Naturalism was a late 19th century dramatic movement that aimed to replace romantic styles with realistic depictions of ordinary people in plausible everyday situations. Playwrights rejected dramatic conventions and sought to create perfect realistic illusions without symbolic elements. Naturalism was first defined by Émile Zola in 1880 as focusing on how external forces influence characters. Constantin Stanislavski developed method acting to allow actors to express authentic emotions through their personal experiences to create rich characters. Naturalism plays typically depicted the working class or lower class dealing with taboo subjects like poverty or suicide, exploring how characters are shaped by their circumstances and environment over the course of a single day in a single setting.