Two major takeaways I had from the first section of the reading where the British critics discussed the flaws of realism were the criticism from the audience on works that showed the harsh reality of society and life and also the limitations of realism depending on what medium the work was being communicated from. One sentence that really struck me concerning Dickens’s work was “Dickens was roundly castigated by critics for a too-lively depiction of the ‘haunts, deeds, language, and characters of the very dregs of the community’ in Oliver Twist: it is ‘a hazardous experiment to exhibit to the young these enormities’, Richard Ford complained in the Quarterly Review” (328). The reason this quote alarmed me was because critics at the time were seemingly berating authors for depicting the negatives of society in a realistic manner and in a way wanted to hide the horrors of society away from the people who weren’t affected by them. How can there be positive change if people don’t even know what is happening around them to those that are less fortunate than them? George Eliot also addresses this during her personal statement in chapter 17 of Adam Bede when she says, “It is so very rarely that facts hit that nice medium required by our own enlightened opinions and refined taste” (1)! Eliot is trying to make it clear that rarely do the real conditions and facts of society appeal to everybody meaning that each person has their own views or moral opinions, and it is impossible for a piece of work to appease all the members of the audience. It is necessary to have honest depictions of the social class especially those that are at the bottom of the social class in order to make people aware of what is happening to others surrounding them instead of ignoring it altogether.
The 19th Century British critics of realism also claim that depictions of society during the Realist period “must necessarily be limited by the nature of its medium; the canvas of the painter, the chords of the musician, and the language of the writer” (330). I found this point made by the critics to be quite appalling because when did one medium every capture all that was going on in society during a specific time period. Different forms of art whether it be a painting, novel, or piece of music have always had their own unique ways of reaching out to the audience, conveying their messages differently. Eliot also later mentions in her address that paintings like “The Prayer of the Spinner” by Gerard Dou might be plain or boring to those at the upper echelons of society, but it appeals to those that are not so fortunate to be born rich or a noble because it reflects their daily experiences in life. These two readings sort of reflect our society today because many people tend to ignore facts or conditions of other people around them and seem to only be interested in things that appeal to them or benefit them directly instead of being open to critical issues that are occurring around them.