SUBMITTED BY: AFSHAN AKHTAR(E-16093)

SUBMITTED TO: DR FAIZ SULTAN

TOPIC: CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN NOVEL
DATE: 27TH JUNE, 2020
Characteristics of modern novel
Modern novel basically deals with the reality and the contemporary life within a modern age
society. It can be nice at one hand but can be harsh on the other representing both sides of the
life. It is about disintegration and interrogation. Modern novels also tell us about the life and
suffering of poor as well as the luxuries and happy life of the upper hierarchy. It realistically
presents the doubts, frustrations, and conflicts of a modern man. After reading a modern
novel many can find their lives a bit identical in any way because it represents the real life
and happenings in the society.
Materialism also became one of the themes for the modern novel writers. By representing a
modern man the writers tried to portray the materialistic nature of modern man who were
affected and indulged in the materialistic world regardless of the denouement.
Stream of consciousness was also a main feature of the modern novel, which means to write
and jot down whatever comes in mind first. Acknowledging the characters feelings and
emotions as being writer’s own thoughts and feelings and portraying them in front of the
reader. This technique earned several advantages which were freedom from the constraint of
time, complete objectivity, and greater profundity.
Reading a modern novel became a source of escape from the meaningless life and healing the
psychological wounds of social life.
The modern novel is highly psychological. Novelists like Henry James, Joseph Conrad,
James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, have made the English novel extremely psychological in
nature. They revealed that human consciousness has very deep layers, and buried under the
conscious, are the sub-conscious and the unconscious.

To the light house as a modern novel

‘To the light house’ by Virginia Woolf is a modern era novel which represents the prominent
themes of love, marriage, and social class to provide a sense of right and wrong to the
readers. There are three major background themes in the novel that are complexity of human
mind, subjectivity of reality and transience of human existence, which also represents a
modern novel.
The subjectivity of nature is directly mentioned in the novel, when Lily Briscoe asks Andrew
what Mr. Ramsay's philosophical work is about, and he replies, "'Subject and object and the
nature of reality'" (38).
Woolf's narrative style in To the Lighthouse embodies Einstein’s theory of relativity in that,
"The role of a central narrator increasingly diminished in her novels and was replaced by
interior monologues of different characters in relative motion to one another".
Several characters struggle with making sense of their differing perceptions to arrive at a
clear answer - Mrs. Ramsay oscillates between loving her husband and despising his need for
sympathy, Lily struggles with how to convert her artistic vision into a cornet painting, Mr.
Ramsay is conflicted as to whether he should focus on his philosophical work or his family.
This creates an overall theme throughout the novel that humans long for objectivity, but that
it is up to the individual to shape their perceptions to establish their idea of objectivity, and
therefore subjectivity and objectivity are fundamentally linked.
As Sigmund Freud explored theories of consciousness and subconsciousness, Virginia Woolf
wrote a novel that focuses not on the events of the external world but on the richness and
complexity of mental interiority.
The Ramsay’s family suffers from many modern-day illnesses such as materialism and lies in
daily life. They all are suffering from their needs and desires. Every one of the fundamental
characters battles with this acknowledgment, and they all grip for images of lastingness and
strength in spite of their comprehension of the transition of understanding. Mrs. Ramsay,
devoured by a need to interface herself to enduring encounters, looks to the throbbing shine
of the Lighthouse to join her involvement it might be said of continuance. For her, the
consistent stroke of the Lighthouse light speaks to soundness and lastingness. Thus, she
associates herself to it, joins herself with it, in the desire for increasing a comparative feeling
of association both to her present and to endlessness. Actually, she looks for not exclusively
to join herself with the perpetual items in the physical world, yet in addition to join her
companions, family, and visitors in the production of lasting beauty.
Whereas Mrs. Ramsay's look for length lies within the emotional realm of expertise, her
husbands relies entirely within the intellectual sphere. He longs to transcend his own period
of time with a very important philosophical contribution, nonetheless feels much sure that
this goal is unrealizable. liliaceous plant Briscoe suffers from the same concern that her
paintings are going to be thrown into the attic, never to be absolutely appreciated and never to
create an enduring impression.
As a modern novel ‘to the light house’ also talks about marriage, social life and presents the
sense of good and bad. It shows the readers how Ramsay’s family is indulged in materialistic
world unaware of each other’s pain and sufferings.

‘A passage to India’ as a modern novel

‘A passage to India’ by E.M Foster is a modern novel. It has its own features which recognize
it from other ages in English literature. In modern literature, authors often use different symbols
to represent a particular concept. Forster also uses symbols to give additional meaning to his
novel. The most important symbol in Forster’s novel is the Cave (Marber Cave). Forster use
this symbol to show the nature of India.
In terms of modernism the novel breaks the tradition of novel writing by using the stream of
consciousness technique. It is when Feilding asks Dr Aziz to meet Ralph and Stella and in
returns he gets no answer. Here is when the writer wants the readers to go deep into the
characters mind and consider his feelings. This is like putting yourself in an others shoe. There
are many examples of stream of consciousness in the chapter ‘temple’. Foster agreed with the
idea ‘make it new’ which basically meant to break the tradition. As mentioned in the novel that
Adela truly wanted to explore the India because it was something new and exciting for her.
This is also shown in the incident of marabar caves.
The novel examines racism and colonialism. It portrays the relationship between the Indians
and Britishers. It tells the readers about the life and sufferings of an Indian man in the society.
Just as stated when Dr Aziz is accused of disrespecting Adela Quest. The novel tells about the
friendship between an Indian and a Britisher and also the difficulties in establishing such
relation due to different culture backgrounds and religion.
Capitalism, industrialism, and secularism are the heading aspects of modernism as portrayed in
the novel with clear indications. This novel is also termed as a literary fiction and one of the
master piece by E.M Forster.

‘Sons and lovers’ as a modern novel

‘Sons and lovers’ by D.H Lawrence was published a year before the first world war. It tells the
story of Morel family and their relationship with each other which is a characteristic of modern
novel. This novel can also be termed as an auto-biographical novel to some extent.
There is the theme of realism which was common in modern novels. The realism was
accompanied by various styles like expressionism, impressionism, and symbolism etc.
Sexual relation the main and major theme of the novel is also a modern novel’s characteristic.
The relations between Morel family shows the relations which resides in the modern society.
They develop passionate relations between each other which are mostly sexual. Sex is
portrayed as something normal and usual in the society. Lawrence’s openness in discussing
sexual affairs is a move to break the old tradition of writing a novel.
There is also a use different symbolism in the novel some of them are light which symbolizes
rational, daily routine and life, darkness symbolizes the mystery. Dark and light according to
Lawrence were associated and linked with each other.
The women in the novel are also represented as the modern women who were independent and
strong. The most important among them was Clara Dawes who stood for her rights and was
always stood against the social norms. Lawrence was ahead of presenting women as being
progressive and self-aware.
The concept of marriage is also given which was one of the modern novel issues. The
marriages in the novel did not seem to be successful due to reasons. The concept of marriage is
shown to be deteriorating with the passing time.
The modernism elements are more appearing in the second part of the novel. Therefore, the
novel can be seen as Lawrence’s movement from realism to modernism.

‘Lord of the flies’ as a modern novel

William Golding in ‘Lord of the flies’ talks about evil in the society and the means by which a
man falls for it. Throughout the novel there is a debate on the topic of good and bad,
civilization and savagery, kindness and cruelty. This is represented by the characters of Ralph
and Piggy and the evil by Jack and his hunters. The novel depicts that there is both evil and
goodness in every being but the way one prefers goodness and suppresses the evil is what
makes a human being.
As a modern novel ‘lord of the flies’ contains certain symbolism. The major symbolism used as
characters are Ralph as mankind who tries to establish order in society and Jack as symbol of
savagery and evilness who always try to poison the boys with his evilness.
Lord of the flies can also be termed as a political novel which represents the difference between
anarchy and democracy. Jack wants to establish anarchy by killing and suppressing the boys
while on the contrary Ralph wants to develop democracy with the involvement of the boys.
Jack acting like a dictator wants to develop his own rules regardless of the results. Ralph on the
other hand wants to be good and protective for the boys.
The concept of savagery and evilness represents the situation of a modern society which is full
of illness and evilness. Every member of the society wants to kill the other and benefit himself
with the holding of the previous one. The characters represent the positive and negative aspects
of humanity which are like the two sides of the coin. There are people who stand for reason and
intellect like Ralph who are always being suppressed and silenced by the violent and cruel
people like Jack who seeks totalitarianism.
On page 51, there is an obvious turning point in Jack's transformation from civilized to
savagery. On page 63, Jack becomes aware of his changes when he states, "[Jack] looked in
astonishment, no longer at himself but an awesome stranger"
The novel can be connected to the modern-day life through different aspect one of which is as
stated earlier is the selection of savagery verses civilization. This is the challenge which is
faced by every human being as well by animals.