walter pater's view on style

In his late essay "Style" (1888), reprinted a year later in Appreciations, Walter
Pater set out to explore the possibilities of prose as the special art of the
modern world and to justify his own literary practice. Considering how rarely he
theorized about the art of writing, "Style" ought to be important. Oddly, it has
disappointed several critics. One notes that, after displaying his hauteur in an
"absurd attack on Dryden" (Donoghue 222), Pater launches into a "desultory"
discussion that "does not clarify its themes" (224). In addition to the
intellectual confusion this writer detects, another commentator blames Pater for
timidity. He is "being defensive in this rather convoluted essay," attempting to
guard himself against "hovering charges of corrupting aestheticism or amorality"
(Ward 73-74).

Critics have sought explanations for the perceived weakness of "Style" in Pater's
relationship to his two current literary mentors, Flaubert and Newman. Pater
reviewed the first volume of Flaubert's Correspondence for the Pall Mall Gazette
(August 25, 1888), and "Style" appeared in the Fortnightly Review (December 1,
1888). A quotation from Flaubert's letter to "Madame X" (Louise Colet) appears
towards the end of Pater's essay. It seems reasonable, then, to assume that Pater
expanded a review of Flaubert's Correspondence into the essay "Style," "often
considered a crystallizing and rationalizing of his theories and habits as a
writer" (Monsman 148). Yet, it has been suggested, Pater's grasp of Flaubert was
inadequate. He failed to see that, although he and the French writer were both
seeking le mot juste, their aims were completely different. Pater wished to
objectify an inner vision. Flaubert (it is alleged) "sought a passionless
reproduction of facts" (Iser 48).

David de Laura has shown the degree to which Newman's "Literature" influenced
Pater's views in "Style" (334). Newman supposedly provided Pater with a warrant for
his emphasis on style as an expression of "soul," an inner individual essence of
the writer's personality. Newman's influence may be at work, too, in Pater's demand
for ascesis, the constant self-denial involved in the writer's craft. Some critics,
however, seem as irritated by Pater's putative relationship to Newman as others are
by his supposed borrowings from Flaubert. For instance, Denis Donoghue remarks
disdainfully of the religious concept of style he thinks Pater assumed from Newman:
Pater takes "upon himself the curse of labor and sweat. It is edifying I suppose"
(229). Apparently several critics do not feel that connections made between "Style"
and the work of Flaubert or Newman serve to explain Pater's essay or to rescue it
from charges of incoherency.

There is a neglected aspect of the context of "Style," however, that may clarify
Pater's aims. As in other of his writings, a submerged controversial intention is
the clue to the development of Pater's argument. Polite and circumspect in his
tone, oblique though at times ironic in the manner in which he sapped beliefs he
opposed, Pater nevertheless was quietly inexorable. His method of dealing with
Arnold's and Renan's idealized versions of Spinoza and of Marcus Aurelius, with the
Goncourts' sentimental account of Watteau, or with the "impersonal" art of Prosper
Merimee suggests a vigilant awareness of the weak points of attitudes or beliefs he
rejected. These and other examples provide evidence that Pater did not ignore
material he felt deserved criticism and that he possessed a variety of techniques
to make his comments effective.

Given his habitually gentle and guarded approach, we should not be misled by
Pater's reference in a footnote in "Style" to George Saintsbury's Specimens of
English Prose from Malory to Macaulay. The comment seems to be highly
complimentary, though with a hint that Saintsbury's approach is one particular to
himself, with which, perhaps, not everyone will agree. Saintsbury, Pater remarks,
"has succeeded in tracing, through successive English prose-writers, the tradition
of that severer beauty in them, of which this admirable scholar of our literature
is known to be a lover" (Works 5:12). �

Article details
PRPEER-REVIEWED PERIODICAL
PUBLICATION:
Papers on Language & Literature

VOLUME/ISSUE:
Vol. 40, No. 4

PUBLICATION DATE:
Fall 2004

CONTRIBUTORS:
Coates, John
SUBJECTS:
Essays--Criticism and Interpretation
Pater, Walter Horatio--Criticism and interpretation

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Style (Essay)--Criticism and interpretationWalter Pater�s achievement as a novelist

and a critic is central to the modern vision of art. Though he was not always
edified by the scandalous manner in which his disciples interpreted his message,
nor gratified by the distortion of his ideas by an entire generation of aesthetes
and decadents, Pater, when he is fully understood, emerges as a figure of
incalculable importance in the evolution of twentieth century literature. In the
first place, he did away with much of the fustian approach that obscured the
appreciation of art in his own day, and he left a critical legacy, which extended
into the twentieth century in the works of Bernard Berenson and Roger Fry.
Moreover, as Harold Bloom observes of Pater�s most memorable character, �Marius,
more than any fictional character of our age, is the representative modern poet as
well as the representative man of literary culture who remains the only audience
for that poet.�

As a stylist, too, Pater was wonderfully suggestive and original. Adapting the rich
and ornate cadences of Ruskin to his more subtle purpose, Pater evolved a style
that is the last word in delicacy, refinement, and understated eloquence. His
sentences are characterized by elaborate parentheses, delicately wrought rhythms,
and mannered circumlocutions�annoying to some readers�and his malleable prose
matches with minute accuracy the uncertainties, doubts, and deliberations of a mind
in debate with itself, a mind fastidiously alive to the full complexity of human
experience and scrupulously intent upon a verbal music that, in its hesitant
rhythms, remains faithful to that experience. In this regard, he clearly
anticipates Marcel Proust.

It is not, however, on the level of style alone that Pater�s influence has been
indelible. Marius the Epicurean, in the role that it assigns to memory, its tone of
melancholy retrospect, its analysis of a highly developed sensibility enamored of
perfection yet resigned to uncertainty, anticipates, to a remarkable degree, the
structural, tonal, and thematic underpinnings of Proust�s novels. When one adds to
this Pater�s lasting influence on Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, Andr� Gide, and William
Butler Yeats�the last of whom claimed that Marius the Epicurean is �the only great
prose in modern English��one is compelled to admit that Pater was one of the first
major sensibilities of the modern age.
Literary Criticism �Modern Style Theory� () Walter Pater(1839-1894)

Literary Criticism
�Modern Style Theory� ()
Walter Pater(1839-1894)

Q:-Pater�s views on Modern style theory

Q:- �A writer, full of a mater he is before all things anxious to express, may
think of those laws, the limitations of vocabulary, structure and the like as a
restriction, but if a real artist we find in them an opportunity. Justify the
argument. Or Write a not on the limitation and achievements of Walter Pater as a
critic keeping his �style� theory in mind. Or Examine the Walter Pater�s view on
Style.

v Introduction:-
The 19th century was a period of intellectual activity in England. The
scientific development had a great effect on the literature of this period. There
was the sprit of liberty and democracy everywhere on account of industrial
progress, there were classes in the society, the capitalist and laborers. The rich
exploited the poor. Some writers came to their help and presented this bitter
social realty in their works. Against such writer, there were some writer who were
in favour of art and beauty. They thought that the people were deprived of
aesthetic tradition due to hard work and love for wealth. They also believed that
the modern civilization spoilt the beauty their art for artist sold their art for
money only. They wanted to preserve the beauty and purity of art.

v Art for Art�s sake:-

A regular movement started in France and in England during the second
half of the nineteen century. �Art for Arts� sake� was the slogan of this movement.
Flaubert and Gautier originated it in France. James Whistler imported in to England
and Oscar While and Walter Pater followed it their works. In America Edgar Allan
Poe followed this esthetic moment and said,� �I make beauty the province of the
poem.�

v Advocate of art: (style)

Pater was a great advocate of art for art�s sake as Arnold was an
advocate of �Art for life�s sake�. He gave more importance to expression than to
matter. He believed that �delight is the chief, if not the only aim of poetry.� In
his definition of style we find echo of Longinus. He declared that
�Style reveals the artist�s soul itself.�
Thus style is the central problem of the literary art. The artist is a
lover of words. He put music on a much lighter pedestal than other fine arts. He
found fusion of soul and sense in poetry. Pater also showed difference between good
art and great art in his essay, �on style�, he points out that �Good art is not
necessarily great art because great art has something impressive in the quality of
the matter it informs of control� It is related to great and note of revolt and
largeness of hope. �

v Architectural concept of art:-

Pater is not a pedant. He uses proper words in proper place. He des not
uses two words where one is enough. He has an architectural concept of art. He
foresees the end in the beginning. He creates a conscious artistic structure. He
point out that the writers� means of expression are diction, design and
personality. By diction, he mans the choice of words, style is the manner of
writing. It is commonly construed with matter. Something the reader remarks that
the style or manner is good but the matter is bad. Here matter means only raw
material but of which an artist makes something which is more interesting and
beautiful for example wood is the mater of material out of which cloth is made and
the cloth is matter out of which coats were made in this same way words are the
poet. Thus the matter means the thought of ideas which the artist wants to express.

v Design organic whole

The requirement of style is the combination of words into an organic
whole. It is not just a series of words or sentence, but an architectural design
which has an organic unity. Pater call it �the necessity of mind in style�. It is
the work of the mind to combine word with word, phrases with phrase, sentence with
sentence, part with part till they become one whole and one with the subject. It is
like an Aristotelian pot with a beginning a middle and an end.

v Personality the soul in stye:-

The third requirement of the style is �the soul in style�, with all the
unity of design; style may lack warmth, colour and perfume. The writer�s
personality gives this living touch. It is his breath in his work. He communicates
his personality through language. By mind, the literary artist reaches us step by
step, but by �soul� he overcomes us. Here we get the man in his style. At the same
time, it has something universal or the �soul� of the humanity in it. Flaubert does
not regret the old dictum
�Style is the man�,
but he goes a step ahead and say,
�Style is the real man�.
Pater says,
�Good art depends upon the mind and great art depends upon mind & the soul.�
Such art increases men�s� happiness enlarges our sympathies, ennobles
our soul and takes us to the glory of God. Pater admires lamb�s style for his touch
of friendship, warmth, love and care and also for his deep sympathy for the weak
and the oppressed. In the mater of style he considers lamb next to Shakespeare on
account of the reflection of his personality. Lamb�s sympathy and affection brings
us into a close contact with his soul.

v Style and Composition

Here Pater shows the difference between style and composition. Both
these words means combination of words, sentences and paragraphs in an order. But
Composition depends upon mind only. It is the mechanical side of writing and it
requires mechanical correctness only. But in style we find artist�s genuine
expression of his personality. According to Pater, style is not the product of
external forces only which work upon the artist�s personality. Though the artist�s
personality is formed by the external forces, there is no direct relation between
the external forces and style.

v Trick of style.
Pater further points out that style means the way in which we use words
for he purpose of expression. Expressiveness is the main purpose of style. Language
must be confused if the thought behind it is confused. He points out that style can
not be clear unless, the thought is clear in a work of art if the words are sued to
impress the reader without any striking idea, we call it �a trick of style�. In
such a case, it is not style at all, but it is an insulting noise. Style is a gay,
serious or ornamental, severe and odd according to he artist�s temper. Style will
be haphazard, conventional and characterless if the artist�s mind is moving
carelessly here and there. Thus Pater observes that style is the reflection of the
artist�s personality.

v Conclusion:-
Thus Pater holds that the pleasure of the moment is the sole end of
art. There is one room in his palace of art that is dedicated to the Service of God
and