Reason, Romanticism, Realism, and Modernism Since 1660 the literary world has gone through four major periods, The Age of Reason, Romanticism, Realism, and Modernism. Each period had very distinct characteristics and writers who were able to define the style through their words. The Age of Reason was a time of wit, philosophy, and satire that Johnathan Swift and Voltaire utilized to explain their views on the modern world. Fredrick Douglass, William Wordsworth, and Jean Jacques Rousseau embodied the greatest aspects of the Romanticism era focusing on solitude, nature, and feelings. In 1830 the Realism movement started, a movement strife with inclusiveness and determinism that was highlighted in the works of Gustave Flaubert and Fyodor Dostoevsky. The most recent period was Modernism in which William Butler Yeats and T.S. Eliot used rationalism and psychoanalysis when writing their poems. Each period uprooted the period before it and the writers values and views contradicted those of the writers who proceeded them. The major aspects of each period are very apparent when dissecting the writers who lived through them. The Age of Reason covered from 1660 to 1770 and focused on order, cities, and used satire as a tool to find reason. Voltaire’s Candide and Swift’s A Modest Proposal were both satire that questioned traditions and philosophical norms of the times. In Candide, Voltaire mocks the idea that eternal optimism of ones course in life by continuously throwing the worst case scenarios at his protagonist. In the end Candide finds solace in nature and focusing on the everyday tasks. Swift’s almost humorous A Modest Proposal questions the idea of lazily accepting the British rule over Ireland. The not so modest proposal from Swift drew questions against the social order and witty comedic attack against what was at that time the social norm. Both Swift’s and Voltaire’s stories pushed for progress, tolerance, and the removal of abusive governments. The two writers also poked holes in the absolution of the Church and encouraged readers to question religious orthodoxy.
Romanticism was a period of personal essays and experimentation with feelings. Rousseau was able to create an autobiography that unfolded his personal desires and feelings in Confessions. Like most Romantic Era writers, Rousseau suffered in solitude from his romantic love for a women he knew he could never have. With child-like enthusiasm he flaunted his passions for sexuality and rural life while maintaining his individualism from everyone else. Throughout Confessions, Rousseau maintains a theme of the corruption caused by city life and the beauty of nature. In a similar style Douglass’ Narrative of the Life casts himself as the ultimate Romantic hero, defying the laws, becoming an independent thinker, and pushing the value of freedom and education. Due to his free thinking Douglass becomes an individual and his story follows the guidelines of struggle, adventure, and ultimately a happy ending. Romantic writers typically preferred nature to urban settings and no where was this more prevalent than in Wordsworth’s poems. In Tintern Abbey Wordsworth’s imagery becomes so magnificent that the natural world he describes comes off as if it were the abbey where he would find spiritual guidance. Wordsworth’s believed that the universe and God were as one and this becomes evident throughout the poem such as his connection between the mind of man and the setting sun.
Realism disregarded the happy endings and romantic love of Romanticism and instead focused more on determinism, inclusiveness, and objectivity. Flaubert’s Madame Bovary is a direct answer to the writers of the Romantic Era. Emma Bovary is unable to change her lot in life regardless of how hard she struggles against it. She undergoes major economical and psychological problems throughout the story as well as causing her husband to go through these problems as well. Throughout the telling of Emma’s tale Flaubert remains objective by telling the story through other people instead of just Emma so that the reader is never able to cling to one side of the other. Dostoevsky’s dark Notes from the Underground is another excellent example of Realism. The underground man tries to fit into society and is unsuccessful at every attempt. Even his attempt to change the prostitutes lot in life fails, leaving both of them to continue unchanged through their lives. The underground man is extremely inclusive undergoing physical, psychological, economic, and sexual struggles throughout his tale. Dostoevsky also maintains a sense of objectivity by creating a character that the reader is unable to trust all while finding major faults in the Romantic ideals.
Modernism, which started in the mid nineteenth century, was an era full of wars that caused writers to question authority. Two major themes throughout modernism were doubt and insecurity. Yeats exemplified these two traits best in The Second Coming where he hinted that the modern world would end in apocalyptic ways. Yeats’ Leda and the Swan and Eliot’s The Waste Land were strife with imagery and impersonality which are also major themes of Modernism. Leda and the Swan is a dark tale about Zeus raping Leda as told through Yeats' dark tone and imagery. The Waste Land by Eliot is the greatest example of Modernism as if he worked by a checklist. Eliot, through masterful witty fragmented dark tone, weaves a revelation of his view of the post war world that is sick and in need of repair. He visits the damaged psyche of a woman all while stressing that the big cities of the world will lead to the fall of the individuals who dwell there. In The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Eliot again shows his masterful use of juxtaposition and fragmentation. Whereas in The Waste Land the cities themselves are breaking people apart, in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock modern life is fragmented and can be used to create something beautiful.
In closing, it is evident that each writer shaped their times just as much as the time shaped them. Each writer reflected what was occurring around them whether it was the idea of democracies that were reflected in Swift or the analysis of the human mind that inspired Yeats. Each literary period is but a snapshot of the philosophical, scientific, and culture of the times as it was reflected through discovery and war. These authors were able to capture what life was like during their time and pass it on to generations of readers.