Assignment Paper-4

Topic-Tom Jones as a mock heroic epic

Ashvin p. Dabhi

Roll No – 11

SEM – I

Batch-2010-11

Submitted to Ruchira Dudhrejiya

Department of English,

Bhavnagar University.

Ø Introduction :-

              Tom Jones is a mock heroic epic in prose and it is not. It is a comic epic in prose by virtue of its classical approach, its width and rambling narration, and it is not because it has a secret, as pointed out by a critic and epic has no secret. But let us examine Tom Jones as ‘comic epic in prose’.

                Enjoying the freedom of an artist he burst on the literary scene giving thousands of hours for writing the epic called Tom Jones. The bulk of the novel is a challenge to an epic. We cannot possibly call pride and prejudice an epic of movement, whereas Tom Jones moves on rambling to any distance. An epic is an honest narrative with a plain design wherein the characters asserts their personality with a moral ardor. The writer of an epic is not much of an artist in the sense that he neither hides facts nor knits surprising situations. He overawes a reader by virtue of certain classical heaviness and we are made to applaud the hero or the heroic for their sacrifice or some extraordinary performances. Fielding does not attempt Tom Jones in the pure style of an epic. He makes the novel a cross-bred of writing in which we find the width if an epic and the cunning of a novelist. It is not a pure epic thought it has the appearances and the design of its style.

                 Fielding in his book II chapter I of Tom Jones declare about the approach in writing the novel in the following words: “I am in reality the founder of a new province of writing, so I am at liberty to make laws I please therein.” The writer is certainly at liberty to enjoy a unique freedom, and this freedom has been employed profitability for giving us a novel with all semblance of an epic. The movement of the novel has the speed of an epic. The story goes on revealing new facts. The incidents many and varied come and go but Tom Jones is something even greater than an epic in the sense it knits plot on the basis of novel. As such the novel eludes any classification. Roughly we may call it an epic to classify it under one single heading. We cannot possibly be precise about its mother and approach from both the novel and the epic.

            An epic is not a history or biography though it may well contain the life event of a memorable person for all his heroism, but our Tom Jones is a history a kind of fictitious biography of the most ‘unheroic hero’. He writers about the conception of history of a person, the spinal chord of the novel in the following manner: such histories as these do, in reality, very much resemble a new paper, which consists of just the same number of words. They may like wise be compared to a stage, which performs constantly the same course, empty as well as full.

            Fielding’s accent on the ‘history of Tom Jones makes this work of art the epic proper, but luckily, at the same time, the atmosphere, a cosmos of social life, he builds about the novel is obviously analogues to that of an epic. The biography of a fictitious person is placed in the social orbit of a classical design wherein his movement and actions take place. But Tom Jones unlike the hero of an epic has not been idealized. He is of an ‘average’ type and thus he must share the limitations of an ordinary mortal. He does not appear on the scene with a fanfare of glory or in any impressive manner. He happens to be an illegitimately begotten brat, a foundling discovered in the bed of Mr. Allworthy. The conception of an epic is different. It is different story altogether if he comes before us as a tragic hero suffering in life, but he has all the dignity of a man. But the fielding reverses on the no doubt, appears with an ‘elevation of stile. Since it is a comic epic such a hero may be allowed to pass as such. 

               Tom Jones is a comic epic indeed by virtue of the humorous situations and humorous characters. In this epic he thought before hand to introduce a considerable character on the scene “Thus the hero is always introduced with a flourish or drums and trumpets. Our intention, in short is to introduce our heroine with the utmost solemnity in our power, with an elevation of stile.” but the hero passes through such situations which excite us and often set us rolling with laughter. This mock epic lifts characters bodily from life and though the narrative is in a lighter vein, unlike an epic of a serious nature the points of virtue are brought home.

                Tom Jones is an epic of human nature written in a comic style. “Man therefore is the highest subject which presents itself to the pen of our historian or of our poet.” fielding in this so-called epic comes to dwell upon human nature, what pertains to a man on this planet. He of course interprets life through the medium of humor. Tom Jones may not be an ideal from the point of view of the orthodox opinion because of the sexual aberrations but as an average being he represents all that is view of magnanimity. There is an unconventional accent upon human goodness in the novel which is different from the pure ideals of an epic. An epic is a tale of human virtue and so is Tom Jones but in it ‘virtue becomes, as it were an object of sight.’

                  The study of human nature is superb in this novel written after the style of an epic Fielding has a clear cut idea about it. He write in his book I chapter of Tom Jones in the following words: “the provision, then which we have here made is no other than human nature that in human, nature, though here collected under one general name, is such a prodigious variety.” In a novel there is comparatively smaller scope for dwelling on human nature than the epic. The latter happens to be a sizable work therefore it offers a more comprehensive scope for it.

                     But the account on human nature is not the primary consideration in an epic. It mostly deals with the glorification of a hero and shows a tendency of selection the part which elevates the character in our esteem. There is hardly any approach to the psychological depth in it. In Tom Jones the writer probes deep into a human character elaborately on the scale of an epic personage. He brings to dwell on the character in ‘dressing up’ with a consummate author’s skill.

                         The behavior of partridge and the behavior of Adams in Joseph Andrews both set us rolling with laughter. The very name of partridge represents the essence of his normal culture, a funny name indeed. He is funny in deeds also. We laugh at him because he comes before us a henpecked husband. He suffers at the hand of his termagant wife. He comes to be involved in the case of Tom’s parentage. There is a fine split, which is humorous in itself, in the character of partridge. At first he comes before us as a teacher and then as a barber meeting Jones in the way of his peregrinations. The man becomes all the more comic when he gives vent to the pedantic expressions in a classical style. This Sancho Panza of Tom Jones has been drawn in a full blooded comic vein. And such is the case of person Adams, the first rate comic character of Fielding. He is a funny scholar who lives on the bare subsistence of 23 pounds sterling per annum. He leaves for London and desires to self. Nevertheless he would undertake a journey on foot because he loves to do so; Digeon calls him a comic hero.

          One of the sources of humor in Fieldinig is hypocrisy, for instance that of Mrs. Partridge in Tom Jones than the softness of her sex prevailed over the rage and she presently dissolved in tears, which soon often concluded in an example of sentimental hypocrisy. Now let us see the example of blatant hypocrisy. The epitaph put up by Mrs. Bridget at the death of her husband is an act of hypocrisy on her part.

                Similarly vanity has been harshly lashed by Fielding in the character of square western. He is too authorities and rash and lacks the plain common sense. His typical remark about Sophia who falls in love with Tom Jones without asking his permission is humorous. It shows the stupidity of a man, or of the class to which he belongs. Even death both farcical and real becomes a subject of laugh in fielding. When captain Blifil dies Bridget goes into tantrums of mourning in putting up the hypocritical epitaph. The element of humor is not missing even in the farcical near death of Mr. Allworthy. His sudden survival dashes the hopes of the people to the ground.

              The affection of learning also becomes a cause of humor. Mr. Partridge allusions to the classics and classical writers provoke out mirth and so does that Adams in Joseph Andrew. The affection of Thwacked evokes satirical humor in Tom Jones. The personal foible of the man no doubt furnish example of pure humor, but at the back the anger of Fielding can be traced against such folks who are absurdly cruel with the helpless boys. Often the learning of the doctors in Tom Jones makes us laugh. At the death of captain Blifil the doctors agree with out being in a dilemma: “those doctors, whom, to avoid any malicious applications, we shall distinguish the names of Dr. y and Dr. z having felt his pure; to wit Dr. y his right arm and Dr. z his left; both agreed that he was absolutely dead, they different Dr. y holding that he died of an apoplexy and Dr. z of an epilepsy.” this type of humorous situation has been repeated in Tom Jones where Tom lies ill and the doctors come to see him and the reference is jocularly made to the eating fever by the land lady and which is taken seriously by the doctor.

                         The palling comments are something humorous in Fielding. For instance he describe the avogary of Mr.Honour in the following manner “Tom was a handsome young fellow and for that species of men Mrs. Honor has some regard. She might indeed be caller a lover of men, as Socrates was a lover of mankind.” the human foibles come within the purview of the novelist and he makes capital out of it. The humor of Fielding is brows and farcical.

Ø Conclusion:-

                       To sum up Tom Jones is partly an epic and a novel. It exhibits a cross-bred style in which we find the fusion of the two. It is no doubt a comic epic in prose by virtue of its humorous approach. The tone of the novel is suggestive of a light manner, but it carries a heavy message like that an epic. This is not an epic of a conventional type as Fielding veers, being the founder of a new province of writing to the writing of a novel.