... , for it was not so much personal as universal traits that were stressed in the character's psychology. The characters" spiritual life had not yet been submitted to deep, let alone many-sided, analysis in the realist prose of the eighteenth century. This sphere of personal life was not ... to idealize the hero. This at first sight rather strange contradiction arose from the concept of freedom upheld by realism, which was based on Enlightenment philosophy and ethics. The historians of the novel have seen "realism" as the defining characteristic which differentiates the work of the early e...

• Word Count: 3498
• Approx Pages: 14
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Graduate