Better Great than Never

Jonathan Wild is, to my surprise, the most intriguing satire we've read all year. Initially I assumed that nothing could beat the satirical writing of Swift's "Gulliver's Travel's" but Dr. Cervantes has managed to prove me wrong once again. While I haven't read any more of Fielding's work, I feel confident in saying that Jonathan Wild must be one of his finest works; in my opinion, Fielding's ability to nonchalantly poke fun at the people, places, and ideologies of the time seems unparalleled among other authors in 18th century Britain. One of my favorite elements of Fielding's work is his use of the word "great." Initially, I wanted to make a post about Chapter 7's hilarious jab at American culture, but I've decided to refrain from doing so because we already analyzed Chapter 7 in class (twice). Instead, I want to discuss the use of the word "great." The word "great" can be found in Jonathan Wild approximately 436 times. This seems like a lot, until you realize that there are around 70,118 words in the books entirety. However, I noticed while reading Wild that the word is often found in abundance in various individual chapters of the book. Specifically, the beginning of the book overuses the word to a point of hilarity. Fielding wrote Wild as a satire of Robert Walpole, and his excessive use of the word "great" makes for a fantastically comical one. When I was reading the novel, every use of the word reminded me of a good inside joke; as if Fielding and I were in the back row of an 18th century theater and every time the word "great" was said he would jab me in the sides with his elbow for a laugh. He goes to great lengths to explain in the first chapter that "great" is an irregular word, specifically by stating the following: 

"We would not therefore be understood to affect giving the reader a perfect or consummate pattern of human excellence, but rather, by faithfully recording some little imperfections which shadowed over the lustre of those great qualities which we shall here record, to teach the lesson we have above mentioned, to induce our reader with us to lament the frailty of human nature, and to convince him that no mortal, after a thorough scrutiny, can be a proper object of our adoration."

But Fielding uses this irregular word so regularly that the reader comes to find it's use laughable; rendering the word itself useless, similiar to the way in which constant repetition of a word makes you begin to analyze the phonetics of it and renders it meaningless in your head. Fielding manages to turn the word "great" on it's head, flipping it around to mean the exact opposite, and it's only at this juncture that the reader can truly understand and appreciate his masterful use of satire.