Although it is universally acknowledged that art is subjective, literary critic and philosopher Georg Lukacs gave his opinion on what form art should take 'art. In his essay "The Ideology of Modernism", Lukacs wrote negative critiques 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, they promote an ideal and neglect reality. He states: “In realistic literature, every descriptive detail is both individual and typical. Modern allegory and modernist ideology, however, deny the typical” (1230). Lukacs does not see human existence reflected in modernist art. As a result, Lukacs concludes that “modernism does not mean the enrichment, but the negation of art” (1232). EM Forster wrote his famous Howards End at a period of transition between traditional Edwardian literature and literary modernism. Forster writes with the aim of allowing the reader to be exposed to and explore the modernist ideals behind the safety of tradition. As a result, his novel reads mostly like a traditional novel, with modernist concerns embodied by certain characters. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Howards End represents the transitional period he finds himself in through his very different characters. The Schlegel sisters represent an upper middle class capable of integrating both into an elitist and capitalist society, embodied by the Wilcox family, and into a lower class, but into modernist 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 governing the image of man in the work of the main modernist writers is… the following. 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, from the fact that he constantly finds himself in situations in which he does not want to be with people he does not want to be with, even feeling "trapped" in his marriage, the reader is continually told that Bast is unable to establish normal social relationships or "fit in" with society, although this does not appear to be for lack of effort. According to Lukacs, modernism is a form that attempts to capture the demise of capitalism by emphasizing individual alienation from society and one's fellow human beings. He explains: “Man is reduced to a sequence of unrelated experiential fragments; he is as inexplicable to others as to himself” (1222). Conversely, Lukacs considers realism to be the form of writing that offers a true portrait of man in relation to his socio-economic situation while precisely rooting him in a historical framework. 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, it promotes the dissolution of the personality” (1223). However, Forster's text does not destroy the potential problems the characters may feel with theirenvironment. In fact, his text emphasizes the importance of place for all the characters, many of whom have their identities tied to their property. In Howards End, upper-class Shelegels and lower-class Basts suffer from a lack of place, in both physical properties and through blurred class identities. These feelings of disillusionment reflect the reurbanization of London and the loneliness felt by its residents. The narrator of Howards End describes the town with the following scene: An apartment building, built extremely cheaply, towered on either side. Further down the road, two more blocks were under construction, and beyond that, an old house was being demolished to create another pair. It was the kind of scene you can see all over London...bricks and mortar rising and falling, the rush of water in a fountain, as the city receives more and more men on its ground. (41) Howards End makes a modernist commentary on the disintegration of London. Old buildings are demolished to make way for an expanding middle class, which negatively affects the characters who are currently in upper-middle-class and upper-class society. Describing London, Margaret Schlegel notes that "the population continued to increase, but what was the quality of the men who were born" (99) and later denounces: "I hate this continuous flow of London. This is an example of our worst state of eternal formlessness; all qualities, good and bad, and indifferent, fly away…” (167). Although Mrs. Schlegel is an upper-middle-class woman, she will find herself married to an elite man at the end of the novel. It is therefore fitting that she views the socio-economic unrest in London as an unstable setting for her, as it allegorically represents the economic changes taking place in her own life. In addition to removing the character from a meaningful setting, modernist literature erases a character's unique history. Lukacs explains: “The negation 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 without personal history. He is “thrown into the world”, without any meaning… (Lukacs 1220). In Howards End, the 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 possible, she had achieved it" (67). Even Leonard Bast has hints of a story, although his character is the one who seems most "thrown into the world", his helplessness evokes sympathy and drives the plot. Forster does not remove the characters from their history, even though his modern London often coincides with a modernist London, and his characters learn the hard way that history cannot compete with the present moment, which is all there is. a in modernism. modernism is the movement's way of approaching the idea of ​​potentiality. According to Lukacs, “potentiality, seen abstractly or subjectively, is richer than real life…Modern subjectivism, mistaking these imagined possibilities for the real complexity of life, oscillates between melancholy and fascination” (1220). While Lukacs condemns modernism for its failure to appreciate "real" life, he ignores the fact 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 elite glamor of the Wilcox family.According to Helen Schlegel, "I felt for a moment that the whole Wilcox family was an impostor, just a wall of newspapers and automobiles and golf clubs, and that if it fell, I wouldn't find behind him only panic and emptiness. » (21). Here, Helen attributes the Wilcoxes' material possessions and social class as a smokescreen, hiding the real human fears and emotions the family has buried. The family uses their materialism to mask real life experience, unable to communicate or relate to each other. The Schlegels, one rung down economically from the Wilcox family, are able to see that the grass is not always greener and, with a modern sensibility, they view living up to one's potential as potentially empty. Modernism alone does not simply root an individual in a state of dissatisfaction and unrest, and the heroes of traditional literature experience the same desires that Lukacs discredits as victims of modernist potential. In Howards End, Leonard Bast best illustrates this unease and desire for potential from a modern perspective. Internally, Bast laments: “Oh, to acquire culture!… But that would take a year… how was it possible to catch up with the quiet women, who had read regularly since childhood? (34),” and he is able to admit that he will never truly 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 evidenced by the following statement. Margaret comments: “But Helen and I must remember that when we are tempted to criticize others…the poor cannot always reach those they want to love, and they almost never can escape those they do not 'like more. We, the rich, can do it” (54). Both modernist Basts and traditional Schlegels must recognize the role that money, or lack of money, plays a huge role throughout their lives. The rich are privileged in their wealth, and the poor really need it. The narrator describes Leonard Bast's troubles with his socio-economic 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 healthy, nor as kind." His mind and body were undernourished, because he was poor and because he was modern, they always wanted to eat better” (40). Bast fails to reach his “potential” as a condition for being modern. The narrator seems to be pointing out that this quest for “something more” seems to be exactly what is holding his character back. Despite his attempts to fit into the right category socially, make the right career choices and find love, nothing turns out exactly as Bast planned, he often seems lost and out of control of his own life. This also fits Lukacs. ideas of modernism, and the critic explains that "While the ideology of most modernist writers affirms the unalteration of external reality...human activity is...rendered impotent and deprived of meaning" (1227). Although Bast represents more of the "modernist man" in Howards End, other characters seem to find humanity lacking in importance, particularly the wealthy. Of Mrs. Wilcox, the narrator notes that her voice "suggests that pictures, concerts, and people are all of small and equal value" (63). Additionally, Margaret says, “I think we're going to care less and less about people, Helen. The more people you know, the easier it becomes to replace them. “It’s one of the curses of London” (119). In the novel, 2006. 394-412.