After reading both of the critiques on Victorian realism, along with Adam Bede, by George Eliot, one of the things that stood out to me the most was how much the ideas about realism went against and fought the ideas of what being fictional is. For instance if we were to take the exact definitions of what each one is, realism would be the writing of realistic stories, such as non fiction. But when comparing it to the ideas of what a fictional story is, it would be more about the writings of what isn’t true, and fake such as Frankenstein.

When it comes to the ways that they each viewed realism and fictional ism , each one of the authors took a different stance. Eliot took the stance of fiction is in a way parallel to real life. It could mirror what people are living and how they are feeling as they want to create a realistic story. For example when Eliot was writing her novel, she shows that she wanted to make the characters in it as close to the real thing as possible. This is so we, as the audience, are able to relate to the characters more and feel what they do.

However when it comes to the way that Elaine viewed the ideas, she took a different stance on it. She pointed out the the people who wanted to write novels with the ideas of realism, had their own responsibilities as authors. As the time period where many people were arguing over romanticism versus realism, the ones who wrote about realism were subject to listen to and respect the opinions of those who wrote these styles of novels. Yet because of this, there is a limit in the way that one can write.