Arthur Miller “Death of a salesman” is not a tragedy according to the conventional concept of tragedy in which the hero and fate come into conflict and fate causes the tragedy of the hero or the central protagonist.
Jane Austen is not a proclaimed moralist. Unlike Fielding, her aim is not to propagate the morality. She believes in art for the sake of art. She is the pioneer of the novels.
Chaucer has given a very true and realistic picture of the ecclesiastical characters of his age. He satirizes the corrupt and worldly minded clergies and on the other hand he appreciates the good characters and presents a model picture of him.
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A careful study of Hemingway’s novels and short stories reveals that he consistently repeats his major subject and themes. The 2nd book of “The Sun Also Rises” starts with the fishing trip – the subject which he has discussed in his several other novels and short stories. However, it is a great mastery of Hemingway’s art that even his repetitions do not create monotony.
After the exposition of chaotic conditionsof life in Paris where every one is physically andemotionally sick,the fishing trip scene is a healthy shift to the serenity and tranquilityof Burguette where only Jake Barnes and Bill Gorton go because Mike and Brett Ashley fail to reach Pamplona on the expected day.
Their journey to Burguette is slightly troublesome as the motor bus is full of passenger. However, they enjoy beautiful sceneryand exposed their bodiesto the sun and the wind. As the bus moves upward, Jake is enchanted by the beauty of rocky hills, grain growing up hillside and in the way a cloud hangs behind the bus. His poetic appreciation of the scene and communication withnatureare in a sense aromantic escapefrom the injuries of war and complexities of lifein Paris.
If we critically examine the position of this scene, it is quite clear that Hemingway has consciously insertedthis trip midway between the scenes in Paris and those in Pamplona to lend it a structural and symbolic significance. Fishing scene is a kind of fulcrum that helps in measuring the frustration and unhappinessof the former or later episodes.
Fishing trip is neutral as it is set high in the Spanish mountains with the plains of Paris on one side and those of Pamplona on the other side. There are Jake and Bill, “Men without women”, without Brett to create jealousyamong them and Jake is freefrom complexities of sex. It is one of those few occasions when Jake is found happy. This excursion is therapeutic processfor Jake. He briefly speaks of his hindered lovefor Brett, but as religion is no more validand love is no longerpossible, he finds happiness through private and imaginativemeans. Thus, he constructs a more positive codeto follow, which brings in him help, pleasure, beauty an order, and helps to wipe outthe damageof his troubled life in Paris. Pamplona is an extension of Burguette which on the surface level is gayerand more joyousthan Burguette but essentially more serious and eventful.
Title of the novel “The Sun Also Rises” is suggestive. There is certain background and expression behind it. “The Sun Also Rises” comes from or is based upon a passage from ecclesiastical. The passage is:
“One generation passeth away, and other generation cometh; but the earth abideth for ever – The sun also rises and goth down and hasteth to the place where he arise -- ”
“The Sun Also Rises” is the novel about lost generation. Lost generation is the term used for those who participated in the First World War and were wounded physically or spiritually. These wounded people began to take little interest in realistic activities of life and engaged themselves in evil things like too much drinking, dancing and making free sex. This generation has two groups. One of them was settled and other was a group of expatriates who wanted to learn how to live in this world. But as their attitude toward life was unmanly so they were unable to learn how to live in this world. This added to their frustration and to this group Hemingway is concerned.
This group of expatriates comprises Jakes Barnes, Lady Brett Ashley, Robert Cohn and Mike Campbell. Robert is physically wounded while others are spiritually wounded. Jake Barnes has lost his manhood by receiving genital wound and other lost their values. Brett Ashley has lost her moral values for she has been and still is indulging into making free sex. She has had affairs with Robert Cohn, Jake Barnes and still yearns to make more and thus in the end has affair with Pedro Romero. Mike Campbell is shown or told bankrupt which indicates that he has lost economic values. Robert is also victim of these evils. First he helps his mistress Frances and then spends with Brett Ashley who on one hand is trying to take divorce from her husband Mr. Ashley and on the other hand is engaged to Mr. Mike. Jake in the end pimping with Brett reveals that he has lost social values as well. This generation which is lost and has lost their values is compare with the setting sun.
On the other hand Pedro Romero, the young bull fighter extends to content the group of expatriates. He is 19 years old and represents young generation. He is called “Messiah”and is said to have come to save bull fighting from decadence. Bull is the symbol of evil and corral is the symbol of life. Pedro’s fight, in corral, with bull is in fact man’s struggle or fight against evil in life. Hence we can clearly observe that group of expatriates is the victim of evils for they indulge in dancing, drinking and sex but Pedro Romero’s fight against bull reveals that he is fighting against evils. Term “Messiah” has specially been used for Romero which means saviour. The sentence that he has come to save bull fighting means that he has come to teach thepeople not to be victim of evils but that they should master up courage to fight against evil. His young age and his fighting spirit indicate that he is the rising sun. Hence the sun that has set is rising again and this is the title “The Sun Also Rises”.
The shadow motif refers chiefly to Quentin and, to a lesser degree, to Benjy. The shadow refers to the events of the past which are only vaguely understood. As a person, Quentin is obsessed with both the past and the significance that the past has for him. But these actions of the past appear to him only in shadowy form. Thus we return to the Shakespearean passage from which the title was taken:
“Life’s but a walking shadow.”
One critic of Faulkner’s writings has pointed out that the word “shadow” appears at least forty-five times in Quentin's monologue. Quentin senses all through his section that he is only a shadow of his ancestors. There are no more generals and governors left among his family. Furthermore, when Quentin tries to accomplish something the act always seems ridiculous. For example, he tries to make Caddy commit a double suicide but it is Quentin who fails to bring the act to completion; he tries to make Dalton Ames leave town but ends up by fainting like a girl; he tries to convince his father that he committed incest with Caddy but his father merely laughs at him. Thus all of Quentin’s actions are only shadows of real action. And unlike the real tragic protagonist who loses his life at the end of the drama, Quentin takes his life by the mid-point in the novel. The implication is that modern man cannot bring himself to cope with the problems of the final act of the drama and destroys himself in the middle. And Quentin’s final act is that of jumping in the river, where his shadow rises from the water below to meet him.
One of Faulkner's chief concerns in his works is time and timelessness. It is often connected with his views of how often and how much past intrudes upon the present. Faulkner’s use of time in this novel is startling, new and effective. Time concepts are used differently in every section.
In Benjy’s narration clock tie is totally disregarded. Benjy is completely oblivious of time. Events of the past are constantly juxtaposed with various events of the present or of some other time in the past. Benjy makes no distinction between an event that happened only hours ago and one that occurred years ago. The memory of the episode at the branch (1898) is as recent and vivid as an episode in 1914 or on the morning of April 7, 1928. Therefore, for Benjy there is no distinction between the past and the present and there is no such thing as future. If he stands at the gate waiting of Caddy to return in 1928 it is because he has waited since 1902. The many years that he has waited in vain are non-existent to him because he remembers only those events which gave him pleasure. Faulkner violates traditional time in order to emphasize Benjy’s rejection of the distinction between various times and to show how actions of the past are important to Benjy because they gave him pleasure. The time motif is highly stimulating when we realize that Faulkner is writing about Benjy in 1928, and the event which Benjy remembers in 1898 foreshadows events which occur in 1906-10. Benjy remember a past event of Caddy getting her drawers muddy which foreshadows a future event about Caddy’s promiscuity in 1906-10.
Quentin expends all his energy trying to understand time. His section opens with his remembering his father’s comments about the futility of trying to keep up with time. He tears off the hands of his watch. By this act, he hopes to escape into a timeless world. But he cannot remove himself from time. He constantly hears his own watch ticking even though it has no hands. He asks the boys at the river if they know where a clock is. And in the midst of all these links with time, Quentin is constantly remembering various cynical comments that his father made about time.
The time motif carries significant implications about Quentin's character. Whereas Benjy made no distinction between time past and present. Quentin is more concerned with trying to understand how time in the past can influence time in the future. His major problem is that his father has told him that time will make a person forget all sorrow and remorse. But Quentin’s problem is that he does not want to forget. He must remember his present feeling of bereavement because if the forgets them, the feelings will have no meaning and then Quentin feels that his life will have no meaning. Therefore, Quentin tries to stop time from passing. The only way he can do this is by committing suicide which he does at the end of his section.
For Jason, time plays an important role and every second counts. In his section, we have Caddy returning for a five-second glimpse of her child, and we see Jason watching the clock and timing his every act. We have undelivered telegrams, wild chases and various assignations. But Jason sees no importance to the past except that certain events occurred which deprived him of a position in Herbert Head’s bank. Jason’s world is in the immediate present. He has rejected all ties and allegiance to the past and he exists only for his own selfish aims in the present moment.
The final section uses time by emphasizing the clock which Dilsey keeps on the kitchen wall. When the clock strikes five times, Dilsey knows that it is eight o’clock. She is able to bring order out of the confusion and chaos of the Compson world. When she takes Benjy to the church, she hears a sermon about the beginning and the end. She returns feeling that she has been with Compsons since the beginning and now she sees the end coming very soon. Dilsey, therefore, is the only character who functions within the continuum of time. Her present care for loyalty to the Compsons is a result of her past association with them.
The use of time motif is probably one of Faulkland’s main concerns in the novel. Much of the meaning of the novel evolves through an understanding of each character’s reaction to time.
Basically the novel presents the story of the decline of a family. The family shown in the novel has traits which can be perceived as signs of decadence resulting from regional history. Compson’s family comprises of long line of men full of decency and pride. But after civil war in America the family’s fortunes and abilities declined rapidly.
The Compson family consists of Mr. and Mrs. Compson, their four children Quentin, Caddy, Jason and Benjy. Mr. Compson is the first clear sign of decay in the family oppressed by the traditions. His self-pitying wife is a terrifying example of the functionless southern lady. Their children depict different degrees of degeneracy. Benjy is an idiot, Caddy is promiscuous and her daughter afterwards takes her path. Quentin drives himself to suicide by an obsession with his sister’s dishonour. Jason is villainous. Faulkner thus identifies the sources of destruction of the family in their individual character, which are full of self-destructive urges and impulses.
One aspect of the deterioration in the Compson family is the lack of parental love. Mr. Compson’s cynicism and nihilisticviews have a very disturbing effect on the sensitive Quentin. Compson has a negative attitudetowards time. He wishes to escape from time and regards his watch as a “mausoleum of all hope and desire”. To him victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools.
Mrs. Compson always seems to be complaining about her sickness and children. She believes that Benjy is a punishment for her and Jason is a source of “joy and salvation”. As a mother, she is a nonentity and we find Quentin lamenting in his monologue upon the fact that there was no one to which he could call Mother. Mrs. Compson’s hypochondria inflict sufferings on the family. She is chiefly the cause of the family’s misfortunes and disaster.
Benjy is the born idiot, incapable of speaking and expressing and almost all the time mourning and slobbering. Benjy is a grotesque character representing the degeneracy of an upper class white family.
Caddy, whom Faulkner adorned most, does not give any cause for rejoicing or even enthusiasm. When seventeen, she becomes promiscuous and becomes pregnant unaware of her seducer. She married in haste and soon becomes discarded byher husband. In this way she becomes a “fallen woman”. She is not allowed to visit her parental home and the very mention of her name is forbidden by her mother. Caddy certainly possesses some redeeming quality. She shows a great affection for Benjy and looks after him. She also possessed certain feminine charm which attracts different man and even her own brother. But these qualities cannot redeem the essential corruption of her nature. Thus she is the great cause of degeneration of the Compson's family.
Quentin started as a very promiscuous boy. He was sent to Harvard even though the family had to sell a part of estate to pay for his expenses. But he proved an incestuous passion for his sister. His unfulfilled incestuous love and his terrible sense of disappointment of Caddy’s dishonour give rise to the feeling of despair in him. This leads him to commit suicide. He is also a string reason for the fall of the Compson's family.
The youngest child of the family grows into a villain. The only positive aspect of his nature is his sense of humour. He deceiveshis mother by giving her fake cheques to burn while he uses to deposit the genuine cheques sent by Caddy in his account. He defraudshis niece Quentin for small amount of money. His treatment towards his niece shows his cold heartedness and callousness. He constantly suggests that Benjy should be sent to metal asylum. The moral sense is totally missing in him. His attitude towards Dilsey’s loyalty is unique.
The girl Miss Quentin proves to be much worse than her mother. Whereas, her mother shows great affection for Benjy but Miss Quentin even does not like to sit with him and does not care even for her grand mother. She becomes promiscuous at early age. Although her action in stealing Jason's money is the punishment which Jason richly deserved yet her theft for the money and her flight from her house with a lover leaves a very bad taste.
Mrs. Compson, Quentin and Jason are the protagonist of chaos. Each of three characters are bent upon self-pitying and self-justification.
Sexual perversion and violation of conventional behaviour play significant role in the story of the Compson’s brother. Uncle Mauray was beaten by neighbour for carrying on an adulterousaffair with the neighbour’s wife. Jason has a mistress called Larrine but he is averse to marriage. According to a critic, in a Freudian sense both Benjy and Jason might unconsciously be attracted sexually by Caddy.
This degeneracy of the Compson family is heightened by the striking contrast between the member of this family and the servant Dilsey. She is a symbol of fidelity, companionship, love,devotion to duty, power of endurance, religious piety and much more as against the chaos of the Compson family.
Complex subjects like the one in “The Sound and the Fury” cannot find their full expression in simple narration. They need illustration and that can be made only through symbolism. The theme of “The Sound and the Fury”, the decadence of Compson family is largely clarified through symbolization of its central characters and their actions.
Faulkner has worked out the whole pattern of the novel symbolically. The very title has symbolical implication. The motif of the novel has been conceived by Faulkner in a conflict between the order and chaos producing forces in symbolic terms. Mr. Compson nihilistic view that victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools, that virginity is myth invented by men and women are not conscious of it, that time is a mausoleum of all hopes and desires, Mrs. Compson’s self-pity and isolation, Benjy’s idiocy, Quentin’s emasculation, Jason’s pragmatic commercialism and Caddy’s promiscuity symbolize it.
The symbolic contrast between the forces of order and disorder has also been shown in the characters of Benjy and Quentin in their monologues. Benjy though a born idiot represents dignity and order. Whenever he sees something wrong being done, he at once protests against it by his moaning and slobbering. When he sees Charlie kissing Caddy, he pulls at her dress and starts crying. Caddy at once sends Charlie away and promises with Benjy that she will never do it again. Again when Luster takes the carriage in the wrong direction, he starts bellowing and calms down when Jason corrects the direction and rebukes Luster. Quentin, on the other hand, entertaining the wish to commit incest with Caddy and killing himself by committing suicide out of despair, his irritation displayed at sunlight and his frantic efforts to get rid of time by damaging his watch represents chaos and amoralism. Thus the vision of life of Benjy and Quentin placed in juxtaposition symbolize the contrast between the forces of order and disorder.
Quentin’s obsession with his shadow which he tries to destroy by trampling it under his feet has also symbolic implications. His shadow represents his alter ego completely different from his mind or intellectual personality. Quentin’s fight with his shadow symbolizes the conflict between man’s physical and mental personality.
Caddy’s muddy drawers has also symbolic significance. Her climbing a tree with muddy drawers visible to the brothers standing under the tree have symbolized Caddy’s advancement towards her future sexual life. Again her taking off her dress to dry it also symbolizes her giving up her innocence associated with her childhood. Her washing her mouth after having been kissed by Charlie symbolizes the cleansing ritual and her commitment she has made with. Balls at various occasions suggest Benjy’s castration to present him from sexually assaulting some young girls that pass by their house’s gate. Even the mention of honey suckle in Quentin's monologue has sexual implications. Quentin’s hatred of honey suckle’s odour show his disgust with sex. It is also disgusting because it reminds him of Caddy’s promiscuity. Quentin's rejection of the pistol offered to him by Datton Ames in his fight with Quentin exposes Quentin’s sick concern with virginity and his own importance.
The broken narcissus which Luster gives to Benjy is also symbolic of Quentin’s and Jason's self-love. Quentin’s obsession with time is also symbolically expressed in his efforts to break his watch to get rid of time. The clock in the Compson house, always losing time symbolizes Compsons lagging behind time and in the race of life.
Dilsey, the black house-keeper of the Compsons, symbolizes the concept of sanity, order and equilibrium. Her care for Compsons irrespective of their right or wrong attitude towards her makes her a symbol of love and order. The change of idiot boy’s name from Maury to Benjy is symbolic of Compson’s superstitious mentality. Dilsey taking Benjy to her Negro church at the end of the novel has also been seen as a symbolic act to have the Compsons from decadence.
Jason’s pursuit of making money through investment in cotton shares and through others pragmatic means symbolizes the emergence of the new commercial south. The decadence of the Compsons or the south also symbolizes the decadence of the morally confused modern World which suffers from lack of discipline, of sanctions, of community values in which self-interest and success provide the standards.
To sum up, as the subject of the novel is complex, Faulkner has provided a complex scheme of symbolism, to illuminate it and in this effort he has been brilliantly successful.
In spite of the Pastoral element predominant in Frost’s poems, he is still a modern poet because his poetry has been endowed with the awareness of the problems of man living in the modern world dominated by Science and Technology.
Critics have a difference of opinion over considering him a modern poet. Frost is a pastoral poet – poet of pastures and plains, mountains and rivers, woods and gardens, groves and bowers, fruits and flowers, and seeds and birds. They do not treat such characteristically modern subjects as ‘the boredom implicit in sensuality’, ‘the consciousness of neuroses’ and ‘the feeling of damnation’. Cleanth Brooks says:
“Frost’s best poetry exhibits the structure of symbolist metaphysical poetry. Much more clearly than does of many a modern poet.”
In fact, Frost’s poetry portrays the disintegration of values in modern life and the disillusionment of the modern man in symbolical and metaphysical terms as much as the poetry of great, modern poets does, because most of his poems deal with persons suffering from lonelinessand frustration, regrets and disillusionment which are known as modern disease. In “An old Man’s Winter Night”, the old man is lonely, completely alienated from the society, likeness, the tiredness of the farmer due to over work in “Apple-Picking” and as a result of it his yielding to sleep:
For I have too much Of apple-picking: I am overtired Of great harvest I myself desired.
In his nature poems, Frost has also commented on the misery of the modern man which due to his going away from nature.
His metaphysical treatment of the subject in some of his poems is also an evidence of his modernity. In “Mending Walls”, Frost juxtaposes the two opposite aspects of the theme of the poem and then leaves it to the reader to draw his own conclusion. The conservative farmer says:
Good fences make good neighbour
and the modern radical farmer says:
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
According to J.F.Lynen the use of the pastoral technique by Frost in his poems, does not mean that the poet seeks an escape from the harsh realities of modern life. He argues that it provides him with a point of view.
Frost uses pastoral technique only to evaluate and comment on the modern lifestyle. His pastoralism thus registers a protest against the disintegration of values in the modern society and here he is one with great poets of the modern age like T.S.Eliot, Yeats and Hopkins.
Another poetic technique adopted by Frost which makes him a modern poet is symbolism. “The Road Not Taken” symbolizes the universal problem of making a choice of invisible barriers built up in the minds of the people which alienate them from one another mentally and emotionally thought they live together or as neighbours in the society. Similarly the Birch trees in “Birches” symbolize man’s desire to seek escape from the harsh suffering man to undergo in this world.
Unlike Romantics he has taken notice of both the bright and dark aspects of nature as we see in his poem “Two Tramps in Mud Time”. Beneath the apparently beautiful calm there is lurking turmoil and storms:
Be glad of water, but don’t forget The lurking frost in the earth beneath
In fact the world of nature in Frost’s poetry is not a world of dream. It is much more harsh, horrible and hostile than the modern urban world. Hence his experience of the pastoral technique to comment on the human issue of modern world his realistic treatment of Nature, his employment of symbolic and metaphysical techniques and the projection of the awareness of human problems of the modern society in his poetry justly entitle him to be looked up to as modern poet.
Frost’s poems deal with man in relation with the universe. Man’s environment as seen by frost is quite indifferent to man, neither hostile nor benevolent. Man is alone and frail as compared to the vastness of the universe. Such a view of “man on earthconfronting the total universe” is inevitably linked with certain themes in frost’s poetry.
One of the most striking themes in Frost’s poetry is man’s isolation from his universe or alienation from his environment. Frost writes in “Desert Places”,“The loneliness includes me unawares”. Man is essentially alone, as is borne out in frost’s poetry. Frost is not so much concerned with depicting the cultural ethos of New England people as with presenting them “caught up in a struggle with the elementary problem of existence”. The New England of Frost reflects his consciousness of “an agrarian society isolated within an urbanized world”. Man is alone in the countryside or in the city in “Acquainted with the Night”.
I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet When far away an interrupted cry --------------------------------------------------- But not to call me back or say good-by;
In“Home Burial”, the lady suffers from a terrible sense of self-alienation, as well as alienation from her surroundings. And, more than the physical loneliness, man suffers from the loneliness within.
I have it in me so much nearer home To scare myself with my own desert places.
A concern with barrier is the predominant theme in Frost’s poetry. Man is always erecting and trying to bring down barriers-- between man and environment, between man and man. To Frost, these barriers seem favorable to mutual understanding and respect. Frost insists on recognizing these barriers instead of trying to tear them down as in the modern trend. And he even builds them wherever necessary.
Practically all of Frost’s poems depict the theme of human limitation. The universe seems chaotic and horrific because man’s limited faculties cannot comprehend its meaning. Walls, physical and real, mental and invisible, separate man from Nature. “Neither Out Far Nor In Deep” shows man’s limitation concerning the mysterious universe. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” conveys the sense of an impenetrable and indefinite universe. Frost’s human beings are aware of the gap between the ideal and the actual. The apple-picker had set out on his work with great hopes, but faces disillusionment.
For I have too much Of apple-picking: I am overtired Of the great harvest I myself desired.
In some poems, however, Frost does indicate that man can exceed his limitations in his thought as in “Sand Dunes”.
Theme of extinction or death also runs through the major themes of Frost. In many a poem he writes of “sleep” which is associated with death. “Fire and Ice” is a noteworthy poem on destruction by excess of desire or hatred. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, “After Apple Picking”, “An Old Man’s Winter Night”, all these poems have a reference to death. “Directive” is a poem in which three of Frost’s most obsessive themes isolation, extinction and the final limitations of man are blended. Each life is shown to be pathetic because it wears away into death. The poem dismays but it also consoles.
In most of Frost’s poems, the speaker undergoes a process of self-discovery. The wood-chopper of “Two Tramps in Mud Time” realizes by the end of the poem that he chops wood for love of work only but love and need should not be separated.
Theme of affirmation is also found in some of his poems. Frost ultimately presents the need for man to make the most of his situation. Aware of man’s limitations, he yet desires man to explore and seek knowledge and truth. Man should learn to accept things and his limitations cheerfully. He suggests stoical will and effort in the face of adversity as in “West Running Brook”. In the face of the mystery and riddle of life there is necessity for determined human performance.
But I have promises to keep And miles to go before I Sleep And miles to go before I Sleep
Theme of love is central to Frost’s poems. If there is any force that can help man meet the challenges of the universe, it is love. In several of Frost’s poems, the significance of love between man and woman, or friendly love is brought out. It is when love breaks down or fades off that life becomes unbearable especially for the women in Frost’s poetry.
The major themes as discussed above are expressed through various devices. The symbolic significance invested in certain recurring objects like the stars, the snow, the woods serve to bring home to the reader all the more vividly the position of Man in the Universe.
Henry Fielding undoubtedly holds moral views far-ahead of his times. Morality is an approval of adherence to principles that govern ethical and virtuous conduct.
Fielding was accused of being immoral in his novels. Dr. Johnson called his novels “vicious and corrupting”.Richardson echoed the “charge of immorality” against him. Modern critics, however, has justified Fielding and gave him a credit of “an estimable ethicalcode”. Strachey declared him a “deep, accurate, scientific moralist”. Indeed neither “Joseph Andrews” nor “Tom Jones” strikes the modern sensibility as ‘low’ or ‘immoral’ either in purpose or in narration. Behind the truthful portrait of life, lies his broad moral vision. His writings are informed by an aim of correcting mankind with laughter.
“I have endeavored to laugh at mankind, out to their follies and vices.”
His satire is prompted by the positive and healthy desire to reform. He not merely presents society, but also criticizes it.
Fielding reacted sharply against the code of ethics as incited by Richardson in “Pamela”. He feels that Pamela’s virtue is an affectation and a commodity, exchangeable for material prosperity. Virtue cannot and should not be to chastity alone. Mere external respectability is not morality. For Fielding:
“Chastity without goodness of heart is without value.”
A truly virtuous man is disregardful of material benefits. He is devoid of an affectation which is necessary to avoid for becoming a virtuous man He finds:
“A delight in the happiness of mankind and a concern at their misery, with a desire, as much as possible, to procure the former and avert the latter …”
Fielding’s moral vision is much wider that Richardson’s. Morality is no longer equated with chastity or outward decorum. It is broad enough to include every aspect of human behaviour. Ones intentions, instincts, motives are equally important in judging a man.
Fielding aims to show human beings in various shades of vanity and hypocrisy and it is done ruthlessly and wittily in “Joseph Andrews”. Hypocrisy is worse than vanity. Morality is concerned with inner truth according to Fielding. A person of affected behaviour is immoral than an unchaste woman. Fielding exposes the follies, hypocrisy, corruption, affectation and the vices of his so-called society.
The stage-coach passengers, the coachman, the lawyer, the lady, all are models of hypocrisy. Each refuses to place Joseph in the coach on various excuses exposing their inner lack of worth. “O Jesus”, cry’d the lady, “A naked man! Dear coachman, drive on”. A man motivated by selfishness rather than social duty “makes all haste possible”. Only the poor postilion favours Joseph and gives him his warm coat. The journey undertaken by Joseph and Parson Adams reveals vanity or hypocrisy at every stage.
It is significant that Parson Adams jumps with joy at the reunion of Fanny and Joseph. It reflects an ability to sympathize with other’s feelings. He can feel the joys and sorrows of others as keenly as he can feel his own. Simple, kind, generous and courageous, Adams is the epitome of true feeling and goodness of heart which is a vital aspect of Fielding’s concept of morality. Adams impulses always prompt him to help anyone in distress. He saves Fanny’s life two times.
“He is an innocent … so completely sincere in his beliefs and actions that he can’t imagine insincerity in other; he takes everyone he meets at face-value.”
Kindness achieved supreme importance in Fielding’s moral code. A good and a moral man takes joy in helping others. Fielding says:
“I don’t know a better definition of virtue, than it is a delight in doing good.”
Fielding is as liberal in ridiculing affectation as he is hard on the lack of charity. Adams’ definition:
“A generously disposition to receive the poor.”
The simple test employed to man by Fielding to see check the capability of charity is to ask him for loan. When Parson Adams asks for some shillings to Parson Trulliber, he declares in frenzy:
“I know what charity is better than to give it to vagabonds”.
This shows 18th century’s clergy’s degeneracy reluctant to give some shillings. The rich Parson Tulliber, Mrs. Tow-wouse, Lady Booby and Peter Pounce lacks natural kindness whereas the poor postilion, Betty and Pedler are true Christians, for they are ready to help other man in distress asking nothing in return. But Mrs. Tow-wouse is of opinion,
“A man should die on their hands without the money to pay his bills.”
Fielding is against the prudish morality which considers sex as an unhealthy and dangerous for human life. He favours a healthy attitude towards sex. In his view, the restraint of natural impulses leads to unhealthy inhibition which is more immoral. Modern opinion is very close to him. But he does not approve of Lady Booby’s desire for Joseph nor does he favour Mr. Slipslop’s extreme whims. But Betty’s desires spring from a natural heart and feeling. It is worth noticing that Betty is free of hypocrisy. She acts as ordered by her nature.
“She is good-natured generosity and composition.”
Fielding’s concept of religion is linked with his views on morality and is practical. He does not confine religion to going to church on Sundays only. He criticizes two sorts of ethics. One who thinks that virtue can exist without religion. In Mr. Wilson’s story, they have no belief in Devine command. They are selfish and unable to resist immoral temptations. The other sort accepts religion but insists that faith is more important than good works. True religion encourages both faith and good deeds. Parson Adams is the best representative of his ideas.
Fielding’s views on morality are practical, liberal,full of common sense and free from hypocrisy that the conventional morality preached by many of his contemporaries.. He does not believe in prudish or rigid codes. His concept of human nature is realistic, tolerant, broad and fairlyflexible. Modern opinion has vindicated the moral vision of Fielding as healthy, wide and practical.
It is true that we can term “Joseph Andrews” as a ‘comic epic poem in prose’ because it has almost all the prerequisites that are important for labeling it as a ‘comic epic poem in prose’.
Fielding himself termed it as a ‘comic epic poem in prose’ in the “Preface to Joseph Andrews”. Fielding claimed that he was founding a new genre of writing but this was not entirely accurate. There was a long tradition of such writing before him, though it was not completely developed or established. According to Aristotle, Homer had produced a ‘comic epic in verse’ but again according to Aristotle verse is not the only criterion for poetry. Fielding has only combined the ideal of ‘comic epic’ and the ‘prose epic’ to produce what he termed as ‘comic epic poem in prose’.
An epic is a story of “a conspicuous man who falls from prosperity to adversity because of his some error of judgment i.e. Hamartia. His death is, however, not essential. But his fall arises a sense of pity and fear in us”. It also has heroic style and bombastic language. And a comic epic is just reverse to it in most of its prerequisites except a few.
A heroic epic has a conspicuous hero, grand theme, a continuous action, a journey to underworld, wars, digressions, discovery, high seriousness, a high moral lesson and bombastic diction in it and in “Joseph Andrews” there is an ordinary hero, a journey from one place to another place, mock-wars, digressions, discovery, humour, a high moral and a bombastic diction in it. So, it can be termed as a ‘comic epic poem in prose’. We can also call “Joseph Andrews” as “The Odyssey on the road” because both the works, Homer’s “Odyssey” and Fielding’s “Joseph Andrew” in the first place involve a journey. Like Odysseus, Joseph Andrews after the displeasure of a lady, who is superior from him in position and power, sets out on his way home and meets with many misfortunes on the way by the lady who has fallen in love with him. So it would be fairly justified to call “Joseph Andrews” an “Odyssey on the road”. Hence it is a ‘comic epic poem in prose’ as well.
Unlike a heroic epic, the hero of “Joseph Andrews” is an ordinary boy. He is a foot-man of Lady Booby who has fallen in love with him. But Joseph is very innocent and virtuous. Therefore, he leaves the service of the Lady and goes to meet his beloved Fanny. On the way he has to face many hardships.
Though the action of the novel is not as great as the action of an epic yet it is enough to term the novel a comic epic. Joseph sets out from London to Somersetshire to see Fanny. On the way, Joseph crosses many roads, highways, country sides, stays at many inns and meets many people; all this constitute a big action.
Through the journey of Joseph, Fielding satirizes the society of the day and ridicules them. The corrupt and hypocritical clergy, Parson Trilluber and Parson Barnabas, individual like Lady Booby and Mrs. Slipslop, the Squire of Fools and the Squire of False Promises have been satirized.
The element of wars is very important in an epic and it is no exception in “Joseph Andrews”. We see a war took place in an inn where Joseph was insulted by the host. Parson Adams was annoyed and challenged the host. There started the first war between both the parties. Soon Mrs. Slipslop and landlady also joined in the battle. There are many other epical elements in the novel to call it a comic epic.
Another epic convention is the use of digression. There are two major digressions in “Joseph Andrews”. There are, seemingly, irrelevant stories of Leonara and Mr. Wilson. Epic writers considered them as embellishments. Fielding, however, makes the interpolations thematically relevant. For, these are not irrelevant in reality.
The formula of discovery, as described by Aristotle, an essential element of an epic, has also been used by Fielding. In the end of the novel, we see that Joseph is recognized to be Mr. Wilson’s child and Fanny as the sister of virtuous Pamela.
High seriousness is an important element in epic. But in “Joseph Andrews” there is a great deal of comedy and humour, because it is a comic epic novel. But behind this comedy, there lies a serious purpose of reformation. We have a gamut of vain and hypocritical characters in Parson Trilluber, Parson Barnabas, passengers in the stage-coach, Mr. Tow-wouse, Mrs. Slipslop, Peter Pounce and the various Squires. The surgeon and the lawyer and the magistrate are also some other example of hypocrisy and vanity. Each of these characters provides a great deal of humour and amusement under a serious purpose.
Every epic has a moral lesson in it and this is no exception with a comic epic. Fielding’s views on morality are practical, full of common sense and tolerance, liberal, flexible and more realistic. These are devoid of prudish and rigid codes. Fielding wanted to tear the veil of vanity and hypocrisy.
The use of grand, bombastic and elevated language is an important element in an epic. It has heroic diction. But in “Joseph Andres” we see that Fielding has used prose for poetry because it brings us close to the real and actual life and it is much more suitable for Fielding’s purpose of dealing with human nature. However, his use of prose is very good, up to the mark and apt for his novel.
So, we can conclude that the theory of the ‘comic epic poem in prose’ as described by Fielding in the preface of “Joseph Andrews” manifests itself in the novel. Fielding has assimilate the rules and adapted them to his way of writing so well that we are not consciously aware of the formal principles which give unity to his materials. According to Thornbury, “Joseph Andrews” by Fielding is:
“An art which conceals art, but is the art of a conscious artist.”
It is true that in “Joseph Andrews”, the scale is not as large as one can except in an epic, though it has all other elements of a ‘comic epic poem in prose’, as claimed by Fielding.
