Romance And Realism In Robert Louis Stevenson's Literary Novels

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“In literature, realism is reference that gives an illusion of exact correspondence with reality in its limited aspects. It is not unlimited, ultimate reality but the fragmented, flawed world of quotation experience that literary realism seems to refer to; or it may be something felt as borrowed from that kind of experience.” (Slattery,1972). Robert Louis Stevenson’s literary works included different genres such as travel writing, romance, poetry and realism. In The Beach Of Falesa, Stevenson mixed between two genres, adventure romance and realism. There is a shift from adventure romance to realism in the novella, as it starts with the part where we can find the adventure romance genre. This part is the introduction where Stevenson describes …show more content…

For example, the taboo around Wiltshire’s house that made all the traders stop trading with him because islanders believed that his wife, Uma is tabooed. Wiltshire discovers that the belief of the islanders about the temple that has demonic powers is actually fake and not real. It is all made up by Case, as he had built the temple in the forest and tricked the islanders by some strange visions and noises. He figures out that the trick of the temple is made up by using luminous paint and Aeolian harps. The relationship between all these supernatural ideas and realism is that they are discovered at the end by the protagonist, Wiltshire, who figures out that everything the islanders believed in is made up by the manipulating powers of Case and his influence over them. Wiltshire has doubts about both the island beliefs and Christianity. He tries to convince his wife, Uma that the bible will protect him from the island spirits if he brings it out with him into the windward side of the island at night, but Uma didn’t believe that. (WATSON NICOLA J, 2011). Although Wiltshire has superior British knowledge, he couldn’t find something else than the bible to convince Uma who “swore a bible was no use”, while Wiltshire told her “That’s just your Kanaka ignorance.” (Stevenson and Jolly,

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