Comic pattern in the novels of Smollett
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This dissertation focuses upon the disparity between the bodies of Smollett's novels and their endings. The former is set in a society which historians identify as the "real world" of eighteenth-century London, a world marked by vice and folly, cruelty and injustice. In this society the heroes are thwarted in their desires and often physically molested. On the other hand, the endings are set in an ideal rural society where the hero gains his bride and his estate. The dissertation argues that Northrop Frye's analysis of comedy offers a sufficiently broad pattern to include both parts of the novels. Frye sees comedy as a contest between an eiron (the hero) and an alazon (the blocking character) which eventually becomes a contest between repressive and desirable societies. Further, he suggests that the comic pattern is a cycle in which an idyllic society is replaced by a repressive society (much like our own) which is itself replaced in the end by the new society of the hero. This pattern works quite well in analyzing Smollett's first four novels. Roderick Random , Peregrine Pickle, Count Fathom and Sir Launcelot Greaves each concerns a young man who is separated from his mistress and his rightful place in society. His experiences in London and Bath teach him that this society is indeed repressive. He is incarcerated in a prison or asylum whe re he undergoes a "ritual death." On the other side of this phase he gains the hand of his mistress and his rightful place in society and returns in triumph to his homeland to "live happily ever after." To a certain extent, this comic pattern operates in Smollett's final novel, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker. Here it is seen both in the shape of the trip and the shape of the plot. Brambleton-hall in Wales represents the first phase, England and Scotland represent the second phase and Charles Dennison's estate in rural England represents the third phase. At Dennison's estate the cognito scene takes place in which Clinker is discovered to be Matt's natural son and the actor Wilson is discovered to be the son of their host. As a result of these discoveries, three marriages ensue and the group achieves a measure of stability in their relationships. However, this comic pattern is unsatisfactory in the ending of Humphry Clinker. First, it would force us to view Matt and Jery primarily as blocking characters. Second, both Matt and Jery, the most reliable narrators, refuse to accept the new society as ideal. Third, the new society rewards Tabby and Win, characters wh om we have found to be ridiculous. This dissertation proposes three movements in Smollett's fiction which may account for our dissatisfaction with the conclusion of Humphry Clinker. First, rather than being a vague idyllic state, the new society is a carefully structured one worked out in some detail. Second, Smollett's peripheral characters, created for the purpose of humor, become the central figures in the new society. Third, the epistolary narrative technique allows a greater degree of irony in the assessment of the characters. As a tentative conclusion, the dissertation suggests that these movements are in the direction of the formal realism of the novel; therefore, to the extent that Smollett becomes more a novelist, he becomes less a writer of comedy.
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