Name:
Aarti H. Vadher
Course:
M.A (English)
Topic:
Henry Fielding
Semester:1
Unit:3
Roll.no:9
Paper
no.:2
Email
Id:artivadher10@gmail.com
Submitted
to :Dr. Dilip Barad,
Smt:
S.B.Gardi
Introduction:
Henry Fielding (22 April 1707-8 October 1754) was an English novelist and
dramatist best known for his rich, earthy humor and satirical prowess,
and as the author of the novel TOM JONES. Additionally, he holds a
significant place in the history of law enforcement, having used his authority
as a magistrate to found (with his half-brother John ) what some
have called London's first police force, the Bow Street Runners.
His younger sister, Sarah, also became a successful writer.
·
"The provision which we
have here made is no other than human nature" This statement by Henry Fielding in the first chapter of his work
The History of TOM JONES, a Foundling may account for the nearly 850
pages of the novel, to be sure the longest i have read. Of course, it is rather
the author's way of presenting the content which inflates the book : as he
himself says in the second chapter, "Reader, i think proper, before we
proceed any further together, to acquaint thee that i intend to digress, through
this whole history, as often as i see occasion, of which i am myself a better
judge than any pitiful critics whatever."
·
And digress he dose.
The novel is divided in eighteen books, of which every first chapter is purely
digressive. Fielding himself says these introductory chapters might very well
have been interchangeable, and even used in a different work. They consist in
general in the author's reflections over the "new province of
writing" he claims to have established. Through these, Fielding says, are
a mere means to augment the reader's interest in the main story by arousing his
impatience, they are written in such a pleasant and good- humored style that
the reader finds them as entertaining as the rest, and they do not seem at all Stanger
to the plot. Furthermore, sometimes the plot seems stranger to them, because
the author's voice starring in these chapters totally dominates the narrative
in the others. This voice doesn’t allow the reader to forget he is only reading
a novel, and sometimes the characters seem mere puppets. This voice usually
comments on the actions, referring them to a general pattern, or follows the
trend of the century by making mock epic invocations to the muses in an
ironical way, etc. It could be said that Fielding's attitude towards his work
and his way of narrating are an hypertrophy of certain attitudes of Cervantes.
This influence has also been seen in the opposition of TOM JONES and his
servant Partridge, which reminds of that existing between Don Quixote and
Sancho Panza, but this can't be pushed too far.
·
That habit of
making general comments on the plot, judging the actions and referring them to
established patterns, isn't casual : Fielding wants to depict human specimens ,
not as individuals but as representatives of a "humor", as Ben Jonson
would put it. Though the author warns the reader against this interpretation,
the fact is that his characters are conventional : some are meant to be good ,
some others bad , and so we find the perfect bigot, the perfect hypocrite , the
perfect young women , etc. Some of the characters wear their self on their
name, following the tradition of Ben Jonson and the morality plays, a little
disguised. Thus, Tom Jones's benefactor, the man of perfect goodness, is called Mr.
Allworthy, and lives in Paradise Hall. Squir Western's "shadow" is
called Parson Supple; the typical eighteenth-century philosopher who stresses
Reason, the “eternal fitness of things", and Morality, is called Square; and
the biotic clergyman who educated Tom using a large amount of birch is called
Thwackum, a name which doesn't lack onomatopoeic qualities...............................
·
with such premises, the work
turns out to be a fight between the forces of good and evil. The plot consists
basically in how Tom, a Fielding, manages to get the reward he deserves for his
natural goodness in spite of the treacherous and evil doings of his half-brother
Blifil. The reward consists in Mr.Allworthy's fortune, originally intended for
Blifil, and the hand of his true love, Sophia Western, despite the many
material difficulties and misunderstanding that seem to open a gap between
them. This plot is developed perfectly, each detail contributing to the whole. i
think it is due to this that Coleridge, or some other, ranked Tom Jones with
The Alchemist and Oedipus Rex as the best plot in all literature. Since then,
we have read Agatha Christie and we find this construction too art factitious.
When Sophia falls down from her horse, the reader says to himself that that
incident will be referred to later on, and out of the fiction we go again. The
ultimate end of that architecture is to explain how Tom could get caught in the
nets of his enemies not withstanding his good intentions. and how experience
changed his nature from wild to mature, so as to make sure that he is worthy
enough to marry Sophia without any risk of their being deserted later on.
·
The curious thing is that
this radical change occurs in less than month. But we can't blame the author, since
he has all the time handled his character's feeling at his own will, with some
unaccountable changes of attitude of a lesser scope.
·
The irregularities of
Fielding's life (however dearly he may have paid for fame) contributed to his
riches as an author. He had surveyed human nature in various aspects, and
experienced its storms and sunshine. His kinswoman, Lady Mary Worthey Montagu,
assigns to him an enviable vivacity of temperament, though it is at the expense of his morality. "His happy constitution,"
she says, “even when he had , with great pains, half demolished it, made him
forget every evil when he was before a venison-pasty, or over a flask of
champagne; and I am persuaded he has known more happy moments than any prince
upon earth. His natural spirits gave him rapture with his cook-maid, and
cheerfulness when he was starving in a garret. "Fielding's experience as a
Middlesex justice was unfavorable to his personal respectability; but it must
also have brought him into contact with scenes and characters well fitted for
his graphic delineations. On the other hand, his birth and education as a
gentleman, and his brief trial of the life of a rural squire, immersed in
sports and pleasure, furnished materials for a Squire Western, an Allworthy,
and other country characters, down to black George the gamekeeper; while, as a man of wit and
fashion on the town, and a gay dramatist, he must have known various prototypes
of Lord Fellamar and his other city portraits. The profligacy of Lady
Bellaston, and the meanness of Tom Jones in accepting support from such a
source, are we hope, circumstances which have rarely occurred even in
fashionable life. The tone of morality is never very high in Fielding, but the
case we have cited is his lowest descent.
·
Though written amidst
discouraging circumstances and irksome duties, "Tom Jones" bears no
marks of haste. The author committed some errors as to time and place, but his
fable is constructed with historical exactness and precision, and is a finished
model of the comic romance. "Since the days of Humor, "says Dr James
Beattie, "the world has not seen a more artful epic fable. The characters
and adventures are wonderfully diversified; yet the circumstances are all
natural, and rise so easily from one another, and co-operate with so much
regularity in bringing, or even while they seem to retard the catastrophe, that
the curiosity of the reader is always kept awake, and instead of flagging,
grows more and more impatient as the story advances, till at last it becomes
downright anxiety. And when we get to this end, and look back on the whole
contrivance, we are amazed to find that of so many incidents there should be so
few superfluous; that in such a variety of fiction there should be so great a
probability, and that so complex a tale should be en perspicuously conducted,
and with perfect unity of design." The only digression from the main story
which is felt to be tedious is the episode of the Man of the Hill. In "Don
Quixote" and "Gil Blas"
we are reconciled to such interpolations by the air of romance which pervades
the whole, and which seems indigenous to the soil of Spain. In Cervantes; too,
these digressions are sometimes highly poetical and striking tales. But in the
plain life-like scenes of "Tom Jones"_ English life in the eighteenth
century , in the county of Somerset _ such a tedious "hermit of the
vale" is felt to be an unnatural encumbrance.
·
Fielding had little of the
poetical or imaginative faculty. His study lay in real life and everyday
scenes, which he depicted with a truth and freshness, a buoyance and vigor, and
such an exuberance of practical knowledge, easy satire, and lively fancy, that
in his own department lie stands unrivalled. Others have had bolder invention, a
higher cast of thought, more poetical imagery, and profounder passion (for
Fielding has little pathos or sentiment), but in the perfect nature of his
characters, especially in low life, and in the perfect skill with which he
combined and wrought up his comic powers, seasoning the whole with wit and
wisdom, the ripened fruit of genius and long experience, this great English
author is still unapproached.
·
Fielding was born at Sharpham,
Somerset, and educated at Eton Collage, where he established a lifelong
friendship with William Pitt the Elder. After a romantic episode with a young
woman that ended in his getting into trouble with the law, he went to London, where
his literary career began. In 1728, he travelled to Leiden to study classics
and law at the university. However, lack of money obliged him to return to
London and he began writing for the theatre. Some of his work was savagely
critical of the government of Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole.
·
The Theatrical Licensing Act
of 1737 is alleged to be a direct response to his activities. The particular
play that triggered the Licensing Act was the Unproduced, anonymously authored,
The Golden Rump, but Fielding's dramatic satires had set the tone. Once the act
was passed, political satire on the stage became virtually impossible, and
playwrights whose works were staged were viewed as suspect. Fielding therefore
retired from the theatre and resumed his career in law in order to support his
wife Charlotte Craddock and two children, by becoming a barrister.
·
Fielding’s lack of financial
acumen meant he and his family often endured periods of poverty, but he was
helped by Ralph Allen, a wealthy benefactor, on whom Squire Allworthy in Tom
Jones was later based. Allen went on to provide for the education and support
of Fielding’s children after the writer's death.
·
Fielding never stopped
writing political satire and satires of current arts and letters. The Tragedy
of Tragedies (for which Hogarth designed the frontispiece) was, for example,
quite successful as a printed play. He also contributed a number of works to
journals of the day. He wrote for Tory periodicals, usually under the name
"Captain Hercules Vinegar". Fielding continued to air his Liberal and
anti-Jacobite views in satirical articles and newspaper in the late 1730s and
early 1740s. Almost by accident he took to writing novels in 1741, angered by
Samuel Richardson's success with Pamela. His first big success was an anonymous
parody of that: Shamela. This satire follows the model of the famous Tory
satirists of the previous generation, Jonathan Swift and John Gay, in
particular.
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