English Literature

Hardy�s �femme fatale� , Eustacia Vye is perhaps one of the most alluring and fascinating characters in The Return of the Native . Hardy presents a complicated and enthralling character of Eustacia vye, a genuine woman as opposed to an idealised one. Although Hardy gives proud, selfish and egotistical potrait of Eustacia, yet he masterfully creates a scenario in which she appears a tragic figure. Whereas  Clym may be �the nicest� among Hardy�s characters, it is the eccentric Eustacia Vye which is the centre  of the novel. Even in the Hardy�s introduction of her, there is plenty to dwell upon. The first time her existence  is mentioned, it is through the idle gossip of the locals. She is described as �very strange in her ways� , some of them accuse her of being a witch. Unlike Clym, whom the heath folk can at least fathom in part, Eustacia is beyond their comprehension. Her whole personality has a sleepy, dreamy cast to it. Though she is beautiful in an exotic way, i...

Hardy, the novelist,  was essentially  a poet and an artist rather than  a philosopher. Hardy was  primarily a story-teller and should be viewed more as chronicler of moods and deeds than  a philosopher. He repeatedly affirmed that the 'Views' expressed in his novels were not his convictions or beliefs; they were simply "impressions" of the moment. In  The Return of the Native , Hardy proves a dismal view of life in which coincidence and accident conspire to produce the worst of circumstance due to the indifference of the Will.     In order to understand  Hady�s philosophy, we should have a fair idea of Hardy�s biography. Hardy lived in an age of transition. The industrial revolution was in the process of destroying the agricultural life, and the subsequent shifting of population caused a disintegration of rural customs and traditions. It was a period when fundamental beliefs � religious, social, scientific, and political � were shaken t...

Chances and coincidences play a vital role in all the novels of Hardy. In the work of no other novelist do chances and coincidences exercise such a conspicuous influence on the course of events. The unexpected often happens and always it is the undesirable and unwanted. Such chance events are heavy blows aimed at the head of Hardy's protagonists and they send them to their doom.          While a character is certainly responsible to a large extent, chances and coincidences often operate as the deciding factor. Hardy believed that there is some malignant power that controls the universe, and which is out to thwart and defeat men in their plans. It is especially hostile to them who try to assert themselves and have their own way . He couldn�t believe in a benevolent Providence; events were too plainly ironical so they must have been contrived by a supernatural power. He found it difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile the idea of a beneficent an...

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� .   The impetus for the novel, as Fielding claims in the preface, is the establishment of a genre of writing "which I do not remember to have been hitherto attempted in our language" , defined as the "comic epic  in prose" : a work of prose fiction, epic in length and variety of incident and character. Fielding has combined the ideal of  �comic epic�  and the  �prose epic�  to produce what he termed as  �comic epic poem in prose� . The comic tone of the novel is enhanced by the mock-heroic style, for Fielding admitted burlesque in the diction. It is instrumental in heightening the ridiculous nature of situation and affectations. A ...

Humour is defined as that quality of action, speech or writing which excites amusement, the faculty of perceiving what is ludicrous or amusing. Humour arises from the perception of the incongruities of life, from the writer�s awareness of the discrepancy between what is and what ought to be. Henry Fielding, the father of English novel, is one of the greatest humourists in English Literature. Fielding�s humour is wide in range. It arises from the coarsest farce to the astonishing heights of the subtlest irony. Joseph Andrews which started as a parody of Richardson�s Pamela, ended as an excellent work of art in its own right. There is plenty of humour in the novel. A number of characters are definitely humorous in their conception. Parson Adams and Mrs. Slipslop�s characters are the true sources of pure comedy.  In fact, Parson Adams� character is fully exploited by Fielding. His very appearance is ridiculous. No body can believe that he is a parson. �He possesses a comical face, wi...

The title page of Henry Fielding�s first novel reads as, �The history of the adventures of Joseph Andrews and of his friend Mr. Abraham Adams, Written in imitation of the Manner of Cervantes, Author of Don Quixote.� The allusion to Cervantes and his masterpiece Don Quixote is significant as it shows Fielding�s indebtedness to Cervantes . Parson Adams is indeed a truly Quixotic figure, and the structure of the book also follows Cervantes� picaresque model. Joseph Andrews is a novel of adventures met while travelling on the road. Joseph loses his employment in Lady Booby�s service in London, on his way home to the country to his sweetheart Fanny, he meets Parson Adams. Together they run all kinds of adventures meeting a host of characters from low and middle-class layers of society: innkeepers, chambermaids, country squires and clergymen. The picaresque tradition belongs to Spain and derived from the word �picaro� , meaning a rogue or a villain. The picaresque originally involved the mi...

Henry Fielding undoubtedly holds moral views far-ahead of his times. Morality is an approval or 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 ethical code� . 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 aim was to correct mankind by pointing out their blunders. �I have endeavored to laugh at mankind, out to their follies and vices.� 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, exch...

Realism means  conceiving and representing the things as they are . Henry Fielding is widely regarded as the first great realist in English novel. He is among  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 14th century.  It is true that Richardson and Defoe have some claim to have brought realism to English fiction, it is Fielding who can be called the real pioneer in realistic mode of novel writing. Fielding  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�s realis...