Question: Write a note on Addison's prose style.
Or, Bring out the salient features of Addison's prose style.
Or, Write a short essay on Addison's literary style.
Answer: “Addison may be said to have almost created and wholly perfected English Prose as an instrument for the expression of social thought," says curt hop. Prose had, of course, been written in many different manners before his time. Bacon, Cowley, and Temple had composed essays. Other prominent writers had also written essays. But it cannot be said that any of these had founded a prose style which besides being a reflection of the mind of the writer, could be taken as a representation of the genius and character of the nation. They write as if they were thinking of it either from an inferior or superior position. The essayists and taken their model from Montaigne and their style is therefore stamped, so to speak with the character of soliloquy. But Addison took features of his style from all his predecessors. He assumes the character of essayist, moralist, philosopher, and critic, but he blends them all together in his new capacity as a journalist. He had accepted the public as his judges, and he writes as if some critical representative of the public were at his elbow patting to the test of reason every sentiment and every expression.
Addison is a great master of prose style the main qualities of his prose style are simplicity correctness, case, grace, elegance, and clearness. Addison satirizes his contemporary society and represents himself as a satirist as well as a moralist. Generally, moralists write in a heavy style as if they are persons apart from their audience and preaching to the. Addison's sermons are, as Dennis says “the sermons of a layman expressed in the most lucid style and in the purest English. The case and simplicity of Addison are in sharp contrast to the pomposity and bombast of Dr. Johnson.
Another remarkable quality of Addison's Prose style is his prose style is discernible to his audience. He is very much friendly. with his readers in his essays; Of course, he is not entirely free with the reader. He has the highest moral and frankly educative aim for his essays. And he is not exactly on the same ground as the reader.
Addison's prose is singing alley free from slang and colloquialism. It is much more refined and polished. It is much more refined and polished than the pose of Steele, but Addison, being an engaging conversationalist brought some of his conversation algidity to his prose as well. With his prose too just as with his talk-Addison could chain the attention of everybody. Almost all of his essays are very much enjoyed when we gather his famous essay 'Sir Roger at church' we find that the essay is full of humor and comic elements which make this essay very popular.
Addison's prose style is also noteworthy for its homely expression. He sometimes makes use of very homely expressions. He had better have let it alone. He was fully alive to the beauty of metaphor. A noble metaphor when it is placed to advantage casts a kind of glory around it and darts a luster through a whole sentence. Without being learned or making pretensions to learning, Addison adds to the value and beauty of his essays through his wonderfully apt quotations from and allusions to noble passages in literature.
Addison is a master of the Attic Prose, the middle style. It is a style perfect within its limit, but it has serious limitations. Its delicacy and urbanity serve to reveal its inherent shallowness. His prose lacks that magic touch of personality which is the secret of Steele's appeal.
The prose style of Addison is hued with his personal note. The introduction of something like a personal note in prose naturally brought it nearer to actual life and actually talk. The prose before Addison conspicuously lacks the character and element of informal conversation, for it was seldom used for social purposes. The printed word and idiom differed much from the spoken word and idiom. When Bacon, Hooker, and Browne wrote, they did not mean to engage in a tete-a-tete with a reader. Consequently, their prose is far from conversational. With Addison, there is a shift in the outlook of the writer. No doubt, Addison's prose is still too polished, too elegant too chiseled, to be a language of actual talk.
If fact, Addison, in his prose, is never feeble. He is always energetic and his prose style is very much vigorous. His sentences have neither studied amplitude nor affected brevity; his periods, though not diligently rounded, are valuable and easy. His prose style is never coarse and it is always smooth and simple.
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