ROMANTICISM vs. REALISM
|
Romanticism 1820-1865 |
Realism 1865 - 1914
|
|
Characters may be “larger than life” -- e.g. Rip Van Winkle, Ichabod Crane, Brom Bones, Natty Bumppo, Ralph Hepdurn, Bartleby |
Characters resemble
ordinary people -- e.g. Huck
Finn, Editha, Frederick Winterbourne,
Daisy Miller, Sylvia, Louisa, Edna
Pontellier |
| Plot contains unusual events, mystery, or high adventure -- e.g. Poe's stories, Melville’s Typee |
Plot is developed with
ordinary events and circumstances |
| Ending is often happy |
Ending might be unhappy |
| The language is often “literary” (inflated, formal, etc.) |
Writer uses ordinary
speech and dialect -- common vernacular (the everyday language spoken by a
people) |
|
Settings often made up; if
actual settings are used, the focus is on the exotic, strange, mysterious
-- e.g. Melville’s Marquesas islands (S. Pacific), Cooper’s woods and
frontier, Poe's gothic chambers |
Settings actually exist or have actual prototypes |
|
Writer is interested in
history or legend -- e.g. Irving,
Poe |
Writer is interested in recent or contemporary life |