Throughout the modernist period composers have been continuously creating texts that influence society through the message that they deliver. Modernity typically refers to the post medieval period, but in context insinuates the intellectual and cultural movements of that time. Great composers such as Fritz Lang, T.S. Elliot and George Orwell have created masterpieces, which embellish the meaning and structure of modernity to create modernist texts. Their pieces, Metropolis, Preludes and 1984 display some key features that reflect the ideas of modernity and the situation in the modern era.

In the film Metropolis by Lang, there are messages coded into the movie that must be picked out to provide the full understanding of the ideas portrayed by this film. Some of the messages hidden within the foils of the film are futility, loss of identity and power. These three conceptual ideas influence our understanding of the film and our interpretations of its purpose. The aim of this film was to critique aspects of modernity such as the ideas previously listed. Firstly, futility and loss of identity play a major role in this film. These themes combine in one section but have completely different effects on the viewers opinion. Futility is shown by the lack of choice the workers have and how they all must obey the upper classes and act like a machine. Where as the case of lost identity is rather presented in different light but on the same stage. It is portrayed by the fact that all these individual humans (laborers) have now just become one large group and function in one way losing their individuality and identity. This refers to the time that this movie was produced in because it symbolizes the machine that society was becoming to be able to introduce industrialization into their culture. Power is the other major concept displayed in this text. The class barriers created in the film between the workers and the upper class present it. An example of the power difference is the garden where the upper class is permitted to frolic within Eden’s walls and the workers are not allowed within. The actual definition of power is tested in this film because the number of workers is much greater than the upper class but the higher class poses more strength in a social context making them the more powerful. This links back to the modern era because the workers there definitely outnumbered the upper class, however this was never accentuated in any of the social structure from this time.

Preludes, which is one of Elliot’s most famous poems, displays the underlining meanings and situations that were abundant in the modern era. These are shown by some of the overlaying language techniques that embellish the ideas, which form these understandings. The ideas shown are futility, loss of identity and power. Futility is shown in the example ”The worlds revolve like ancient women”, this uses imagery to represent life as just a meaningless cycle. This links in with modernity and that time period because society was moving towards industrialization and people became disillusioned with the world. This text also uses power and loss of identity as concepts to emphasize the attitudes at that time. Power and lost identity is conveyed in the example “With the other masquerades, That time resumes.”, in this extract symbolism is used to emphasize the fact that people are using masquerades as a mask to hide behind. This quote compliments both power and loss of identity, because society is hiding behind this mask to try and become more powerful and wealthy. However while this is happening it is losing its original and true identity. This poem really shows how power or even the reach for it corrupts in the form of a lost sense of person. This relates to the general concept of the modernist era where you had to hide you face and show a false side just to fit in with and please society.

1984 is a very important text in relation to our understanding of the modernist period and their social structure and views, this is significant because our society today is formed from that foundation. This book by Orwell accentuates the ideas being thrown forward at this time about the future and we can interpret these from language techniques used in the text. The three main points of futility, loss of identity and power are portrayed by these techniques and give the needed understanding of this time. Futility is shown by the genre of the novel; the genre is dystopian vision. Writing a text about this shows that people of that time were trying to express their inability to alter their society and to convey their futility. It presents the idea that society was being affected by the surrounding wars and Orwell writing this book really captured societies harsh and unfortunate realizations of the future. The perception of loss of identity is exceedingly stressed in the concept of doublethink, which is employed in the text. Doublethink is “the ability to hold 2 contradictory thoughts at one time”, this means that your brain does not wrestle to decide which thought is right but to hold both sides of the story and just let it go. This links to the idea of lost identity because it does not allow you or the rest of society to have an opinion on a personal and opinionative issue. This ties back in with the modernist beliefs and circumstances of that time, it also shows how Orwell critiques the situation he was based in. Finally, power or gain of power was another theory that resonated throughout the novel as well as modernity. This is shown in the concept of “Big Brother” where devices placed around the city monitored the general society and influenced their way of life greatly. It disallowed them to even think about rebellion and this was a way of eliminating any competition for power and in extension wealth. This joins back up with the fact that at this point in history people were worried about the power and control of communism or totalitarianism and this novel heightens the impending force of these social forms.

In conclusion, these three great composers Fritz Lang, T.S. Elliot and George Orwell have created pieces of masterwork, referred to as modernist texts that critique modernity by displaying through them conceptual ideas that resonate throughout the real society of that time.