HenryFielding.ppt

1、Henry Fielding,Background of the time: Before the dawn of the English Industrial Revolution. During this time, the bourgeois was still on its rising stage, but they tried hard to extend and strengthen their power, enlarge their overseas colonies and exploit, oppress people ruthlessly.,2. At that tim

2、e England and France were at war for almost ten years. Both of them fought for the power and the right over the European continent, for power and the right of getting more and more overseas colonies, such as America, Canada and India. All the wars made the people poorer and poorer, while the rich, t

3、he ruling classes richer and richer.,3. The ruling class and the government still want to get more money from the poor. So they levied heavy taxes on the people .,4. Because of these things together with the result of enclosure, the poor was made homeless, they even could not live on. Some lost thei

4、r jobs, some were forced to wander from one place to another, and some even became criminals, such as thieves, burglars, robbers and etc.,His personal life:,Fieldings early life exerted a great influence upon his late life and writing 1.This influence came from his family. When he was eleven years o

5、ld, his mother died, and his father got married to a woman who believed in catholism and treated the children badly. Since then on Fieldings maternal grandmother and his father often went to court for the childrens property right and guardianship. So the scene of the court of law and lawyers left a

6、very deep impression on him, which later on became the resources and raw material for his writing.,B. Influence came from his grandfather: His grand father was a justice of peace. When he studied at Eton (a school for Aristocratic descents ) his father wanted to stop the school , so he escaped to hi

7、s grandfathers. In his grandfathers study he read a lot of the books about law. Here has showed great interest in law.,C. Influence came from his own study in classical works, especially the comedies of Greek comedian Aristophanes, and the Roman poets (Horace) work. He also reads Swifts Gullivers Tr

8、avels, Defoes Robinson Crusoe and Cervantes Don Quixote, which laid solid foundation for his later writing.,III Fielding as a novelist,Fielding wrote four novels. They are “ The History of the Adventure of Joseph Andrews” and His Friend Mr. Adams; Jonathan Wild, the Great; The History of Tom Jones,

9、a Founding ; and Amelia.,Joseph Andrews,The book turns out quickly a great novel of the open road, a “comic epic in prose”, whose subject is “the true ridiculous” in human nature, exposed in all its variety as Joseph and the amiable Quixote. The comic epic is designed to furnish instruction as well

10、as entertainment. His purpose is “to hold the glass to thousands in their closets, that they may contemplate their deformity, and endeavour to reduce it, and thus by suffering private mortification may avoid public shame.” Fielding believed in the educational function of the novel.,Comment on fieldi

11、ng,Fielding: a man full of vigor; despondency never belonged to him. Neither poverty, nor the attack of his enemies, nor the onslaught of disease could crush his manly relish of life,The centre of Fieldings working philosophy was Man, common earthly Man with his earthly interests, needs and passions

12、, which should be studied and portrayed in action, in clashes and in development .,A truthful artists duty was to reproduce human nature faithfully and accurately as he saw it. Fielding really influenced English literature a lot.,Fielding is the humorist, the inventor of the authorial narrative voic

13、e of scope and the Victorian novel is primarily in the tradition of Fielding, and the 20th century novel is primarily in the tradition of Richardson.,Fielding was the founder of the English Realistic Novel who set up the theory of realism in literary creation. The characters in his novels are often

14、the common people, who are natural, that means they are not perfect they have their own weakness, they also do wrongs.,They are close to life. Not like the characters in Romanticism, They are more credible. Maybe thats why Byron called himthe prose Homer of Human Nature. He chooses common people as

15、the hero, not like writers prefer upper class,In his Tom Jones, he even chooses a foundling as his hero. We can see that Fieldings avocation of equality to people . Fielding has maintained a certain amount of popularity with readers,Joseph Andrews Fieldings talent for characterization and for depict

16、ing a lower-class milieu, however, make Joseph Andrews far more than mere parody; it is a great comedy in its own right.,Features of Fieldings Novels,A. Fieldings method of relating a story is telling the story directly by the author. B. Satire abounds everywhere in Fielding s works. C. Fielding believed in the educational function of the novel. The object of his novels is to present a faithful picture of life, while sound te