The 19th Century: A Period of Progress - Essay Example

The 19th Century: A Period of Progress? The usual implication attached to the word ‘progress’ is that it represents the passage from one stage to the next. Progress is almost always equated with advancement because it implies a transition from one state of things to another of a better state, a departure from the old to a new and comparatively superior condition. The relevance of the word ‘progress’ in this essay is that it is being contemplated in relation to a bygone era – that of the 19th century. The question being called for consideration is: Is the 19th century a period of progress or not? A perusal of the writings of various 19th century authors like Mary Shelley, Frederick Douglas, Sojourner Truth, Rudyard Kipling, John Stuart Mill and Stéphane Mallarmé was made to ascertain the answer to the problem being posed. The result of the inquiry into the aforesaid writers’ works supports the hypothesis that the 19th century was a period of progress not only in the realm of sciences and research but also in the areas of human and social outlook. The 19th century was a period of growth in the field of sciences, research and industry. This is the implication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) which is a Gothic novel about a scientist who discovered how to give life to inanimate objects such as a corpse. It is evident from this work that at the time Shelley wrote this novel, the industrial revolution already exploded at least in Europe which became her basis for her descriptions of the mechanical contraptions used by her primary character to create his ‘monster.’ The miserable musings of Frankenstein who is both guilt-ridden for having stepped into the shoes of God and loathing of the ugly creature, which is human but not human, he created represent Shelley’s caveat against engaging too much in insatiable scientific quests and exploration to the extent of overstepping on God’s jurisdiction. This is evident in the following lines by Frankenstein: “Learn from me, if not by my precepts, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, then he who aspires to be greater than his nature will allow” (33). This passage implies that at the time Shelley wrote this novel in 1818, there was a stream of scientific movements going on quite different and more advanced and bolder in scope than what the world was used to that it alarmed the mind of the then young Shelley who must have thought these developments were bordering on blasphemy. To this extent, Shelley exhibited the conventional frame of mind which fears the unknown and implied as well that she has not yet made the transition from old-fashioned thinking to the contemporary broadminded point-of-view. The 19th century also made advances in abolitionism as evinced in the works of Frederick Douglas (1855) and Sojourner Truth (1850). In Douglas’ My Bondage and My Freedom, the former slave describes how he and his fellow slaves lived in a perpetual condition of want and need while his masters lived in luxury and opulence. This life of misery is best described in the following lines: “There was each, each week, one-half bushel of corn meal brought from the mill; and in the kitchen, corn-meal was almost our exclusive food, for very little else was allowed us. Out of this half-bushel of corn meal, the family in the great house had a small loaf every morning; thus, leaving us in the kitchen, with not quite half a peck of meal per week, apiece” (38). Douglas, by his account, was forced to steal food from his master to quench the hunger he feels every day of the week. His justification of this act of stealing shows that even slavery and the hunger it brought him did not succeed in depriving him of his intelligence and wit. The logical arguments Douglas used to rationalize the depraved act of stealing made the act seemed the most moral and proper thing to do under the circumstances. On the other hand, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth by Sojourner Truth, also a former slave, recounts how slavery had made civilized people not only consent but encourage the act polygamy. The practice of perpetual selling and reselling of slaves by their masters necessarily separated wives from their husbands, forcing the male slave to take on another common-law wife as soon as the previous is sold was to Truth immoral, but the large part of her contempt was directed at the slaveholders who tolerated such acts which they themselves caused in the first place. These activities, according to Truth were regarded by them “as one does the vicious disposition of his horse. They are often an inconvenience; further than that, they care not to trouble themselves about the matter” (39). Unlike Douglas who wrote his own accounts of his slavery experiences, Truth told hers through a friend who wrote them down for her. Her accounts were however, not less telling of the brave, upright and intelligent perspectives she had of her experiences as a slave. The implication of the aforesaid works of Douglas and Truth with respect to progress is that they serve as evidences of the growing intensification of the abolitionist or anti-slavery movement in the 19th century. They show that slaves were beginning to think for themselves and had taken up the courage to rebel against their masters by speaking out against the evils and injustices of slavery. Douglas’ work showcases the facts that not only were slaves human but they were as intelligent and capable of being as literate and as lettered as their masters. Sojourn’s bravery, on the other hand, to travel far and wide to denounce slavery impresses the notion that slaves can be as eloquent and quick-witted as slaveholders. The works and narratives of the former slaves do not only evince progress of the slaves’ perspectives and activities but also of society in general. The fact that these former slaves were able to escape and free themselves from their masters and put their thoughts in writing, printed for the entire world to read as well as speak against slavery in public imply that certain sectors of the American public, in general, tolerated them, and were able to identify with the anti-slavery causes. In a sense that there is passage from a purely pro-slavery thinking on the part of the American public to a tolerant or even receptive one, progress exists. Similarly, the transition from being meek, frightened and subservient slaves to being critical by questioning and objecting to their miserable and unjust condition as slaves, also spells progress. Rudyard Kipling’s The White Man’s Burden (1899) can be viewed from diametrically opposing perspectives of the progress balance. Either it implies progress or it connotes fidelity to the old-age notion of colonialism which is the opposite of progress. A reading of Kipling’s poem reveals that he is exhorting The White Man to take up the cudgel of guiding and taking care of his captives which Kipling describes as “half-devil and half-child” (74). The White Man obviously refers to the West, either the British or the Americans, and the “half-devil and half-child’ likewise obviously refers to the natives of the places invaded by them. These people are “half-devil” because they are pagans and have not yet adopted Christianity and are “half-child” because they are bereft of the knowledge and civility that the western man had acquired. The poem can be an index of progress in the sense that it mirrors the concern of the west for people beyond its area of responsibility, if the concern is really genuine. It is, in a sense, humanitarian in essence by extending a hand to those one thinks are in need of help. It could imply progress because the western frame of mind is beginning to look beyond itself and has progress from egocentricity to world-centricity. On the other hand, the poem could also reflect stagnancy, a throwback to the usual excuse for colonization which in reality was wealth-fishing expeditions, or imply sheer arrogance for believing that anything not westernized is inferior. There is no doubt that John Stuart Mills’ The Subjection of Women represents progress in social perspective. It is common knowledge that women only started to be seen as man’s equal only not so long ago. Even today, this notion of women being inferior to men still persists and up to this day the women have not done their fighting yet against social inequalities. The fact that the essay The Subjection of Women was written by a 19th century man unequivocally qualifies it as a symbol of progress. Mills touched on subjects that were the fundamental reasons of women’s longtime repression as a full-fledged member of society long dominated by men. He writes: “All causes, social and natural, combine to make it unlikely that women should be collectively rebellious to the power of men” (81). The beauty of Mills’ essay is that he pounces directly on men and not society in general. He focuses on the excesses of men’s demands on women by not only requiring them to be their slaves but as willing slaves which imply that men not only demanded physical dominance over women but emotional and intellectual as well. As a result, women were compelled to present themselves as submissive, meek and obedient to men to gain their admiration because getting themselves out of the box would mean disapproval from the opposite sex. The overall consequence is that the women, according to Mills, sees the pinnacle of their achievement as confined to the cultivation of these traits. Moreover, Mills exhorts the rejection by men of this role they have accustomed to from birth – of being the dominant figure over women and adopt the modernist point of view which is that ‘human beings are no longer born to their place in life and chained down by the inexorable bond to the place they are born, but are free to employ their faculties and such favorable chances as offer, to achieve the lot which may appear to them the most desirable” (82). This particular passage encapsulates the progress in society’s perspective towards men-women relationships and women’s place in society in the 19th century from the conventional view that men are, by nature and by the dictates of tradition, the dominant figure and the women as their inferior to Mills point of view that there is no pre-destined arrangement relationship between men and women. Finally, the poem of Frenchman Stéphane Mallarmé entitled The Afternoon of a Faun represents progress in the literary world because of its highly symbolist style as opposed to the naturalist or realist approach. The poem, for example, talks about a faun (a creature which is definitely a product of the imagination and does not exist in the real world) and the way he spends his afternoon. The faun pictures an unreal world where he desires and runs after tangled lovely nymphs and a visit from Venus, and all other unreal creatures and situations. To the extent that Mallarme started a literary style that shunned realism and naturalism and attempted the use of language and style that was not then ordinarily employed in poetry can also imply progress because of the resulting broadening of poetic approaches it entailed. Thus, another approach in literary writing is added creating a wider and more expansive literary view. The works of Mills, Shelley, Douglas, Truth, Mallarmé and Kipling evidenced the proposition that the 19th century was a period of progress because the said works brought new perspectives, ideas and questions and attacks established views as well as give insights to a world confronted and stunned by new inventions and discoveries. Shelley’s Frankenstein gives us a glimpse of the author’s discomfiture at witnessing a world being transformed by the industrial and scientific revolution. Mills’ The Subjection of Women, Douglas’ My Bondage and My Freedom and Truth’s The Narrative of Sojourner Truth show progress through a revolution of new ideas and perspectives that were poised to change the established customs and values of society and the world. Kipling’s The White Man’s Burden likewise could mean progress as the west begins to shift from an egocentric perspective to a global point of view, on the basis of the concept that all men live as one big family and are responsible for each other. Finally, Mallarmé’s The Afternoon of a Faun shows progress because it dares to be different from the usual norms which were realism and naturalism and as a result widened the perspective of the literary world. Read More