Henry Fielding was the pioneer of realism in English fiction. Both Fielding and Richardson were broadly speaking realists. Fielding also reacted against Richardson’s sentimentalism as a falsifying influence on the study of reality, although he does not reject sentimentalism altogether. “His desire”, says Cazamian, “is to give sentiment its right place; but also to integrate it in an organic series of tendencies where each contributes to maintain a mutual balance.”
Fielding is one of the few writers who, despite the wideness of their scope are capable of observing the demands of reality with perpetual ease.
His novels hold up to view a representative picture of his age. He is as authentic a chronicler of his day as Chaucer was of the later fourteenth century. Fielding’s truth is not the crude and bitter truth of Smollett’s. A.R. Humphreys observes: “fielding’s is the higher and more philosophical truth which epitomizes the spirit, the ethos, as well as the body, of the time which deals primarily not in externals but in the nature of man and in an intellectual and moral code.”
Fielding has presented before us various facets of England of his time – the coaches, squires, inn-keepers of England, the England just before Industrial Revolution. Then there is the landed gentry represented by Lady Booby and her husband. Lawyers, doctors and clergymen, both good and bad, are there in the novel. We have a sketchy representation of the aristocracy in the character of Beau Didapper. Fielding portrays the universal traits of human nature through these characters. During their journey, Joseph and Adams generally encounter selfishness, villainy and corruption. Once when Joseph, after being robbed, stripped and beaten, was lying in a ditch the occupants of the carriage were not ready to help him. It was only when the young lawyer suggested they might be held responsible if the man died, that they took him for their own sake.
There was a difference between the higher and lower class, which fielding depicts through the character of Lady Booby. She could not think in her wildest dreams of allowing a seat to Parson Adams at her table as she did not consider him to be well-dressed. Fielding also highlights the mockery of law in the hands of the so called high class and also the prevailing corruption. The character of Lawyer Scout illustrates the corruption. Even the law was manipulated to favour the rich. All the characters of Fielding are so full of life because they are drawn from life itself. They are a product of the suthor’s keen eye observing his contemporary society. Fielding effuses realism into his characters and his vivid dialogues. He presents before us the complete reality and does not intentionally ignore anything. In his Preface Fielding writes that he has “scarce a character or action produced which I have not taken from my own observations and experience.” That is why it is said about Joseph Andrews that it lives by the virtue of the extraordinary vitality of its characters and picture it gives of the manners of early eighteenth century England.
Fielding is one of the few writers who, despite the wideness of their scope are capable of observing the demands of reality with perpetual ease.
His novels hold up to view a representative picture of his age. He is as authentic a chronicler of his day as Chaucer was of the later fourteenth century. Fielding’s truth is not the crude and bitter truth of Smollett’s. A.R. Humphreys observes: “fielding’s is the higher and more philosophical truth which epitomizes the spirit, the ethos, as well as the body, of the time which deals primarily not in externals but in the nature of man and in an intellectual and moral code.”
Fielding has presented before us various facets of England of his time – the coaches, squires, inn-keepers of England, the England just before Industrial Revolution. Then there is the landed gentry represented by Lady Booby and her husband. Lawyers, doctors and clergymen, both good and bad, are there in the novel. We have a sketchy representation of the aristocracy in the character of Beau Didapper. Fielding portrays the universal traits of human nature through these characters. During their journey, Joseph and Adams generally encounter selfishness, villainy and corruption. Once when Joseph, after being robbed, stripped and beaten, was lying in a ditch the occupants of the carriage were not ready to help him. It was only when the young lawyer suggested they might be held responsible if the man died, that they took him for their own sake.
There was a difference between the higher and lower class, which fielding depicts through the character of Lady Booby. She could not think in her wildest dreams of allowing a seat to Parson Adams at her table as she did not consider him to be well-dressed. Fielding also highlights the mockery of law in the hands of the so called high class and also the prevailing corruption. The character of Lawyer Scout illustrates the corruption. Even the law was manipulated to favour the rich. All the characters of Fielding are so full of life because they are drawn from life itself. They are a product of the suthor’s keen eye observing his contemporary society. Fielding effuses realism into his characters and his vivid dialogues. He presents before us the complete reality and does not intentionally ignore anything. In his Preface Fielding writes that he has “scarce a character or action produced which I have not taken from my own observations and experience.” That is why it is said about Joseph Andrews that it lives by the virtue of the extraordinary vitality of its characters and picture it gives of the manners of early eighteenth century England.
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