Naturalism differed from realism in its assumption of scientific determinism, which led naturalistic authors to emphasize man's accidental, physiological nature rather than his moral or rational qualities. Individual characters were seen as helpless products of heredity and environment, motivated by strong instinctual drives from within and harassed by social and economic pressures from without. Naturalism is a type of "realism" usually characterized by a pessimistic world view. Naturalism is different from realism in two major parts: Subject matter and the
The difference between Realism and Naturalism in the theatre is annoyingly complex. Naturalism is a genre that emerged in the theatre around the time of the play Therese Raquin and Strindberg's Miss Julie (which often includes a Preface on Naturalism). However, Realism is a literary genre (confused yet?) which applies to some of the works of Tolstoy.
The reason people find it difficult to tell them apart is because we use the terms interchangeably. We call something realistic when it fits our notion of reality, we call something 'natural' when we feel it is acceptably like life in general. Since we use both words to mean roughly the same thing, their meanings have changed. One seems to be about reality and the other about life.
Naturalism is however theatrical style, whereas Realism is a literary style, a production could potentially be both Realist and Naturalistic at the same time. When speaking about them or writing about them in any essay it is important to first define your terms.
