Victorianism Versus Modernism

Matias Gutierrez Mrs. smith initiation Literature 21 December 2012 OLD*******8 tight-lacedism in The inappropriate Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and modernity in The Metamorphosis Victorianism is about how the item-by-item could improve the decree. They believed that a technical several(prenominal) could grow the nightclub better as a whole and therefore improve life. Victorians focused on intuition and the doggeding for extremely realistic portrayal of life in both literature and art. Some aspects of Victorian sentiment were retained while others were discarded in a new movement called Modernism.Modernists focus on the individual but have the view that humans are beings without free will and that they do not cheek for guidance within them, but instead are driven by factors outside of them. According to Modernist thought, an individual is molded by the external factors that surround him. Therefore the way the monastic order already is will have-to doe with the in dividual and Modernism tries to portray the effects of this. Each style captures some issue about the individual in the society. As mentioned above, Victorianism and Modernism both focus on the individual and the society.An example of this from a Victorian perspective is, The rum Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, written by Robert Louis Stevenson. This novel zooms in on the view of the lessonity in race and society, incorporating science as well. Both of these aspects were vital to Victorian thinking. Victorian period began during the reign of Queen Victoria, which lasted amid 1837-1901. During this period the sciences went through a major revival. Both of these ideals are demonstrated in Robert Louis Stevensons The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This novel accurately captures the ideals and behaviors occurring at the time with extreme period and realism. A certain blue block of building thrust forward its gable on the street. It was two stories high showed no window, vigour but a door The door, which was equipped with neither bell nor knocker, was blistered and distained (2). Victorianisms desire for the utmost detail on even the most routine things was demonstrated in most novels during the period.The extreme realism creates a better picture of society and how things are occurring during the lives of the individuals living then. The notion of morality and science were in like manner in Robert Louis Stevensons novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This is a story of a respected doctors attempt to separate the two different aspects of human nature, ingenuous and bad. Dr. Jekyll who is depicted as a moral and decent gentleman, who participates in charity work and has the reputation of being a courteous doctor, personifies the good aspect.His audition is to search to purify his good-natured self from his wild and alloyd side. His experiment goes awry instead Jekyll liberates his primal, deprave and criminal side taking the name of Mr. Hyde. Hyde is a troglodyte, a primitive creature who asks on understanding instead of conscious and moral decisions. His reputation as an animal grows as he commits crime by and by crime. Hyde takes his immorality to the limit. He is the complete opposite of Jekyll. The scene when Hyde takes the potion to transform him backs to Jekyll, He put the glass to his lips, and drank at one gulp.A cry followed he reeled, staggered, clutched at the table and held on, staring with injected eyes, gasping with open mouth and as I looked there came, I thought, a changehe seemed to swellhis face became suddenly black and the features seemed to take to the woods and alterand at the next moment pale and shaken, and half fainting, and groping before him with his hands, like a man restored from deaththere stood HenryJekyll (40). (Stevenson) This scene demonstrates that alchemy and science were to a great extent pursued during this time. lore was on the rise again during this period and Dr.J ekyll was interrogatory e trulything that science could do for the society and through his testing and experimenting Jekyll changes to Hyde who is the bane of society. His scientific experiment helps show society that one bad individual could alter the good life of society. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde showed people that being a good person is the best thing to do for society and for the individual. The reason Jekyll is a good example to show the Victorian qualities of science exploration and the effects the individual has on the world is explained by Masao, In this society of respectables Dr.Jekyll stands out as the precise pink of the proprieties(Chap. 1). Although his studies, like those of Faust and Frankenstein before him, tend toward the mystic and the transcendental (Ch. 10), he still manages to maintain a considerable scientific reputation. And yet, despite Jekylls social role-in fact, because of it-it is Jekyll who brings for Mr. Hyde. (Masao 470-480) Mas ao explains why Jekyll underwent his variation and how science heavily influenced his thinking to try this experiment. Masao also explains that science is viable through the well-mannered people of the time and their nousing of ways to improve society.The Modernism Period was about the individual and that the individual could not really change society. The Modernist literary period was marked by the reactions and sentiments towards global change and tragedy. The Modernist movement began around 1890 and lasted to 1945. Now during this time the World wars wreaked havoc on the most culturally, technological, and industrialized parts of the world which caused people to want to create tack together out chaos, or just to lose hope or alienate themselves which gave rise to Existentialism.With the creation of Modernism, came magical Realism, Existentialism, and a break against the traditional styles of the past. One Modernist writer who accomplished all of the criteria for Modernism is Franz Kafka. Kafka, who was a very troubled man during his lifetime, clearly showed the affect his life had influenced him in his writing. Kafka was severely depressed at clock and would express his feelings in certain stories of his such as In the Penal Colony and The Metamorphosis. Kafka would make his characters drop off his torment in a fantasy, magical realism way.He would invent new places and put no blessedness or positive perception in them. He would make his work reflect his depressive state of mind. some(prenominal) writers would explore traumatic or negative situations because during this time period thats all there was. War heavily influenced the Modernist movement. Another story of Kafka, Metamorphosis shows how constantly living in a depressive state or war torn area atomic number 50 affect the people in those areas. In Kafkas Metamorphosis, he introduces the main character Gregor Samsa as, a commercial traveler (89).Samsa is also described to be a impregnab le worker who works his shift to pay back the debt his parents incurred. Before Gregor is transfigured, he is the primary breadwinner for his family who just accepts his transaction and will do his best to fulfill it. After his transfiguration, he again doesnt even question why, how it happened, or how he can fix his predicament he has awoken to. He goes on trying to make life the best it can be. The opening line of Metamorphosis, As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed nto a gigantic insect (89) (Kafka). Now as he realizes his alteration, he is totally unaffected by it. He continues thinking about how he will be able to make money for his family, even though there is no possible way he can help his family now. Kafka shows his sense of alienation and despair in reality through the lack of emotion in Gregor. It shows in the text that Kafka is deeply affected by his depression. Modernism is marked by the disengagement of morality or positive social criticism that was present in Victorian writing.However Modernism breaks from Victorian by showing that the individual is more than important to think about because Kafka shows what happens when the individual disregards it when thinking how to volunteer for the society. Kafkas illustration of the society recognizing how it can not help or change the society is shown also in the interpretation of Nina Straus, who writes that, Kafka sought to unravel by way of ambiguous writings and from which Gregor escapes through his transformation into an insect is Kafkas image of an unequivocal, completely virile and powerful system.In contrast, we must imagine Kafkas own body, a body with which he felt nothing could be achieved (29), and that bodys imagistic parallel in the pitifully thin legs of the insect Gregor, motion helplessly around a bulk that is divided into stiff arched segments (67). My body is too long for its weakness, it has no fat whatsoever for creating a beneficial warmth, for maintaining an inner fire, no fat from which the mind could someday nourish itself beyond its daily need without damaging the whole.How shall the weak heart manage to push the derivation through the entire length of these legs? The description shows how weak Kafka was during his life. He would rather try to improve himself than try to improve the flawed society that was being ravished by war, loss, despair and alienation. Victorianism and Modernism both focused on the individual and the society however they had very differing ideas about which was better to focus on. Victorians believed that helping the society was more important than focusing solely on the individual.A healthy and good person was extremely beneficial to the society and the way of life at the time. However introspection was not really praised but studying science was. Science was the way to improve society therefore Victorians were behind it completely. They wanted the best society possib le even if that meant sacrificing some introspection and self-enlightenment, which Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde demonstrates perfectly. Modernism, however, had given up on society. There was nothing the individual could do to improve his way of life. Their was set and nothing could change it.Modernists were particularly depressed with this thinking but it was heavily influenced by the World Wars. Kafka affected by this depression coped by creating Magical Realism as an escape from reality even though Metamorphosis still shows the flaws in society. Both of these styles have differing views on society and how society can make life better. Victorians were the first to believe that a healthy society meant good individuals but Modernists show that society will be flawed and there is nothing the individual can do to change this fact.Works Cited Masao, Miyoshi. Dr. Jekyll and the Emergence of Mr. Hyde. College English. 27. 6 (1966) 470-480. Print. http//www. jstor. org/stable/374021. Straus, Ni na. Transforming Franz Kafkas Metamorphosis. University of Chicago Press. 14. 3 (1989) 651-667. Print. . Stevenson, Robert Louis . The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Roslyn capital of Delaware Thrift Editions, 1991. Print. Kafka, Franz. The Complete Stories. New York Schocken Books Inc. , 1971. Print.