Ivanhoe, Sir Walter Scott - Kenneth M. Sroka (essay date 1979)
Kenneth M. Sroka (essay date 1979)
SOURCE: "The Function of Form: Ivanhoe as Romance," in Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Vol. XIX, No. 4, Autumn, 1979, pp. 645-60.
[In the essay that follows, Sroka argues that Ivanhoe combines elements of realism with more conventional romantic tropes, particularly in the characters who display both heroism and human limitations.]
Walter Scott's critical prose does not reveal any concern on Scott's part for organic form in fiction. However, Scott's own practice as a novelist belies what appears to be his cavalier attitude toward the relationship of a work's form to its content. Ivanhoe, for example, appears on first reading to be a straightforward chivalric romance exemplifying the conventions of that form. It utilizes the conventional progression of the romance plot: the conflict between ideal good and evil embodied in the heroes and villains, the perilous journey...
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