Critical Analysis of Charles Lamb’s Essay A Dissertation upon Roast Pig

M A English II Semester

Paper III

Prose II

Unit I

Critical Analysis of Charles Lamb’s Essay A Dissertation upon Roast Pig

In September, 1822, Charles Lamb published his classic essay "A Dissertation upon Roast Pig" in London Magazine under the pen name of Elia. This is an essay that shows Lamb at his humorous best. It is full of fun from beginning to end. In this unit we shall examine both content and style of the essay and observe the various devices that Lamb uses to portray a humorous account of the origin of mankind's practice of roasting pigs besides giving us insight into his own temperament and tastes.

Lamb begins the essay with a humorous anecdote which his friend Thomas Manning seems to have shared with him. The anecdote reveals how the practice of roasting pigs began in primitive times with an accidental event in a Chinese village. After providing an extremely humorous account of the event, Lamb proceeds to describe with intense feeling his unusual passion for a roasted pig and says that though he would like to share all good things of life with his friends, he would never like to part with a roast pig even out of utmost compulsions of generosity.

Lamb further explains how one day a mischievous young child in a Chinese village accidentally set fire to a house that had a fine litter of pigs inside. After the fire, the boy felt an appetizing flavour coming from the burnt pigs. On tasting the crackling he found it delicious. His father returned at that very time and was shocked to see his son eating the flesh of burnt pigs. But on being urged by his son, the father too tasted the burnt flesh and discovered to his utter surprise its superior taste. For a while the father and the son kept the whole incident a closely guarded secret. But, since they allowed their cottage to be burnt quite frequently, the secret became known to the villagers which too were attracted by the aroma of succulent roast pork. Nobody has smelt anything like that before because, in that particular village, it has never been a custom to cook food. Even the jury and the judge found the taste of the burnt pigs irresistible. And so, from that time, the art roasting was discovered. However, there was a problem. From then on every time the villagers wanted roast pork for dinner, they went and burned their houses down!

Lamb wants to emphasize his love for the roasted pig by stating that though he is generous enough to share with his friends all the good things of life, he would not under any circumstances ever desire to share with them this very delicacy. He may have given away the whole cake to please a beggar, but he wouldn't like to part with a roast pig for anything in the world.

In waxing eloquent over his love for the roast pig, Lamb makes statements that seem to show signs of callousness towards the fate of the pigs. He enjoys the sight of the pig being roasted wherein the beautiful eyes of a pig melt and drop into the fire. Similarly, signs of cruelty can also be seen when he approves of a pig being whipped to death before being cooked. Lamb refers to elements like a judge, a jury and a regular trial which are essentially not a part of a primitive scene. Even the statement, "The insurance offices one and all shut up shop" shows how Lamb places a primitive incident in the context of contemporary times.

Lamb's style is sometimes perverse, outrageously overstuffed with archaic and pedantic words and phrases. In "A Dissertation upon Roast Pig" expressions like "the adhesive oleaginous," "villatic fowl," "intenerating and dulcifying," etc. do sound tedious at times but they do not, in any way, hinder the otherwise smooth flow evident in the narration. Likewise, this essay also abounds in the use of Latin expressions. But, here again, the progression of thought is not very much obstructed since it is not altogether difficult for a reader to understand the meaning of such Latin phrases from the context of the passages in question. The scholarly words and phrases are used in the mock heroic mode. Such an elevated diction is suited to epic poetry, to describe great events. When he uses it to describe trivial incidents, it is a source of humour.

A study of Lamb's style reveals his fondness for the styles adopted by various Elizabethan writers like Sir Thomas Browne, Spenser, Burton, Fuller and Izaac Walton. Lamb was undoubtedly fond of Elizabethan poets and playwrights and there are many points in which Lamb imitates these writers. But that does not mean that Lamb's style lacks originality. He succeeded in endowing his own thoughts with the strong imprint of his personality to give to his writings a strong dramatic quality not to be found in any of the writers mentioned above. Like a true Romantic, Lamb allows the spontaneous overflow of his powerful individual feelings and emotions to ignore the considerations of traditional and accepted norms of style and technique.

Reference: http://egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/26891/1/Unit-24.pdf