La Narrativa de Henry Fielding y la Sociedad Inglesa del Siglo XVIII

La Narrativa de Henry Fielding y la Sociedad Inglesa del Siglo XVIII
dramatizados, o sustitutos del comentario del narrador. Aunque están
relacionados con el tema de la novela, no están lo suficientemente integrados
con los acontecimientos o con las vidas de los personajes. Críticos como Alter
consideraban que se trataba de interrupciones didácticas que bloqueaban el
fluir de la novela. 341 Hassal opinaba por su parte que:
“But a considerable part of the novel is dramatic only to the point of emasculating
the authorial only to the point of explaining what was already been revealed
dramatically. ... In Amelia the authorial component is so reduced that it does not
function as unifying force, and there is nothing to replace it. Individual scenes, in
one or other of the modes, succeed brilliantly. But they do not cohere into a
satisfactory total approach by the author either to his reader or to his material.” 342
Las conclusiones de Bell resumen el problema de la postura narrativa de
Fielding en Amelia de la siguiente manera:
“In his final novel, then Fielding seeks a narrative position from which he
can explore or expose all the ills of his society –its endemic injustices, its venality,
its intemperance, its fondness for luxury, its sexual improprieties and its inability
to recognize true merit- while also producing a compelling account of a particular
marriage. He offers himself as historian, in two senses. He anatomises his culture,
and he tells a tale. However, what becomes what becomes increasingly apparent is
the tension between the authoritarian magistrate and the abrasive narrator. By this
novel, the various uncertainties we have seen developing earlier about the nature of
the dialogue and the sensitivity of the audience have infiltrated the tale itself and
Fielding as narrator has nowhere to present himself. He offers himself as narrator
as a kind of SuperFielding, at last able to arbitrate successfully amid the
confusions of the world. But, alas, the more prominent he becomes, the more the
more artificial and constructed becomes the world of his jurisdiction. The only
solution to the problems exposed in Amelia lies in the realm of fantasy, and the
author once again resorts to presiding over artifice when he is unable to intervene in
reality.” 343
2.2.4.3 Los Personajes y la Ley. En busca de un Modelo
Ético.
La reducción de la presencia de referencias legales en el discurso del
narrador no implica, sin embargo, que los aspectos legales no tengan una
función importante en el lenguaje que se emplea en Amelia. En realidad, como
debería esperarse de una novela que se basa más en una descripción
dramatizada de los personajes que en el análisis del autor, el lenguaje legal tiene
341 R. ALTER, Fielding and the Nature of the Novel pp. 159-60.
342 A. HASSAL, “Fielding’s Amelia: Dramatic and Authorial Narration,” p. 233.
343 Bell, Auhtorship, p. 236.
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