British Modern Literary Period by Adam Proulx

Table of Contents

3…………A Bad Beginning 4……. The British Modern Period: Changing Up the Style

6……. Private Lives: A Good Read and A Better Lesson 8……Quick Pace, Slow Message 10…….“After the Race”; A Race to the Bottom 12……..Mrs. Dalloway: The Revolutionary Progression 14………Bibliography

A Bad Beginning

The harsh and depressing era that has been named the British Modern Period was

packed with two of the most inhumane and unpleasant scars on the face of mankind: the Great Depression and World War II. These dark calamities stretched and tore society in different aspects. From the economy’s value plummeting to political relations being torn asunder, the Modern Period was a time of great change, not only for Britain but also for the entire world. The human condition drastically deteriorated, starting in the early 1930s when the New York Stock Exchange crashed. Many people lived with very few, if any necessities. When the depression ended, the people’s rejoicing was short lived, as World War II commenced shortly after. Both the Great Depression and WWII, the deepest depths of despair to which mankind has ever sunken, gave rise to the British Modern Period.

I decided to focus on the British Modern Period because of my interest in World War

II and The Great Depression. These two profound and unique events altered the world in similar ways—from WWII’s mass genocide and death to the Great Depression’s starvation and depravation. Britain, fighting for the entirety of WWII, and being deprived economically during the Great Depression, caused profound effects on the literature of the period.

These effects mostly pertained to the style of the writing. In T.S Eliot’s The Waste

Land, there are dense and frequent biblical references. The references confuse the reader and make the poem less enjoyable and meaningful. Since references to the Bible did not become popular, modernists cared little for nature, being or the overarching structures of history. Instead, they wanted to focus more on progress and growth from the dark period of the Great Depression and WWII. This idea of progress affected the writing of the period by making the authors and poets state their ideas and beliefs in a pithy work. Many crude and rough soldiers and workers would not have wanted to sit down and analyze a poem for its motifs and themes. Getting straight to the point allowed works to be more popular.

The British Modern Period: Changing Up the Style Of the many different literary periods and genres, one stands out because of its varying effects and influences. The British Modern period, from about 1905 to around 1940, was during a very eventful era in human history. The English Modern literature is unique in that there were many different types of influences. Remains of the Victorian Era passed over and seeped into some writing but new ideas were also developed. Authors acquired a care that weighed progress more heavily than nature or being. Also, authors and poets wanted to sweep away the elegant forms of diction to get straight to the point and reason for writing. These three main changes constitute what we know today as the British Modern Period. The Victorian era directly preceded the British Modern period. Authors who lived during both periods carried traits of writing from the Victorian era to the British Modern period. This resulted in a blending of writing styles that incorporated the shared traits as well as new ideas that Modernism produced. E.M Forster was raised during the end of the Victorian era and as a result learned the features of the period’s writing. Forster’s writing from his early life includes ideas about change in life and technology. These are replicated in his later works during the Modern period when they are not particularly popular. Experimentation in style and also perspective was new and very prominent for Modernism. Authors attempted to attract readers with new styles of writing with different perspectives, content and character types. T.S Eliot’s poem, The Waste Land, is a great example. Eliot used biblical sounding verses and diction that was unheard of for the period. Also, the dense and frequent references to the Bible confused his readers, but also gave them a new perspective from which to view the literature. Another example of new perspectives is Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. This innovative story is written in a style where the main character, Clarissa Dalloway, goes through one day of her life where she has frequent flashbacks about her prior situations. This combination of new and old ideas blended into a great, malleable canvas that authors depicted their own renderings on.

Multiple cultural shocks, including World War I, World War II, and the Great Depression, pushed the authors of the Modern Period to care about progress. This idea of progress pushed authors to move forward and upward with their writing. Unlike many other periods, the idea of being, nature, and the purpose of mankind were not well discussed in the Modern era. This is largely because there were major blemishes in the time period that we want to learn from, but not dwell on. The two world wars were, and still are, huge negatives in history that show the abused power for the use of evil. This is be a great point of writing for authors and poets but for the proceeding generations and people it is best to move past these events but still keep them in mind. The Great Depression also reveals these traits of the writing for Modern literature. The embarrassment, for Britain and the world, of being so unsuccessful for years caused everybody to want to make progress and just move on to better times. Yeats’ poem, A drunken Man’s Praise of Sobriety, encapsulates the idea of unemployment and men drinking their problems away during the Great Depression. These globally catastrophic events directly affected writing of the period, but not as much as the people’s demand to move on. Poets from most time periods like to use metaphors and such literary devices to draw out a symbol or idea which provides more depth and perspectives to their poems. In contrast, the poets from the British Modern period get straight to the point and directly say what the meaning or purpose is. The reason for this technique is to let the reader know exactly what is happening and what ideas are presented. In a time of uncertainty and doubt, this was a luxury for the reader because they didn’t have to interpret what the author meant and could understand their ideas plainly. An example of this pithy poetry is Yeats’, A Dream of Death, which is not only short in length but does not elaborate much in the denotation or connotation. This style of poetry also kept the reader interested because it was simple and many people didn’t have time to figure out metaphors and analogies with other economic and family worries. The pithy style of poetry in Modern poems made comprehension for commoners easier in their everyday struggles.

The influences on the English Modern period were very diverse, but they add and contribute to the era’s history and its literature. The British Modern period had multiple world altering events that drastically changed the writing along with other influences of the period. Remains of the Victorian Era passed over and seeped into some writing but new ideas were also developed. Authors developed a care that weighed progress more heavily than nature or being. Also, authors and poets, like Yeats, wanted to sweep away the elegant forms of diction and get straight to the point and reason for writing. The English Modern period represents many different blends of ideas and concepts, new and old, which authors used to convey their ideas into many literary pieces that we regard highly today.

“Private Lives”: A Good Read and A Better Lesson Having an affair is very embarrassing if caught. It is so embarrassing and shameful that it has been the topic for many books, movies, and plays: one of which is Noel Coward’s play, “Private Lives”. This play involves four characters: Amanda Prynne, Victor Prynne, Elyot Chase, and Sybil Chase. Before the events of the play, Elyot and Amanda were married and then had a divorce because of their incessant arguing. Sometime later the two find other spouses and marry. Coincidentally, the two couples both go on their honeymoon to Paris, France and stay at the exact same hotel with adjacent rooms. “Private Lives”’s plot has twists and turns where the reader finds out about Elyot and Amanda’s past plus the story 6

that unfolds involving the four characters. The excellent storyline is enriched by the symbols and motifs. “Private Lives” has many symbols between both the married couples and the affair couples. These symbols add depth to the play and make it more interesting to read. One symbol is the yacht that sits out in the harbor next to the hotel. Both Amanda and Elyot and Victor and Sibyl notice it sitting there and ask who it belongs to. This not only shows the same interests that all four of the characters have, but also that the yacht itself represents the solitude of being on a boat and having no escape from the situation. The fact that the boat is in the harbor and near land shows that they can easily get to land and out of trouble, but they don’t. Another symbol is the tequilas that each of the cheating couples drink on the porch. These represent how each of them is being a little out of their mind in cheating on their spouse as if they were drunk. The symbols that Coward inserts into the play really make it more enjoyable for the reader. The play relates to styles of the English Modern Period because of the symbols that Coward puts in plain view. Many authors of the Modern Era, because of the confusion in life during the time from World War II and the Great Depression, did not try to have subtle symbols and motifs because the readers wouldn’t want to figure out what they meant. Coward also showed each of the characters’ feelings and emotions, which relates to the modern period. A main characteristic of the modern period is the individual which is shown by how Coward gives each character their own feelings and expresses the differently, even though couples usually have most of the same feelings. I thought that Coward wrote this play very well. One characteristic was the effort that he put into each of the characters and how they acted differently around their marital spouse and affair spouse. The characters each seemed very realistic which made the play more 7

enjoyable. The play was also straightforward in its setting so it did not become confusing. Going from the hotel in France to Amanda’s flat in Paris was not confusing because Coward described the setting clearly and thoroughly. Overall I thought this play was very well developed and written which is why I would recommend it to almost anybody to read. Quick Pace, Slow Message William Butler Yeats was born on June 13, 1865 in Dublin, Ireland to John Butler Yeats and Susan Mary Pollexfen. Yeats’s mother came from a wealthy merchant family so he could be schooled properly. His education began at a young age when he studied poetry because he was fascinated by both Irish legends and the occult. His family relocated to Merville so his mother could stay with her extended family. Young Yeats grew upon this new land and literally and symbolically called it his “country of the heart. The Yeats family was very artistic as William’s brother was an esteemed painter and his sisters were both involved in the Arts and Crafts Movement. Yeats grew up as a member of the Protestant Ascendancy so there was some religious influence on his early life. Catholicism gained momentum around the turn of the century and this did have a significant effect on his poetry. They Yeats family moved to England for their father’s job as an artist and there the Yeats children were educated at home by their mother, who entertained them with stories and Irish folktales. William furthered his education at the Godolphin school in 1877, where he studied for four years. Yeats’s performance in school was not outstanding in any sense as a school report describes him as “only fair.” After his family returned to Dublin, Yeats attended Erasmus Smith High School. It was during his studying there, that he began to write poetry and in 1885, his first poems were published in the Dublin University Review. Yeats went on to write many well-‐renowned poems, a lot of which were heavily influenced by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Yeats mainly wrote in the Modern Period, so he was also influenced by World War I, The Great Depression, and partly by World War II. These three major events caused his writing to be very melancholy and depressing. Other traits of the Modern Period that influenced Yeats were focusing on the individual, progress and growth, and imagism, which favored precision of imagery and clear, sharp language. 8

A Dream Of Death I DREAMED that one had died in a strange place Near no accustomed hand, And they had nailed the boards above her face, The peasants of that land, Wondering to lay her in that solitude, And raised above her mound A cross they had made out of two bits of wood, And planted cypress round; And left her to the indifferent stars above Until I carved these words: i{She was more beautiful than thy first love,} i{But now lies under boards.} -‐William Butler Yeats A Dream of Death is one of Yeats’s poems that exemplifies these traits of the Modern Period. The poem is about Yeats having a dream where his lover dies in a foreign land and the foreigners have a crude ceremony and burial. The poem starts off in first person which is typical of the Modern Period because it shows individualism. The individual is also shown in how Yeats only wrote the poem about one person. A Dream of Death has alternating rhyming lines (ABABCDCD…) which gives it a certain rhythm where it is comfortable to be read. Yeats uses this rhythm and meter to keep the poem moving at a certain pace which portrays how in the Modern Period, people wanted to look ahead and make progress to what was coming after World War I and the Great Depression. Yeats uses enjambment between the first two lines to keep the pace and cadence at a good tempo, “ I dreamed that one had died in a strange place Near no accustomed hand.” Yeats’s through the poem Yeats uses very depressing and clear imagery, such as, “And they had nailed the boards above her face, … A cross they had made out of two bits of wood” which is usual for the Modern Period. Yeats’s depressing message of his deceased wife

conflicts with the tempo and rhyme scheme which is upbeat. Yeats did this to not just to give the reader more to wrestle with but show that there is good and bad in everything. “After the Race”; A Race to the Bottom James Joyce’s short story, “After the Race”, tells the story of four young men who are adventurous and joyous because of their social and financial standing. These four gentlemen; Jimmy Doyle, Charles Ségouin, André Riviére and Villona travel to a Dublin hotel where they have dinner. After the meal the four meet up with Farley, an acquaintance. Farley invites the group to come with him to his yacht for a party. Throughout the story, Joyce portrays all four men as largely care free and only worried about having a good time. At the end of the story, Jimmy realizes how much money he has spent and knows this will be detrimental to his future. Joyce’s authorial intent in After the Race is to educate his readers about the risks of wasting their money after the Great Depression and also the uncertainty that comes when people change social classes. In Europe, during the Romanticism and Victorian periods, social classes played a huge part in people’s roles in society. These distinct social classes bled into the Modern period and are still prevalent works like “After the Race”. The story begins with the four gentlemen riding in an elegant French car towards Dublin. Just before, a race had finished and spectators still lined the streets. The quartet embraces the extravagance of having the crowds cheer them on while in such a luxurious car. The narrator says, “Rapid motion through space elates one; so does notoriety; so does the possession of money. These were three good reasons for Jimmy's excitement.” This essentially means that moving fast, being in a high class and being rich all make Jimmy excited. Riding around in a luxury car raised Jimmy’s status and made him look like royalty. This raised status made Jimmy arrogant throughout the story, which shows when he makes a speech on the yacht. “Jimmy made a speech, a long speech ... There was a great clapping of hands when he sat

down. It must have been a good speech.” Jimmy only judges his speech by how much applause he receives which shows that he is arrogant and not just wants but needs to be above everybody else. Jimmy, being the son of a successful butcher who has given him most of the wealth in his life, wants to be successful and prove himself to be fitting for the upper class. As the car approaches Dublin, Jimmy thinks about his recent investment in Ségouin’s motor-company business and whether it was smart for his future. “Of course, the investment was a good one and Segouin had managed to give the impression that it was by a favour of friendship the mite of Irish money was to be included in the capital of the concern. Jimmy had a respect for his father's shrewdness in business matters…” His father approves and supports Jimmy’s investment but he doesn’t want to be a disappointment for his father so he makes sure that there will be profit. It is ironic that Jimmy shows so much care towards his money because after the party on the yacht, Jimmy realizes that he has none left. Jimmy is intoxicated on the yacht which is a distinct characteristic of the Modern period because many people drank their problems away and wasted any money left on more alcohol. During the Great Depression and World War II many people resided to alcohol to rid themselves of their problems. After these hard times passed and the economy was progressing again, people were still hooked on drinking. Since the economy was becoming stronger, jobs were more plentiful and more people had a decent salary. If people still had a drinking problem were not careful, all of the money they made went straight to their drinking. Joyce’s authorial intent in “After the Race” is to warn the readers of this problem. Joyce shows great irony when Jimmy realizes he has spent all of his money, “He knew that he would regret in the morning… The cabin door opened and he saw the Hungarian standing in a shaft of grey light: ‘Daybreak, gentlemen!’” Jimmy tries to put off the reality of losing all of his money by saying that he will worry about it in the morning. The irony is that morning has already arrived and he now has to deal with the problem.

Joyce lived wholly through the Great Depression and World War II so for him, many of the ideas and ironies in “After the Race” were a reality. Trying to gain entry into a higher class would have been likely for Joyce because he grew up in a middle class family. Like Joyce, Jimmy tried to establish himself in the upper class but it did not work out because his carelessness lost him all of his money. For many people after The Great Depression and World War II, their drinking would catch up with their money and it was only a race to the bottom from there. Mrs. Dalloway: The Revolutionary Progression Virginia Woolf, in Mrs. Dalloway, was influenced by many aspects during the time period including new writing styles, new character types, the human condition during the time period and movement away from the darkness of the events that preceded the publishing. Mrs. Dalloway had a very revolutionary point of view for the reader when it was published and also the characters and their traits were unique as well. The quality of life greatly depreciated during the Great Depression and both world wars resulting in a story that reflects on past memories often. These dark periods of history pushed Woolf to write as to keep people progressing and working for the better.

Mrs. Dalloway is unlike any other book from the British Modern Period in its innovative view points throughout the story. Woolf puts these different perspectives in the story because of the

new, developing writing style that influenced her. The book also portrays past experiences of the characters which enlightens the reader of events in the characters’ past. “The novel depicts the subjective experiences and memories of its central characters over a single day in post–World War I London.” This new perspective enlightened readers and gave them a new insight to Woolf’s writing and its meaning. During the Great Depression and the World Wars the quality of life greatly depreciated because of the harsh conditions. Woolf utilizes these aspects of life during the time period which translates into multiple characters’ traits. Septimus is the main character who has these traits because he is a World War I veteran who is traumatized by the horrors of what he experienced. Many times throughout the story he goes into flashbacks and is tormented for periods of time. The dark periods including, the Great Depression and World Wars pushed authors to move forward in their writing and ideas; to separate from the evil and sadness that preceded the period. “For Heaven only knows why one loves it so, how one sees it so, making it up, building it round one, tumbling it, creating it every moment afresh; but the veriest frumps, the most dejected of miseries sitting on doorsteps (drink their downfall) do the same; can’t be dealt with, she felt positive, by Acts of Parliament for that very reason: they love life.” This quote, from the thoughts of Clarissa, exemplifies Woolf’s attempt to move people along in life and forget about the bad times. When she mentions creating new moments, she is implying that the future is unwritten and anything can happen. Woolf also shows the other side of the coin when she describes the dejected miseries drinking on their doorsteps. This represents the people who hold on to the past and the harsh memories that accompany them. Clarissa finishes the quote in a positive tone trying to leave the impression to look forward to the future.

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