from Romanticism to realism brought about new literary forms, new styles, and, most important, new attitudes in writers and readers. Write an entry in which you compare and contrast the basic attitudes and beliefs of the Romantic writers with those of the realist writers. Consider, for example, the writers’ subjects, characters, and attitudes toward human nature and their views on the purpose of literature. Use “A Mystery of Heroism,” The Red Badge of Courage, and the information from the introduction to the Realist period in your textbook to inform your writing.

• The romanticists created works of a variety of broad and diverse topics. However, all of these works have one central, man theme, and that is nature. Romanticists focus their works on nature in contrast to civilization and the "sophisticated" society that the majority of people lived in. In contrast to the romanticists, the realists depicted realistic (as the name implies) and everyday common scenes, which focuses more on civilization and society after the Industrial Revolution.
• The characters used as subjects for romantic works, both literature and the arts, are of the youth. Why? Because the romanticists believed that the youth had most connection to nature, since they are not yet corrupted by civilization and sophistication. Instead, the youth are young and naive, and would prefer to interact with nature. The subjects of the realists conflicts with this view. Their subjects are everyday common and ordinary people, who are most likely poor and live in horrible conditions.
• Romantics are idealistic, and sometimes overly idealistic. They believe that people could find truths in nature. The realists, however, were very realistic, as their name indicates. The realists believe that everyone is essentially bad in nature, and this is why the world is cruel and realistic. The purposes of realism was to bring people's attention to the cruel reality of society and the world, which was a response to the Industrial Revolution, when many people lived in horrible squalor conditions and could barely survive.