Tragic Realism in English Literature: 1720-1820

In the 18th century the changing attitude toward man's place in society came to be viewed with an essentially democratic spirit. This mood was expressed in the plays, novels and poems of writers such as Lillo, Richardson, Godwin, and Wordsworth, who presented a tragic vision of the mundane life of the common man, the tragic mode that was later advanced by Ibsen, Hauptmann, Strindberg and Arthur Miller.