“At present, we are experiencing a new phase of the old struggle--no longer a struggle of contemporary form, filled with life, against the lifeless one, but a struggle of life against form as such, against the principle of form.” (Simmel)
The general frame of mind for the Victorian age was, “A place for everything, and everything in its place.” It was a time defined by boundaries and structure. The social rules were strict and if any were broken, the delicate balance was upset. Jane Austen’s Emma in Emma could not, would not associate or keep company with people who were of a lower class than she. Countess Olenska in Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence was ostracized for committing social crimes. She returned to New York a shameless divorcee of an abusive husband, and her affair with Newland Archer was frustrated, trapped, secret and never truly realized because it was socially forbidden. This structured environment was oppressive to both those blessed by birth and those born into a lower caste. There were no other options. This was lifeless form.
The advancement of industry brought on Capitalism--the philosophical ideal that claims that the rights of the individual are the most important. This was a system of endless opportunity. An individual could achieve anything that was imaginable. No more were people bound to the circumstance into which they were born. They could dream. There was no limit to what the human mind could imagine. They could now consider a world that they could change. For the first time, it was possible for a person to advance in the social ranking. The ability to make your own living by pulling from resources outside of your immediate area made this possible. Humanity benefited from the destruction of the strict social boundaries of the Victorian era because we were doing away with the idea of caste. Capitalism was a new system, a new form that was “filled with life.”
We have, however, taken this destruction too far. We say that we are progressive because we do not support oppression or tyranny, but we have just traded one sin for another. We no longer recognize the walls that were put up to imprison people, but we also do not recognize any other boundaries. Life has now become formless. We think that anything that “oppresses” or keeps us from what we want is bad. This includes any moral standard. Capitalism taught us to dream. It let us see that there were no limits to what is achievable, but we now take that to mean that there are no limits to what should be achieved: no plan that should not be attempted; no desire that should be denied.
In Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian is a man who caters to his every whim. He attempts to experience every facet of the human consciousness. His mentor, Lord Henry, advises, "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful.” But Dorian’s indulgence destroyed him and all those with whom he came into contact. He lived a life without form. He lived the life of an animal--his habits, his choices, his attitudes all depended on his shifting mood. He was dominated by animal desires and became an animal himself. As in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, just because we can do something does not mean that we should.
We may not be the social tyrants we once were, but instead we have been perverted into thinking like animals. If postmodernists declare that everything is relative and that there is no form to life, then humanity has lost its value. There is no meaning in the human experience and we end up simply chasing our tails.
The general frame of mind for the Victorian age was, “A place for everything, and everything in its place.” It was a time defined by boundaries and structure. The social rules were strict and if any were broken, the delicate balance was upset. Jane Austen’s Emma in Emma could not, would not associate or keep company with people who were of a lower class than she. Countess Olenska in Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence was ostracized for committing social crimes. She returned to New York a shameless divorcee of an abusive husband, and her affair with Newland Archer was frustrated, trapped, secret and never truly realized because it was socially forbidden. This structured environment was oppressive to both those blessed by birth and those born into a lower caste. There were no other options. This was lifeless form.
The advancement of industry brought on Capitalism--the philosophical ideal that claims that the rights of the individual are the most important. This was a system of endless opportunity. An individual could achieve anything that was imaginable. No more were people bound to the circumstance into which they were born. They could dream. There was no limit to what the human mind could imagine. They could now consider a world that they could change. For the first time, it was possible for a person to advance in the social ranking. The ability to make your own living by pulling from resources outside of your immediate area made this possible. Humanity benefited from the destruction of the strict social boundaries of the Victorian era because we were doing away with the idea of caste. Capitalism was a new system, a new form that was “filled with life.”
We have, however, taken this destruction too far. We say that we are progressive because we do not support oppression or tyranny, but we have just traded one sin for another. We no longer recognize the walls that were put up to imprison people, but we also do not recognize any other boundaries. Life has now become formless. We think that anything that “oppresses” or keeps us from what we want is bad. This includes any moral standard. Capitalism taught us to dream. It let us see that there were no limits to what is achievable, but we now take that to mean that there are no limits to what should be achieved: no plan that should not be attempted; no desire that should be denied.
In Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian is a man who caters to his every whim. He attempts to experience every facet of the human consciousness. His mentor, Lord Henry, advises, "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful.” But Dorian’s indulgence destroyed him and all those with whom he came into contact. He lived a life without form. He lived the life of an animal--his habits, his choices, his attitudes all depended on his shifting mood. He was dominated by animal desires and became an animal himself. As in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, just because we can do something does not mean that we should.
We may not be the social tyrants we once were, but instead we have been perverted into thinking like animals. If postmodernists declare that everything is relative and that there is no form to life, then humanity has lost its value. There is no meaning in the human experience and we end up simply chasing our tails.
Austen, Jane. Emma. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2004. Print
Kern, Stephen. The Culture of Time and Space: 1880 - 1918. Cambridge, Mass. [u.a.: Harvard Univ., 2003. Print.
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Scott McKowen. Frankenstein. New York: Sterling Pub., 2007. Print.
Simmel, Georg. The Conflict in Modern Culture, and Other Essays. New York: Teachers College, 1968. Print.
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. New York: Modern Library, 1992. Print.
I disagree with postmodernist's view on social rules. I don't think that everyone lives their life without form. I lead a structured life, and I wouldn't be able to function nearly as well if I didn't have a schedule and a plan. Yes, there are times when I do something simply because I want to, but usually I don't "cater to my every whim."
ReplyDeleteYou may disagree with it, but that does not mean that it does not exist. When I say "we" I do not mean everyone. I am talking about the trends in pop culture and art. Pop culture and art can be said to reflect the attitude of our culture. When I say "we," I am referring to the attitudes of humanity. Personally, I am adamantly opposed to Postmodernism. The moral relativism makes me sick.
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