Write an essay on the prose style of Oliver Goldsmith.

Bring out the salient features of the prose style of Goldsmith.

Ans.

Introduction

Goldsmith is one of the greatest English essayists. It is true that he cannot be placed beside such great masters of the personal essay as lamb, Hazlitt, and Stevenson. But he is a genuine essayist. Essentially, Gold smith is a periodical essayist. Like Addison and Steele he, too ridicules the evils and fashionable weakness of the society of his day, but the most important thing about his papers is the extraordinary power and boldness and originality of thought displayed in them. In this respect Goldsmith is superior to Addison or any other of the periodical essayists. Wherever we test him, we shall find that Goldsmith was perhaps the most original man of his time.

His command over language

Goldsmith is surely one of the greatest masters of English prose. His style is his own. But strikes the reader first is his singular command of words. Everywhere we feel that the most ap propriate word has been used by the writer. Let us take un example-

“Here we sauntered together for some time, either praising the beauty of such as were handsome, or the dresses of such as had nothing else to recommend them.”

Every word in the above passage is most appropriately in its place. Mark how appropriate is the word “sauntered” and also how effective is the group “such as had nothing else to recommend them.”

His Humour

Goldsmith is perhaps the first English essayist with those subtle touches of humour which are the true mark of an essayist. Humour in Goldsmith is often tinged with irony. Sometimes it takes the form of a biting satire. But whatever be the form of his humour, it is always instantly effective. Here is an example from the same essay. Beau Tibbs is indulging in loose talk regarding his so-called familiarity with lords and ladies, and he says. “His lordship took me down in his own chariot yesterday and we had a tete-a-tete dinner in the country.” He is reminded of the contradiction in his statement, “I fancy you forgot, sir….you told us but this moment of you dining yesterday in town.” Pat comes the reply from Mr. Beau Tibbs-

“Did I say so ?” replied he coolly “To be sure it I said so it was so. Dined in town; egad, now I do remember, I dined in town; but I dined in the country too; for you must know, my boys, I eat two diners….”

Look at the subtle humour of the last part of the above quotation.

Personal element in his essays-In his famous series of papers known as “The Citizen of the World”, Goldsmith displays extraordinary power of design. These papers were meant to be a series of letters written by an imaginary Chinaman living in London to his friend at Peking. The Chinaman is shown as roving about the streets of London and observing the peculiarities and the manners of its people. This is a disguise adopted by the writer. The comments from the Chinaman are the writer’s own comments on the English social life. Again the strange and eccentric characters like the man in black and beau Tibbs are all in some way related to the personal experience of the writer. We find the personality of the writer peeping through almost every sentence of his essays.

Goldsmith’s place among essayists

Goldsmith is decidedly one of the masters of English prose. Among the great essayists of the eighteenth century his place is secure. As we have already noted, we cannot place him beside such great personal essayists as Lamb, Hazlitt and Stevenson. But his place is not far below them. He is certainly one of the most charming writers of English prose. There can be no doubt that both on the level of thought and of style he is one of the greatest. Everybody recognizes the charm of his wonderful style. We can say of Goldsmith that in his lighter mood he is the equal of the greatest and the best.