Although it is universally acknowledged that art is subjective, literary critic and philosopher Georg Lukacs has expressed his views on what form art should take. In his essay “The Ideology of Modernism,” Lukacs wrote negatively against the modernist movement in literature. He describes traditional art as assuming that there is meaning to human existence (1229), while modern literature and art are devoid of substance and meaning, or worse, promote an ideal and neglect reality. He states: “in realistic literature, every descriptive detail is at once individual and typical. Modern allegory and modernist ideology, however, deny the typical” (1230). Lukacs does not see human existence reflected through modernist art. Consequently, Lukacs concludes that “modernism does not mean the enrichment, but the denial of art” (1232). EM Forster wrote his acclaimed Howards End precisely in a period of transition from traditional Edwardian literature to literary modernism. Forster writes to the effect of allowing the reader to be exposed to and explore modernist ideals behind the safety of tradition. As a result, his novel reads largely like a traditional novel, with modernist concerns embodied by some characters. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Howards End represents the transitional period he finds himself in through its very different characters. The Schlegel sisters represent an upper-middle class that is able to adapt to both an elitist, capitalist society, embodied by the Wilcox family, and a lower-class, yet modernist way of thinking through Leonard Bast. As much as the Wilcox family represents elitism and “old money,” Leonard Bast fits Lukacs' description of a modernist man. Lukacs explains that: “The ontological vision that governs the image of man in the work of the main modernist writers is…this. Man, for these writers, is by nature solitary, asocial, incapable of entering into relationships with other human beings" (1219). In Howards End, Bast encounters such difficulties in his relationships with others and in his attempts to climb the social ladder. From his natural distrust of others, whether this fear is justified or not, to constantly finding himself in situations where he doesn't want to be with people he doesn't want to be with, to even feeling "trapped" in his marriage, the reader is continually said that Bast has an inability to form normal social relationships or "fit in" to society, although this does not appear to be due to lack of trying. According to Lukacs, modernism is a form that attempts to capture the end of the modern world. capitalism focused on individual alienation from society and one's fellow man. He explains: “Man is reduced to a sequence of unrelated experiential fragments; he is as inexplicable to others as to himself” (1222). In contrast, Lukacs sees realism as the form of writing that offers a faithful portrait of man in relation to his socioeconomic position, carefully rooting him in a historical context. Traditional literature places a character in context, but placelessness is a trend in modernist literature. Lukacs explains: “By destroying the complex fabric of man's relationships with his environment, the dissolution of personality is promoted” (1223). However, Forster's text does not eliminate the potential problems the characters might experience with their environment, in fact, his text highlights the importance of place to all the characters, many of whom have their identities intertwined with their farms. TOHowards End, both the upper-class Shelegel and the lower-class Bast experience lack of space, on both physical farms, and through blurred class identities. These feelings of disillusionment reflect the reurbanisation of London and the loneliness felt by its inhabitants as a result. The narrator of Howards End describes the town with the following scene: An apartment block, extremely cheaply built, towers on either side. Further down the street, two more blocks were being built, and beyond them an old house was being demolished to create a couple more. It was the kind of scene that can be seen all over London - bricks and mortar rising and falling and the relentless water of a fountain, as the city welcomes more and more men onto its soil. (41) Howards End makes a modernist commentary on the disintegration of London. Old buildings are demolished to make room for an expanding middle class, and this negatively affects the characters currently found in upper-middle and upper-middle class society. Describing London, Margaret Schlegel observes that “the population kept increasing, but what was the quality of the men born” (99) and later decries “I hate this constant flow of London. It is an epitome of us at our worst eternal formlessness; all qualities, good and bad and indifferent, flow away…” (167). Although Mrs. Schlegel is an upper-class woman, by the end of the novel she finds herself married to an elite man. It is fitting, then, that she finds the socioeconomic turmoil in London to be an unstable environment for her, as it allegorically represents the economic changes that take place in her life. In addition to removing the character from a significant setting, modernist literature wipes out a character's unique history. Lukacs explains: “The denial of history takes two different forms in modernist literature. First, the hero is strictly confined within the limits of his own experience... Second, the hero himself is devoid of personal history. It is 'thrown into the world', meaningless... (Lukacs 1220).” In Howards End, characters are shaped by their history, class, money and politics. An overview of the last ten years of Margaret's life is provided by the narrator, who states “surely, if experience is attainable, she has obtained it” (67). Leonard Bast also has hints of history, although his character is the one who appears most "thrown into the world", his helplessness evokes sympathy and drives the plot. Forster does not remove characters from their story, even though his modern London often coincides with modernist London, and his characters learn the hard way that history is no match for the present moment, which is all there is to modernism. Perhaps the most notable feature of modernism is the way in which the movement addresses the idea of ​​potentiality. According to Lukacs, “Potentiality, viewed abstractly or subjectively, is richer than real life…Modern subjectivism, considering these imagined possibilities for the actual complexity of life, oscillates between melancholy and fascination” (1220). While Lukacs condemns modernism for its failure to appreciate “real” life, he fails to take into account that melancholy, nostalgia, and anxiety about the future are all real experiences of the human condition, and should be considered as such in literature. Forster uses his traditional characters to oppose this idea of ​​potentiality by removing some of the glamor from the elite Wilcox family. According to Helen Schlegel, "I felt for a moment that the entire Wilcox family was an impostor, just a wall of newspapers and cars and golf clubs, and that if it fell I would find nothing behind it but panic and emptiness" ( 21). Here Helen attributes the Wilcoxes' material possessions and classlike a screen of smoke, hiding the real fears and human emotions that the family has buried. The family uses their materialism to mask the experience of living real life, unable to communicate or relate to each other. The Schlegels, one step down economically from the Wilcox family, are able to see that the grass isn't always greener, and with a modern sensibility they see living up to one's potential as potentially empty. Modernism alone does not simply root an individual into a state of dissatisfaction and disorder, and the heroes of traditional literature experience the same desires that Lukács discredits as victims of modernist potentiality. In Casa Howard, Leonard Bast best exemplifies this restlessness and desire for potential from a modern perspective. Internally Bast laments: “Oh, to acquire culture!... But it would take a year... how was it possible to catch up with relaxed women, who read constantly from childhood? (34),” and is able to admit to himself that he will never fully reach that potential. Of course, one issue holding him back is the fact that he wasn't raised with money. Money undoubtedly affects potential. The Schlegel sisters understand this, as seen in the following statement. Margaret comments: “But Helen and I should remember, when we are tempted to criticize others… the poor cannot always reach those they want to love, and can hardly escape those they no longer love. We rich people can” (54). Both the modernist Bast and the traditional Schlegel must recognize the enormous role that money, or the lack thereof, plays in their lives. The rich are privileged in their wealth, and the poor really need it. The narrator describes Leonard Bast's struggles with his socioeconomic position in life. He is written as “inferior to most rich people…not as courteous as the average rich man, nor as intelligent, nor as wholesome, nor as amiable. His mind and body had been similarly malnourished, because he was poor, and because he was modern they always wanted better food” (40). Bast fails to reach its “potential” as a condition for being modern. The narrator seems to comment that this drive towards “something more” seems to be exactly the thing holding his character back. Despite his attempts to socially fit into the right circle, make the right career moves and find love, nothing goes exactly as Bast had planned, he often seems lost and out of control of his life. This also falls under Lukacs' ideas of modernism, and the critic explains that "Since the ideology of most modernist writers affirms the unalterability of external reality...human activity is...rendered powerless and deprived of meaning" (1227). Although Bast most represents the "modernist man" in House Howard, other characters seem to find humanity unimportant, especially the rich. Of Mrs. Wilcox, the narrator notes that her voice “suggests that pictures, concerts, and people are all of small and equal value” (63). Furthermore, Margaret states: “I think we will come to care less and less about people, Helen. The more people you know, the easier it becomes to replace them. It is one of the curses of London” (119). In Forster's novel, human activity loses importance only when one is rich enough to afford to consider life meaningless. In this case the individual, something so important to modernist man, is replaceable and, worse still, a commodity to be collected. Lukacs may find himself somewhere in the middle when examining the Howard House text as an Edwardian or Modernist piece, however, it is important to note some of the aspects, 2006. 394-412.