Eng426 20th century english literature

The First World War and Post-War Disillusionment.

Before the First World War, also called the Great War, though there were bottled-up conflicts and apprehensions, economies were doing well and there was really no great cause for serious distress. In Britain, individuals who amassed wealth following the industrial revolution lived in affluence, and generally, people lived in relative tranquillity and orderliness. The First World War which started in 1914 brought about a chaotic and tumultuous time and ended an era of relative peace and progress in Britain. Until the time of the war, the South African War of 1899 – 1902 was the only experience of major war Britain had. Although many British died fighting in that war (Boer War), the experiences of that war was different from those of the First World War. This was basically because the war was fought in another continent and a different hemisphere. So it was a distant
experience and the death toll was tiny compared to the death recorded in the First World War. Even while the Boer War was going on in South Africa, the people’s lives in Britain were not disrupted. But during the First World War, British cities were directly attacked. Also, many people enrolled into the military to fight, leaving their wives and children behind.

Though it was believed that the world war would end quickly, it did not and great financial and material resources were lost. The war ended in 1918, although the Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919 to officially mark the end of the war. There were records of millions of deaths; young war veterans suffered from psychological disorders and traumas like shell- shock and were unable to function normally after the war; and many women and children lost their husbands and fathers who fought in the war. The relief and happiness of many that the war was over was tainted by these experiences. With the death of many young men and conscription to the military, women became more active and were employed by factories that needed workers. Unlike the situation before the war, this economic power and visibility strengthened women’s resolve to speak against their subjugation and fight against women oppression.

From the foregoing, it could be deduced that the First World War had a strong impact on the socio-political, economic, psychological as well as emotional state of Britain and its people. The aftermath of the war was incomprehensible and the Post war era was a period of decline in every aspect. Individual companies, homes, places of relaxation, and well- built monuments were destroyed. Women became bread winners in many families. As a result, people lost their faith in all the values, traditions and expectations that they cherished before the war. Authorities were questioned and human relations shifted as so many felt alienated, lost, and helpless. ‘The survival of the fittest’ was a maxim and the philosophy of existentialism which is characterised by absurdity, alienation, atheism, helplessness, despair and nothingness became a reality. The nothingness and emptiness in life was felt by those who witnessed the destruction wrought by the hands of men and the presence of a Supreme Being who directed the affairs of men but who could not control the world and prevent millions from dying or seriously injured was questioned. Many people became mentally and physically ill, poverty became the order of the day, and gloom was the companion of men. These after effects of the war became the defining factors of modernism as people rejected traditional ways of doing things and began to do things in ways that reflected their experiences and new notions about life.

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