Moral Struggles in Realist Novels
Moral Struggles
Introduction: A realist novel is a multi-voiced prose fiction portraying individualized characters undergoing changes while interacting with social, political, and moral factors dominating their world. A realist novel is a mimesis of reality depicting struggles of the society it is representing and the limitations and conflicts found within this society (Realist Novel, p.20). This stimulates a moral struggle within the character and acts as a catalyst of change and guides the novel 's action. A moral struggle in which the character is faced with two sets of ideals and has to choose between them arises from the struggles of the society being referred to and mirrors the challenges of people in this society and its historical period. Thus, in this essay I shall discuss how the moral struggles that the protagonist undergoes guide the action of the story in a realist novel, in relation to Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev.
Novel and Society: Novels reflect the society and its constraints. Stendhal said that a novel is a mimesis of society, while Gosse argued that it presents deeper emotions and internal intensities (RN, p.104). On the other hand, Raymond Williams argued that a novel isn 't adjacent with the society but embedded within it (RN, p.105).Therefore, Great Expectations and Fathers and Sons reflect the society they come from and are embedded in, as well as the historical period during which these novels were written. These novels achieved their "moral purpose" through the moral struggles that they stimulate within their characters.
Great Expectations: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is a Bildungsroman and an autobiography of an orphan (Pip). Pip is a poor orphan who lives with his ill-tempered sister and her husband (Joe). After meeting Miss Havisham and her adopted daughter, Estella, as a sometime companion to them; Pip notices how poor people are looked down on by rich
Introduction: A realist novel is a multi-voiced prose fiction portraying individualized characters undergoing changes while interacting with social, political, and moral factors dominating their world. A realist novel is a mimesis of reality depicting struggles of the society it is representing and the limitations and conflicts found within this society (Realist Novel, p.20). This stimulates a moral struggle within the character and acts as a catalyst of change and guides the novel 's action. A moral struggle in which the character is faced with two sets of ideals and has to choose between them arises from the struggles of the society being referred to and mirrors the challenges of people in this society and its historical period. Thus, in this essay I shall discuss how the moral struggles that the protagonist undergoes guide the action of the story in a realist novel, in relation to Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev.
Novel and Society: Novels reflect the society and its constraints. Stendhal said that a novel is a mimesis of society, while Gosse argued that it presents deeper emotions and internal intensities (RN, p.104). On the other hand, Raymond Williams argued that a novel isn 't adjacent with the society but embedded within it (RN, p.105).Therefore, Great Expectations and Fathers and Sons reflect the society they come from and are embedded in, as well as the historical period during which these novels were written. These novels achieved their "moral purpose" through the moral struggles that they stimulate within their characters.
Great Expectations: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is a Bildungsroman and an autobiography of an orphan (Pip). Pip is a poor orphan who lives with his ill-tempered sister and her husband (Joe). After meeting Miss Havisham and her adopted daughter, Estella, as a sometime companion to them; Pip notices how poor people are looked down on by rich
References: • Dickens,c.(1994 edn) Great Expectations, ed. M. Cardwell, intro. K. Flint, Oxford University Press (first published 1860-1). • Turgenev, I.(1991 edn) Fathers and Sons, trans. and ed. R. Freeborn, intro. K. Flint, Oxford University Press (first published 1860-1). • Walder, D., (2004),"The Realist Novel", London, the Open University.