Critical analysis of Realism by Francis Adams
Is the passage ‘Realism’ by Francis Adams, an attempt at Shakespeare in its most delicate form? Or does the collection of analogies and symbolic meaning withhold personal significance?
Analogies similar to that of words from the bible or self motivating speech, have given this story an edge that depicts the epic tales of woe, misfortune, the battle for freedom of speech and equal rights for both woman and men in its realistic form possible, by incandescently incorporating symbolic meaning of the tales surrounding the authors’ individual existence. These emotional moments, are described and concealed in cryptic meaning throughout the text, which relate to Shakespeare’s historical plays from the 17th Century such as Romeo and Juliet, Othello and King Lear, encrypted through literature of the 19th century (Hylton).
He showed an attempt to signify his love of Shakespeare on paper, by incorporating many meanings within text that could signify different context and understanding from diverse perspectives using elaborate metaphors and conceits. Three such perspectives noted are; simply a short narrative story written in Shakespearean language; A more detailed and meaningful story written in Shakespearean language, that depicts the trials and tribulations of Australian times relative to the late 1800’s; and thirdly, having been written in such a form relative to Shakespeare, Francis Adams has incorporated his own personal life circumstances within the text and made them relevant to the love stories created by Shakespeare in the 1700’s (Hylton).
Firstly, Adams writes...
To write no longer for half-views of things – to draw men and woman as they are, assigning to them the motives which move men and woman as they are, and with the proportionate force of these motives – to apply the same passionately impartial method to the great “streams of tendency”, the laws of which men and woman are the phenomena, this is the bare outline of the artistic gospel of realism. But what characters, what tendencies, shall be chosen? Let the writer be at ease on that matter. What it is best for him to choose he will choose himself. His own experiences, qualified by his own aspirations, will ever be that choice. He cannot help himself. Let him have faith as well as freedom... (Adams)
Adams, Francis William Lauderdale (1862-1893), (aka Francis Adams), was a poet, novelist and commentator, born in Malta and moved to Australia in the late 1800’s (Adams). Having come from a very structured hometown in Europe, moving to Australia had seen an impact on his way of thinking and perspective towards one’s own being. There is a unique view in the story ‘Realism’, relating to how the narrative/story shall be told. Adams writes of diplomacy and freedom among men and woman alike, having equal place in society, about making up your own mind, and being your own person irrelevant to your sex or stereotype, and teaching people to “be real” in a ‘realistic’ sense. As stated in the Australian Dictionary of biography online edition (Murray-Smith), Adams mother had many social and sexual morals, which had been exposed to Adams throughout his childhood, with relation to the respect, that both men and woman should have for each other and their commonplace in society. Also stated in this dictionary, is that Adams tends to ask a lot of questions and at the same time, answer his own questions and thoughts, thus still incorporating an emotional comparison and comprehension of understanding his feelings in a rhetorical sense, which in his time; he was very well known for (Murray-Smith). He writes this story in third person, with himself as the ‘protagonist narrator’, with a ‘subjective’ view as he relates his passage to many characters such as Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’, and shows omniscient knowledge to the people and places of both Shakespeare and his own. The narrative structure is very linear, with a perspective on chronological order of understanding.
There is room in the domain of art for optimist and pessimist, for the lover of men and for the watcher of life. Do not fear to portray evil, if only you portray it with passionate truth, if you neither add anything now take anything from it. Your work will justify itself. If the evil is there, let us know it. Who but a fool, or a hypocrite, or both, would sit on a dunghill, and declare that it was clean, though the typhus germs were sickening him? We have eminent need to know of our social sins... (Adams)
This passage shows obvious reference to ‘realism’, in both a literal and figurative way, and realism in a way that the common person would read and be left relating them to Shakespeare poetry. S. Murray-smith, author of the Australian dictionary of biography online edition, states that... “Adams's social essays on Australian topics has been noticeable in recent years. In both political and literary depth of sensibility he was far ahead of the Australia of his day, but his contribution here was important and his maturity gives him a special interest to later generations.” (Murray-Smith). In the above shown passage, Adams speaks of truth, having the ability to not stray from your words of truth and by stating ‘there is room in the art for both optimist and pessimist’, he means that there is equally enough room for critical analysis of society and the arts without holding your own emotions and thoughts back, because when you do, no-one will be punished or frowned upon.
... and how else shall we thoroughly realise them save by their very image held up before us? Away with all petty keys to unlock the incommensurable mystery of life! Leave their “mortality” to the tract-mongers, and their “teleology” to the religious mono-maniacs, and seek for your own guides to life or thought in the verities of aspiration and suffering, of pleasure and the limits of desire. Othello and Desdemona have love and trusted, and perished. The year-long marriage of the star crossed lovers, with children, troops of friends, and all the rest, is less bracing to our efforts for good than “this blood-stained bed”, and a “one who loved, not wisely but too well”. Iniquity is for ever bought low? Yes, Edmund is on the ground – “the wheel has come full circle, he is there” – but Cordelia is gone, the fool is gone, and Lear is to sob their death song, the worn out, passionate, old man. Yes, this is real, true, imminent, actual! This is life as it is, with men and woman as they are. (Adams)
First instance with this passage, there were significant events in Adams life that showed similarity to it’s symbolic meaning, such as the mention of ‘Edmund’, was an immediate likening to Sir Edmund Barton (1849-1920), whom was in election in Australia at the time, (he too had a definitive love for Shakespeare), and going through some leadership changes within government around the time of the late 1980’s when this story was written; they had recently stopped transportation of immigrations from England (N/A); Adams sadly had a brain haemorrhage around the time his wife had a baby, which she then died from childbirth complications. Symbolically, “this blood-stained bed” (Adams) ... could be relative to these personal circumstances surrounding Adams which all took place around the late 1800’s (N/A).
In another perspective, Othello and Desdemona, star-crossed lovers (Romeo and Juliet) (Hylton), Edmund, Cordelia and Lear, are all characters out of Sir Williams Shakespeare’s historical plays (Unknown). This story called ‘Realism’ could simply be an attempt to defragment the symbolic meaning of Shakespeare’s tales of woe in a last combat to. The form of this passage shows many rhetorical questions ‘Iniquity is for ever brought low? Yes, Edmund is on the ground-‘ (Adams), and speech marks of innuendos from Shakespeare characters such as “the wheel has come full circle, he is there”, is a line from the play ‘King Lear’ (Unknown).
But seeing that life is incommensurable and men and woman as the sands on the sea-shore for multitude, consider that there is scope for what effort and how diverse! Only let this be always remembered, that we make for the real, the true, the imminent, the actual! No half-views! No; truncated bodies and corpses are good only for manure, and puppets for infants. “nothing extenuate nor set down aught in malice.” Not a word to be added to what gives the perfect picture our spirit sees: Not a word to be taken away. This is the true and sole theory of art from its alpha to its omega. This is realism, and if Australia is ever to have an art of her own, it is only when she turns her eyes to this theory and incarnates it in practice, that, that art will take its place with the art of Homer, of Dante, of Shakespeare, of Milton, of Goethe.
In retrospect, this piece of literature of the 1800’s is an inspiring and self motivating monologue of words that combat both the literal meaning of love and respect from both man and woman towards art, and gives a biblical type speech in a Shakespearean sense of context, that shows a definitive similarity to Francis Adams own personal circumstances in life parallel to the stories told in the abovementioned Shakespeare stories. Romeo and Juliet fell in love, and both passed away from unexpected situations that tore them apart, in which Adams also went through with his wife passing away after the birth of their child (Murray-Smith). Homer, Shakespeare, Dante, Milton and Goethe are all famous writers of the 17th Century that display dramatic text and Adams was notable interested in similar writing. The likening of time and place in which Adams lived in Australia and the relation to both politically correct and literal statements within the text, even though symbolic. It speaks of ‘real’ thoughts, emotions, honesty, respect, freedom of speech, equal rights for all and the hope that Australia endeavours to follow in those ideals 100%, as Adams so wished it to.
Bibliography
Adams, Francis. "Realism." Lee, Christopher. Turning the Century: Writing of the 1890's. Brisbane, Queensland: University of Queensland Press, 1999. 330-331.
Hylton, Jeremy. Shakespeare. 1993. 15th August 2010 <http://shakespeare.mit.edu/>.
Murray-Smith, S. Australian dictionary of biography online. 2006. 10th August 2010 <http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A030012b.htm>.
N/A. Wikipedia. 2010. 09th August 2010 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Barton>.
Unknown. KingLear.org. August 2010. 15th August 2010 <http://www.kinglear.org/googled746c505949a3c60.html>.
Analogies similar to that of words from the bible or self motivating speech, have given this story an edge that depicts the epic tales of woe, misfortune, the battle for freedom of speech and equal rights for both woman and men in its realistic form possible, by incandescently incorporating symbolic meaning of the tales surrounding the authors’ individual existence. These emotional moments, are described and concealed in cryptic meaning throughout the text, which relate to Shakespeare’s historical plays from the 17th Century such as Romeo and Juliet, Othello and King Lear, encrypted through literature of the 19th century (Hylton).
He showed an attempt to signify his love of Shakespeare on paper, by incorporating many meanings within text that could signify different context and understanding from diverse perspectives using elaborate metaphors and conceits. Three such perspectives noted are; simply a short narrative story written in Shakespearean language; A more detailed and meaningful story written in Shakespearean language, that depicts the trials and tribulations of Australian times relative to the late 1800’s; and thirdly, having been written in such a form relative to Shakespeare, Francis Adams has incorporated his own personal life circumstances within the text and made them relevant to the love stories created by Shakespeare in the 1700’s (Hylton).
Firstly, Adams writes...
To write no longer for half-views of things – to draw men and woman as they are, assigning to them the motives which move men and woman as they are, and with the proportionate force of these motives – to apply the same passionately impartial method to the great “streams of tendency”, the laws of which men and woman are the phenomena, this is the bare outline of the artistic gospel of realism. But what characters, what tendencies, shall be chosen? Let the writer be at ease on that matter. What it is best for him to choose he will choose himself. His own experiences, qualified by his own aspirations, will ever be that choice. He cannot help himself. Let him have faith as well as freedom... (Adams)
Adams, Francis William Lauderdale (1862-1893), (aka Francis Adams), was a poet, novelist and commentator, born in Malta and moved to Australia in the late 1800’s (Adams). Having come from a very structured hometown in Europe, moving to Australia had seen an impact on his way of thinking and perspective towards one’s own being. There is a unique view in the story ‘Realism’, relating to how the narrative/story shall be told. Adams writes of diplomacy and freedom among men and woman alike, having equal place in society, about making up your own mind, and being your own person irrelevant to your sex or stereotype, and teaching people to “be real” in a ‘realistic’ sense. As stated in the Australian Dictionary of biography online edition (Murray-Smith), Adams mother had many social and sexual morals, which had been exposed to Adams throughout his childhood, with relation to the respect, that both men and woman should have for each other and their commonplace in society. Also stated in this dictionary, is that Adams tends to ask a lot of questions and at the same time, answer his own questions and thoughts, thus still incorporating an emotional comparison and comprehension of understanding his feelings in a rhetorical sense, which in his time; he was very well known for (Murray-Smith). He writes this story in third person, with himself as the ‘protagonist narrator’, with a ‘subjective’ view as he relates his passage to many characters such as Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’, and shows omniscient knowledge to the people and places of both Shakespeare and his own. The narrative structure is very linear, with a perspective on chronological order of understanding.
There is room in the domain of art for optimist and pessimist, for the lover of men and for the watcher of life. Do not fear to portray evil, if only you portray it with passionate truth, if you neither add anything now take anything from it. Your work will justify itself. If the evil is there, let us know it. Who but a fool, or a hypocrite, or both, would sit on a dunghill, and declare that it was clean, though the typhus germs were sickening him? We have eminent need to know of our social sins... (Adams)
This passage shows obvious reference to ‘realism’, in both a literal and figurative way, and realism in a way that the common person would read and be left relating them to Shakespeare poetry. S. Murray-smith, author of the Australian dictionary of biography online edition, states that... “Adams's social essays on Australian topics has been noticeable in recent years. In both political and literary depth of sensibility he was far ahead of the Australia of his day, but his contribution here was important and his maturity gives him a special interest to later generations.” (Murray-Smith). In the above shown passage, Adams speaks of truth, having the ability to not stray from your words of truth and by stating ‘there is room in the art for both optimist and pessimist’, he means that there is equally enough room for critical analysis of society and the arts without holding your own emotions and thoughts back, because when you do, no-one will be punished or frowned upon.
... and how else shall we thoroughly realise them save by their very image held up before us? Away with all petty keys to unlock the incommensurable mystery of life! Leave their “mortality” to the tract-mongers, and their “teleology” to the religious mono-maniacs, and seek for your own guides to life or thought in the verities of aspiration and suffering, of pleasure and the limits of desire. Othello and Desdemona have love and trusted, and perished. The year-long marriage of the star crossed lovers, with children, troops of friends, and all the rest, is less bracing to our efforts for good than “this blood-stained bed”, and a “one who loved, not wisely but too well”. Iniquity is for ever bought low? Yes, Edmund is on the ground – “the wheel has come full circle, he is there” – but Cordelia is gone, the fool is gone, and Lear is to sob their death song, the worn out, passionate, old man. Yes, this is real, true, imminent, actual! This is life as it is, with men and woman as they are. (Adams)
First instance with this passage, there were significant events in Adams life that showed similarity to it’s symbolic meaning, such as the mention of ‘Edmund’, was an immediate likening to Sir Edmund Barton (1849-1920), whom was in election in Australia at the time, (he too had a definitive love for Shakespeare), and going through some leadership changes within government around the time of the late 1980’s when this story was written; they had recently stopped transportation of immigrations from England (N/A); Adams sadly had a brain haemorrhage around the time his wife had a baby, which she then died from childbirth complications. Symbolically, “this blood-stained bed” (Adams) ... could be relative to these personal circumstances surrounding Adams which all took place around the late 1800’s (N/A).
In another perspective, Othello and Desdemona, star-crossed lovers (Romeo and Juliet) (Hylton), Edmund, Cordelia and Lear, are all characters out of Sir Williams Shakespeare’s historical plays (Unknown). This story called ‘Realism’ could simply be an attempt to defragment the symbolic meaning of Shakespeare’s tales of woe in a last combat to. The form of this passage shows many rhetorical questions ‘Iniquity is for ever brought low? Yes, Edmund is on the ground-‘ (Adams), and speech marks of innuendos from Shakespeare characters such as “the wheel has come full circle, he is there”, is a line from the play ‘King Lear’ (Unknown).
But seeing that life is incommensurable and men and woman as the sands on the sea-shore for multitude, consider that there is scope for what effort and how diverse! Only let this be always remembered, that we make for the real, the true, the imminent, the actual! No half-views! No; truncated bodies and corpses are good only for manure, and puppets for infants. “nothing extenuate nor set down aught in malice.” Not a word to be added to what gives the perfect picture our spirit sees: Not a word to be taken away. This is the true and sole theory of art from its alpha to its omega. This is realism, and if Australia is ever to have an art of her own, it is only when she turns her eyes to this theory and incarnates it in practice, that, that art will take its place with the art of Homer, of Dante, of Shakespeare, of Milton, of Goethe.
In retrospect, this piece of literature of the 1800’s is an inspiring and self motivating monologue of words that combat both the literal meaning of love and respect from both man and woman towards art, and gives a biblical type speech in a Shakespearean sense of context, that shows a definitive similarity to Francis Adams own personal circumstances in life parallel to the stories told in the abovementioned Shakespeare stories. Romeo and Juliet fell in love, and both passed away from unexpected situations that tore them apart, in which Adams also went through with his wife passing away after the birth of their child (Murray-Smith). Homer, Shakespeare, Dante, Milton and Goethe are all famous writers of the 17th Century that display dramatic text and Adams was notable interested in similar writing. The likening of time and place in which Adams lived in Australia and the relation to both politically correct and literal statements within the text, even though symbolic. It speaks of ‘real’ thoughts, emotions, honesty, respect, freedom of speech, equal rights for all and the hope that Australia endeavours to follow in those ideals 100%, as Adams so wished it to.
Bibliography
Adams, Francis. "Realism." Lee, Christopher. Turning the Century: Writing of the 1890's. Brisbane, Queensland: University of Queensland Press, 1999. 330-331.
Hylton, Jeremy. Shakespeare. 1993. 15th August 2010 <http://shakespeare.mit.edu/>.
Murray-Smith, S. Australian dictionary of biography online. 2006. 10th August 2010 <http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A030012b.htm>.
N/A. Wikipedia. 2010. 09th August 2010 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Barton>.
Unknown. KingLear.org. August 2010. 15th August 2010 <http://www.kinglear.org/googled746c505949a3c60.html>.
