Metaphor as a Structural Principle and a Vehicle of Social Criticism in Essays by Lamb and Hazlitt

Abstract

Notes that the essays of Lamb and Hazlitt contain many metaphors, similes, and poetic images that emphasize and develop important ideas, serve as structural principles in paragraphs and entire pieces, and often imply criticism of the writers’ society; simultaneously, in works like The Essays of Elia and Table Talk, Lamb and Hazlitt experiment with language and structure to involve readers in the active process of creating imaginative literature, pushing their audience to re-examine assumptions and to re-evaluate society. Demonstrates how multiple images capture the readers’ attention and force them to consider a topic from different angles. Explains how Lamb and Hazlitt were influenced by the literary theory of Aristotle, the New Rhetoric Movement of the eighteenth century, and contemporaries like Coleridge and Wordsworth.