Moral Dgeneration and Alienated Modern Individuals : W.D. Howells\u27s A Modern Instance and The Rise of Silas Lapham

This paper tries to show that in A Modern Instance and The Rise of Silas Lapham, William Dean Howells provides an extensive insight into the conditions of modern individuals who struggle in and against the social changes which are both the cause and effect of general moral decay. This paper proves that his insight extends beyond the limits that are often attributed to his works and perspective: his inability to overstep the bourgeois and genteel standards of virtue, and his innocent belief in the prevalence of morality and reason.//In A Modern Instance, Howells illustrates the circumstances in which individualism inevitably degenerates into egotism and society falls into anomie. The main characters of the novel are led to assume that they are naturally free from any social obligation and to be engrossed in the pursuit of their own success and happiness. The Rise of Silas Lapham, on the other hand, depicts a moral struggle of an individual who eventually realizes his obligation to the society at large, no matter how it contradicts the interests of his own and even of the group of people he is personally responsible for, despite the fact that his “rise” does not elevate the society’s moral standards in general.//What Howells demonstrates is how problematic it is for modern individuals to make moral decisions and to be saved from the state of alienation