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THE EPIC-COMIC NOVEL
Fielding turned to novel writing almost by chance, after reading Richardson’s Pamela. Disgusted by the sham morality of the book, by its hypocrisy and ambiguity, he wrote Shamela, the satirical purpose of which was made explicit by the very long title and subtitle of the work, which read “Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews, in which the many notorious Falsehoods and Misrepresentations of a Book called Pamela Are exposed and refuted, and all the matchless Arts of that young Politician set in a true and just Light (...) Necessary to be had in all Families”.
Obviously written in the form of letters, the relatively short book was not, however, a real novel, but simply the parody of someone else’s work. It was in fact only while writing Joseph Andrews that Fielding realized all the possibilities implicit in the new literary genre and decided to approach it in a “scientific” way, starting first of all to define what he really wanted to write and how.
He therefore thought it proper to begin with “a few words concerning this kind of Writing” [E1] [I1] [F1] [ES1] [ES2] , which, in his opinion, had never been attempted in the English language. The “few words” became quite a long preface, in which Fielding pointed out how his works were actually prose epics since, except for the “Metre”, they contained all the other constituent parts of the old classical epic poems, such as Fable, Action, Characters, Sentiments and Diction. However, they differed from the Iliad and the Aeneid as:
- their Fable and Action were no longer grave and solemn, but light and ridiculous;
- their Characters were people of middle or inferior rank and consequently of inferior manners;
- their Sentiments and Diction were imbued more with the ludicrous than with the sublime;
- moreover they were comic, since they proposed to ridicule Affectation, caused by vanity and hypocrisy, the discovery of which would arouse surprise and pleasure in the reader.
Having decided to describe comic situations in an epic structure, Fielding looked for a model and found it in Cervantes’ Don Quixote, of which Joseph Andrews reproposed the theme of the journey, the “heroic” adventures, the sense of humour and the epic tone applied to trivial events.
Though containing other elements borrowed, for example, from the picaresque novel, Joseph Andrews remains therefore a “comic epic poem in prose”, a definition which can also be applied to the successive works which, more or less, share with it the following features:
- PLOT: the plot is no longer based on a simple sequence of events (as in Defoe) or on a single story (as in Richardson), but presents a well knit combination of episodes, structured and organized in an organic unity;
- SETTING: more than of interiors, it is made up of streets, highways and various itineraries;
- CHARACTERIZATION: there is a larger range of characters including anticonformist middle-class people as well as people from the lower classes, since, according to Fielding, they afford the greatest diversity and the greatest opportunity for the truly comic;
- NO INDIVIDUALIZATION: unlike Richardson, Fielding is much more interested in society than in single characters. So, instead of indulging in analysing individual thoughts or states of mind, he proposes to show “not men but manners, not an individual, but a species”;
- REALISM: all the novels offer a realistic and genuine picture of 18th-century English life;
- MORALIZING PURPOSE: there is no idea of Puritan punishment. Sexual instinct is frankly presented and not branded as immoral or suppressed, but simply controlled and directed to the good. Yet, there is a moral message strictly connected with Fielding’ s belief in men’s natural inclination towards goodness: he wants to make men realize that virtue is better than vice and laughter can be the means to discover and defeat immorality ;
- NO EXAGGERATED SENTIMENTALISM: there are neither melodramatic episodes nor heartrending scenes or falsely prudish attitudes. Love is a strong, sound feeling, which is openly revealed without any sham reluctance;
- SOCIAL DENINCIATION: social denunciation is carried out indirectly, through the personal experiences of one or other of the characters who may, in turn, be robbed by highwaymen (danger on the roads of the time) or be unjustly sentenced to prison (corruption of justice);
- IRONY: connected with the mock-heroic character of the novels, irony is always broad and witty, and sometimes borders on coarseness.
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