Realism & Naturalism

Realism & Naturalism Late 19thCentury By Kristen Delia

Basic Background • Realism and Naturalism were responses to Romanticism, which was going on around the same time (early 19th century). However, Romanticism dealt more specifically with music than did Realism and Naturalism. These two genres encompassed all types of art. • Realism emerged from three major developments of the time. • August Comte- developed Positivism. Encouraged understanding the cause and effect of nature through observation. • Charles Darwin- The Origin of Species. Life developed from common ancestry. Survival of the fittest. Behavior was beyond human control because we are controlled by heredity and environment. • Karl Marx- Marxism (1840’s) Equal Distribution of Wealth • Realism began in France. “Truth resides in material objects we perceived to all five senses; truth is verified by science.” Observation, being the scientific method, solves everything. Art’s purpose is to better mankind. • Naturalism is a deeper form of Realism. It is more based on Darwin’s theories. • Andre Antoine went on to form the Independent Theatre Movement so that Naturalistic plays had places to be staged. “Father of Naturalistic staging.”

Political Climate http://www.dzn.com/~laverne/Glory.html • By this point in time, The Seven Years’ War had already taken place between Britain and France about 50 years before • Louis XVI (1774) Monarchy experiences financial problems. Debt accumulates and no one wants to take care of it. The French Revolution, in turn, occurs (1789). The aristocracy is overthrown and the king and queen are beheaded. France then became a radical democracy and ended up in 1799 as a dictatorship led by Napolean Bonaparte. In 1804 France became under an absolute monarchy. • Napolean married the daughter of the Austrian emperor. He defeated Italy, Spain and most of Germany. The Holy Roman Empire was destroyed. Prussia and Austria became French vassal states. • Russia and Great Britain remained outside the power of napolean, and consequently, they are what caused the downfall of Napolean. (1814) Louis XVIII is in power (1814-1824) • Britain became the leading European country. Germany and Italy became unified again. • Germany defeats France in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 • Technological advances were encouraged by industry and trade, leading to an increased belief that science could solve human problems. (France underwent an Industrial Revolution 1830’s). • 1860’s there was unionization and strikes so the working classes could increase their rights. There is a rejection of Romantic idealism. Pragmatism became dominant. People are now asserting themselves through action

Social Environment • The male is still the dominant figure of the family. There is no more selling of children going on. • Women were basically either homemakers or they worked in brothels as prostitutes (Burlesque) • There is a rising middle class due to the increased demand of more rights • As for food, due to the agriculture, there are a lot of fruits and vegetables. Also they eat much fish. • Ladies wore loose, draped, high-waisted gowns in white colors of thin materials. In colder weather, a threequarter-length overdress made from a warmer material and a variety of shawls, pelisses, and redingotes. The 1830s brought back more color, a tighter waistline at a more natural level. Fuller, shorter skirts, leg-of-mutton sleeves, large-brimmed hats or bonnets also became a norm. • This is the time of the French Industrial Revolution so manufacturing and trade is very big. Agriculture is big as well. • The middle class has the power at this point

Arts • Art is very much a part of the 19th century • The artist is respected • Popular painters are Degas (1834-1917), Gauguin (1843-1890), Monet, and Renoir • Literature- Alfred Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, John Keats • Music- Chopin, Franz Hayden, Beethoven • Ballet (Romanticism)- Giselle • Patrons- The upperclass; royalty • Audience- Middle and Upper classes http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/pscheng/www/chopin.html

Theatre • Realistic playwrights followed four basic precepts: • Drama must depict truthfully the real, physical world. • Truth can be attained only through direct observation. • Only contemporary manners and life can be observed directly. • Observer must strive to be as impersonal as a scientist. • Plays contained themes and characters not previously addressed onstage (like prostitutes) If the audience did not approve, they should work toward changing the society which harvested the models. • Famous playwrights are Alexandre Dumas, Emile Augier, and Henrik Ibsen • The director becomes much bigger during this genre. His role is much more important, and the actor becomes subdued.

Stages and Staging • Realistic staging has several innovations. • Proscenium type theatre. • Box set • An interior setting -- usually a house-- encloses actors. • Gives effect of an actual room. • David Belasco -- one of the pioneers and leaders in the movement for realistic staging. • Lighting control • From candles, to oil, to gas, to electricity. • Stage brightened and colored. • Auditorium dimmed, and audience became quiet. • Belasco an innovator in using lighting on stage. http://www.redbirdstudio.com/AWOL/stage.html

Sets and Costumes • Historical - contemporary accuracy with sets and costumes. • In 1846, Charles Kean introduced this historical accuracy of scenery and costumes. http://www.siue.edu/COSTUMES/actors/pics.html • The design of each play called for its own environment. Stock sets no longer existed

Henrik Ibsen http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/clsc5.htm • Born in Skien, Norway on March 20, 1828. He was a Norwegian poet and dramatist. His most famous works were Brand (1866), Peer Gynt (1867), A Doll’s House (1879), Ghosts (1881), and Hedda Gabler (1890). • During his childhood he went from wealthy to poor due to his father’s bankruptcy in 1836. • At 15 and worked with an apothecary in hopes of persuing a career in medicine. He failed two courses on his entrance exam and could no longer seek this goal. He then turned to journalism • Ibsen did some poetry and playwrighting and got himself noticed by Ole Bull. In 1851 he offered Ibsen a job as codirector and dramatic author at the Norwegian Theater in Bergen. • Ibsen studied the dramatic theory of Hermann Hettner. His theory was that serious drama should aspire toward psychological truth. Conflict and human character should be depicted. • In 1858, Ibsen marrie Suzannah Thoresen. They had a son, Sigurd in 1859. Their marriage was good. The two worked well together. Beginning in 1864, the family lived abroad in Rome, Dresden and Munich on grants from the Norwegian parliament. • His work as a creative writer lasted 50 years. He created 25 complete plays. They dealt mainly with the individual human being and one’s self-realization of spirit and truth. He began in romantic writing and ended in realistic. Modern prose drama is based on the work he created/ • He died in Christiana (present-day Oslo) May 23, 1906.

Ibsen's Plays Ibsen discarded asides, soliloquies, and other nonrealistic devices. All of his scenes were created in the idea of cause and effect. His scripts included stage directions in order to achieve realistic staging. His characters were formed from heredity and environment as Darwin theorized. Internal motivations of characters became more important than physical movement. Ghosts—1881—dealt with the concept of the sins of the father transferring to the son, resulting in syphilis. Pillars of Society – 1877 – dealt with war and business. Hedda Gabbler – 1890 – a powerful woman takes her life at the end of the play to get away from her boredom with society. A Doll’s House – 1879 – Nora leaves her husband Torvald and her children at the end of the play; often considered "the slam heard around the world," Nora’s action must have been very shocking to the Victorian audience.

A Doll's House Characters Torvald Helmer - He is a lawyer who has been promoted to manager in the bank. Nora - She is Torvald’s wife who is treated like a child by Torvald but leaves in the end because of it. Krogstad - He is the man Nora borrowed money from to pay for the trip to Italy. Dr. Rank - He is an admirer of Nora who has spinal TB and announces his death at the end of the play. Christine Linde - She is an old friend of Nora who comes to Nora and asks her to ask her husband for a job. The children - Nora plays with her children and treats them like dolls. Setting Helmer’s Apartment - The entire play takes place at the apartment Torvald’s study - a door leads from the stage into an imaginary room which is Torvald’s study where some off-stage action takes place. Ballroom - This is where Nora danced the Tarantella. “A Doll's House traces the awakening of Nora Helmer from her unexamined life of domestic comfort. She has been ruled her whole life by either her father or her husband, Nora must question the foundation of everything she believes in when her marriage is put to the test. “

Bibliography • http://imv.aau.dk/tvest/Nr14/10.html • http://novaonline.nv.cc.va.us/eli/spd130et/realism.htm • http://apollo.fa.mtu.edu/~dlbruch/345/realnotes.html • http://gallery.sjsu.edu/paris/architecture/ • The Volume Library (Books 1 and 2) 1994 • Grolier 1996 • Britannica 2002 • http://summarycentral.tripod.com/adollshouse.htm • http://www.classicnote.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/dollshouse/about.html

Realism & Naturalism