Explain the characteristics of modern novel with reference to Mrs Dalloway, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and Sons and Lovers.

A Portrait of
the Artist as a Young Man was written partly as a conscious divergence from the
realist style that was dominant in the 19th century. In the realist mode of literature, the
author's goal is to create a subjective and accurate representation of reality. In order to
create a stable and panoramic view of the world of the novel, an omniscient 3rd person narrator
is the most common voice chosen by realist novelists. This makes it possible for the author to
represent the point of view of a large number of characters and to precisely detail the world of
the novel. In this way, the author is posited almost as a god presiding over the world they
created.

In sharp contrast, Modernist literature is concerned with the
subjectivity of reality and the way individuals navigate and experience the world. Therefore,
the narrator tends to be either first person or, as in the case of Mrs.
Dalloway, A Portrait of the Artist, and
Sons and Lovers, an omnisicient narrator who is very closely aligned to
just the character or characters whose subjective thoughts and experiences the narrative is most
interested in examining.

Mrs. Dalloway and
Portrait of the Artist are both prime examples of the "stream of
consciousness" technique that emerged out of this new approach to narrative, in which the
characters's thoughts and reactions to experiences are recorded in an uninterrupted flow,
including asides and rants that move away from the inciting incident that provoked the initial
chain of thought.

Sons and Lovers is different from
Mrs Dalloway and A Portrait of the Artist in that it
does retain some essential realist elements of the literature preceding it but melds those
elements with a fresh Modernist approach to experience. For instance, Lawrence does take care to
represent the harsh reality of working class life in industrial England in plain and accurate
detail. However, Lawrence does not try to craft a stable and objective representation of truth
or reality. Instead, he is interested in the interiority of the characters and how they
interpret or make sense of their experiences, including events in which the perspectives of two
characters might be both completely irreconcilable and yet completely valid at the same
time.

Portrait is certainly the most boldly experimental
and avant-garde of the three novels, but all three represent a marked shift in the approach to
narrative, and all three were influential in expanding the limits of form and possibility within
the genre of the novel.