Style as an Index of Personality | Style in Literature I W. H. Hudson | Some Ways of Studying Literature

STYLE AS THE INDEX OF PERSONALITY

INTRODUCTION:

Man is known by his style, his customs, his values and manners, his ways of living. Bollywood Legend Shri Amitabh Bachchan is known by his own style and voice. Shahrukh Khan has his own unique style of acting and dancing.

In the same manner, in literature too the author is known by his own unique style. In his book ‘An Introduction to the Study of Literature’ Hudson discusses ‘The Study of Style as an Index of Personality’. Just as the index of a book tells us everything about that book, in the same manner, the style of the author tells a lot about the author and his works.

WHAT IS STYLE IN LITERATURE?

‘Style’ indicates the use of language  in  writing  of literature. Style in literature includes the  diction,  choice and arrangement of words, intonation, accent, stress pattern, rhythm, uses of figures of speech etc.

Many a times, while reading the literary work, we feel that “So and so must have written that.”  We feel sure that no one else can put the  things  in  this  way.  The  reason behind this is that every  writer  has  his  own unique  style of presentation.

ALEXANDER POPE & CARLYLE & NEWMAN’S VIEWS ON STYLE:

Hudson has presented the views of two literary men  on style. For Pope, style is  “the  dress  of  thought”,  whereas for Carlyle, style is “not the coat of the writer, but his skin.”

Hudson says that Pope is wrong because style is inseparable element of literature. For Pope,  style  is external from the writer which he can put on or take off at his will. But Hudson says that style is not something external but it is the skin of the author from which  he cannot be separated. It is possible that during the initial stage of his career, a writer might follow another writer’s style but a stage comes when he molds his own  style. Hence it is rightly said that “Every spirit builds its own house.”

In this ways, Hudson favors the view of Carlyle. He also agrees with Newman’s idea that style is the shadow of writer. Shadow follows the man  wherever  he  goes; similarly style also follows the writer.

The style is not only the living product of an author’s personality but also the transparent record of his intellectual, spiritual, and artistic growth. A careful observation of style will inform the reader of writer’s education, the  influences  that  shaped  him  and  molded his nature, the makers of his personality, the  books  he lived with, the development of his thoughts, his changing outlook upon the world and  its  problems,  and, development of his creative genius and art.

Thus, the style of writer makes the reader aware of his personality. Hence we can say that style is the index of writer’s personality.

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