Eccentrics and Madmen in G. K. Chesterton’s Novels

The paper analyzes the eccentric hero in the novels written by the famous English author G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936). The study aims to explore how eccentric and insane characters are depicted and function in Chesterton’s novels. Methodologically, the research is based on works of R. Bazhanova, M. Bakhtin, G. Gachev, V. Karasik, E. Yarmakhova, and I. Sternin. The analysis has revealed that Chesterton’s weirdos are typologically similar to medieval jesters and Dickens’ eccentrics. Chesterton follows the playful tradition in English literature, characteristic of the works by W. Shakespeare, L. Sterne, Ch. Dickens, O. Wilde, L. Carroll, and nonsense poetry. The specific features of the characters are originality, oddity, a special world view, similar to children’s attitude, the ability to play, and creative imagination. The characters’ oddity is shown as strange eccentric actions that break the social rules. The image of the eccentric reflects the specific features of English humor, the English commitment to paradox and nonsense. Chesterton used such ways of being for his characters to create the effect of defamiliarization, which broke the automaticity of perception and conventions of social behavior typical for the late 19th – early 20th centuries. The study has revealed the difference between the seeming and true madness of Chesterton’s characters. Insane characters embody Chesterton’s perception of negative social consciousness of that period. They personify mind limitations, commitment to the only one point of world view. Eccentric and mad heroes are antagonists. In their confrontation, eccentrics protect the main human values, spiritual traditions, and help to reveal the wonder of being.