The critic Bradbury states that “With light taxation, no inflation, cheap food, cheap labour, an abundant supply of servants, many ordinary families of the middle class with modest incomes lived full and comfortable lives. No wonder so many who came from such families and survived the war looked back and felt that there was a grace then, an ease, a security of life that has since been lost forever” (62) . This statement clarifies the difference between the individual free from modernist influence and the individual negatively affected by modernist influence. It attests to the idea that the extreme physical and mental anguish endured during the battles of the First World War was not the only burden faced by those under the modernist guise, those who experienced desperation, ambivalence and loss of meaning in existence , among other feelings. These new financial burdens were also a source of contention and desperation for those families who managed to survive World War I. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In Dubliners, James Joyce conveys this message in two ways. First, it does so from a third-person point of view, describing the financial problems of the lower classes in “Two Gallants” through Lenehan's characterization. Joyce also describes the jealousy of the middle class over the financial comforts afforded to the upper class in “The Dead” from a third-person point of view. In Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf conveys the message of financial pain in several passages, primarily highlighting the differences between the “haves” and the “have-nots” using characterization, irony, and symbolism. Security is directly related to the modernist movement and is an issue that can be interpreted both financially and emotionally. According to Bradbury and McFarlane, “…the middle and upper classes of England and Western Europe enjoyed a freedom and security almost impossible to recapture today.” (62) As stated earlier, this security and freedom came from “light taxation, no inflation, cheap food, cheap labor,” and “an abundant supply of servants” (62), all economic concerns. Of course, it was not only these growing monetary burdens that weakened the concept of security. The severe mental and physical toll that World War I took on several nations certainly caused emotional insecurities. That said, tangible monetary insecurity, manifested in Dubliners and Mrs. Dalloway, has certainly played a role, especially for the middle class. In “Two Gallants” from Dubliners, Joyce fully portrays this economic insecurity. He uses Lenehan, the seemingly mediocre foil to the extraordinary and adventurous Corley, to express financial conflict. After seeing Corley talking calmly with a woman, Joyce uses a third-person narrative to objectively delve into Lenehan's economic problems: “This vision made him deeply feel his own poverty of purse and spirit. He was tired of going around in circles, of dragging the devil by the tail, of scams and intrigues. He would have turned thirty-one in November. Would he never find a good job? Would he never have a home of his own?” (51) Here we are dealing with a strictly economic desire. He expresses desperation about remaining a member of middle-class society. From the story notes we learn that “pulling the devil by the tail” is slang for “living on the brink of financial catastrophe.” (264)Joyce's diction is carefully crafted inpassage above. The slang that Lenehan uses, or in this case internally conceptualises, reflects his lower social status and the relatively weak chances he has of overcoming the barriers between the upper and lower classes. Lenehan is unable to identify the means to independently free himself from the lower-class position, the primary source of his desperation. Joyce does not allow Lenehan to feel personally responsible for resolving his situation, as this would suggest personal doubt on Lenehan's part. Instead, the financial crisis is one that the third-person narrator suggests Lenehan might be able to solve by marrying a rich woman: "He might still be able to settle down in some cozy corner and live happily if only he could meet some good simpleton." girl with some stuff ready." (52) Once again Lenehan is able to mentally construct his circumstance only in lower-class terminology. "Some stuff ready," slang, means "with immediate access to significant funds". wealth. He does not even consider making a good living or simply making the most of his current situation. Lenehan's only concern in this passage is his future financial arrangement. Marriage, a irreversible and well thought out decision, is reduced in his mind to a simple means to achieve a greater financial end. He does not even consider the personal, emotional, social or other implications that the inclusion of a woman in his life would entail way Joyce shows that security can sometimes be motivated exclusively from a financial point of view. This case demonstrates that other factors are independent and aimed at financial well-being. So far it has been suggested that the bleak tenets of Modernism, namely ambivalence, loss of meaning and despair, were not caused exclusively by the physical and emotional battles of war, but were also caused by bleaker economic conditions. These economic conditions affected some classes more than others. It can be argued that the middle class lost the most due to the financial crisis that occurred after the First World War. The poor did not have enough to lose, and the rich did not feel the effects as much considering they had more to lose. The middle class, however, was forced to give up some comforts. That said, it is interesting to consider what determines social position as this will be central to Woolf's interpretation. Sure there are stories of “rage to wealth” throughout history, but in the early 1900s, birth was the primary determinant of class, as identified by Bradbury and McFarlane in this passage: “If this image of Europe before 1914 appears unattractive, it is because, by concentrating the main aspects in a few paragraphs, the cultural context is distorted. Much has been written nostalgically about the belle ?poque and the Edwardian peace, much of it exaggerated in reminiscence. But this is true, especially if you are born into the right class” (62). So satisfaction was much harder to come by after World War I, largely due to the increasing economic sanctions mentioned at the beginning. While Bradbury and McFarlane admit that some of the grandeur described before World War I may be an exaggeration, the middle and upper classes certainly experienced less financial regulation by the government and lower prices on the goods of private businesses, which to them time they also increased their financial position. as well as their quality of life. In Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf also describes the difficult financial situation of a secondary character,who is not the protagonist. However, the social scene is reversed from Joyce's, and the narrative is in the first person. Clarissa Dalloway, the narrator in this passage is of high social standing. As such, he criticizes Miss Kilman for being insecure about her personal finances: “…she has never been in the room five minutes without making you feel her superiority, your inferiority; how poor she was; how rich you were; how he lived in a slum without a pillow, without a bed, without a carpet or whatever it was, with all his soul rusted by that resentment that had remained imprinted there, his dismissal from school during the war: poor, unfortunate, embittered creature ! (11)Virginia Woolf uses irony in this passage to represent both the "having" and "not having" perspectives. Clarissa Dalloway characterizes Miss Kilman's insecurity about finances as personal concerns. While one could argue that Miss Kilman's conversations and social nuances are empathetic and altruistic to the extent that they appear to compliment others at their own expense, Clarissa Dalloway clearly does not see Miss Kilman in this light. Clarissa's characterization of Miss Kilman as a “poor, embittered unfortunate creature” is highly ironic; from Clarissa's perspective, the conditions Miss Kilman faces, namely "dismissal from school" and "living in a slum", do not warrant the sympathy Miss Kilman seeks. However, Miss Kilman's wishes are also primarily financial. She defines the source of all her anguish as a section of the “have-nots.” Consequently, Clarissa expresses contempt: “For it was not she that he hated but the idea of ​​her, which no doubt had gathered in herself much that was not Miss Kilman; he had become one of those ghosts with whom one fights at night; one of those ghosts that straddle us and suck half our lifeblood, of dominators and tyrants; for no doubt with another roll of the dice, if the black had been in the lead and not the white, he would have loved Miss Kilman! But not in this world. NO. difference “if black had been first and not white,” or as Bradbury calls it “being born into the right class.” (62) Clarissa hates the “idea” of Miss Kilman because she represents someone consumed financially, but someone who is not rich. In the same way that Joyce expressed Lenehan's discontent with his position in the world as a poor, aging man, Woolf expresses Miss Kilman's insecurity about Clarissa. However, the tone used by each author suggests a discrepancy between how each message is received. In “Two Gallants,” the reader can somewhat sympathize with Lenehan as he seems trapped in a society that hinders social mobility. In Mrs. Dalloway, the tone is critical, causing the reader to renounce the “have-nots” who complain about financial hardship. Whether or not financial worries are to be lamented or sympathized with, they clearly permeate both of these works as sources of insecurity for lower-class characters who cannot achieve middle-class success and for middle-class citizens who cannot afford the comforts of the upper class. . The comfort of life was severely reduced by the financial concerns of the modernist era. Recall that before the First World War, economic conditions guaranteed “light taxation, no inflation, food acheap, cheap labor, and an abundant supply of servants,” (62) which allowed “many ordinary middle-class families with modest incomes” to lead “full, comfortable lives.” (Bradbury, 62) After the war, emotional loss did not just lie in the price paid by losing friends and family in battle; the financial cost has also eliminated these economic comforts that existed before. Therefore, while the lower class was facing insecurity, the middle class was facing hardships. The reassurances that people had before the war were replaced by financially stressful situations during the modernist era. In “The Dead” from Dubliners by James Joyce, this clash between the middle and upper classes created jealousy. “'Of course,' said Aunt Kate, what a comfort it is to have a girl like that, who you can count on! There's that Lily, I'm sure I don't know what's happened to her lately. She is not at all the girl she was.”(181) In a way, this passage is reminiscent of Miss Kilman's resentment of her position as a “have-not,” but not quite to the same extent. While Woolf's tone casts Miss Kilman as a nuisance or nuisance to Clarissa Dalloway, Joyce's characterization of Aunt Kate is less critical. She is described as lively and healthy, and does not appear to continually admonish her social position and praise a higher social position as a means of complaining about financial burdens in the same way that Miss Kilman did. This example of Aunt Kate expressing approval of Mrs. Conroy having Bessie, “a girl like that, who can be depended on,” highlights a middle-class drawback. This is different from the way Ms. Kilman dwells on her financial doubts. While Miss Kilman laments the discrepancy between "haves" and "have nots," Aunt Kate mentions in passing the comfort Mrs. Conroy is afforded by the hands of a dutiful and submissive daughter. While it is a source of contention for Aunt Kate's daughter Giglio is not revealed in this passage, surely some of it can be attested to by the jealousy of the upper class. While Bessie is afforded the comforts of the Conroy family, Lily's family is not as well off financially. To reiterate, contention between the middle class over the upper class is not something many people faced before the modernist era. After the war, taxation, inflation, increased spending and the reduced availability of servants triggered a hardship for the middle class which often resulted in jealousy towards the upper class due to their ability to maintain "the comforts of life". (62) Woolf presents many symbols of greatness that similarly separate the middle and upper classes. The rich seem able to afford the most valuable possessions in almost every circumstance, while the middle class does not enjoy the same comfort of life. One symbol that Woolf uses to describe the comforts of the upper class is the practice of feeding children. First, Woolf suggests that breastfeeding is a sign of lower social status with this image: “The mothers of Pimlico nursed their young.” (7) In the notes accompanying the story it is revealed that Pimlico is “home to people with more modest incomes than the Dalloways”. (193) Therefore, the prevalence of breastfeeding in an economically lower geographic area suggests that this natural practice is associated with the lower classes. This being the case, feeding infants formula, therefore, is evidence of greater financial resources and higher social status. Later, when a faint airline advertisement passes across the sky, Mrs. Coates imagines that it is an advertisement for "Glaxo, a brand name for a,, 2005.