Hazlitt as an essayist

William Hazlitt | HAZLITT AS AN ESSAYIST | How would you describe William Hazlitt as an essayist?|What are the characteristic features of Hazlitt's prose style? | What was the writing style of Hazlitt?

What idea have you formed of Hazlitt as an essayist?

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The main charm of Hazlitt's essays is that they reveal his personality.

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 A romantic strain, a liberation of the ego and a romantic prose style characterise Hazlitt's essays'-Discuss.

William Hazlitt as an Essayist: A Romantic Genius with a Vivid Prose Style.

 Hazlitt is a romantic essayist. His subjects are of varied and various interests. They speak of his imagination, bitterness, melancholia, sense of humanism and so forth. Let us now discuss the things that form the warp and woof of his essays and characterise Hazlitt as an essayist of high water-mark.

A Romantic Strain in Hazlitt’s Essays

     In most of his essays, we find his love of Nature. The external beauties of Nature hold a permanent charm to him. The blue sky flecked fleecy clouds, the rolling clouds, the land dowered with flowers, the craggy hills; the distant mountains with their rich vegetation captivate his heart. In his description of Nature, he becomes a poet. The description glows with passions of a painter with a full brush in hand. In 'Why Distant Objects Please', his love of nature finds eloquence in the way-"I see the beds of larkspur with purple eyes; tall holy-oaks, red and yellow; the broad sunflowers, caked in gold, with bees buzzing round them; wildernesses of pink and hot-glowing peonies; poppies run to seed; the sugared lily and faint mignonette, all ranged in order."

    The past glowed with treasured-up memories is a haunting passion with him. All his experiences of the past appear to him with a new meaning. They seem to him as refined, sublimated and transfigured. In dealing with memories associated with his past life, Hazlitt grows rapturous-"Sweet were the showers in early youth that drenched my body and sweet the drops of pity that fell upon the books I read!"

        A note of subjecting can clearly be marked in his essays. This world which is full of grossness and crudities repel him. Aware of his incapacity to cure the world of its maladies, he grows despondent. He makes a fervent call to Coleridge, his friend, his guide "who didst lend me speech when I was dumb, to whom I owe it that I have not crept on my belly all the days of my life like the serpent, but sometimes lift ,my forked crest or tread the empyrean, wake thou out of thy mid-day slumbers!"

  Hazlitt has an abiding interest in humanity. But humanity is not portrayed in the mellow light of sympathy. In "On Living to One's Self", he lashes mankind in a tone of pungency and bitterness-"there is not a meaner, stupid, dastardly, pitiful. Selfish, spiteful, envious, ungrateful animal than public." This bitterness lies in people's deceiving his genuine expectations.

Liberation of the Ego and Personal Voice

Another key trait of Hazlitt’s essays is the liberation of the ego. The most of Hazlitt's essays reveal his personality. Romanticism as liberation of ego applies aptly to the case of Hazlitt. He does not mystify his readers. He speaks in the first person. He takes his readers in close custody and all his likes and dislikes, hopes and fears are laid bare. He speaks of his despondency and grows out the grossness of the world. The autobiographical elements remain scattered here and there in his essays.

He is of conviction to do away with the evils of the world. He exhorts his friend Coleridge to help him cure of the maladies besetting mankind. Hazlitt emotionally calls upon Coleridge, writing "didst lend me speech when I was dumb, to whom I owe it that I have not crept on my belly all the days of my life like the serpent, but some- times lift my forked crest or tread the empyrean, wake thou out of thy mid-day slumbers."

    In "Why Distant Objects Please" the essayist speaks of treasured up memories of the days bygone when I was quite a boy, my father used to take me to the Montpelier Tea- I unlock the casket of memory gardens at Walworth...... and draw back the warders of the brain; and there this scene of my infant wanderings still lives unfaded or with fresher days."

  He speaks venom of the people with one idea. They fail to realise their worth. They seem indifferent to everything good. They fall far below the expectation of the writer. He beats his head against the walls of circumstances. He lashes out, "there is not a more mean, stupid, dastardly, pitiful, selfish, spiteful, envious, ungrateful animal than public.”

     Hazlitt gives vent to his feelings of disgust when he deals with the ignorance of the learned. The learned dwell in the world of books but forget the world while they study. Acid is marked when he launches attack on the learned, "You might as well ask the paralytic to leap from his chair and throw away his crutch, or without a miracle, to 'take up his bed and walk, as expect the learned reader to throw down his book and think for himself."

Hazlitt’s Prose Style: Vivid, Simple, and Powerful

Hazlitt’s prose style is a perfect match for his varied subjects. His writing is often described as romantic prose—free-flowing, natural, and emotionally charged. It avoids unnecessary decoration and aims instead for clarity, force, and vivid imagery.

     Hazlitt's subjects are of various interests and his style serves his purpose well. His is a romantic prose free from the elaborate ostentation of the complex sentence. His sentences are brief, abrupt and have the vigour and directness. Let us look at his sentences in "Why distant objects please"

"my eyes dazzle; my heart heaves with its new load of bliss, and I am a child again. My sensations are all glossy, spruce, voluptuous and fine: they wear a candied coat and are in holiday trim."

 With the usual change of subject, his tone and mode of writing changes. His style maintains a close parity with his mood. When he is in a state of mental activity or when he is caught in a mood of high-pitched emotional out- burst, a tremendous pace in the movement of his prose is marked. "Shake off the heavy honey-dew of thy soul, no longer lulled with that Circean cup, drinking thy own thoughts with thy own ears, but start up in thy promised likeness, and shake the pillared rottenness of the world!; .... Dart like the sun-flower one broad, golden flash of light."

     His essays bristle with epigrams, paradoxes, antithesis, parallel construction and contrast. Epigram like 'Life is the art of being well deceived,' definitions shocking our preconceived notions 'Good nature is humanity that costs nothing', paradoxes like 'the ignorance of the Learned, contrasts like Patriotism and Puffing, Cant and Hypocrisy, Wit and Humour charm us all by their pithiness and brevity of expression.'

  His use of diction deserves mention. It is pure and simple and free from ornateness and artificiality. In effect, it is vivid and concrete.

Conclusion: Hazlitt as a Master Essayist

William Hazlitt stands as a giant of English prose, admired for his romantic sensibility, emotional depth, and rich language. His essays cover a wide range of topics—from politics and painting to philosophy and personal experience—yet they are all united by his passionate voice and powerful style.

 Whether describing the beauty of nature, reflecting on lost childhood, or lashing out at society’s flaws, Hazlitt never loses his honesty or vividness. His essays are not just written—they are felt, making him one of the most personal and poetic prose writers in English literature.