A novel is intended for the enjoyment of the reader, not for his education
Enjoyment is something sensuous, that is, the enjoyment comes through the sense organs. For example, we enjoy food when our tongue recognizes the taste and then mind registers it. When either of the two is not functioning, we cannot enjoy food. This so happens when the tongue is dull because of cold or indigestion or when the mind is occupied elsewhere as when one is angry or sad. One enjoys music because he has trained his ear to do so. Where there is no experience there can’t be real enjoyment. An unpleasant experience can in the same way drive away enjoyment.
With the above as an index let us see how one reacts towards a novel. There are personalities, life situations, human feelings and conflicts of interests and so on. In these the reader may, perhaps, see a projection of the world he has seen and known. If he is familiar with many of them he enjoys the novel. He may be interested in following the course of action, the plot, the climax and end. Here he is like a spectator who follows the career of a sportsman. His emotions are highly strung in so far as the sportsman is in action and once the man retires, the spectator almost forgets him or remembers him only when a similar situation crops up. So just as one enjoys a cup of tea or a whiff of cool breeze one may enjoy a novel. At a higher level one may enjoy the art of the novelist, how deftly he creates and caricatures his characters, how he mocks at the ways of the world and so on.
Now what is education? Education draws the best powers in the individual and trains him to desirable levels and degrees. In fact, this is the real meaning of education which means to draw forth. Man is born with instincts, emotions and sentiments. These will have to be properly channeled and developed. So situations are created in which education takes place and capabilities are improved.
In this sense a novel does not educate. Novel may bring wider experience but cannot claim to develop capabilities. The language ability may develop but not in all who read novels. It does so only when a novel is read with a purpose, as a piece of literature in connection with a course of study; otherwise the novel doesn’t educate. Novels may again make a man reflective and that is because of experience and not because of education.
Still a student of literature may study novels for his education. People were educated even in ancient times but the novel is a comparatively new-comer in literature. So this makes it clear that novels are intended for the enjoyment of the reader and not for his education.
