The Naratological Analysis to ”The Expedition Of Humphry Clinker”

Tobias George Smollett (19 March 1721 – 17 September 1771) was a Scottish poet and

author. He was best known for his picaresque novels, such as ”The Adventures of Roderick

Random” (1748) and ”The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle” (1751), which influenced later

novelists such as Charles Dickens. George Orwell admired Smollett very much, and he

praised him as ”Scotland's best novelist”.

”The Expedition Of Humphry Clinker” is his last novel and was published in the year of

his death. It is an epistolary novel, in which Matthew Bramble, his nephew Jery Melford, his

sister Tabitha, his niece Lydia and Winifred, Tabitha's maid, all send letters to their friends

describing their holiday from Gloucester, to Bath, to London, to Harrogate, to Durham,

Edinburgh, to Glasgow and back home. When Squire Bramble leaves Wales to take his family

on a tour through England and Scotland, the result is a comical series of misadventures.

Before they even reach London there is an addition to their party: a shabby servant named

Humphry Clinker who quickly becomes devoted to them – particularly Tabitha’s maid. Their

journey is full of incidents, that are faithfully related by the travellers in their letters to friends

back home. The most of letters are done by only two people, Matthew Bramble, his nephew

Jery Melford. Thier style is easy to recognise after the first few dozen pages, even though the

novel is a little bit confusing from the beggining.

Moreover, the novel is characterised by a relaxed atmosphere which comes from the

characters' radically different perspectives on the places they visit. For example, the

curmudgeonly Bramble is less than taken with Bath: "They look like the wreck of streets and

squares disjointed by an earthquake, which hath broken the ground into a variety of holes and

hillocks; or as if some Gothic devil had stuffed them altogether in a bag, and left them to

stand higgledy piggledy, just as chance directed. What sort of a monster Bath will become in

a few years, with those growing excrescences, may be easily conceived" (Smollett, p.36).

Lydia, by contrast, says "Bath … to be sure, is an earthly paradise. The Square, the Circus,

and the Parades, put you in mind of the sumptuous palaces represented in prints and pictures;

and the new buildings, such as Princes-row, Harlequin's-row, Bladud's-row, and twenty other

rows, look like so many enchanted castles, raised on hanging terraces." (Smollett, p. 39)

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Universitatea Dunarea de Jos, Galati

Student: Alina Petrea , 2nd year, Romanian-English

“The Expedition Of Humphry Clinker” begins the tradition of the novel as tourism.

With Humphry Clinker’’, we have the beginnings of the ironic polyphony that Bakhtin

thought characterised the novel as a form. It is also the first to capitalise on the idea of

multiple perspectives. It is full of coincidents that drives the reader to a happy-ending

represented by a series of weddings. The novel, also, provides a vivid picture of

eighteenth-century life.The exerpt is a Jeerry Melford`s letter addressed to Sir Watkin Phillips, where the main

character narratizes what happened with his uncle Mattew Bramble and his aunt Tabitha.

Chasing his uncle, Jerry surprised him trying to help with some money a widow and her child.

Unfortunatly, the man was caught in the middle of the things by his sister, Tabitha, who was

not agree with her brother`s gesture. She found that absolutly unacceptable, considering that

Mr. Bramble made the charity for obtaining the love of the poor woman. Even though Jerry

tried to resume the entire event and to demostrate that the man`s gesture is an honorable one,

Tabitha refused to listen a word.

There is illustrated a mimetic literature, because it is highly depende upon the outer

reality.The literary work gives to reader the sense of being in presence of actual individual

things, events, people and places. When Jerry was chasing his uncle, he mentioned some

places such as Well, Clifton or Pump-room: ” At length, going down to the Well one day, I

met her half way up the hill to Clifton, and could not help suspecting she was going to our

lodgings by appointment, as it was about one o’clock, the hour when my sister and I are

generally at the Pump-room.”

By taking account the durative aspect, the excerpt is rich in summary passages and

pause. The letter begins with a summary that helps reader to understand the main situation. He

says that he wants to tell a big secret related to his uncle, who tried to help a poor woman in a

secret way. The veracity of situation catches the reader`s attention by using mystery and

suspense, which is an important ingredient in storytelling: “This notion exciting my

curiosity”. The summary alternates with pauses containing description or incidental

structures. For example, when Mr. Bramble speaks with the widow his voice is on the point to

break down and the narrator notices that aspect by saying: “After a short pause, he said, in a

croaking tone of voice, which confounded me not a little […]”. The narrator`s indications in

the brackets are meant to help reader in imagining easily the entire scene. He notes often:

“(exclaimed the poor woman)”, “(cried he, in a voice like thunder)”.

Therefore, the letter presents the event in a facsimile way and that is claimed by the

presence of scene. The dialogue between characters reveals how the things happened and it is

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a suitable source for the indirect characterization. Regarding frequency, the story reveals a

singulative narrative, narrating once what happened once. This aspect is contrasted with some

passages where it is described a repeated action, that could provide also an iterative aspect : “I

had caught my uncle’s eyes several times directed to this person […]”. The scene includes a

maximum of information and a minimum of informer so the reader could interpret through his

own mind the characters` behavior and could make a self opinion about them. It is also related

with the story`s veracity. The dialogues are the most mimetic form, in which the narrator, that

is also a reflector, pretends literally to give the floor to the characters. This is reported speech:

“‘Madam, I am truly concerned for your misfortunes; and if this trifle can be of any service to

you, I beg you will accept it without ceremony.” And the woman replies: “‘Twenty pounds!

Oh, sir!”.

Being written at the first person, the storytelling has an internal focalization. Also,

taking the entire novel, there is a multiple focalization which is specific to epistolary novel.

An event is presented fro two or more point of views. This reveals a homodiegetic narrative

where the narrator is the hero so the reader understands that the events happened to main

character such an autobiography. This reveals an autodiegetic narrative. The entire story is

seen through Jerry`s eyes who could watch everything from a room through a wall hole. The

reader is introduced in the fictional universe using a narrow perspective, the perception of the

main speaker in the story: “[…]he gave her audience in a parlour; so that I was obliged to

shift my station to another room, where, however, there was a small chink in the partition,

through which I could perceive what passed.”. There is an intradiegetic perspective.

The temporal determination of the narrating instance shows that the fragment is a

subsequent. The event is related to the tense narrative and this could easily remarked through

the large number of verbs at the past tense, such as resolve, saw, stood, cried, etc. The event is

narrated is a chronological way. There is a plain objective chronology.

Regarding dialect aspect, in characters replies it could be found the pure British English.

The style is rigid, polite and they seem to express their selves in a more formal way. In

particular, every character has his manner to speak. For example, the widow shows humility

and gratitude in her discourse, using words like Providence, worthy gentlemen, blessings.

Mr. Bramble is very kind, he refers to the woman`s situation saying that it is a “misfortune”.

He, also, shows tact and politeness to woman even though he is the one who helps her: “[…] and if this trifle can be of any service to you, I beg you will accept it without ceremony.”. The word

“trifle” shows as well the humiliation of a man who wants only to help a poor woman and her child.

The third character seems to be the opposite of the first two, aunt Tabitha is described direct by the

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narrator as being “the most diabolically capricious”. She says that instead of giving that twenty pounds

to a poor woman, she prefers to use them for her desires: “Child, child, talk not to me of charity. --

Who gives twenty pounds in charity? -- But you are a stripling -- You know nothing of the world.

Besides, charity begins at home – Twenty pounds would buy me a complete suit of flowered silk,

trimmings and all .”. Even though she remark the emotions her brother, Tabitha continues to bother

him saying that his act is abominable, unsuitable for a worthy like him: “Observing these marks of

emotion, «I don’t wonder (said she) to see you concerned at the back-slidings of so near a relation; a

man of his years and infirmities: These are fine doings, truly -- This is a rare example, set by a

guardian, for the benefit of his pupils -- Monstrous! incongruous! sophistical!»”. Also, her replies and

words reveal irony to the situation and to characters, such as Jerry who call “child” and “stripling”:

“Child, child, talk not to me of charity. -- Who gives twenty pounds in charity? -- But you are a

stripling -- You know nothing of the world. Besides, charity begins at home […]”.

In conclusion, the fragment presents a very good example of the subjective narrative where

could be found a homodiegetic perspective and a plain chronology. Therefore, the characters are

complex personalities who are made unique by the situation, the appearance and their own manner to

act in a certain situation. The novel, “The Expedition of Humphry Clinker” is a remarkable work, that

reflects the particularities of eighteen-century society.

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Bibliography

1. Smollett, T. G. (1995 [1771]) The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Classics

2. The article The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Expedition_of_Humphry_Clinker

3. The article Summer voyages: The Expedition Of Humphry Clinker by Tobias Smollett, in The Guardian, section Book Blogs

http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/aug/12/summer-voyages-humphry-clinker-tobias-smollett

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