Asses Tom Jones as a Comic Epic in Prose.
In the
prefatory chapter of Joseph Andrews, it was Fielding who himself called
his novel ‘a comic epic in prose’ and in the preface to Tom Jones, Book
II, he declared: “I am, in reality, the founder of a new province of writing”.
Indeed, it was a new province of writing that Fielding was attempting to
explore, the kind of which had not been hitherto attempted in the English
language. It was only Homer, the father of the epic who had written a comic
epic in verse Margites has a mention in Aristotle’s The poetics
but it was Fielding, only after Homer, who first wrote prose combining the
comical elements with the epical scale so that a new species of literature
might be produced-‘comic epic in prose.’ It is his Exploration of a new Kind
of literature that drives Byron to call him, “the prose Homer of human
nature”.
We see a
very successful blend of the comic with the epic elements in Tom Jones.
Let us first consider the epic elements in Tom Jones and then consider
how the whole is given a ‘comic’ treatment to justify the title ‘comic epic in
prose’. That the novel is in prose needs no further explanation.
(A) The epic elements:-
The
Variety of characters: - The scale of Tom Jones as has
already been noted earlier is epical. The novel has more than forty characters,
in keeping with epical demands. We notice that the characters are drawn from
the several strata of society- the low classes, the middle classes, the landed
gentry and the high squires, persons and inn-keepers. It is the immense variety
of characters that drives Elizabeth Jenkins to exclaim, “Here is God’s plenty”.
Thus the novel has a wide variety of characters in accordance with the epic
tradition
