Aestheticism and Modernism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words - 1

Aestheticism and Modernism - Essay Example Darwin’s theory of natural selection and Freud’s view of subjective states that involved an unconscious mind full of primal impulses shocked the Victorians. And as the names of Darwin and Freud suggest, it was the intellectuals and upper class that became part of the modernist age.  Among these artists was T.S. Eliot. Eliot’s concerns deeply showed the effect of WWI on the moral values of people and people’s belief in God. Industrialization drastically increased production and consumption rates, with that so did pollution, creating a very ugly metropolis. In response to this industry, there was an increase in urbanization as more people wanted to move closer to work and money, hence the sense of crowdedness in Eliot’s poems. Influxes of human population meant more pollution. The Depression played an important part in developing the persona of the modern man. This was a time of decline in a man’s dignity and much humiliation from not being a ble to fend for his family.  One of the prime concerns that characterized Modernist texts was the depiction of the cityscape as the habitat of the modern man. The Industrial revolution significantly transformed the urbanity of England, supplying the streets with cheap electricity and extending the city horizons to include skyscrapers and railroad bridges of cast iron. Eliot’s main concern revolved around the impact of such mechanization on urban life, mainly the increased pollution and an overall sense of sterility and spiritual poverty. (Eagleton, 1970, 94-101)  T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and "The Journey of the Magi" reveal some of the major concerns of their early 20th century Modernist context. Through continuous use of imagery, ambiguity, repetition, allusions and purposeful contortion of lines and sentences, Eliot demonstrates the importance of the inner self, innovation, religious questioning, an uninviting and bleak society and a flaunting of conventions.