The Style of Charles Lamb in His Essay
The Style of Charles Lamb in His Essay
Style of Charles Lamb in his essay
The style of Charles Lamb is so peculiarly of his own that it is difficult to analyse it. It is the result of his study of a wide range of English writers, odd, out-of-the-way writings as he has confessed in one of his writings, were his favourite — study and these influenced his style. As a result, his style has often a curious and old-world atmosphere. He generally avoids the trick and colour of modern prose, as he says, he “wrote for anything”. His style often smacks of the seventeenth century prose-writers like Brown, Burton, Fuller, Jeremy Taylor and Walton. The Elizabethan traits in his style show themselves in his love for word-coining, his fondness for Alliteration, his use of compound words, his formation of adjectives from proper names, his frequent use of Latinisms. Thus, his style is a happily achieved ‘conglomeration’. It is a conglomeration of many a style but at the same time, it has a distinct, individualistic flavour which has been called ‘Lambian’.
Among all the English essayists, Charles Lamb (1775–1834) occupies a conspicuous position and he is a great romantic literary essayist. As an essayist, it is Lamb’s glory that he brought back the subjective note which was disappeared from the essay since the days of Montaigne, its inventor. The essays of Charles Lamb are deeply pervaded by his personality. It is the man Charles Lamb who contributes the enduring charm in his essays. Thus, in a sense, he is the most egoistical of all the essayists. But there is nothing vulgar or morbid in his egoism. He takes the reader into his inner circle as his friends, and tells them everything about his life with frankness. Except his insanity on which he is silent, all the minute details of his inner and outer life have been put down in his essays with such an air of confidence that the reader takes interest in them. Thus, the essay has been used by him as the instrument of constant self revelation. Like Montaigne, he might have said, “I speak into paper as into the first man”.
For instance, in “Dream Children: A Reverie” Lamb takes his readers into intimate confidence and unhesitatingly tells them, here he often visits his grandmother’s house at Norfolk in vacations, how he spent his time there, in the big garden and in the solitary mansion. He has also described nicely in his essay his grandmother Mrs. Field, his elder brother, John Lamb and also his Lady love, Alice Winterton (Ann Simmons). The essay has also spoken of his two dream children, John and Alice. They are the children of his dream, and not the real children. In fact, Lamb was a life-long bachelor but he loved a young girl, Ann Simmons. Thus his essay is intensely autobiographical.
Another great charm of his essays is his rich and inimitable humour. This humour as Walter Pater has put it in his essay on Charles Lamb, is the “laughter which blends with tears”. In “Dream Children: A Reverie”, Lamb’s humour and pathos are blended with superb artistry. Little Alice’s involuntary movement of her feet at the mention of Mrs. Field’s fine dance, Alice’s spontaneous spreading of her hands at the mention of Mrs Field’s wonderful memorisation of the Psalms of the Bible, John’s looking courageous at the mention of the ghost’s story are the delicate examples of humorous touches in his essays. The humour is always characterised by geniality, lovingness and pleasing sensation. Nowhere there is satire on them. Occasional touches of humour also light up the pages by such playful terms of expressions as found in “The Superannuated Man” like “desk-fellows”, “co-brethren of the quill”, “the superannuated simpleton”, “retired leasure” etc.
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