The Influence of Society’s Flaws on Literature

By

Sujeeth Narra

Honors English III

Mrs. Gothelf
th
9 of May, 2002

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 If literature’s convoluted path was scrutinized and transitions from one movement to

the next observed, it can be found that the previous movement helps to define the movement

to come. For example, Romanticism was a movement which displayed the perfection of

society, mind, and body. Realism, the movement developed after the Romantic period,

became a venture to display the flaws of Romanticism. Due to Romanticism’s strive for

perfection of mind, body, and culture as well as the increase of poverty and arrogance in a

society which contained various other flaws such as greed and misfortune, Realism developed

as a movement displaying those flaws of society which Romanticism yearned to conceal.

Thus, through the influx of poverty, greed, arrogance, isolation, and misfortune into society,

Realism was defined as a movement which displayed the flaws and imperfections of society.

These faults of society can be easily found in such selections as Loreley, The False Gems, and

Germinal. In other selections, such as A Tent in Agony and The Dark That Was Is Here, the

hints are more subtle and elusively placed. Regardless to how these faults are revealed, they

are continuously present.

Specifically, it became necessary to display the shortcomings of society due to the

Industrial Revolution and growth of large cities. The shift of focus from local and agricultural

to industrial and national allowed for the establishment of slums in the cities and the

impoverished class who resided in those areas. Industrialization introduced millions to

poverty, greed, and misfortune of daily life. The moment the first factory revealed its dark

and true nature of greed and manipulation, a new literary movement was exposed.

Although society’s flaws are omnipresent, the experiences and emotions of its

members are not perpetual. The flaw of disjunction, however minor it may be, is displayed in

the poem The Dark That Was Is Here by Eli Siegel. Siegel wishes to express how

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dysfunctional society has become through it’s strive for self-image. As William Carlos

Williams says in his letter to one of Siegel’s supporters: “He wants the ‘beautiful,’ that is to

say ... the past. It is a very simple and very powerful urge. It puts the hardest burdens on the

pioneer who while recognizing the virtues and glories of the past sees its restricting and

malevolent fixations” (Williams). Siegel feels compulsion to join his fellows, but also feels it

is necessary to display the society of the time. Siegel also hopes to express the society’s lack

of interest in other similar societies that have existed previously and have experienced the

same afflictions as the current society presently is undergoing. Siegel portrays the

dysfunctional aspects of society through the two girls’ inability to share each others’ pain.

“A girl, in ancient Greece, / be sure, had no more peace / than one in Idaho” (Siegel)

Siegel is also able to represent society’s flaw of thoughtlessness for those of its members who

feel lost and confused through the “moan of wind at twilight past” (Siegel). Siegel portrays

society’s uncaring attitude of those who are different from its normal members.

Another selection that can be used to demonstrate society’s heartlessness is A Tent in

Agony by Stephen Crane. Crane attempts to portray society as a harsh critic of its members,

accepting only those who meet its standards. Crane’s unique opinion of society allows him to

display its accepted members as arrogant and showing contempt for those who are not able to

fit in suitably. In A Tent in Agony, Crane describes a trip where several men are outdoors on a

fishing trip and three of those men consider themselves to be braver and more able than a

fourth man, who is portrayed as diminutive and rather cowardly.

“Immediately a little man volunteered to stay and hold the camp while the remaining
three should go to the Sullivan county miles to a farm-house for supplies. They gazed
at him dismally. “There’s only one of you – the devil make a twin,” they said in
parting malediction, and disappeared down the hill in the known direction of a distant
cabin” (Crane 8-12).

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The venom with which the three antagonists speak to the protagonist makes it evident of how

they feel of him. They offer no respect or kind words of advice in parting; rather they shun

him and expect him to botch up this simple task. Crane finds it necessary to portray this

character as weak and foreign in the vast and wild outdoors due to his city roots in the slums

and his own experiences with poverty and subsistence. Crane also deems it necessary to be

accepted into a group as he himself experienced the same need as he matured in the city slums

and looked for approval.

It is the voice of the slums. It is not written by a dilettante; it is written by one who
has lived the life. The young author, Stephen Crane, is a native of the city…
(Garland).

Eventually, Crane allows the protagonist to enter the society, where he himself learns

arrogance and therefore becomes as discriminatory as those who ridiculed him. The small

man’s previous fear and diminutive size are transformed into pompousness and arrogance,

catalyzed by the outrageous events of the night. “He contemplated darkness and took a long,

pompous puff. ‘There’s only one of me – and the devil made a twin,’ he said” (Crane 77-78).

Crane communicates his shock of society’s standards and behavior effectively through the use

of character development and major events, but is unable to completely convince the reader of

the flagrancy of this flaw.

A method in which the author is able to convey the severity of an error in society is

through imagery and detailed description. Heinrich Heine uses this method in his poem

Loreley to impart the sense of weakness by the society in which he resides to worldly

possessions. Loreley, a fair maiden, is projected by Heine as the unattainable wealth sought

by many as well as the ideal of life and culture.

There sits a lovely maiden / above, so wondrous fair, / with shining jewels laden, / she
combs her golden hair (Heine 910).

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Heine’s own views upon wealth and perfection are tainted by his experiences in business,

where he was unable to enter the market and thus became bitter. Due to his previous

limitations, Heine displays Loreley as his unrealized goals, which are distant and far above

him, as if placed far above the Rhine. Heine’s specific position allows him to recognize the

human need to reach unattainable goals, that human nature will ultimately recognize those

goals as perfect and ultimately providing extreme satisfaction if they were to be achieved.

She was the incarnation of libidinous obsessions, dreams, wishes, and delusions. She
was well suited to be a figure of identification and a reflection of an unwilling
temptress, a warm-hearted maiden, a scheming sorceress, a melancholic murderess, a
man-eating angel.
She promised the magic of love but also the curse, the revenge - these two introducing
the moralistic aspect (Scholz)

Heine succeeded in becoming trapped in his own delusions, but at the same time, succeeded

in warning the reader against succumbing to the pitfalls of society and its basis upon wealth.

Heine’s delusions of wealth and comfort were never achieved and left him bitter and

disappointed in life, thus displaying his journey for great expectations to be futile in the lines

“The boatman in his small skiff is / seized by turbulent love, / no longer he marks where the

cliff is, / he looks to the mountain above” (Heine 911). Although unable to prevent his own

descent into pining towards wealth, Heine is able to advise future readers of the danger of

obsession of the monetary aspects of society.

Many authors have fallen into society’s pitfalls, lured in by the attraction of wealth and

high society. One of these authors includes Guy de Maupassant, the author of The False

Gems.

Maupassant, unlike most [writers], is a shrewd business man, and writes for money. A
good thing for Maupassant but an unfortunate circumstance for art! Everything which
he writes is sold in succession to various publishers……No wonder Maupassant lives
elegantly… (Hearn)

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Guy de Maupassant is able to transfer his self-earned knowledge of the workings of greed in

mankind to his writings. He is able to display the deepest feelings and thoughts that occur in

a man driven by yearning and desire. M. Lantin is driven by deep feelings of desire and want

that push him to limits where few other men would tread. Jealousy and envy of the elite class

and their freedom free M. Lantin to sell off his late wife’s most prized possessions.

Observing them, M. Lantin said to himself: “The rich, indeed, are happy. With
money it is possible to forget even the deepest sorrow. One can go where one pleases,
and in travel find that distraction which is the surest cure for grief. Oh! If I were only
rich!” (de Maupassant 945-946)

After committing acts few would attempt, M. Lantin continues further still in saying “ ‘I have

– I have other gems which I have received from the same source. Will you buy them also?’

(de Maupassant 946),” as greed for greater wealth and security imposed upon him the need to

release a greater and greater number of jewels to satisfy the insatiable craving for aristocracy.

M. Lantin’s greed is based upon similar feelings experienced by de Maupassant as he

struggled to earn a comfortable living as the bourgeois had. Eventually, all of M. Lantin’s

shame and sorrow are eradicated as he expresses great joy to have entered a comfortable

existence, where his previous sorrows can be forgotten and left by the wayside. As M. Lantin

leaves his past, he leaves his humanity and emotions as he succumbs to the overpowering

emotions of greed and jealousy, and thus lives his life in interminable sorrow.

A final and major way in which society has fallen short of perfection is through its

inability to shelter its members from adversity and misfortune. This blemish in the fabric of

human nature is displayed vividly in the novel Germinal by Émile Zola, in which poverty and

suffering are displayed in immense detail. Zola’s inspiration to write this novel came from his

own life story, where Zola existed in pauperism. Due to his life experience, Zola has poverty

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play a major role in this novel to display the suffering that many go through within their

lifetimes. He displays poverty through detailed description and harsh presentation, such as

Étienne’s shabby clothing and Bonnemort’s reduced health.

The man had set out from Marchiennes about two o’clock. He walked with long
strides, shivering beneath his worn cotton jacket and corduroy breeches. A small
parcel tied in a check handkerchief troubled him much, and he pressed it against his
side, sometimes with one elbow, sometimes with the other, so that he could slip to the
bottom of his pockets both the benumbed hands that bled beneath the lashes of the
wind (Zola 931).

Due to his father’s death, Zola felt a need for a father figure within his life, and being not able

to be provided with one, thus created a figure in his literature. This figure is represented by

Bonnemort in the Germinal, who provides support and guidance to Étienne. Zola wrote as he

did to “make us look where we are standing, and see whether our feet are solidly planted or

not. What is our religion, what is our society, what is our country, what is our civilization?

You cannot read [Zola] without asking yourself these questions, and the result is left with

you” (Howells 586). Zola forces his readers to consider the society which he writes about,

pushes the reader to question whether the society can be improved or altered to improve the

quality of life for all involved.

All five selections are capable of bringing to light one or two of every civilizations

shortcomings and flaws. Most are written by those who have experience with those particular

flaws, while several have the capacity to bring about innovation and permutation. These

selections oppose Romanticism in that they challenge and dispute the morals of perfection

established in literature of Romanticism. Without the influence of Romanticism and the

Industrial Revolution, Realism would not have been displayed as a movement that explained

the flaws of society.

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Crane, Stephen. A Tent in Agony. Gonzaga University. April 28, 2002 <
http://www.gonzaga.edu/faculty/campbell/crane/tent.htmZ>

Garland, Hamlin. Crane. Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, Vol. 11. Ed. Dennis
Poupard. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Company, 1983. 121.

Hearn, Lafeadio. Critical Commentary by Lafeadio Hearn on the Writings of Guy de

Maupassant. April 24, 2002. Montgomery College. April 24, 2002 <
http://dive.woodstock.edu/~dcox/ohenry/maucri4.html>

Heine, Heinrich. “Loreley.” Literature and the Language Arts, World Literature. Ed. Laurie
Skiba. St. Paul, MN: EMCParadigm Publishing, 1998. 910-911.

Howells, W.D. Zola. Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, Vol. 1. Eds. Dedria Bryfonski
and Phyllis Carmel Mendelson. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Company, 1978.
586.

Maupassant, Guy de. “The False Gems.” Literature and the Language Arts, World
Literature. Ed. Laurie Skiba. St. Paul, MN: EMCParadigm Publishing, 1998. 942-
946.

Scholz, Hannelore. The Loreley Project: Scenarios of Seduction in a Network of Electronic

Texts. Humboldt University. May 4, 2002 <
http://webdoc.gwdg.de/edoc/ia/eese/artic21/kuehn2/13_2001.html>

Siegel, Eli. ‘The Dark That Was Is Here’ by Eli Siegel. Aesthetic Realism Foundation. April
27, 2002 < http://www.elisiegel.net/poetry/The-dark.htm>

Williams, William Carlos. A Letter by William Carlos Williams. Aesthetic Realism

Foundation. April 27, 2002 <
http://www.elisiegel.net/poetry/WilliamsLetter1951.htmZ>

Zola, Émile. Germinal. Literature and the Language Arts, World Literature. Ed. Laurie
Skiba. St. Paul, MN: EMCParadigm Publishing, 1998. 931-938.