12.11.2009 Mengel

 

 

HENRY FIELDING

Omniscient narrator.--Omniscient narration is Henry Fielding`s style.

Omniscient = knowing everything.

We should never confuse narrator and author. Narrator is the one talking in the text and author is a historical person.

Henry Fielding`s Tom Jones written in 1749 is the example of omniscient narrator. He seems to know everything. He knows what is going to happen. He also knows what is going on in the minds of characters. He calls the reader my reader. It a form an omniscient narrator uses, addresses.

Signs of omniscient narrator---My dear reader, sagacious reader….

Omniscient narrator wants to draw his reader into the story. He flatters his reader.

Omniscient narrator is a great manipulator. He manipulates his reader. Whole book is his show and he is like a little God.

William Makepeace Thackeray also prefers omniscient narrator. In the 18th and 19th centuries omniscient narrator is popular. It becomes out of fashion in the 20th century.  In the 20th century Henry James, Virginia Woolf prefers 3rd person narration.

 

In Tom Jones:

Mr. Allworthy is a rich squire.  He is an aristocrat. A baby of his sister was put into his bed.

Direct caharacterization : Narrator tells the reader sth about the character of a character.

Indirect characterization: You draw conclusion from the behaviour of the character.

Direct and indirect characterizations may occur both in drama and in fiction. 

In drama:

Direct characterization occurs via stage directions. Somebody tells about character`s personality.

Indirect characterization:  Characters act on the stage. Audience comes to a conclusion.

Mr. Allworthy has a heart which is easily caught by beauty. Morals are important for him.

Morals: [ plural ] standards for good or bad character and behaviour

Morals are more important for him than his good manners.

Deborah Wilkins is his servant. She is holding a candle and staring at the baby. She believes that Mr. Allworthy has improper intentions for her. She sees him in his nightshirts although she gave him a lot of time to get dressed, but he is not still dressed. That is why she thinks that Mr. Allworthy has intentions for her. Mr. Allworthy forgets his good manners, because he has a good heart. In Tom Jones, characters are constructed with regard to good manners and bad manners. Good nature versus bad nature. For Henry Fielding good heart is more important than good manners. Mrs. Wilkins has a bad heart.

Those characters showing good manners have bad hearts. Omniscient narrator is being ironic.

Charity is another important term for Fielding. Charity means love for your neighbour.

Cupidity is sexual lust. Mrs. Wilkins feels cupidity for Mr. Allworthy.

Fielding began his career as a dramatist.  People revealing themselves by what they say is Fielding`s method.

Mr. Allworthy is an allegorical name. It is a way of characterization. This was done in medieval morality plays.

In Morality plays, character names were, humanity, fleshly feelings, experience. They were all allegorical names.

 

1st person narration -àMarlow I as witness narrator. He is witnessing to what happens to Kurtz.  Marlow is questing for Kurtz. He is also searching for himself. He is forced to talk about things he has not completely understood himself. Marlow discovers that there is a Kurtz in him too. Search for Kurtz means search for his own inner self for evil.

I have told my reader………I refers to the omniscient narrator. He is not part of the story. He is outside of narration. Extradiegetic. He is like the God. In the 1st person narration, I is part oft he narration.

Animad : reflections, thoughts.

It is Fielding`s method. He gives, withholds information and uses irony.  In the text, he says for Mr. Allworthy: Mr. Allworthy had been absent a full quarter of a year in London, on some very particular business, though I know not what it was; but judge of its importance by its having detained him so long from home.  Omniscient narrator says that he does not know what Mr. Allworthy`s business was. He is lying here. He is an allknowning narrator. He certainly knows what it was, but he is withholding information.

 

He stood some time lost in astonishment at this sight; but as good nature had always the ascendant in his mind, he soon began to be touched with sentiments of compassion fort he little wretch before him.------- >Direct characterization of the 3rd person omniscient narrator.

Tom Jones is a 3rd person characterization, narration, perspective. It is authorial narration. Focus is on the character in the text.

13.11.2009 Tutorial with Timo

He is a good guy. I am introducing bla bla bla….He is good, he is bad --> Direct characterization.

If  a character kills another one, you can conclude from the actions. This is then indirect characterization.

 

Indirect charaterization is via the actions, words, etc. of a character.

Direct charaterization: By a narrator who explicitly charaterize.

If it is combination of both. Say it is combination.

Authorial charaterization: One oft he colleagues in the class characterizes one of us or all of us. Characterization happens through her.  Authorial characterization is usually 3rd person.

 

If one of the fictional characters characterizes another one or himself then this is figural characterization.

Explicit: explicitly characterized.

Implicit: you conclude from the behaviour of one character. You infer from the words or behaviour of a character how his or her character is.

 

                                                      Explicit                                                            implicit

Authorial                                            X                                                                      ?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Figural                                                X                                                                    X

 

Figural implicit: one character characterizes himself by means of words, actions.

 

Henry Fielding uses authorial, explicit characterization. Very ironic at the same time.

 

Page 16 Murial Spark ´´You should have seen the Mess``

1st person narration and unlimited. 1st person, because character i spart of the narration. Unlimited because oft he temporal distance. The story takes place in 1961. She is not too old, because it is only 5 years ago. She is also characterizing other people. She is talking about educated people.  How reliable is she? She is not too bright, she is neurotic. She is unreliable. It is 1st person unlimited implicit characterization. She is implicitly characterizing herself. You should have seen the mess. She doesn`t talk about education, but she talks about hygene. She doesn`t come to the point. She characterizes herself implicitly. Every ferst person narrator is also a figure.

 

Heart of Darkness

In Heart of Darkness there is a change in the narrative situation. It is not too often in literature.

The seamen are on the board of Nellie waiting fort he tide at the mouth of the Thames River.

Nellie is a cruising yacht. There are five seamen on the board of Nellie. These people are Marlow, lawyer, narrator whose name we do not know, director of companies and accountent. 5 people on the cruising yacht on the Thames River in England. One oft hem, first person narrator describing the situation.

 

Frame story: narrated by                                                                                                   frame story: narrated

The first person narrator                                                                                                      by the first person                                                                        

---------------------------------                                                                                                 ------------------------------

                                               Marlow 1st person narratoràembedded story

                                                --------------------------------------------------------------------

There is an anonymous narrator. There anonymous narrator is first person narrator and the other  first person narrator is Marlow.

Anonymous first person narrator or common we: There is a very strong attitude in his words. He is wise and experienced. He knows a lot of things. He is thinking deeply. Imperialism, collonialism is bringing civilization into the dark world. He is also speaking about the great concurers of England like Sir Francis Drake and hiss hip the Golden Hind.

Internet:

Section I
Literally speaking, the action of Heart of Darkness is simply the act of storytelling aboard a ship on the river Thames around the turn of the twentieth century. An unnamed narrator, along with four other men, is aboard the anchored Nellie waiting for the tide to turn. They trade sea stories to pass the time. One of these men is Charlie Marlow, whose story will itself be the primary narrative of Heart of Darkness. Before Marlow begins his tale, however, the unnamed narrator muses to himself on a history of exploration and conquest which also originated on the Thames, the waterway connecting London to the sea. The narrator mentions Sir Francis Drake and his ship the Golden Hind, which traveled around the globe at the end of the sixteenth century, as well as Sir John Franklin, whose expedition to North America disappeared in the Arctic Ocean in the middle of the nineteenth century.

http://www.enotes.com/heart-of-darkness

Attitude of first person narrator reflects what people thought at that time.

We have 2 perspectives on one point, which is emperialism.

Englishmen going out into the world AND Englishmen bringing civilization into the heart of darkness.

And this also has been one oft he darkest places oft he earth. Marlow speaks fort he first time.

We have a starting point. We are in England. Marlow`s story is in Africa. This creates opposotion.

Cruising boat versus steamboat creates another opposition.

Narrator lets Marlow talk. There are only very little interruptions in Marlow`s story. His story is embedded into the frame narrative.

Voice: We were on this boat and we talked. Common we. A spirit of that time. Professor Mengel interprets the first person anonymous narrator as teh common we. Common we means the spirit of that time, or the spirit of the seamen. Thos who sailed off to the other lands are bound to one another,because they all experienced the sea voyage. Sea voyage is the common point that binds them to one another. So that anonymous first person narrator could be the spirit of the seamen. We know only little about the other characters. We only know their professions. First person but commonsense, common we. It is also ambigious. It is the voice of that time and it is ambigious. He gives over to Marlow and Marlow needs to tell. Marlow likes telling. There are very little interruptions in the embedded story but not siginificant. Marlow need to tell his story because he did not understand what he lived in Kongo and he could not digest the things he saw there. He needs to tell to relax.

Development of Marlow while looking for Kurtz. I as witness: first person, not the main character.

Heart of Darkness is unconscious in the Freudean sense. It is not Africa. Civilization is just a mask. We are all monsters in ourselves.

If you read it in a psyhoanalytic way, Marlow ist he I as protagonist narrator.

If you read it as an imperial novel, Marlow appears as an I as witness narrator. Journey towards the unconscious of humanity. Common we is also affected by the story of Marlow.

Question might appear like this: Discuss the narrative situation of heart of darkness. Change of narrative perspective.


Marlow is homodiegetic because he tells his story.