THE DIALECTICS OF FREEDOM AND DETERMINISM IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY ENGLISH REALISM
Keywords:
Freedom, determinism, English Realism, moral responsibility, social constraint, Victorian literature, ethical choice, industrial society, moral philosophy, human agency.Abstract
This study explores the complex interaction between freedom and determinism in nineteenth-century English Realist literature. It examines how major authors, including Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Thomas Hardy, represent human agency and moral choice within social, economic, and environmental constraints. The analysis reveals that freedom in English Realism is not understood as complete autonomy but as ethical awareness, personal responsibility, and the capacity to make meaningful decisions within societal and natural boundaries. By combining textual analysis with historical, social, and philosophical contextualization, this research demonstrates that nineteenth-century realism functions as a literary medium through which philosophical debates regarding human agency, morality, and social determinism are dramatized and explored.
