F.R. Leavis – Hard Times: An analytic note
(The Great tradition)
Frank
Raymond Leavis (1895-1978) is one of the leaders of Cambridge critics, who had
their major influence in English literary studies from the mid
1920s. He was also Charismatic and undisputed leader of the critical
world of England. F.R. Leavis believed that literature should be
closely related to criticism of life and that it is therefore a literary
critic’s duty is to assess works according to the author’s and society's moral
position. In that way, he not merely inherited, but took upon
himself the role of the torch bearer of the humanistic tradition earlier
initiated by his spiritual predecessor Arnold. So, F.R. Leavis is of
the opinion that literature affords us examples of writers like Arnold, Ruskin,
Conrad and Lawrence who showed what it is to lead an ideal life, a life not
accessible to the one promoted by Science and technology.
‘The
Great tradition’ (1948) of F.R. Leavis is a work in fictional poetics
discussing the merits of Jane Austin, George Eliot, Henry James and Joseph
Conrad. It was he who declared boldly that D.H. Lawrence belonged to
the great tradition of novelists. ‘Scrutiny’ is a journal that he
published for twenty one years along with his wife Queenie Roth, a specialist
in British fiction is his best contribution to English letters. Though
‘Hard Times: An analytic note’ is included in ‘The great Tradition’, it does
not form a part of the principal discussions of the book. Leavis is
of the opinion that Charles Dickens is primarily an entertainer, a caricaturist
who cannot be considered significant as Henry James. The great
novelists, George Eliot, Henry James and Joseph Conrad in the tradition
identified by Leavis are pre-occupied with form for they are technically
original and use their genius to frame uniquely appropriate methods and procedures
in their art.
According
to Leavis, George Eliot’s novels are the creations from her personal
experiences that are closely related to the middle and lower class of the rural
England of the 19th century. Henry James is a genius
who creates an ideal civilized sensibility and possesses the capacity to
communicate by the finest means of implication. Joseph Conrad is also an
innovator in form and method who takes serious interest in life.
However Leavis gives great importance to
Dickens's 'Hard times'. The title ‘Hard Times’ is significant as it deals with
the inhumanities of Victorian civilization. Leavis considers ‘Hard
Times’ a moral fable with a definite intention that exhibits satiric irony in
the first two chapters. The descriptiveness of the passages in Hard
Times reveals the sensitivity of Dickens and from the employment of symbolism
that emerges out of metaphor, the candid portrayal of the Victorian society
stands apart. Sissy’s symbolic significance shows the vitality of
life that is resourceful and provides a stark contrast to the lifeless rigidity
of utilitarian principle. While Sissy represents vitality, Bitzer is more
unemotional and mechanical in approach. This shows Dickens unique
capacity to represent human spontaneity with skill and deftness. The
descriptions of the circus athletes, their agility, frivolousness and their
movements are perfectly designed by Dickens. The circus life
represents the vital human impulse that is trampled under
utilitarianism. Through this Dickens expresses profound reaction to
industrialism that has degraded life in the Victorian society.
Dickens
observes life in the urban scene where the usual depiction of human kindness
and essential virtues assert themselves in the midst of ugliness and banality of
life. Sissy Jupe functions to convey the artistic flexibility of
Dickens that finds her confronting utilitarianism with great
subtlety. The irony of situation is effectively designed when
Gradgrind’s daughter is married off to Bounderby. Louisa’s development
under Gradgrind shows inhibition of natural affection and her capacity for
‘disinterested devotion’ is in sharp contrast to the vitality and force of life
as depicted by Sissy Jupe. Here, Leavis praises Dickens for his
revealing the pathos related to the mechanistic life with a poetic
beauty. So, he calls Dickens an imaginative genius, a poetic
dramatist whose possibilities of concentration and flexibility in the
interpretation of life can only be compared to a dramatist like Shakespeare.
-----Thulasidharan V
No comments:
Post a Comment