TOM JONES AS A COMIC epic IN PROSE

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.............................................................................................................

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