Walter Pater
 |
| Walter Peter |
*He is the second great Victorian critic of the
later phase of Victorian criticism.
*He is an aesthetic critic.
*He reacts against the moralistic approach of
Matthew Arnold.
*He advocates the doctrine of art for art’s sake.
*In otherwise he believe that the function of
literature is
to give us pleasure.
The aesthetic approach according to “Walter
Pater”:-
“Style” may be regarded as one of his most remarkable
essays. “Style” in general has to do with the aesthetic aspect of the work of
art. “Style” demonstrates the characteristics of prose according to Pater.
Besides, it sheds light on his aesthetic theory and his principles of
criticism. At the beginning of the essay, Pater maintains that there is no
fundamental difference between poetry and prose. The style of poetry is as
beautiful as the style of prose. In other words, the style of both has
aesthetic value which critics should take into consideration:
Pater points
out that the real distinction is between imaginative literature which includes
both poetry and prose and it gives us the writer’s ‘‘sense of fact’’ and the literature of fact or the literature of knowledge which
is mere transcript or imitation of reality. Both prose and poetry are the two
branches of imaginative literature and consequently both of them are concerned
with expressing the writer’s sense or feeling or enjoyment of fact.
Consequently both of them have aesthetic purpose.
Pater
extremely appreciates prose and sees that it will have a splendid future. It
asserts itself as ‘‘the
special and privileged artistic faculty of the present day‘‘.
Consequently he attempts to point out the principles or rules are related to
the style of prose since style is the medium through which the writer expresses
his ‘‘sense
of fact’’ in a beautiful way. First, the writer should be attentive in
his choice of words,
The writer, should select faithful, original
vocabulary, which should be in accordance with the new thoughts of people.
Wordsworth, for instance, was tactful in his choice of
language that suited the “changing thoughts of people and “was to become in a measure
the language of the next generation”.
Second, the
writer should express his thoughts in the least possible words since “self
restraint, a skillful economy of means, that too has a beauty of its own”. In
this way, the reader will experience “aesthetic satisfaction”. Unnecessary
words should be avoided. In addition, the writer should avoid “tarnished or vulgar decoration”.
Ornaments such as figures of speech should only be
used to enhance the writer’s thought.
On more
characteristic of good style is that sentences should follow each other
logically and naturally. The structure of the work of prose requires an
architectural design through which one “for-sees the end in the beginning and
never loses sight of it, and in every part is conscious of all the rest, till the last
sentence does but with undiminished vigour, unfold and justify the first”.
Pater maintains that good prose should be characterised by logical coherence.
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