Themes in Literature

Literary Futility

Futility

The theme of futility or overriding hopelessness in literature has been driven by philosophical concepts regarding life and how we live it. The later decades of the 19th century saw rapid industrialization, which helped support Karl Marxโ€™s theories of alienation and the consideration of all history as a battle between opposing economic forcesโ€”an eternal class struggle between the new industrialists and their workers. If Marx was right, then human … Read the rest