Rural Reality Of Ireland In George Moore’s Short Stories Collection The Untilled Field

The faithful and profound reflection on the social reality is regarded as the main character of the critical realistic literature.Influenced by the critical realistic writers of the 19^th century,Irish writer George Moore made a vivid portrayal of Irish rural reality in the late 19^th century in his short stories collection The Untilled Field.As one of the most famous works of George Moore,The Untilled Field plays a significant role in the history of Irish short stories.Both its form and themes have a great impact on the creation of later short story writers in Ireland.The Untilled Field consists of different stories set in the same background of rural Ireland.By narrating stories that seem to have no relation with each other,the author conveys a common theme and gives a comprehensive revelation of Irish rural reality in multiple dimensions.By close reading,generalization and summarization,this thesis has analyzed the life of rural characters in the atmosphere of Irish Catholicism,the natural and social environment of the late 19^th century Ireland,and the representation of Irish social problems from the perspective of the exiles,and finally it has revealed the decaying and depressive Irish rural reality.This thesis is divided into five parts.The first part gives an introduction to the rural reality of Ireland in the 19^th century and provides an overview of George Moore’s life and works and then briefly explains the significance of the thesis.The second part analyzes the living state of rural characters in the Catholic atmosphere and the life of rural priests and peasants under the influence of the continuously expanding Irish Catholicism.The third part discusses the natural environment of rural Ireland after the Great Famine and the social environment under the combined effect of the economic,politic and religious elements.The fourth part takes the theme of exile that is influenced by the author’s own experience and highlighted in the collection as the object of analysis,and then it explores the social problems reflected in the exile stories.The last part summarizes the whole thesis and briefly concludes that The Untilled Field reflects the decaying and stifling rural reality of Ireland in the late 19^th century,stresses the paralyzed state of Irish people under the oppression of both the religious and governmental authority and further implies the whole Irish nation’s destiny of the quest for national identity.