Abstract

A result of the violence and destruction of the First and Second World Wars was an abandonment of hope in the twentieth century. This abandonment of hope had caused an overwhelming despair which infiltrated all levels of modern society. The juxtaposition of the lives and writings of two twentieth-century writers, Stefan Zweig and W.H. Auden, helps us to understand what is at stake in the ongoing tension between hope and despair. While Zweig saw no future for modern society and eventually committed suicide, Auden, who abandoned his Christian faith in his youth, returned to it after witnessing the horrors of the 1930s and 1940s. I will attempt to show that the path followed by Auden is the path of Christian hope, and that path can still be followed by modern pilgrims who struggle to gain the upper hand over despair.