Naturalism was a 19th century movement that believed nature and the physical world are all that exist, rejecting spirituality and the supernatural. It emphasized investigating nature through science and viewed humanity as simply part of the natural world, influenced primarily by heredity and environment. Naturalist works often depicted harsh realities like poverty, disease, and violence in a detached, objective manner and believed fate was predetermined, showing nature's indifference to human struggles.

1. NATURALISM MOVEMENT (19th
CENTURY)
Introduction
1. It doesn't believe in sentimentalism, spiritualism, and supernaturalism. Man should
investigate the truth of nature by scientific methods with all his capacities and
resourcefulness. Nature is also termed as materialism. Nature is everything, there is
nothing beyond it.
Protagonist of Naturalism
Emile Zola, Darwin, Huxley, Tagore
3 Definition of Naturalism
“Naturalismis metaphysics which considers nature as the whole of reality. It excludes
what is supernatural or the other world” — Hocking
4.Meaning of Naturalism
It gave importance to the matter and the physical world, it does not believe in existence
of God .It is a philosophy which considers nature as everything and denies the existence
of ant spirit .It emphasis on the nature in every field of education.
BACKGROUND
Naturalism was an outgrowth of literary realism, a prominent literary movement in mid-19th-
century France and elsewhere. Naturalistic writers were influenced by Charles's theory of
evolution. They often believed that one's heredity and social largely determine one's character.
Whereas realism seeks only to describe subjects as they really are, naturalism also attempts to
determine "scientifically" the underlying forces (e.g. the environment or heredity) influencing
the actions of its subjects. Naturalistic works often include uncouth or sordid subject matter; for
example, Émile Zola's works had frankness about sexuality along with a pervasive
pessimism. Hardy can also be grouped under the umbrella of naturalism, because of his realistic
outlook on life evidenced in novels such as Tess of the D'Urbervilles.

2. Darkness and silence ruled everywhere around. ( Tess of the D'Urbervilles.)
Naturalistic works exposed the dark harshness of life, including poverty, racism, violence,
prejudice, disease, corruption, prostitution, and filth. As a result, naturalistic writers were
frequently criticized for focusing too much on human vice and misery.
Principles of Naturalism
The present is the real life; man should try to make this life happy and comfortable.
Reality can be truly analyzed by natural science.
Universe is a huge machine.
Man is also a part of this machine  Stress on physical environment
Man is the highest creature or animal according to his nature. So the essence of his life is
animal instinct and not spiritually.
Education in accordance with the nature of the child
Unchanging loss of nature explains all the events and occurrences of the world .
Characteristics of Naturalism
It gives emphasis on the training of senses as senses are the gateway of knowledge.
Education prepares the child for his future adult life.
Naturalism gives central position to the child in the educational process.
It is against bookish knowledge and verbalism
Pessimism is one of the primary characteristics of naturalism.
Another characteristic of literary naturalism is detachment from the story. The author often
tries to maintain a tone that will be experienced as "objective". Another characteristic of
naturalism is determinism - the opposite of free will, essentially. Often, a naturalist author will
lead the reader to believe a character's fate has been predetermined, usually by environmental
factors, and that he/she can do nothing about it.
Another common characteristic is a surprising twist at the end of the story. Equally, there
tends to be in naturalist novels and stories a strong sense that nature is indifferent to human
struggle. These are, however, only a few of the defining characteristics of naturalism.
Naturalism is an extension of realism, and may be better understood by study of the basic
precepts of that literary movement. The term naturalism may have been used in this sense for
the first time by Émile Zola. It is believed that he sought a new idea to convince the reading
public of something new and more modern in his fiction. He argued that his innovation in
fiction-writing was the creation of characters and plots based on the scientific method.