Realism Era English Hedda GAbler Quiz 1

Realism, Ibsen, Hedda Gabler

Realism approximately 1840-1900

Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) from Norway

Other major writers: Dickens (England); Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy (Russia); and Zola (France)

Ibsen’s plays: A Doll’s House (1879); An Enemy of the People (1882); The Wild Duck (1884); Hedda Gabler (1890); The Master Builder (1892)

(Historical Context and Preceding Literary Movement)

I.               Political and Social Unrest:

. 50 revolutions (1848)

. Revolutions reflected the growing discontent of the general population and the instability of the then current, rigid political and social order.

. New countries, political movements and social classes were emerging. For example, Italy was unified in 1861 into the country we recognize today.

II.       New Scientific and Social Theories:

A. The Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels (1848)

. Viewed all history as a struggle between the classes

. “proletariat”- the new, lower, exploited class

. bourgeois - factory and mine owners who employed and exploited the “proletariat”

B.  On the Origin of Species by Darwin (1861)

. Theory of evolution through natural selection

. Reduced life to a struggle of the fittest to survive

III.    Breakthrough Inventions:

Examples: Electric light, telegraph, telephone, electric motor, internal combustion engine, machine gun, barbed wire

. Inventions accelerated the Industrial Revolution and helped to create classes: factory financiers and owners became elites; businesspeople and technicians became the new middle class. Mine and factory workers became the working class.

IV. Conflict Between Established and Emerging Social Classes:

              .  Old regime is challenged by new, middle class

.  Old regime is characterized by “great family name,” titles, breeding, land holdings—lost status and power. The old regime was forced to give up power and coexist with the new, middle class.

.  Emerging middle class pushes old regime aside. Emerging middle class gains status, power, and wealth through education and industriousness.

V. Reaction to Preceding Literary Movement:    Romantic Era v. Age of Realism

Imagination v. Intellect

    Emotion v. Reason

    Fantasy v. Reality