There is a weird type of magic in classic literature. It is as though, even though a book is hundreds of years old, and the story takes place before the invention of things like cell phones, social media or modern science, there is a connection to the author and some of the themes are still applicable today.
You read a classic work of literature and will certainly relate to it, all while knowing that the character that you are relating to is vastly different from you, and lived in a completely different time and place than you do. The reason that classic literature continues to resonate with people is because it takes on the most profound aspects of the human experience, and will do so in a way that is timeless, honest, and quite unnervingly accurate.
Timeless Questions About Human Nature
Essentially, the essence of "classic literature" revolves around human nature; specifically, the questions we ask of ourselves: Who are we? What are the reasons behind our actions? How do we relate to other people? These writers, Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, Austen and Tolstoy have written about their own understanding of being a "human being" and not writing about what they think is going to happen in the future.
While the world has radically changed; the primary motivators of emotion (greed, love, envy, ambition, anxiety and pride) continue to remain the same over the past several hundred years. Thus, through reading about Macbeth's power lust, or Anna Karenina's struggle with her desires against her responsibilities; we are reading about not just individuals from their time but rather clusters of emotions that apply to many different situations (workplace, personal lives, or politics) that we see manifesting in our lives as well. Classic literature provides us with the opportunity to develop the ability to observe these clusters of emotional responses displayed by classic characters within their literature and then relating them to our own circumstances.
A Mirror for Moral and Ethical Dilemmas
Morality in modern times is often seen as confusing and complex. With technological growth happening at such a rapid pace, it is difficult for people to have a clear idea of how to use the technology that’s available in a manner that is responsible. There is so much political and social debate today, but few, if any, provide any definitive guidance when it comes to the moral ambiguity that exists in society today. Although classic literature does not provide a solution to any moral question, it does instruct readers to be comfortable with moral ambiguity.
Novels like Crime and Punishment, To Kill a Mockingbird provide readers with many difficult moral dilemmas. For example, Is justice fair? Can people do harmful things if they have good intentions? What happens if laws are in conflict with your moral beliefs? By working through these dilemmas through a fictional context, readers learn to think critically and apply those critical thinking skills to all forms of arguments, be it debating an issue, questioning authority, or having empathy for differing opinions.
Understanding Society by Looking Backward
Literary classics act as a mirror into historical behaviour, triumphs and transformations of society. Many of today's legal, educational and political structures stem from classical literature. By reading the classics you will gain a deeper understanding of where many of the beliefs we hold today originated from; thereby allowing you to develop insight into some of the social issues we have faced similar to those we face today.
New literary works such as Brave New World and 1984 challenge the reader to consider how the behaviour of humanity as well as how the distribution of power, has been formed through numerous generations, rather than only to be an example of the technological advances of the times when these works were created. These books give us perspective of the events that have transpired up until now and allow us to speculate on future events.
Language That Trains the Mind
Classic literature influences our thoughts by simply being written differently from current, contemporary literature. Older works need a more thorough and slow developed process for reading because they utilize complex, multi-layered sentence structures (that are complex in structure and also contain metaphor) and take longer to express ideas compared to modern literature. Consequently, developing the ability to read with slowness to comprehend many, multi-layered sentence structures will develop three skills (that are becoming increasingly difficult to demonstrate in the era of scrolling and skimming), namely the ability to focus, develop patience, and improve analytical thinking skills/performing analysis of information (reading classic literature utilises all three skills when means reading the work takes a longer period of time).
Complex language gives readers the skills to observe and identify irony or subtle variations in language by providing readers with the ability to comprehend complex, multi-layered structure with the complexity of the many different meanings contained in the text. Therefore, the ability to effectively communicate with others can easily transfer to your already established reading and comprehension skill developed through reading classic literature within a contemporary environment, regardless of the differences between classic and contemporary works.
The Power of Storytelling Over Time
Humans are inherent communicators as much as they are storytellers. A perfect example would be the impact that the classic literature has had upon modern day forms of storytelling. Although the majority of the pieces were created hundreds of years ago, themes expressed and emotional realities captured within these works remain relevant to us today and have, in turn, shaped our contemporary methods of storytelling across all forms (i.e., literature, movies, television).
The use of archetypes such as the hero's journey and tragic fall from grace (both typical of the hero) is one thing that still influences how each of us develops our own narratives today. As anyone who has ever watched an action/adventure movie from recent history can attest, there are often many similarities in plot lines between these films and those of Homer's The Odyssey. This classic canon has provided us with a template on which to create and/or develop modern narrative structures in order to connect our personal experiences to those of society at large.
Conclusion: The Living Conversation of Classics
The timelessness of classic literature has allowed it to continue to influence our thoughts in the present. Every generation of readers brings their own unique set of questions and interpretations to classic literature. Although the words of the classics are the same, we have changed over time and as we exchange those interpretations updated meaning is continually created every time we read these books. The reason why these classics have lasted for so long is not because they are old. It is because they speak of truths. They remind us that while many things change; such as technology or society, what has made us human has not changed. Reading the classics does not remove us from our present reality, but instead enhances our understanding of that reality. Consequently, these classic works are still relevant today as they always have been.