Discuss Joseph Andrews as a ‘comic epic in prose’.
Answers
Joseph Andrews and of his Friend Mr. Abraham Adams, was the first published full-length novel of the English author Henry Fielding, and indeed among the first novels in the English language.
Joseph Andrews is a comic epic in prose because it has the loftiness of language, the wars ,the journey, the quest for a beautiful lady-the necessary features of an epic but at the same time its versification and thematic presentation is satiric and humorous making it a piece of comic prose.
EXPLANATION:
An epic is a long narrative poem relating the journey of a heroic man who is usually in search of a beautiful woman for whom is fought many valiant wars. The hero meets many hardships and often faces a dilemma resulting in hamartia. The language of an epic is lofty and hyperbolic. Joseph Andrews too has the features of an epic.
The eponymous novel narrates the journey of Joseph, the extremely handsome and courageous hero, who journeys in quest of his lady-love Fanny and is confronted with many hardships and pseudo wars. The tone of the novel is however not as lofty as an epic. It is rather satiric especially towards society and very comical in its narrative style.
Joseph’s adventures make the readers laugh lightening the solemnity and graveness of the epic stature. Thus Joseph Andrews is a comic epic in prose.