Literary realism in nineteenth-century fiction

¶ … Realities

Literary realism attempts to create the appearance in a story of life as it is actually lived, and both of these stories are excellent examples of literary realism, because even though they cover difficult topics, they show the characters as they are in real life, and living lives that almost anyone could imagine living themselves.

Both of these stories seem like real stories about real people, and they actually do have some similarities, even though one is about a boy in Ireland, and the other is about a girl in America. They are both about romantic love, but portray it very differently. In "Araby," the young boy loves his girl from afar, "When she came out on the doorstep my heart leaped. I ran to the hall, seized my books and followed her" (Joyce), and cannot tell his/her feelings. In "The Horse Dealer's Daughter," the girl is unloved and pretty much unwanted by all, "I'm so awful, I'm so awful! [...] You can't want to love me, I'm horrible" (Lawrence), and yet she finds someone to marry her out of obligation. The realities in these stories are very real. The characters have faults, the endings are not happy, and the characters have real emotions and feelings. Just like real life, the young boy cannot fulfill his desire to buy the girl he loves a present, he is too afraid. And similarly, the young girl tries to kill herself, only to be rescued by a young doctor who then feels "obligated" to love her. The similarities here are that love is complicated, and does not always end happily.

The biggest difference in these two stories is the innocence of the young boy and the darker, more sinister "love" of the doctor and Mabel. Mabel manipulates the doctor, even if she does not realize it, while the young boy is not manipulative in his love, he is just young, naive, and afraid. It seems he will have another, more grown-up chance at love, while Jack and Mabel will not.