Introduction

 Naturalism is a movement based on scientific thought and philosophy of materialism of 19th century. It was a literary movement in literature mainly in novels, which was a special form of Realism. These two schools were mostly the same except that Naturalists were more pessimists and deterministic. This movement was actually a reaction against the freedom and subjectivity of Romanticism. With the growth of science in the middle of 19th century, thinkers began to accept mechanistic idea, once again, from biology. Darwin's theory of Evolution had a great effect on their idea of human nature. Darwin (a biologist) believed that human is originally an animal; a small, helpless, weak one which is under the influence of forces around him. Key elements of Naturalism were heredity and environment. French fiction greatly influenced this movement. Balzac in his "Human Comedy" had first practiced a kind of fiction in which man was merged in his social milieu and treated as a passive product of his environment. Emile Zola was the chief person who introduced& applied the principles of scientific naturalism in literature in his "The Experimental Novel". Following Darwin and the first psychologist Calando Bernard, he believed that a novelist should record actual life - to take "a slice of life". He should be like a scientist who after observing and studying human life reports his findings impartially. The fundamental features of naturalism were (1) a biological determinism in which man was controlled by his primitive animal instincts;(2) a sociological or environmental determinism in which the weak were destroyed and the strong survived in a world of struggle; (3) the search for reality in the violent war, murder, poverty, disaster...among lower classes of mankind.

 1. The Origin of Naturalism

 Naturalism had its origin in scientific thought and the philosophy of materialism of the nineteenth century. The main influences that form a different point of view were Darwin's biological theories, Comte's application of scientific ideas to the study of society , and Taine's de//////script//////ion of deterministic theories to literature.(for further information about Comte and Taine can refer to Collier's Encyclopedia, vol.18, p.401)By interesting in naturalistic approach and interpretation of life, those concentrated on describing the social environment and dwelt on its deficiencies and on the shortcomings of human beings. The naturalist's idea of the estate of man tended to be subjective. In the middle of 19th century, Thinkers began to accept mechanistic idea from biology. Darwin's Evolution, man is reduced from the heroic state to the semblance of a helpless animal, which is small, weak and under the influence of forces about him. Humanity was the accidental product of heredity and environment.

1.1 Evolution

 The word Evolution means literally "unfolding" or "development". In biology, Evolution means "the growth of an individual by the expansion of its organism". The term of Evolution implies that living organisms are all related to each other and have arisen from a simple ancestry by a long sequence of differentiation. In this sense, Evolution is confronted with the theory of special creation, which says that each kind of organism is the result of a distinct act by a divinity and the ancestors of living organisms have almost been similar to their present descendants. The idea of Evolution was clearly at the beginning of the 18th century, and the writer made overstatements about Evolutionary in tone. Hoko, Ray... were the pioneers who defined this subject without definite knowledge of it. It was Buffoon who came to star the issue in the 18th century and began to scientific study of evolution." He supported the mutability of species and the origin of some species from others by descent with modification".Lamarck was the first great exponent of Evolution. He began to study Evolution more careful than any of the earlier Evolutionists. He had a broad knowledge led him to consider Evolution as the universal key to comprehension of animate nature. He held that all the diverse animals and plants are evolving from the same simple ancestry. In summary, Evolution says that each kind of organism is the result of a distinct act by divinity and the ancestors of living organism have been similar to their present descendants.

1.1.1 Darwin and theory of Evolution

  As you noticed, Evolution had been recognized by ancient Greek philosophers, but Darwin was the first to give a credible mechanism: natural selection, according to this theory, all of organisms vary and many of their variations are hereditary. More young organisms are produced than live to reproduce in their turn. Those do succeed in reproducing, whose variations best fit them for survival in the struggle of life. So, the offspring do not inherit all the variations of a preceding generation equally, but there is a selection which is interested to fitter variations. Pre-eminence of Charles Darwin in the history of Evolutionary theory is established. In 1837 he began a notebook of facts which was concluded on Evolution. In 1859 is appeared The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection which was an attempt not to prove but to explain. Its major importance is that it did finally lead to the universal scientific acceptance of evolution in general. He indicated the truth of Evolution and presented these with convincing logic. The background of the Darwin's theory is that Evolution is a gradual process occurring wholly as the result of realistic material factors. It was the effect of the theory of Evolution to reduce man from the high state to helpless animal, very small and weak which is under the influence of forces about him. So, humanity was the product of environment. This theory in literature was called Naturalism.

1.2. Zola and His Ideas

 Movement of Naturalism had its origin in France with the novels and theoretical essays of Emile Zola who practiced it. Zola believed that writing a novel is like a laboratory experiment. Naturalism is //object//ive and impartial like science, so science and literature became synonyms. Naturalists as scientists were //object//ive in their method of observing and recording the realities of life. "In his view all men's actions are determined by environment and heredity and it is the task of the novelist to perform a view of life."

2. The Philosophy of Naturalism

 Naturalism is a continuation of Realism with the addition of pessimistic determinism. Naturalists believe that a character is fundamentally an animal, without free will. it means that he or she has not any will because fate controls his or her will, so he or she is controlled by heredity, environment, chance or instinct. Characters of Naturalistic works of literature are poor, uneducated and unsophisticated. All the subjects are negative and show the ugly aspects of life. In Naturalism, life is the dull round of daily existence, and acts of violence &passion lead to harsh death. Naturalism is distinctively a mode of fiction that was developed by a school of writers in accordance with special philosophical thesis which is a product of Post-Darwinian biology in 19th century. This biology says that human beings exist in the order of nature and can not participate in spiritual world beyond nature, because of the lack of soul. Naturalism denies the existence of the supernatural anywhere in the universe and holds that if any unnatural entities exist, it may be known only by their observable influence on natural //object//s. Naturalists reject faith, revelation, authority, tradition and intuition as sources of truth or guidance. Everything must be tested by experience in accordance with scientific methods. Their attempt was to represent the intermingling in the life of controlling forces and individual worth. They do not dehumanize man because Naturalists hold individual responsible, in the sense of applying rewards and sanctions, behavior of people stay more or less within the range of what they know acceptable. This is how people learn to act ethically, so Naturalism places responsibility and morality within the world as understood by science.

3. Features of Naturalism

1) Key terms: survival, determinism, violence and taboo.

2)The brute within each individual which presents human being to be complete &reach the high quality he deserves, They are elements such as greed, lust, desire for dominance or pleasure.

3) Believing in nature as an indifferent phenomenon,

4) The conflict between man against himself and man against nature. Always the character struggles with external or his own inner forces -the brute within- to keep himself away from evil.

5) Human's inability at coping with over powering forces.

6) Irony, cynicism, nihilist life and dark doubt about human goodness; We do not know human characteristics and their inside so we can not be certain in knowing one as a good person.

7) Characters in Naturalistic works are conditioned and controlled by heredity, environment& instinct.

4. Naturalism and Religion

 Religion in Naturalism has been modified by the changes in people's belief according to scientific movement which led to examining the truth of God and the Holy Bible through science.

4.1 Earlier Motives for the Modification of Religion

  Nineteen century (1848-70) was the climax of the effects on religion, when scientific discoveries were in its highest degree. Generally most mid-Victorian poetry and critical prose were more occupied with conflict of God & science than technology, economics& politics. Of course this conflict was not a new one. These debates were the continuance of earlier decades& centuries' conflicts. In the earlier forms of debates there were two groups with two different ideas of religion, called Utilitarian, the followers of Jeremy Bentham, and philosophical Conservatives, the followers of Samuel Taylor Coleridge.Bentham and his followers' aimed to reform people's cast of mind. "Their aim was to test all institutions in the light of human reason, in order to determine weather such institutions were useful or not" [1].This "Utilitarian" test, besides its application to inefficiencies in government, was for religious belief which resulted in disruption. There was a question: "Is religious belief useful for a reasonable person?" Benthamites believed that "religion belief was merely an outmoded superstition".[2]One of the Utilitarian writers and freethinkers _Harriet Martineau_ says that: "There is no theory of a God, of an author of Nature, of an origin of the universe, which is not utterly repugnant to my faculties; which is not (to my feelings) so irreverent as to make me blush; so misleading as to make me mourn.[3]"Anti-Utilitarian, including Coleridge, believed that people had always needed faith as necessary as food, and if reason proved the irrelevance of religion, then it is reason (and not the religion) which is inadequate. It proves the truth of religion. Anti-utilitarianism was in two types: 1) those who abounded Christianity but sought some sort of substitution for Christianity. 2) Those who believed in powerful God and a powerful dogmatic and traditional religion withstanding against Benthamites.So we can see that from earlier centuries, conflict between the two utilitarian and anti-utilitarian were based on the acceptance of God and it means the change in their religious beliefs of some mid-Victorians.

4.2 19th century: Religious Revolution and Scientific Leaders   Some scientific leaders followed this Utilitarianism and gradually developed their theories.In the middle of the 19th century those debates were continued but some of the leaders of science, particularly Thomas Henry Huxley, substituted those of utilitarian. Huxley believed in the theorist of Charles Darwin and tried to popularize them. Although having religious beliefs, some of the English scientists seemed to have their established faith ruined by their scientific discoveries, complaining about the "Flimsiness" of his own religious faith in 1851, Ruskin exclaimed: "if only the geologists would let me alone, I could do very well, but those dreadful hammers! I here the clink of them at the end of every cadence of the bible verses[4]"

4.2.1 Changes to Religious Beliefs in Two Ways

 Science had greatly changed some Victorians' religious belief, sciences such as biology, geology or astronomy. This damage to religious belief had occurred in two ways: one was scientific studying & investigating of the bible. This kind of investigation, especially developed in Germany, was as "Higher Criticism". Scientific scholars examined the bible as a mere text of history instead of accepting it as a true and unmistakable holy document. An example of such criticism studies was David Fredrich Strauss'sDas Leben Jesus, which was translated asThe Life of Jesusin 1846by George Eliot, an Evangelical novelist who abandoned Christianity. The second factor of damaging religious beliefs was the new view of humanity affected by geological & astronomical discoveries. Geology had reduced the age human of race in time by approximately the age of earth as a million years. They have found that the age of human being is not as much as the age of earth; there might be some other species or nothing. Astronomers by their discoveries of dizzying expanses between stars and planets, added to people's confusion.But biology reduced mankind even further into "nothingness'". Darwin's treaties, The Origin of Species (1859) had different interpretation by the public. Some assumed the evolution as merely a progress, while most of the readers found it in contrast with the concept of creation in Bible & the important special role of human beings in the world. Darwin's later treatise,The Descent of Man(1871)raised more question & wonder of human beings' similarities to animals. It was the science & scientific views which caused to investigate religious beliefs, which was called Deism. Now, what is Deism? Let's have a look on it.

4.3 Deism

  Deism means a belief in a universe deity. It is in contrast with Atheism & Pantheism and also with uncritical Theism (believing in faultless god). It admits a transcendent creator of universe, but denies his interference in Nature & events. Changes in belief -Deism- originated in the 17th century by Lord Herbert of Cherub, one of the most original thinkers such as Hume, Gibbon& Bentham...etc: it represented an effort to find a standard of religious truth by which the conflicting claims of individual creeds and the pretensions of supernatural revelations might be tested, and which should harmonize with the metaphysical results of the new science[5]". Metaphysical naturalism is a term assuming the investigation of nature alone& mistrusting "revelation", as the key element for understanding the whole affair. "Freethinkers" was a name which advocates of deism adopted and on account of their op//////position////// to supernatural revelation, they were named Naturalists. So Deism was described as "religion without revelation". In Naturalism mankind is part of the natural world, which is quite uncared -God does not care about him and his problems-.A creature whose job is to eat, drink, reproduce, enjoy oneself then come back to the earth, so he is without any important role in the world. This life is probably all he has -no life in the afterworld- and he should not waste his life on the transcendent deities who are unable to help man. "Deities, throughout history, have been a constant disappointment to mankind. And prayer, since it does not relieve starving children in Africa, could not possibly be of any help to mankind. Man alone is responsible for himself, as much as blind fate allows". So, understanding god is not important, necessary to understand the world & nature which is indifferent to human problems. Thus naturalism neither denies the existence of God, nor affirms the powerful one. It just believes in God as an unable & indifferent deity who only has created this world &nature(including human beings), and is not fair on human beings & their different behaviors, there is no formula for being prosperous, for there are both good &bad people who are miserable. And there are good & bad people who are happy & prosperous.It can be concluded that Naturalism makes god an unnecessary hypothesis essentially superfluous to scientific investigation, for, divine or moral cases do not have any place in scientific explanation.

[1]-The Norton Anthology of English Literature, P.1895, par.1

2-The same book and page

3-The same book, P.1896, par.1

4-The same book and page

5-Religious Encyclopedia, Vol. 3; Deism, p.391

Reference

1. Yeganeh, Farah. 1381. Literary Schools, Rahnama pub.

2. M.h.Abrams. 1380. Glossary of Literary terms, 2nd edition, sobhe sadegh pub.

3. Norton Anthology of English Literature, sixth edition, 19,vol.3

4. A short History of Literary Criticism, First published by Merlin press Ltd., New York University Press, 1963

5. Encyclopedia Americana, International Edition, 2002, volumes 5, 8,14,26,29

6. Encyclopedia Britanica,Inc. William Benton the publisher, 1943-1973, volumes 5,6,8,9,14

7. Collier Encyclopedia, P.E. Collier, New York. Toronto, 1959, volumes 6, 9,10,18,19

8. The New Schaff-herzog Encyclopedia Religious knowledge, edited by Samuel McCauley Jackson, D.D., LL.D, 1997, vol. 3

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