Satire of Romantic Fiction W.D Howells’s short story “Editha” is a satire of romantic fiction through the subject of war. The main subject of “Editha” is war. Editha is extremely unaware of the terrible effects of war and genuinely believes in the romantic glory of battle and glorifies it throughout the story. Howells made her character the protagonist because he wanted to show satire through her. He also made her character with hate. Throughout the entire story, Editha is portrayed as being very passionate about nationalism at the time of war.
W.D. Howells is a famous author known for his use of realism. He was a believer in literary realism. Howells was also a U.S. novelist and critic who also produced plays, memoirs, literary criticism, and fiction. Howells recognized the significance of American Romanticism, but he thought the movement's leaders and the majority of its practitioners were mimicked. Nothing new surfaced and It was seen as normal to have romantic writing. Howells used satire to correct them by
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She thinks he should enlist and take part in the great war and be heroic and manly since the war is "glorious" to her. Finally, her fiancé George enlists, but he is sadly killed in action. Editha has little to no remorse at the end of the story because she thinks that he died heroically for her and their county
In my opinion, W.D. Howell's "Editha" is a romantic satire. I have many examples of how Howell's use of satire contributes to and takes away from the effectiveness of the story. While the overuse of satire took away from the realism Howells was trying to show through George, Howells used Editha's character as a satire of romanticism because he did not like the American Romanticism movement. Editha and George show the differences between realism and romanticism, and satire made us look for more romantic details through Editha's