Essay on Social Novel
UNIT-V
SOCIAL NOVEL
The Social Novel
emphasizes the influence of the Social and economic conditions of an era on
shaping characters and determining events. (e.g. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle
Tom's Cabin).
1. Introduction
A Social Novel is a
form of the 'problem novel" which centres its principal attention on the
nature, function and effect of the society in which the characters live and on
the social forces playing upon them. Usually the social novel presents a thesis
and argues for it as a resolution to a social problem.
Usually the social or
sociological novel presents a thesis (sometimes called thesis novel) and argues
for it as a resolution to a social problem. Social novel is a phrase used to describe
mid-19th century fiction which examined specific abuses and hardships that
affected the working classes.
Novels dealing with the
social problems arose out of the concern of the writer for the society around
him. The serious examination of social issues became an important element of
fiction with the industrial revolution, which cantered attention on the
condition of the labourer and his family and resulted in such novels as
Dickens’ Hard times, and David
Copperfield. In his novel David Copperfield, Dickens brings out the various
evils of industrial Revolution, especially the employment of child labour.
During Dickens's period there were no factory laws and trade unions and so the
factory owners were free to exploit the poor Children tor their own profit. The
main character David's suffering is the suffering of the poor and helpless
Victorian children.
One of the earliest
examples of social novel is Charles Kingsley's Alton Locke (1850) in which he turned the spotlight on the
nineteenth-century sweatshops where clothes were manufactured. Geore Eliot in Middlemarch subjected an entire
provincial town to sociological examination. American novelists have always had
a serious interest in social issues. Mrs. Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin explored
the conditions and the social status of the Negro, a theme that was to prove of
enduring interest as a social problem through such works as G.W. Cable's The
Grandissimes, and the novels of Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison.
●
The social novel
is didactic in purpose. The author's aim in such novels is to draw the
attention of the public to the issue being discussed.
●
The problem
dealt with include social inequality (gender, race, or class prejudice)
poverty, the problems of rapid industrialization, child labour, Violence
against women, and so on.
●
The protagonists of such novels are from the
oppressed classes of society, and are shown in a sympathetic light.
6. Conclusion
Most modern writers write
about their country, society and its problem. In Indian-writing in English.
Mulkraj Anand's Coolie and Untouchable are novels of the soil dealing with the
problems of their native soil.
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