Adam Bede Example Of Literary Realism English Literature Essay

Adam Bede is written by George Eliot, whose real name was Mary Ann Evans, and it was published in 1859. It was published with a pseudonymous, even if she was a well published and highly respected scholar of that period. The novel has remained in print from that time and is used in university studies of 19th century English Literature. [1] When we talk about realism, we mean the mode of writing that gives the impression of recording or reflectingfaithfully an actual way of life. The term refers, most of the times confusingly, both to a literary method and to a more general attitude. But what it interests us here, is the literary method which is based on detailed accuracy of description (i.e. Verisimilitude- which is very important in this period). [2] 

Adam Bede is believed that it is one of the best examples of literary realism in England and English literature. Realism, as we said above, has to do with ‘recording’ the life exactly as it is. So, writers do not have to imagine characters and plots that could fit in the real world. Furthermore, realists (and here George Eliot) focus more on the characters than on the plot. Aslo, realist literature appeared in England in 1840 and ‘remained’ for about fifty years. It had many differences from the previous movement, Romanticism, and people in the beginning found it difficult to ‘deal with’ the new idea of Realism and its meaning.

In Adam Bede George Eliot creates the false illusion of a steady and immemorial rural world. We can say that it is a realistic novel, first of all, because of the manifesto on realism in Chapter 17 and because of the plentifully observed details, which are really important in a realist novel. It also charts the consequences of moral action. The world of Adam Bede is immemorial and the village that George Eliot had chosen for her book is really very difficult to change, rather than a city, and many of the conditions of change would come from the outside (e.g. From cities).

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If fiction has to have the kind of validity that implied by the scientific word ‘experiment’, as a means of discovering what really would happen in certain circumstances and not what one might wish to happen, the novelist’s imagination must at least be as rigorously disciplined as the scientist’s observation. So, George Eliot must first of all, establish that the world in which the events of the novel take place, really is the world in which we live in, governed by the same natural laws that govern human existence in the world we know. If she did not convince us of this, we could hardly take her findings seriously. And we can recognize in a novel, the real world we live in — as we recognize people and places we know — not so much by their measurable extent of problems as by a whole range of ‘variable’ impressions that we are often hardly aware of noticing. [3] 

The first requirment for a true fiction is the ‘hard’ presence of a recognizably real world, and as we can see in many points George Eliot supplies it throught the novel. For example, when she describes the workshop of carpenter (Adam’s wprkshop), she tries to give us the sense of how difficult it is this work, by the use of details and descriptions. Also, in the description of the dairy in which Hetty Sorrel makes butter, we have ‘a symphony’ in colours and textures. These details, make us feel like we watch the whole scene and smell the fresh butter. Adam Bede offers the radical contrast of a world shaped through and through by moral judgement and moral evaluation.

Technique is that which selects among the multitude of possible qualities, organizes them in the finite world of the novel, and holds them in a shape that can catch the light of our own awareness, which without shapes to fall upon, is ignorant. Technique is like the convex or concave surface of the spoon, and the different turnings ans inclinations to which it is liable. Technique lengthens or foreshortens, and while the rudimentary relationships of common experience remain still recognizable, it reveals astonishing bulges of significance, magnifies certain parts of the anatomy of life, of whose potentialities we had perhaps not been aware, humbles others. So, the massively slow movement of Adam Bede is one such shape making technique. It is true that we are generally persuaded of the actual slow movement of rural life, and it is rural life — the life of villagers, tenant farmers — that George Eliot describes. [4] 

Actually, as we can see up to now, George Eliot uses many descriptions, many images and many details in order to succeed her purpose: to write a realistic novel. She also uses facts from common people who live in the country-side and they are much more sensitive to the changes of life. Of course George Eliot has done very well her job and we continue.

Ian Adam’s article, ‘The Structure of Realisms in Adam Bede’ mentions these: ”Whatever traps for the unwary lie in the term ‘realism’, few would quarrel over its appropriateness for Adam Bede. The characters in the novel are ordinary in either social class or native endowment and frequently in both, its tragic action grows out of a commonplace seduction, and its setting is humble and representatively agrarian. Perhaps, even more important is the treatment of these subjects: there is a high degree of consistency and historical accuracy in details of time and place, the background is richly and minutely crowded with particulars, and the account of characters’ motives always stresses ordinary causes, rationally explicable.” He also mention that: ”The distinction between realism of subject and realism of procedure is an important one. Both kinds of realism exist in Adam Bede, as they do in most realistic novels, detailed presentation tending to go hand in hand with the selection of commonplace and usually unfamiliar and unconventional subject. Realism of subject in the novel has perhaps had the most thorough treatment, particularly in discussion of the rustic background and the ‘unheroic’ nature of the central characters.” Ian Adam believes that Adam Bede is really a realist novel. [5] 

Another ‘key’ of the realistic novel of Adam Bede is the description of the natural beauty of English’s countryside, especially in scenes of sadness or evil. For example, when Hetty tries to find Captain Donnithorne, the countryside is very ‘luxurious’ and the day is beautiful . Many people would think that this appearance of the day, represents also the beauty of Hetty; the outside,but also the outside beauty. But George Eliot here, tries to mislead us and she encourages us to look beyond the surface of people and things to their deeper characteristics. So, Eliot as we can see, tries to pass to the readers some messages about the people in the real life and she wants to make her readers more ‘conscious’.

In Adam Bede George Eliot also tries to represent the life of the 19th century in England and especially in the countryside. As we can see from the novel, people faced many difficulties and the community was pretty ‘strict’. Even if some people were ‘good’ some times they had to become ‘evil’ and face the real life and the problems. George Eliot was also very careful about the use of language. She used the every-day language of that period in order to make the novel more persuasive about it realistic style.

An example of the difficulties that people faced in the society of 19th century is the life of Adam. Adam is a hard man who learns, first through the death of his father and then through the suffering of an inferior being whom he loves, sympathy towards weakness. But what the idea of Adam represents in one’s mind is not such a development, but something much more static. What it remains to the readers about him, are the qualities that he has from the first, summed up in his words to Arthur. (‘I’ve seen pretty clear, ever since I could cast up a sum, as you can never do what’s wrong without breeding sin and trouble more than you can ever see’ (Chapter 16) ). As we can see, Adam is a massive representation of the central Eliotic belief, but his dramatic existence, his learning through suffering, even his suffering itself, are by comparison notional. [6] 

As it mentioned in many books, the story of Adam Bede was actually the representation of the real life of George Eliot. In the beginning when people learned about that were a bit confused and ‘afraid’. It was pretty hard for them to believe that everything or pretty everything that was written in Adam Bede was in reality the life of George Eliot. This clue, could show us why the novel had so many details and descriptions. Also, because at first, the book was published anonymously, most of the readers believed that it was written by a man.

Finally, to sum up, we could say that Adam Bede is one of the first realist book in England. It represents reality in many different ways, using many descriptions, a lot of details,use of everyday language, representations of landscapes full of colours and ‘smell’. Using the right methods and techniques George Eliot managed to write a realist novel which flurried not only because it was the story of the real life of George Eliot, but also because it was from the first novels with a realist context and it was pretty difficult for the readers of that period to understand it and understand its meaning. Unfortunately, there were many who ‘fight’ George Eliot and Adam Bede but when the years pasted, they understood the value of this novel and they used it also in university studies. Only from this decision we can see how important was this novel for English Literature and more specific, about the Realist Literature of England.