nship or an act or a situation that is incongruous to his character. As Edel wrote in his introduction, "[James] moved from the general to the particular" (James xvi). James, by utilizing this chiaroscuro technique, crafted characters with more sophisticated colorations and shading.
Howells also shared this school of thought. Characters were to be placed first and foremost to achieve an "actuality" (Cargill 251). For Howells, the "germ" also served as the impetus for any story. Take the smallest of ideas for a character and place him or her into a sea of situational drama and watch what happens. The character's trueness to self and intrinsic beliefs would lead them to an inevitable end. James in particular constantly refined his protagonists, carefully placing each step as they ascended to their final conclusion.
While James and Howells shared the same vision of how to start a novel and how to actualize characters, they disagreed on an important point. Howells believed that characters need only test their beliefs within the realm of "experience and in action" to achieve a verisimilitude that was sorely needed in literature (Cargill 253). James thought this was insufficient. For him, the test of one's being came from contemplation "in a heightening of sensitivity" (Cargill 253). When James' characters ascended to their final stage of sensitivity, they were fully realized per their true self.
Where Howells and other realists of his time found grist for their writing from the everyday events of their environment, James disdained the low and vulgar as he viewed it. James wanted nothing to do with the familiar; he wished only to deal with the "finest and most highly organized sensitivities" (Cargill 253). He truly believed that the downfall of society, aristocracy, and manners was to be attributed to the poor, the lowly and immigrants. He generally equated the term "vulgarity" with "democracy." Although Howells a...