HUMOUR AND PATHOS IN LAMB’S ESSAYS

Wit and Humour are all pervasive in the essays of Lamb. Even in serious

essays, some touch of humour, some sly remark, some bit of irony kill be found to

amuse the reader .

‘Dream children’ is primarily an essay characterized & by an almost tragic

quality but there are several touches of humour in it. The imaginary children’s

reactions to what the author has to tell them are quit amusing. “Here Alice put out

one of her dear mother’s looks, too tender to be called upbraiding.” Here john

smiled, as much as to say, that would be foolish indeed.” “Here Alice spread her

hands”. “Here john expanded all his eye-brows and fried to look courageous”. All

these are touches of humour in an essay Which is other side highly moving.

There is plenty of humour in the essay ‘Poor Relations’ The opening

paragraph contains a large number of witty metaphors to describe a poor relation :

“an odious approximation,” “ a haunting conscience, an unwelcome remembrances,

”a lion in your path“, “a frog in your chamber, ”fly in your ointment,” “a mote in your

eyes,” etc. The behaviour of a poor relative is described in a very humourous

manner. “ He entered smiling and embarrassed. He casually looked at dinner

time–when the table is full. He offered to go away seeing you having company, But

is induced to stay. “Not only is the behaviour of poor relation humourously

described, but the antithesis in these sentences is a source of amusement. The

behaviour of a female poor relation is even more amusing. “She calls the servant

sir, and insists on not troubling him to hold her plate. The house keeper patronizes

her. The children’s governess takes upon her to correct her, when she has mistaken

the piano for harpsichord.”

Humour is ubiquitous in lamb’s essay. We have gentle and kindly humour,

We have ironical and mocking humour, We have satirical humour, We have biting

and pungent humour, We have boisterous fun, We have humour at the author’s own

cost, and so on. But whenever get malicious or spiteful humour and we seldom

have cynical humour.

Lamb had a natural sense of humour and a spontaneous & wit. It would be

wrong to say that Lamb used to laugh in order to save himself from weeping. If he

had a keen sense of the tragedy of life, he also had a keen visible faculty which was

quick to perceive the funny side of things writing in a solemn or grave mood, he

would suddenly introduce a jest or a sly remark that amused him as well as the

reader. His sense of humour and his sense of tragedy were both part of his mental

equipment, but his sense of humour had sometime & the upper hand in his essays.

Pathos is something recurrent in the essays of lamb. It may even be

regarded go on essential ingredient of most of these essays a place which is next

only to that of humour. Often pathos and humour are found commingled, but they

also exist separately from each other. Lamb had a compassionate nature which

finds expression in the scores of moving incidents and episodes with which his

essays are interspersed. Indeed, Lamb is to be classed with the masters of the

sentiment of pity in literature. Lamb feels pity for himself as well as for others.

In poor relations, there is a very touching episode about W-who, having

joined the university of oxford, had to quit his studies, because his father, who was

a poor house painter. Went and opened a shop in the city of oxford. It was not

possible for W-to tolerate the proximity of his father because of the embarrassment

to which he have been subjected on his college follows discovering that W-

belonged to a poor and humble family. After flexing from the university, W-joined the

army. Soon afterwards, he was killed in a battle in Portugal. This touching episode

is followed by another concerning Mr. Billet, who was related to lamb’s father. Mr

Billet, a poor man, used to call at the house of Lamb’s father every Saturday and

used to join the family at dinner. On one occasion, lamb’s aunt made an insulting

remark to Billet. Mr Billet took his revenge with a counter-remark in the course of

same evening. But he did not survive long after this incident. The episode, too,

arouses our sympathy for poor relations.

Dream children is a very pathetic essay. It is almost heart-rending. So

imbued it is with tragedy of lamb’s life, lamb here gives a concrete shape to his

unfulfilled paternal longings. Alice and John are the imaginary offspring of his

imaginary marriage with Ann Simmons whom he had loved in his youth but who had

not responded to his love. The close of the essay is really heart-breaking. When the

two dream children begin to fade, they seem to be saying to lamb,” We are not of

Alice, nor of thee, nor are we children at all- We are only what might have been.”

We are here reminded of the utter frustration of lamb’s hopes of a conjugal life and

the Joys of having a family.

But it is not only this part of essay that is pathetic. In the earlier part, the

reference to the loneliness of the old grandmother, field, is tinged with melancholy.

The account of the death of John Lamb is tragic. The thought of his death, says

Lamb, haunted and haunted him. Although John used to quarrel. Sometimes with

him, yet he missed him terribly and wished him alive again. The account of the

death of John moved the dream children to tears. A feeling of pathos and tragedy

pervades the whole of this essay. It would be difficult to think of any other piece by

lamb to equal Dream children in respect of the atmosphere of melancholy and

sadness, nothing more poignant has been written by Elia.

Mingling: Pathos and humour frequently Jostle each other in the essays of lamb.

There is a curious mingling of these two ingredients in his work-laughter is quickly

followed by tears of sympathy in many of his essays-sometimes there are

alternations of humour and pathos and sometimes the two elements exist

simultaneously in the same passage which has both a comic and a pathetic side.

Lamb observes as follows,” I do not know how upon a subject which I began with

treating half seriously, I should have fallen upon a recital so eminently painful, but

this theme of poor relationship replete with so much matter for tragic as well as

comic associations, that it is difficult to keep account distinct without blending.