Examining The Weakening Of Traditional And Communal Relationships: A Critical Essay.

“(The) weakening of communal and traditional relationships, fostered…the later stress on the importance of personal relationships….” (Ian Watt)

Is this an accurate claim? Your answer should critically examine the claim, evaluating the extent and nature of the suggested casual relationship. The discussion should be substantiated with textual references from Evelina and Austen’s novels, Persuasion and Pride and Prejudice.

The shift of traditional and communal relationships

The society has its valuation of different individuals. The assessment is linked to beliefs, social class, and the actions done by the individuals. Both traditional and communal relationships determine the social life of an individual and are associated with the social cohesion existing in the society. In the novel, individualism made Richardson emphasis on the importance of personal experience.  The development of the social and economic aspect of life leads to growth and improvement in urban life. The resorts and the streets in the town represented a particular way of life, and many people used to observe it without gaining personal experience from it. One of the features of growth in the city or urbanization is significant social distance and physical proximity that led valuation of the material and external values especially those who were dwelling in the town. For instance, Fanny Burney and Jane Austen emphasized more on the daily and everyday life. The novels address the issue of moral and social problems about the economic individual as well as the different social class of the people. They capture more of marriage life and the role of women in the society (Austen 110-112).  The weakening of the traditional and communal relationships was caused by capitalism, realism, social class, and Christianity. The shift to personal relationships made an only concentrate on their own lives and forgot what other people are undergoing. There was a difference between people living in the city and those in rural areas.  The primary purpose of the article is to assess the cause of erosion of traditional can communal relationships and the shift to personal relationships.

Capitalism is one of the economic factors which existed in the 18th century, and it is associated with democracy and economic specialization. Capitalism led to a significant change and transformation of the production and the entire social organization because it had it is on social and economic value. It focused more on the individual but not collective social arrangements. Defoe’s heroes were after money, and profit maximization and every individual under capitalism had to maintain a continuous flow of capital (Watt 80). The accumulation and circulation of the profits and the wealth were based on the private ownership. Every individual had to look for means of his or her production, employ the laborers who would work in the process of creation and accumulate the profit after making the sales. The growth of capitalism created new and flexible rules which made people operate for their own needs without minding of the society collectively. It led to an emergent of a different class of people such as manufacturers, landlords, financiers, educated middle class, entrepreneurs, and social administrators.

Capitalism and the erosion of social cohesion

 The communal and the traditional relationships were eroded. The conventional relationships and the social cohesion within the society were not there anymore because people focused on the individual life. Defoe’s heroes lost their families, and they have to leave them to live a better life in the city. Robinson has established a slave- master relationship. He emphasizes the private or personal experience.  A large environment can have only one experienced person who understands the economic, social growth. Many people move to the city in search of fortunes, but they end have become a total failure. The private experience is characterized by social and economic development that leads to growth and improvement of the urban lifestyle. Personal relationships seem to be connected and to influence the activities carried on in the modern society. It is evidenced by the fact that London did not provide any opportunity for Richardson to participate in collective activities. In the city where there is capitalism, the existence of social differences is common, and that is why people prefer their way of life (Burney 38).  Generally, capitalism had a considerable impact on the life of different people. It led to a shifting of the worldview regarding art, religion, politics, marriage, literature, and family. There was a lot of social mobility and freedom of ideas something that led to social hierarchies among intellectual and the most famous people in the society. There was a vast shift of traditional to personal relationships due to capitalism and revolution continued to take place in a different part of the world.

Similarly, individualism created a social class among different people.  It was an economic factor because every individual looked for means which he or she can maximize the profit by the personal enterprise.  Individualism led to the emergence of nationalism which was based on kinship ties and older religious authority. Similarly, Jane Austen addresses the issue of social class. According to Austen, social class can be achieved through ancestry inheritance, marrying wealthy people and occupation. An example was Mr. William Elliot who only associates with people who have high social status in the society. He is very proud of his high status which made overspend most of the money leading to financial debts. The status of an individual and the social class can restrict or motivate the individual to act in a way that fulfills personal desires (Watt 78).  There is also love based on the social class and women find it difficult to achieve a successful marriage due to this. It is not easy for women to have economic individualism because they operate under the Roman law. Example of this is Rexona where the requirements of the endowment are not favorable to the women. Women who were not married had their status declined, and they had to accept all kind of molestation.  They were lowly paid, and the society allowed flattery to the women as well as enjoyment. Great respect was given only to the men and Richardson is shown to have the feminine tastes. The existence of different opinion between men and women on marriage, sex, and feeling of love led to personal relationships.  The changes which occurred clearly explain Pamela impurity, purity and unity. The clash which existed between Fielding and Richardson was based on the marriage and sex. Women were not expected to have a feeling unless they were engaged and this caused a disparity between the feelings of a woman and social roles.

Individualism and the emergence of social classes

Furthermore, the social factor which leads to shifting into personal relationships is realism that shows low life. There is life scrutiny scientifically, and the universal for all people has been rejected. Some of the philosophers such as Locke and Descartes give more emphasis on everybody getting everything for his or her own. They are against the traditional relationships and believe in breaking down the past values. The philosophy focuses more on the innovation and abandoning traditional and social cohesion. A person is more likely to achieve his or her dreams if he or she focuses on individual activity and leave the past assumptions. Novel literature reflects more on the innovations in the society individualist. The uniqueness of every individual is recognized differently, and collective performance has been abandoned. In the 18th century, traditions were governed by universal and robust classical preferences (Watt 77). Novel emergence marked past classical rejection and sought to have universal which is real. Ian Watt argues that the continuous process and procedure of social change was not natural because the high social class was against the spread of education to the poor people. They also wanted them to be denied access to the entertainment that was cheap to them. Everything was performed based on the social class and employers could do anything to deny employees leisure time. In the novel, both the characters and the ideas were separated using specific circumstances, place and time.  Therefore, there was a shifting of traditional and communal relationship because every philosopher believed in the innovations as well as individualists.  Everyone was ensuring all his or her enterprises run smoothly and generate profit out of it. In reality, the life of the upper class and the middle class was different. The upper class seemed to oppress the poor and wanted them to be denied access to education.

In conclusion, Ian Watt shows how traditional and communal relationships have changed into a person or private experience.  The economic factors which contributed to the social change were capitalism and individualism. Individualism made everyone understand how he or should manage the enterprises for profit maximization. Capitalization has led to economic specialization and each is making sure there is a continuous flow of the capital after sales. Jane Austen and Fanny Burney address the daily life factors that influence the relationship of an individual. Some of these factors are the social class of the people, marriage life and the issues related to the family. Realism shows how the upper class opposes education to the low class and they try to deny them freedom.

References

Watt, Ian. The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson, and Fielding. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. (70-83).

Burney, Fanny: Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. Print. (34-90)

Austen, Jane: Persuasion. Camberwell, Vic: Penguin, 2009. Print. (100-200)

Austen, Jane: Pride and prejudice. e-art now so, 2018. (122- 250 )