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THE ESSAY

As a separate form of English literature the essay dates from the close of the 16th century. The name appears to have become common on the publication of Montaigne's "Essays", a literary form created by this French writer. The essay is a literary composition of moderate length on philosophical, social, aesthetic or literary subjects. It never goes deep into the subject, but merely touches upon the surface. Personality in the treatment of theme and naturalness of expression are two of the most obvious characteristics of the essay. An essay is rather a series of personal and witty comments than a finished argument or a conclusive examination of any matter. This literary genre has definite linguistic traits which shape the essay as a variety of publicistic style. Here is a part of an essay by Ben Jonson which illustrates this style in its most typical and original form as it was at the end of the 16th century:

"Language most shows a man; speak, that I may see thee. It springs out of the most retired and inmost parts of us, and is the image of the parent of it, the mind. No glass renders a man's form or likeness so true, as his speech. Nay, it is likened to a man; and as we consider feature and composition in a man, so words in language; in the greatness, aptness, sound, structure, and harmony of it. Some men are tall and big, so some language is high and great. Then the words are chosen, the sound ample, the composition full, the absolution plenteous, and poured out, all grace, sinewy and strong. Some are little and dwarfs; so of speech, it is humble and low; the words are poor and flat; the members are periods thin and weak, without knitting or number. The middle are of just stature. There the language is plain and pleasing: even without stopping, round without swelling; all well turned, composed, eloquent, and accurate. The vicious language is vast and gaping; swelling and irregular; when it contends, high, full of rock, mountain and pointedness; as it affects to be low it is abject and creeps, full of bogs and holes."

The essay was very popular in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the 17th century essays were written on topics connected with morals and ethics, while those of the 18th century focussed attention on political and philosophical problems.

The 18th century was the great age of essay writing. It was then the principal literary form, and discoursed on the important subjects of the day, often criticizing the shortcomings of the political and social system in England. "Encyclopedia Britannica" states that the essay became a dominant force in English literature of the 18th century. The following statement of an 18th century essayist is of some interest as it describes the character of the essay: "We writers of essays or (as they are termed) periodical papers"... This statement shows that periodical papers at that time contained only essays.

In the 19th century the essay as a literary term gradually changed into what we now call the journalistic article or feature article which covers all kinds of subjects from politics, philosophy or aesthetics to travel, sport and fashions. Feature articles are generally published in newspapers, especially weeklies and Sunday editions. They are often written by one and the same writer or journalist, who has cultivated his own individual style.

The most characteristic language features of the essay, however, remain 1) brevity of expression, reaching in good writers a degree of epigrammaticalness, 2) the use of the first person singular, which justifies a personal approach to the problems treated, 3) a rather expanded use of connectives, which facilitate the process of grasping the correlation of ideas, 4) the abundant use of emotive words, 5) the use of similes and sustained metaphors as one of the media for the cognitive process. It is in the interrelation of these constituents that the real secret of the essay substyle consists.

Some essays, depending on the writer's individuality, are written in a highly emotional manner resembling the style of emotive prose, others resemble scientific prose and the terms review, memoir or treatise are more applicable to certain more exhaustive studies.

The essay on moral and philosophical topics in modern times has not been so popular, perhaps because a deeper scientific analysis and interpretation of facts is required. The essay in our days is often biographical; persons, facts and events are taken from life. These essays differ from those of previous centuries — their vocabulary is simpler and so is their logical structure and argumentation. But they still retain all the leading features of the publicistic style.

In comparison with oratorical style, the essay aims at a more lasting, hence at a slower effect. Epigrams, paradoxes and aphorisms are comparatively rare in oratory, as they require the concentrated attention of the listener. In the essay they are commoner, for the reader has opportunity to make a careful and detailed study both of the content of the utterance and its form.

The close resemblance in structure between the essay and the oration has more than once been emphasized by linguists. The main difference between them is very well summarized by H. Robbins and R. Oliver in their work "Developing Ideas into Essays and Speeches."

"...an essay is distinguished from a speech primarily by the fact that the essay seeks a lasting, the speech an immediate effect. The essay must have a depth of meaning which will repay the closest analysis and frequent rereading... the basic requirement of a good speech is that it carry immediately into the mind of its hearer precisely the point which the speaker wishes to make."

Therefore writers say that "...the speaker is allowed much more leeway in sentence structure than the writer."

In summing up the characteristics of the essay it will not come amiss to give the following epigrammatic definition:

"The Essay is not a treatise. It is not Euclid, it is flashlight. It is not proof, it is representation. It is a chat; the keynote to the essay is its personality."

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