Shelley, Carlyle, and Ruskin Float

Shelley, Carlyle, And Ruskin Float Class conflict in the modern society: reflections from the works of Percy Shelley, Thomas Carlyle, and John Ruskin Modernization and industrialization had inevitably led human society towards unprecedented progress socially, economically, and intellectually; however, their inception also led to the emergence of worse social conditions. Like what Karl Marx had proposed in "Communist Manifesto," the development of capitalism, which gave birth to modernization, led to the furtherance of poor social conditions in which people lived.

Moreover, capitalism and modernization created a wider gap or conflict between the elite and working classes, wherein the elite class controls and holds power against the working class. The theme of social conflict was evident in literary works among writers of English writers in 19th century, a crucial period wherein Western societies rapidly shifted from being agricultural and traditional to being capitalist and modern societies. Works by Percy Shelley, Thomas Carlyle, and John Ruskin demonstrated how English society had experienced the detrimental effects of modernization to humanity.

This paper discusses how each writer's work reflected the widening gap between the rich and the poor -- that is, the worsening of social conflict between the elite and working classes as human society moved forward modernization through socio-economic and intellectual progress. This paper posits that Shelley, Carlyle, and Ruskin's literary works portrayed modern society as intellectually progressive yet socially handicapped and morally regressed.

The class conflict between the elite and working classes were addressed directly in Shelley's "Song to the Men of England," wherein he expressed dismay over the tyrannical social order that prevailed in modern English society at the turn of the century (towards 20th century).

This awareness of the social conflict extant in the society was explicitly shown in the following passage in the poem, which highlighted the plight of the working class under the control of the elite class: "The seed ye sow, another reaps; the wealth ye find, another keeps; the robes ye weave; another wears; the arms ye forge, another bears." Carlyle, in his discourse "Past and present," acknowledged that the social order of modern society had indeed changed to provide privilege for the elite and further oppress the already sorry plight of the working class.

Describing the elite class as the "unworking aristocracy," Carlyle sadly lamented the seemingly unsolvable problem of oppression among the poor, which he termed as the "Anomaly." For him, social conflict was the "Fate" of the working class that they were inevitably subjected to, a condition that can only result to either continued "Existence or Annihilation" of the working and poor class. Continued tolerance to oppression meant continued existence for the people, while protest against oppression shall end in the.