Art of Characterization of Henry Fielding Essay

Joseph Andrews is handles depression novel. It is a classical example of a literary work which started as a parody and ended as an excellent work of art in its own right. The work handle intended to parody was Richardsons first novel Pamela, or rightfulness Rewarded which had taken England by storm in the years following 1740 when it was first published. In his novel palm intended in the beginning to steer how Lady Booby (aunt of Lord B. in Richardsons novel) attempts the virginity of Joseph Andrews, described as the virtuous Pamelas brother tho in the end discovered to be different.The whole intention was comic. But after Chapter IX Joseph Andrews seems to short-circuit away completely from the original intention. government minister Adams, who has no counterpart in Pamela, runs away with the novel. He is wizard of the most living, lovable, comical bundles of wisdom and control in all literature. In the words of Edmund Gosse, Parson Abraham Adams, alone, would be a con tribution to English letters. He indeed is the hero of the novel, and not Joseph Andrews.Fielding was aware of giving a new literary form with Joseph Andrews which he called a comic epic in prose. Fielding is a great master of the art of characterization similarly. Fieldings broad kind sympathy coupled with his keen observation of even the faintest element of falsehood in a person is his basic asset as a master of characterization. He laughs and makes us laugh at many of his characters, but he is neer cynical or misanthropic. He is a amiable satirist, sans malice, sans harshness.He gives no evidence of being angry at the foibles of his characters or of holding a lash in readiness. His comic creations resemble those of Chaucer and Shakespeare. Parson Trulliber and Falstaff, if they were to meet, would have immediately recognized each other Fielding is one of the greatest humorists in English literature. The same comic spirit which permeates his plays is also evident in his nov els. As he informs us, the author upon whom he model himself was Cervantes it is not surprising, therefore, that buffoonery should be his method.Fieldings humor is grand in range. It rises from the coarsest farce to the astonishing heights of the subtlest irony. On one align is his zestful description of various fights and, on the other, the grim irony of Jonathan Wild. high than both is that ineffable, pleasant, and ironic humor that may be found over in Tom Jones but is at its best in Joseph Andrews where it plays corresponding summer lightning around the figure of Parson Adams-an English cousin of put one across Quixote.Fieldings very definition of the novel as a comic epic in prose is indicative of the place of humor and comedy in his novels and, later, those of many of his followers. It may be pointed out here that Richardson had no sense of humor he was an unsmiling moralist and sentimentalist. Comparing the two, Coleridge says thither is a cheerful, sunshiny, breezy s pirit that prevails everywhere strongly contrasted with the close, hot, tfay-dreamy continuity of Richardson. Fieldings humor is sometimes of the satiric kind, but he is never harsh or excessively cynical.