Realist Novel

“The Realist Novel constructs a sense of coherent identities undergoing change or development and there is usually some blame or praise suggested by the narrator.” Discuss the main examples of such changing identities in Pride and Prejudice and Fathers and Sons, paying attention to the way they are presented through the narrative techniques of ‘showing’ and ‘telling’. Do their narrators judge the characters and, if so, how is the judgment conveyed?

The genre of the Realist Novel is best characterized as the fictitious attempt in narrative form to provide an effect of realism through the representation of often complex characters with mixed motives. In the case of these two novels, the language used depicts realism through a representation or illusion of reality by juxtaposing the moral and social conventions of society against the narrative. To achieve this, narrative devices such as “showing” and “telling” are used. For showing, devices such as dialogue are used to give dramatic effect so that readers can see and hear the abstract. For telling, devices such as focalization, free indirect speech or omniscient narrator are often used by the author to tell readers what actually happened.

In Pride and Prejudice, the main two characters, Elizabeth and Darcy, underwent the most significant changes. Right from the start, both characters had started out on the wrong foot, with each, forming their own prejudice against the other. Elizabeth’s initial prejudice against Darcy came about as a result of Darcy’s snobbery and his refusal to dance with her for “she is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt” him (Auten,p. 13) Here, Austen uses dialogue as a device to create Elizabeth’s first wrongful judgment of Darcy to help advance the plot as his rudeness and sense of social superiority has created a negative impression on Elizabeth, causing her to be prejudiced against Darcy. Dialogues are a very significant part of the novel as it reveals to the reader the characters and the plot progression. Elizabeth’s pride is hurt by this comment despite her efforts to pretend that Darcy’s comments do not matter to her. Hence, she was eager to give Wickham the benefit of the doubt on learning Darcy’s breach of agreement from him, without even hearing his side of the story.

The turning point for Elizabeth’s judgment towards Darcy took place when she realized her folly in being blinded by her first impression and prejudice after reading Darcy’s second proposal letter , where she exclaimed “How despicably I have acted! I, who have prided myself on my discernment! I, who have valued myself on my abilities! (Austen,p.159). The reader is ‘shown’ Elizabeth’s regrets and her willingness to admit her wrongful judgment allows us to sympathize and identify ourselves with Elizabeth as we observe this moral growth in her, as a result of her inner consciousness.

This turning point also serves as the irony of the plot. Elizabeth, who prided herself on her rational thinking and character judging trait, was betrayed by her own prejudice to misjudge Darcy and is mistaken by liking Wickham because he flatters her pride. Irony is used by Austen to help readers understand more deeply the moral instructions about self deception and misjudgment by illustrating the ignorance of the character to reality by showing the irony of beauty in Wickham’s looks being seriously eroded by his deceitfulness. (Morris, 1995)

During Lydia’s dialogue with Elizabeth about Darcy’s presence at Lydia’s wedding, the ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

During Lydia’s dialogue with Elizabeth about Darcy’s presence at Lydia’s wedding, the reader is ‘shown’ how deeply her changed perception of Darcy has affected her. The scenario, like most parts of the novel, is narrated through narrative focalization from Elizabeth’s view. This device allows readers to make moral judgment on the heroine’s behavior and to achieve sympathetic involvement through her point of view and is indeed a didactic way of educating the reader, by involving the reader in the process of moral improvement that the heroine enacts. (Morris 1995)

Here, Austen uses the telling technique of describing Elizabeth’s “utter amazement” and “burning with curiosity” (Austen p. 243) to convey to the reader how Elizabeth felt when she found out from Lydia about Darcy’s presence at the wedding. This narrative device is economical and thus moves the story along at a faster pace without discouraging the reader to engage with the character. Austen also employs free indirect speech for this scenario when the narrator narrated “Mr. Darcy had been at her sister’s wedding.” where the reader can almost hear Elizabeth speaking as the intonation is clearly Elizabeth’s. This device encourages the reader to step into Elizabeth’s mind and share her confusions while her thoughts run wild with conjectures until she cannot “ bear such suspense”; she must uncover the truth.

As compared to Elizabeth, Darcy’s pride was less complicated and easier to conquer. His initial prejudice against Elizabeth came from her low social status, poverty and her socially inept family and this latter proves to be his chief difficulty in admitting his love for her. However, his perception of her started to change when he “began to find it uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes….. attended to her conversation with others.” (Austen p.16). The omniscience of the third person narrator allows the reader to access Darcy’s inner consciousness and is ‘shown’ Darcy’s growing feelings for Elizabeth. From this point onwards, Darcy’s prejudice against Elizabeth started to fade as his love for her deepened.

After overcoming their pride and prejudices against each other, they managed to fall in love and got married in the end.

In Pride and Prejudice, Austen refrains from directly imposing any direct moral judgments on her characters. Most judgments are either passed through the narrators or through the characters’ acts of silliness and pomposity, allowing the reader to derive for himself the true extent of the moral judgment she has on them. However, the narrators status as third person omniscient does not ensure impartial judgments as the narrations encompasses many techniques such as focalization, free indirect speech, irony and comment to influence the readers’ views. Hence, the narrators are not always unbiased in their judgments.

In Fathers and Sons, the character who arguably undergoes the most change and development is Bazarov, an arrogant and over-confident individual. He is also an emotionless creature seemingly incapable of apathy. When Arkady told Bazarov about how his uncle Pavel had lost the woman he loved and resigned his position in the army to finally retire to his brother’s farm. Instead of being sympathetic, Bazarov’s response was sarcastic. He had passed his judgement against Pavel in that ‘a man who’s staked everything on the card of women’s love” is not a man”. When Arkady tries to explain that Pavel grew up in a different time, Bazarov cynically maintains that “It’s all romanticism, nonsense, rottenness, art.” (Turgenev 40).

The irony comes in when Bazarov’s nihilism soon breaks down after he encounters the emotion of love, which he had stated not to exist. Turgenev sensitively alerts us to the changes in Bazarov, by beginning with external changes. ."..unprecedented perturbation: he was easily irritated, reluctant to talk, he gazed around angrily, and couldn't sit still in one place, as though he were being swept away by some irresistible force" (Turgnev 109). This is the beginning of Bazarov's tragic story and the changes in Bazarov can best be seen when the narrator shows the parallel between him and Pavel that Bazarov can be quite emotional just like Pavel. His sub-conscious is developing new concepts that are anathema to his conscious; as a result, contradictory views exist in him at the same time. The catalyst for Bazarov’s change is undoubtedly Anna Odintsova. When Bazarov met Anna Odintsova, he was embarrassed in the presence of this beautiful aristocratic woman. When Bazarov acknowledges his subconscious feelings as love and acts on them, he is rejected. This weakens him mentally, which ultimately leads to his death.

The narrator’s direct commentary that “Bazarov was aware that he had been embarrassed and grew annoyed with himself” (Turgenev 91) is a deliberate attempt to make fun of Bazarov’s ineptness in love matters. That point is further amplified in Bazarov’s love declaration to Anna Odintsova, “Then you should know that I love you stupidly, madly…” (Turgenev 123). The narrator has highlighted the emotional glides in Bazarov in the dramatic dialogue between his love and himself. Thus, for all of Bazarov’s ridicule of Pavel’s romance, he is very much now a victim of the same passion and position.

Unlike Bazarov, Arkady is not a true nihilist. He is just trying to adopt Bazarov’s nihilistic ways, in a way acting somewhat against his nature. Initially, Arkady appeared to be influenced by nihilism after returning from University, when he told his father “…it did not matter where a man is born... …simply doesn’t matter.” (Turgenev 11) This direct straightforward and objective dialogue allows the reader to see the awkwardness in the clashes between romantic and nihilistic views.

However, Arcady demonstrates traits of romanticism despite his announcements of his nihilist beliefs. For example, when both Arkady and Bazarov overheard Nikolai playing his cello, Bazarov, being a true nihilist, immediately mocked at the fact that Nickolai, “ a grown man of forty-four, a pater familias….playing the cello.” (Turgenev p.52) as music is purely a romantic institution to him. However, Arkady did not even smile at Bazarov’s response, even though he looked up to him. Here, the reader is ‘shown’ that Arkady does not agree with Bazarov in this extremist nihilist view.

Arcady’s change began when he was revealed to the “entire limitless depth of Bazarov’s conceit” when he asked him “so, you and I are the Gods, are we? That’s to say, you’re the God and maybe I’m the cretin?” (Turgenev p.129), in which Bazarov gave an affirmative yes. This dialogue allows the reader to sympathize Arkady but at the same time, relieved to know that Arkady had finally realized that Bazarov had never treated him as his equal and they were never really friends but merely travelling companions on the road on life. That, prompted him to search for his own identity.

His change is finally completed with the establishment of his own identity when he realized that he had fallen in love with Katya and for the first time, he felt bored with Bazarov and took off to find Katya at Nikolskoe on his own, where he finally found the courage to propose to Katya, in which she accepted. The proposal scene is reinforced by narrative focalization through Arkady to convey to the readers his feelings and joy upon acceptance.

In conclusion, I have shown how Austen and Turgenev have employed the ‘showing’ and ‘telling’ techniques as well as other literary devices such as dialogues, free indirect speech & irony to effectively portray the characters and help the reader to understand them. Judgments made by narrators may not always be trusted upon as unbiased as they are sometimes injected with some literary devices to influence readers’ opinions. Although Austen employs more showing techniques than Turgenev, who prefers to use narrative description, they are both unique in their own unique writing style to bring forth a truly realistic reading experience for the reader while remaining true to the political affiliation of the realist novel.

(1793 words)