Although Naturalism is a product of the nineteenth century, its spiritual
father, in modern history, was Shakespeare. The premise that man does not
possess volition, that his destiny is determined by an innate “tragic flaw,” is
fundamental in Shakespeare’s work. But, granted this false premise, his
approach is metaphysical, not journalistic. His characters are not drawn from
“real life,” they are not copies of observed concretes nor statistical
averages: they are grand-scale abstractions of the character traits which a
determinist would regard as inherent in human nature: ambition, power-lust,
jealousy, greed, etc.