The Twentieth
Century
•Historical Context
The Edwardian Age
The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 and the succession of her son, Edward, marked the end of the Victorian era. At the beginning of the
twentieth century Victorian ideals of progress and reform still prevailed. New liberal governments
instituted a series of important social reforms, free school meals for children, the first old age pensions and labour exchange for instance. In 1911 national insurance was introduced: all working people
contributed to funds which would protect the sick.
These were the beginnings of the so-called welfare state, which was to reach its apex under the Labour
Government after the Second World War.
Important Parliamentary reform also occurred in 1911 with the Parliament Act the House of Lords lost the right to
veto financial legislation approved by the House of Commons.
The rise of the Labour Party also began: by 1906 there were twenty-nine Labour MPs in Parliament.
The First World War
Tension in Europe increased steadily: Germany and the Austro- Hungarian empire, on the one hand, and Russia and France, on the other, formed military alliances.
The murder of an Austrian noble in Serbia led to the declartion of war between these two countries; Russia was forced to
defend Serbia and Germany then came to the aid of the Austro-Hungarian empire.
When Germany marched through Belgium, which was neutral territory, in order to attack
France, Britain was dragged into the war. The bitter trench warfare, which characterized the First World War, leaving a total of 750.000 dead and two million seriously injured among the British alone.
Social Context
Women
Women’s rights had been a key issue for many years. But it was only after a hard struggle that some women over thirty gained the right to vote in 1918, partly in recognition of women’s invaluable contribution to the domestic war effort.
Ireland
The British feared civil war in Ulster and called on the Irish to volunteer for the British army. However, a group of patriots resented Britain’s rather
condescending treatment organized an armed rebellion in Dublin on Easter Monday 1916. It was quickly
crushed but became a near-legendary symbol of Irish heroism in the face of oppression, especially when the British cruelly executed the leaders of the movement.
Republicans won almost everywhere, but preferred to constitute their own Parliament in
Dublin and declare Ireland an independent republic.
Britain agreed to the independence of Southern
Ireland in 1921, although Ulster, or Northern Ireland, remained united with Britain.
Literary Context
The First World War, though the end of an era in many ways, was not the only factor producing decisive change in the intellectual climate of the early years of the century. Freud’s work, beginning with The Interpretation of Dreams in 1901, revolutionized our view of the human mind.
Darwin’s theory of the evolution of the species had contributed to the demolition of the Victorian world-view, and this process was accelerated by the interest in marxism and socialism.
In the twenties, the poetry of Eliot, with
its wealth of allusions to other works, its
abrupt transitions and numerous
juxtapositions of seemingly unrelated parts,
and the profusion of richly expressive
styles pouring from Joyce’s pen were truly
revolutionary.
Poetry (War Poetry)
The horrors of the First World War led to a painful consciousness of the emptiness of the patriotism espoused by writers.
A number of extremely promising poets were killed in action (Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg); but their work has survived to give us a gripping account of the brutality and absurdity of the war.
The post-war years were dominated by the figures of T.S. Eliot and W.B. Yeats, both of whom
had long careers spanning a wide range of styles and forms, although Thomas Hardy, better known as a
novelist, also produced a fine body of original work, and D.H. Lawrence also contributed some important thought-provoking lyrics, treating much the same
themes as his better-known novels.
