Compare and contrast the literary styles,themes and characterisation Essay

Compare and contrast the literary styles,themes and characterisation in one novel from the 19th century Charles Dickens Hard Ti - Essay Example The radical change in the cultural and intellectual scenario quite naturally received its manifestation in different forms of art and consequently the art forms emerged as effective mediums to cater the benefits of humanism against the institutional dehumanization. Since the late 19th century, a different form of literary response was observed towards changing socio-cultural scenario. The writers not only expressed their explicit desire to come out of the literary sophistication but also used their craft to deconstruct the oppressions that social institutions attempted to suppress them with. The novels of 19th century dealt with the ideal of humanism from different perspectives. The utilitarian mentality that was originated from the socio-cultural transformation and inclination toward dehumanizing capitalism was vehemently criticized through novels of the era. Consequently the tone of socialist approach that novelists of the time considered to be necessary to defend utilitarian aggre ssion took a conspicuous note through the 19th century novels (Brackett, 2006, p. 99). The tradition of novel writing in the 20th century expanded its scope beyond the limits of dealing with the humanist tradition as a socio-cultural reformative tool and focused to a great extent on understanding the diverse aspects of human existence in the modern socio-cultural and intellectual backdrop. While on one hand, in 20th century novels, evolve of the anti-hero protagonists was found, at the same time considerable attention was also provided to explore different dimension of the human nature according to psychological standards. The novels of the 20th century, on one hand showed that ego or the modernist prejudice is responsible for individual plight and on the other in order to justify their position in accord to this ego gradual transformation of the characters with growing course of the novel was explored to such magnificence that it also emerged as an effective as well as a realistic medium to portray the impact of modernist socio-cultural, political and economic situations over lives of common people from an individualist perspective (Karl, 2001, p. 86). Consequently, compared to the 19th century the novel writing tradition in 20th century reflects a radical shift in terms of narrative structures, literary styles, capacity to deal with themes of the novel and characterization. In order to understand the difference it is important to compare and contrast two major novels from two different time periods. Charles Dickens’ Hard Times and D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers can be identified as two major works in this context and by comparing and contrasting these two novels an attempt will be made to understand the differences between 19th and 20th century novels in terms of literary styles, themes and characterization. Hard Times by Charles Dickens: Hard Times is widely considered as one of Dickens’ major works that quite in a devastating manner c riticized social construction of the 19th century and consequently mocked the superficial traits of utilitarian mentality fused with Victorian social prejudices that quite in a planned manner jeopardized as well as attempted to mechanize the lives of common people by restraining their spontaneous humanistic self. Geoffrey Thurley has