During the early part of the twentieth century, there was a great deal of revolutions and advancements within society. Starting with women in many western countries gaining the right to vote during this time. This was also the start of what would become known as “The Roaring Twenties”. This was a time where there where massive changes particularly for women. Women stopped growing their hair out and instead many women cut their hair into a shoulder or ear length bob. Another change was that the dresses they wore had much higher hemlines something that by many more traditional people was seen as scandalous and overly sexual. During the previous Victorian era, women were always supposed to be pure and innocent. Sexuality of any kind, and especially women’s sexuality was never something that was supposed to be discussed at all. However, these were things that were beginning to happen in the nineteen- twenties, we see this in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby with people having a more realistic view that extramarital affairs due happen with men and with women. Both the characters Tom and Daisy have extramarital affairs and neither seemed to show as much shame as most people would have in the Victorian era. In the story of Ulysses by James Joyce, sexuality is front and center. Molly who is already married to Leopold thinks about multiple male suitors and even about females as well. Molly seems to be very comfortable with men and also seems to enjoy the fact that she enjoys the attentions of multiple men despite the fact that she is already married. Molly seems to represent a part of the female dynamic in the nineteen twenties known as “flappers”. These were mostly upper-class young women who cut or wore their hair very short, wore short loose dresses, drank, smoked, and generally had “looser” morals then women from the previous era would have. Molly seems to fit this idea of a woman with “loose” morals as she happily enjoys the company of several different men. https://www.thoughtco.com/flappers-in-the-roaring-twenties-1779240
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For the majority of the nineteenth century, the British Empire had been considered by most people to be one of the greatest empires in history. Their navy was virtually undefeated and the English people felt a great deal of pride in what was seen as “English might”. However, all of this pride was burst in the bloodbath that was the first world war. For the first time in a hundred years, the British people had a real reason to fear a possible invasion of their own land. The allies were slaughtered during the war, the British in particular saw almost an entire generation of young men slaughtered and or maimed. Suddenly, the great British empire no longer felt so indestructible.This started to cause people to question the empire and also question how it was that life happened. This is the world in which we find the characters in the novel Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Wolf. Wolf was a writer who was known to enjoy what is known as “stream of consciousness” writing. A style that can be seen in another one of Wolf’s works a short story/essay that she wrote entitled “A Room of One’s Own”, as well as in various other authors of the period such as T.S. Elliot and James Joyce. The authors wrote in a way that was fragmented and often showed that people were often unsure of things, that life was not just a single well-written narrative. This the leftover trauma from the brutal and bloody war that England had just suffered from. The first world war saw death of a scale that had never been seen before in human history. This violence often seemed rather pointless and random. So, this became reflected in English society. We see that characters are nostalgic, they want to go back to a time when things seemed easier. This was a common feeling. After the war, much of England was in ruins both literally and emotionally. Many people wanted to go back to before the war when life seemed more orderly and had more purpose. However, they like the characters are also going to eventually have to come back to the present and forge on into the future facing whatever may come. https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-I/Killed-wounded-and-missing |