Transparent Language in Realism
One big innovation of Realist literature was the use of simple, transparent language. No Realist novel is going to begin with some fancy-shmancy phrase like, "Behold, thy life and love are the true crown upon the pinnacle of my heart."
Realist writers fit their style to their subject: given that a lot of them were writing about ordinary people, they used ordinary language. Writing in language that echoed the way regular people spoke to each other was revolutionary in the mid-19th century, when Realism really got going. Before that, literary language was often supposed to be elevated, a little bit highfalutin'. But is that kind of language realistic? Not really—so the Realist writers tried something new.
Chew on This
Anton Chekhov, famous for his Realist short stories, used simple, clear language, as we can see in these examples from his short story The Lady with the Dog.
Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was revolutionary in its use of ordinary, spoken language—including slang and ungrammatical usages—in the narration of a tale. Check out these quotations from Huckleberry Finn to see how Huck's narrative voice works.