fahd rashed
04-06-2008, 01:57 PM
Biography:
Henry Fielding was born on April 22, 1707, at the family estate, Sharpham Park, in Somerset, England. His mother died when he was eleven years old, and, on his father's remarriage, he was sent to school at Eton. He left Eton at seventeen and spent the next four years as a gentleman of leisure. After studying for 18 months at the University of Leiden in Holland, he began to support himself as a playwright in London. He wrote 25 plays before his satire, Historical Register, For the Year 1736, ridiculing Prime Minister Robert Walpole, led to the passage of the Licensing Act. This act, requiring governmental approval of all new plays, led to the end of his career as a playwright. Fielding sought to support his wife and two children by studying law and became a lawyer in 1740. He supplemented his income by writing for journals. Then in 1741 he wrote a scathing satire of Samuel Richardson's popular novel, Pamela; or Virtue Rewarded under the pseudonym of Conny Keyber. Soon after, he began work on Joseph Andrews, and this comic novel. often called the first realistic novel in English literature, was published in 1742. His beloved wife, Charlotte Cradock, who was the model for characters in his other novels, died in 1744. His support of the government during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, gained him the appointment of Justice of the Peace for two sections of central London in 1847. There he gained a reputation as an honest and fair magistrate. He and his half-brother, John , established the Bow Street Runners, a forerunner of the modern police force, to help curb the rampant crime in 18th century London. In 1749 his second novel, The History of Tom Jones, was published, and, two years later, his last novel, Amelia, appeared in print. The gout that had left him a virtual cripple led him to seek relief in the warmer climate of Portugal in June,1754. He died there on October 8, 1754
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Literary Style
Whereas Defoe and Richardson both attempt to hide the fictional nature of their work under the guise of 'memoirs' and 'letters' respectively, Henry Fielding adopted a position which represented a new departure in terms of prose fiction—in no way do his novels constitute an effort to disguise literary devices. In fact, he was the first major novelist to openly admit that his prose fiction was pure artefact. Also, in comparison with his arch rival and contemporary, Richardson, Fielding presents his reader with a much wider range of characters taken from all social classes.
Fielding's lack of psychological realism (i.e. the feelings and emotions of his characters are rarely explored in any depth) can perhaps be put down to his overriding concern to reveal the universal order of things. It can be argued that his novel Tom Jones reflects its author's essentially neoclassical outlook—character is something the individual is blessed with at birth, a part of life's natural order or pattern. Characters within Fielding's novels also correspond largely to types; e.g. Squire Western is a typically boorish and uncultivated Tory squire, obsessed with fox hunting, drinking and acquiring more property.
So Fielding's comic epic contains a range of wonderful—but essentially static—characters whose motives and behaviour are largely predetermined. There is little emotional depth to his portrayal of them, and the complex realities of interactive human relationships that are so much a part of the modern novel are of negligible importance to him. Perhaps the character we come to know best is the figure of the omniscient narrator himself (i.e. Fielding) whose company some of his readers come to enjoy.[
Fielding’s first venture into prose fiction came a year previously with the publication in pamphlet form of Shamela, a travesty of, and direct response to, the stylistic failings and moral hypocrisy that Fielding saw in Richardson’s Pamela. Richardson’s epistolary tale of a resolute servant girl, armed only with her ‘virtue’, battling against her master’s attempts at seduction had become an overnight literary sensation in 1741. The implicit moral message – that a girl’s chastity has eventual value as a commodity – as well as the awkwardness of the epistolary form in dealing with ongoing events, and the triviality of the detail which the form necessitates, were some of the main targets of Fielding’s parody
Richardson would continue to be a target of Fielding’s first novel, but the Pamela phenomenon was just one example of what he saw as a culture of literary abuses in the mid-eighteenth century. Colley Cibber, poet laureate and mock-hero of Pope’s Dunciad, is identified in the first chapter of the novel as another offender against propriety, morality and literary value.
The impetus for the novel, as Fielding claims in the preface, is the establishment of a genre of writing ‘which I do not remember to have been hitherto attempted in our language’, defined as the ‘comic epic-poem in prose’: a work of prose fiction, epic in length and variety of incident and character, in the hypothetical spirit of Homer’s lost (and possibly apocryphal) comic poem. He dissociates his fiction from the scandal-memoir and the contemporary novel. Book III describes the work as biography.
As becomes apparent from the first few chapters of the novel in which Richardson and Cibber are parodied mercilessly, the real germ of Joseph Andrews is Fielding’s objection to the moral and technical limitations of the popular literature of his day. But while Shamela started and finished as a sustained subversion of a rival work, in Joseph Andrews Fielding merely uses the perceived depravation of popular literature as a springboard to conceive more fully his own philosophy of prose fiction
THEMES IN JOSEPH ANDREWS
• Appearance versus reality. Who is truly virtuous, charitable, chaste, knowledgeable, just, etc. and who merely pretends to be and/or has the reputation of being so? Characters say one thing and mean another, or they act at variance with their speech. How, in Fielding's view, can the reader distinguish the person who pretends out of vanity or who is hypocritical from the truly good man/woman?
• Abuse of power, by individuals, classes, institutions.
• Inhumanity of individuals and society.
• Lust versus chastity.
• The nature of goodness. Fielding admired honesty, integrity, simplicity, and charity, believed that virtue is seen in an individual's actions, but recognized the difficulty of making moral judgments. How is the reader to judge the postilion who gave Joseph his coat but was later convicted of stealing chickens? or Betty, who is charitable and promiscuous? Nor do good men necessarily have harmonious relationships or understand each other, as is seen in Adam's interactions with the Catholic priest and the innkeeper previously hoodwinked by the "generous gentleman."
• Charity. (This theme is related to the issue of faith versus works.)
• Vanity. Are there degrees or kinds of vanity? The vanity of a Leonora is destructive, but what is the effect of Adams's vanity (his pride in his worldly knowledge derived from books, his pride in his sermons, and his pride in his excellence as a teacher)?
• City living versus living in retirement in the country. This was a common theme in eighteenth century literature, as it had been in classical Roman literature. Wilson's story contrasts the useless, aimless, destructive life of London with the idyllic, simple pleasures of living in the country.
Appearance versus reality.
Who is truly virtuous, charitable, chaste, knowledgeable, just, etc. and who merely pretends to be and/or has the reputation of being so? Characters say one thing and mean another, or they act at variance with their speech. How, in Fielding's view, can the reader distinguish the person who pretends out of vanity or who is hypocritical from the truly good man/woman?
Abuse of power, by individuals, classes, institutions.
Inhumanity of individuals and society.
Lust versus chastity.
The nature of goodness
. Fielding admired honesty, integrity, simplicity, and charity, believed that virtue is seen in an individual's actions, but recognized the difficulty of making moral judgments. How is the reader to judge the postilion who gave Joseph his coat but was later convicted of stealing chickens? or Betty, who is charitable and promiscuous? Nor do good men necessarily have harmonious relationships or understand each other, as is seen in Adam's interactions with the Catholic priest and the innkeeper previously hoodwinked by the "generous gentleman."
Charity.
(This theme is related to the issue of faith versus works.)
Vanity.
Are there degrees or kinds of vanity? The vanity of a Leonora is destructive, but what is the effect of Adams's vanity (his pride in his worldly knowledge derived from books, his pride in his sermons, and his pride in his excellence as a teacher)?
City living versus living in retirement in the country.
This was a common theme in eighteenth century literature, as it had been in classical Roman literature. Wilson's story contrasts the useless, aimless, destructive life of London with the idyllic, simple pleasures of living in the country.
Setting and Historical Background
The novel takes place in the early eighteenth century. It mirrors the lifestyle, caste system, hypocrisy, and corruption of the times. England was becoming a commercial power and wealth was shifting from the landowners to the merchants.
The defeat of the Jacobites (the Catholics who wished to restore the Stuart dynasty to the throne of England) at Culloden Moor in 1745 brought to a close any serious threat to the Hanoverian line of British royalty. The rural populace was being drawn to the cities with the lure of higher wages, but the living conditions of the poor were still deplorable. The social caste system was rigid, but beginning to give under the pressure of the new, moneyed middle class
Character:
Joseph Ansrews :: A handsome young fellow who battles for his virginity throughout the novel .
Lady Booby :: A hot-blooded young widow who tries every way possible to seduce Joseph .
Mr.Abraham Adams:: A charitable curate .
Fanny Goodwill :: A beautiful young country girl , Joseph's beloved .
Mrs.Slipslop:: A repulsive servant woman who also pursues Joseph .
Sir.Thomas Booby:: The deceased husband of Lady Booby.
Mr.Booby:: The nephew of sir Thomas Booby.
Gaffar and Gammar Ansrews::Parents of Pamela and, it is believed, of Joseph.
Peter pounce:: The steward of Lady Booby .
The Wilsons::The real parents of Joseph Andrews .
The pedlar(peddler):: The man who reveals the secret of Joseph's parentage .
lawyer Scout :: An unscrupulous lawyer .
Mr.Tow-wouse:: A bumbling , good-natured innkeeper.
Mrs.Tow-wouse:: The greedy wife of the innkeeper .
Postillion:: A generous fellow who offers Joseph an overcoat to cover his nakedness .
Betty::A warm-hearted chambermaid .
Lady Tille And Lady Tattle::Two gossips .
Plain Tim ::A good-hearted host .
Barnabas:: A punch-drinking clergymen .
Tom Suckbribe:: The constable .
Leonora:: A silly young girl who loses tow lovers because of her vacillations .
Horatio::A suitor who has no money but much love for Leonora .
Bellarmine::A suitor who has little love for Leonora but who hopes to inherit her father's fortune .
Lindamira :: A gossip .
Mrs.Grave-airs :: A prude .
Parson Trulliber:: A hypocritical country parson .
Lawyer Scout:: An unscrupulous lawyer .
Mrs.Adams:: Parson Adams disagreeable wife .
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A comparison of characters:
Of the myriad of characters that the reader encounters throughout Henry Fielding's eighteenth-century satirical novel, Joseph Andrews, Parson Adams and Joseph Andrews himself are by far the most memorable. Their encounters and misadventures form the core of the novel's experience. Throughout the novel, their personalities are revealed by their interactions with the other characters and with each other. Being best of friends, they share many characteristics. They devote themselves to God, rise above their peers in moral character, and posses greater learning than their peers. Their friendship does not prevent them from contrasting with each other on several points, however. They differ in their views of schools and their gullibility.
The first and most notable characteristic that Joseph Andrews and Parson Adams share is their devotion to God. Such devotion is clearly evident in Adams, not only because of his position as a clergyman but also in his actions. During an episode in which Joseph and Adams are in great danger, Adams' devotion to God is proven. "Adams now fell on his Knees, and committed himself to the Care of Providence," (206). Joseph is likewise devoted to God. Believing he is about to die, Joseph says, "Poor Fanny, I would I could have lived to see thee! but God's Will be done," (94). Despite his singular obsession with Fanny, he still settles himself to the wishes of God, making his devotion clear.
Throughout their adventures in the countryside of England, Joseph and Adams rise above their peers in moral character. Despite temptations and forces goading them towards an ill deed, they preserve in their morality and ultimately benefit from such resistance. Joseph Andrews, in the beginning of the novel, shows his moral character when he refuses to be seduced by Lady Booby. After she repeatedly attempts to bring him into her bed, she tells him in a frustrated manner, "I find I was mistaken in you, so get you down Stairs, and never let me see your Face again: your pretended Innocence cannot impose on me," (71). His refusal to compromise his moral standards in incidents such as this is made clear by Fielding. Parson Adams also posses great moral character. When he comes to the house of a fellow parson asking for a much-needed loan that he intends to repay in all honesty, he is flatly denied on the grounds that a clergyman shouldn't be traveling about the country as the parson is doing. Adams responds, "but suppose I am not a Clergyman, I am nevertheless thy Brother, and thou, as a Christian, much more as a Clergyman, art obliged to relieve my Distress," (185). When he is once again denied, Adams criticizes the man for not following the Scriptures.
If I may reason from your Practice: for their Commands are so explicit, and their Rewards and Punishments so immense, that it is impossible a Man should steadfastly believe without obeying. Now, there is no Command more express, no Duty more frequently enjoined than Charity. Whoever therefore is void of Charity, I make no scruple of pronouncing that he is no Christian. (185)
Through his keen observation, Adams reveals the man to be immoral, and shows Adams' own moral character to rise above that of the man.
Both Joseph and Adams are educated compared to their peers. Adams most clearly possesses great learning. It is an integral part of his character. In the beginning of the book, a vivid description is given.
Mr. Abraham Adams was an excellent Scholar. He was a perfect Master of the Greek and Latin Languages; to which he added a great Share of Knowledge in the Oriental Tongues, and could read and translate French, Italian, and Spanish. He applied many years to most sever Study, and had treasured up a Fund of Learning rarely to be met with in a University. (65)
In comparison to the normal citizen of the time, Adams seems to be a great deal more intelligent. The first meeting between Adams and Joseph depends upon Joseph's similar aptitude for learning compared to similar people his age. After questioning Joseph about several subjects, Adams declares that, "he answer'd much better than Sir Thomas, or two other neighbouring Justices of the Peace could probably have done," (65). Both Joseph and Adams are learned compared to the other characters they meet in the novel.
Despite their many similarities, Adams and Joseph differ on several points. One of them is their view on schools. The essential debate comes down to the quality of British public schools. Joseph Andrews throws his support towards public schools.
You know, my late Master, Sir Thomas Bobby, was bred at a public School, and he was the finest Gentleman in all the Neighbourhood. And I have often heard him say, if he had a hundred Boys he would breed them all at the same Place. (237)
Adams holds an entirely different opinion on this matter, however, which coincides with his position as a clergyman and his devotion to God. "Public Schools are the Nurseries of all Vice and Immorality. All the wicked Fellows whom I remember at the University were bread at them," (236). Joseph's willingness to contest Adams' opinions shows that they must differ in some ways.
The simplicity of Adams' character is evident in his gullibility compared to Joseph. During one episode, they are promised various extravagant offers by a gentlemen who pretends to be sympathetic to their plight. After giving several excuses that prevent him from following through on his promise, Adams still doesn't understand the situation. "This must be a sudden Accident, as the Sickness or Death of a Relation, or some such unforeseen Misfortune," (193). Adams honestly believes that the man had intentions of honoring his promises. Joseph is less gullible, and realizes that the man has been playing with them. "For whenever a Man of Fashion doth not care to fulfil his promises, the Custom is, to order his Servants that he will never be at home to the Person so promised," (193). Joseph sees through the lies he is being told and falls back upon his greater experience of the world than Adams.
Throughout Joseph Andrews, the relationship between Adams and Joseph forms an important element of the story. Their great friendship brings them through difficult times and benefits them both. This friendship is composed of both their similarities, which help them get along, and their differences, which allow each of them to expand the other's world view. The relationship would not be as dynamic without the interaction derived from these similarities and differences. In comparison, they devote themselves to God, rise above their peers in moral character, and posses greater learning than their peers. In contrast, they differ in their views of schools and their gullibility.
- characterstic -
It is the active virtue in Adams' case, it is flawed by just the right amount of vanity and inconsistency of Adams, Joseph, and Fanny that redeems this book from the flock of hypocrites that peoples its pages. Indeed, Fielding explains in his preface that he has made Adams a clergyman "since no other office could have given him so many opportunities of displaying his worthy inclinations.' It is important we realize that despite Joseph and Fanny remaining types, as do all the other characters, Adams emerges as an individual. He is a positive force not only as a clergyman who puts his principles of charity into practice, but as a man who applies himself to Aeschylus for comfort, as well as to his pipe and ale, manages to confront the physical obstacles of the world in the most awkward ways, prides himself rather too much as a teacher of Latin and as a writer of sermons, and takes people absolutely at face value. He not only fits into the positive side of Fielding's comic pattern, but emerges as a "round" and fully developed character who reinforces his goodness by his humanity.
The other characters are "flat"; they are types, rather than individuals, and are depicted by an emphasis on a single characteristic; greediness sums up Mrs. Tow-wouse, while Mrs. Slip-slop comes to life through her malapropisms. "I describe not men, but manners; not an individual, but a species," Fielding states in Book III, Chapter 1; portraying people as types enables him to include them more easily in his comic visions; we can more easily survey the eccentricities of the rest of the species, using our detachment (Adams' detachment) to place and criticize them.
There are two important points to be made about Fielding's method of characterization. First, when asked about the province of the novel as a genre, most people would probably reply in terms of "the real, the actual, and the everyday." Consider what Fielding does. All of the characters in Joseph Andrews, with one exception, reveal themselves in a realistic and vividly portrayed setting. The exception, of course, is Parson Adams, who exists in the same world, but does not relate to it and, in this way, he becomes a positive force. It is the task of the novelist to convey the actual flavor of life, but there is a place for idealism as well as realism. Just as Fielding's control gives an order to the fragments of real life, so Adams' naivete and innocence add an extra dimension to the strong sense of actuality conveyed in Joseph Andrews.
The second point concerns the idea of appearance. In real life we must always judge people by externals; the novel, however, offers an extra dimension. In the novel, we can penetrate the facades and see what people are really thinking, whereas in real life we have only the evidence of their words and actions. This is not a process in which Fielding indulges himself, however; his dramatic instinct often has his characters confront each other in much the same way that they might in real life. The characters may be deceived by or mistaken about each other, but the theme of appearance versus reality is communicated to the reader. Fielding clearly shows us how difficult it is to penetrate through the trappings to the heart of man.
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- charity -
the contrast between the greedy Peter Pounce who strips Joseph of his livery and the genrouse servant who provides Joseph with a frock and breeches .
Joseph find warmth and humanity Neither Betty the maid nor Mr.tow-wouse are perfect creature , but their kindness to Joseph contrasts strongly with the behavior of the surgeon and with Mrs.tow-wouse outrage .
Baranabs and the surgeon concern only for the advertisment of their own assumed abilities rather than for public justice .
Trulliber does nothing to help Adams he claim to know what charity is while it is only the poor peddler who knows the true charity as with the postillion who offers his greatcoat to the naked Joseph , socitey has not been kind to this truly compassionate man .
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Preface -
The title of the page of Joseph Andrews makes it clear that th novel is based on the romance entitled Don Quixote written by cervantes .The similarty between the 2 work emphasizes in the character of Don and Adam noth of them are inpractical idealists .The Don is living in his dream of eorld romantic finding and definding virtue while Adams is living in the world of the bible and greek philosph . both of them are always absent minded and always falling into troubles also they both are good character .
But where as Don Quixote is serious romance ,Joseph Andrews is comic romance or comic epic in prose as fielding defines the form of his novel in the preface .Felding says that while both the epics and the romances are long works of imaginative experiences , many character of the high rank and elevated language ,Joseph Andrews is a long work of real experience , characters of the low rank and very sinple language .Moreover , unlike the seriouse epics and romances Joseph Andrews is written in prose rather than poetry it's also comic and not serious .By comic Fileding means that his novel is a realistic mirror of the socity at that time .Human nature is the subject of this novel and the assertion of human reclism is the main focus .In other words , Felding is presenting his novel inorder to attack all the unrealistic and dangerous attitude of Don Quixote , Pamela and other .
The Preface defines the content of the novel . The Novel is a satire of the vices of the 18th century English society . The satric thesis of the novel is presented in the conflict between morality and hypocrisy Feilding aim is to reveal affecations or false pretence which usually come from vanity and hypocrisy .
He does that by portraying the rediculous by putting his character into funny situation where the reders are supposed to laugh at the funny diffrence between appearance and reality.
- Note -
-Written in imitation of the Manner of Cervantes, Author of Don Quixote.
- in the preface as a comic epic poem in prose.
-Parson Adams is indeed a truly Quixotic figure and the structure of the book also follows Cervantes. Joseph Andrews is a novel of adventures met while travelling on the road. Joseph loses his employment in Lady Booby’s service in London for refusing her attempts to seduce him as well as those of her maid Mrs. Slipslop. On his way home to the country to his sweetheart Fanny, he meets Parson Adams, whose teaching had so fortified his virtue, walking to London in the hope of getting his sermons published; but Adams has forgotten to bring his sermons with him and so returns with Joseph. Together they run all kinds of adventures meeting a host of characters from low and middle-class layers of society: innkeepers, chambermaids, country squires and clergymen.
-There is also a number of similarities not just in manner but in incident as well, among which we could mention the night adventure in the inn involving Don Quixote, Maritornes and the mule driver with the confusion in Mrs. Slipslop’s bedchamber; Maritornes’ charity with Sancho with that of Betty.
-Characters and plot mutually function to illustrate the dominant thematic motifs of the novel, namely the exposure of vanity and hypocrisy in society and the recommendation of their antithetical virtues, charity and chastity, and the classical ideal of life.
-in Joseph Andrews in particular. For methods of planning, developing and unfolding his plots and presenting his characters, Fielding turned to the drama. He is particularly indebted to the comedy of manners, the light, gay, and burlesque Restoration Comedy
-In his preface to Joseph Andrews Fielding declares his satirical purpose. ‘The ridiculous only (...) falls within my province in the present work’, he says, proceeding to explain the term and how often it has been mistaken. ‘The only source of the true Ridiculous’, he goes on, ‘is affectation... Now, affectation proceeds from one of these two causes, vanity or hypocrisy.
-The comic romance, Fielding tells us in his Preface, differs from the serious one in that its fable and action are ridiculous, its characters are sometimes of inferior rank and manners and its sentiments and diction are ludicrous..
-Fielding himself, in the preface, explains that he has written “a comic epic poem in prose,” with a “light and ridiculous” fable instead of a “grave and solemn” one, ludicrous sentiments instead of sublime and characters of inferior instead of superior rank.
- -Until Joseph Andrews came out, that life had never been exhibited in England with so much sense of character, so clear an insight into motives, so keen an interest. What the book owes to Cervantes is its form, in which the loosely-knit plot follows the travels and adventures of Adams, Andrews and Fanny.
- Form -
Joseph Andrews is a picaresque novel of the road; the title page tells us that it was "Written in Imitation of the Manner of CERVANTES, Author of Don Quixote." Despite its looseness of construction, however, Joseph Andrews does make a deliberate move from the confusion and hypocrisy of London to the open sincerity of the country; one might perhaps apply Fielding's own words in a review he wrote of Charlotte Lennox's The Female Quixote: "...here is a regular story, which, though possibly it is not pursued with that epic regularity which would give it the name of an action, comes nearer to that perfection than the loose unconnected adventures in Don Quixote; of which you may transverse the order as you please, without an injury to the whole."
This journey is undertaken in more than a simply geographical sense. Fielding takes his characters through a series of confusing episodes, finally aligning them with their correct partners in an improved social setting, from which the most recalcitrant characters are excluded; the characters, for the most part, have all measured and achieved a greater degree of self-knowledge. Thus the marriage of Fanny to a more experienced Joseph takes place in an ideal setting--the country--and is facilitated by the generosity of an enlightened Mr. Booby. Lady Booby, unchanged and unreformed, returns to London, excluding herself from the society which Fielding has reshaped.
It is often the business of comedy to correct excess, and Fielding has not spared the devious practices of a lawyer Scout, or the boorish greed of a Parson Trulliber. But his comedy includes a sense of delight, and the order into which he molds Joseph Andrews is a positive affirmation of the qualities of love, charity, and sincerity, expressed by Adams, Joseph, and Fanny.
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- Comedy -
the idea of male chatity seems particularly comic . Joseph is very funny in his passionate defenses of his virtue against the attempts of lady booby , Mrs Slip-sloop and betty the idea of man refusing a women is not acceptable in male controlled society where men are free to do whatever they want . yet , Fielding is not against male chastity but he makes Joseph very funny to
comedy is emphasized by Slip-slop's manner of speaking .
-The two heroes of Joseph Andrews are more than merely comic characters; more than a prudish young footman and a naive parson. They embody the essential virtues of the good man: chastity, and generosity and good nature. The careers of Joseph Andrews and Abraham Adams comprise brilliantly comic analogues to those of their biblical namesakes. The use of biblical analogues is surprisingly subtle contributing to the mock-heroic character of the .
-It is easy to laugh with Fielding at his Hogarthian gallery of vain and hypocritical innkeepers, squires, justices parsons, beaux and coquettes; but as the theory of the Ridiculous implies, Fielding’s laughter is corrective., and his laughter is usually sympathetic.
-Although he respects and admires the virtues of Parson Adams he makes him a laughable figure and even his kindness and honesty, the subject of gentle sympathetic laughter. Similarly he makes Joseph’s virtue amusing and Lady Booby’s amorousness ridiculous. Even when Joseph is stripped naked by thieves and left dying in a ditch he makes his plight ludicrous as he describes the rescue by the party in the stage-coach..
-Fielding’s purpose of laughing vice out of the world.
- The journey -
Fielding employs the journey of his protagonist as a metaphor for the journey of life. In other word he is metaphorically traveling on a journey that will change his life and start something new for him. his life with Fanny. and that He is a different person from when he sets out and when he arrives, as it is for all people when on their own journey of life
Joseph Andrews does make a deliberate move from the confusion and hypocrisy of London to the open sincerity of the country. As he state "a bad place where there is so little good fellowship , that the next door neighbors don't know one another" .
Fielding uses the device of the journey to represent the theme of City living versus living in retirement in the country. This was a common theme in eighteenth century literature, Joseph Andrews contrasts the useless, aimless, destructive life of London with the idyllic, simple pleasures of living in the country.
This journey is undertaken in more than simply geographical sense . Fielding takes his characters through a series of confusing episodes , finally aligning them with their correct partners in an improved social setting , from which the most recalcitrant characters are excluded; the characters , for the most part , have all measured and achieved a greater degree of self-knowledge . thus marriage of Fanny to a more experienced Joseph takes place in an ideal setting – the country- and is facilitated by the generosity of an enlightened Mr. Booby .
In addition, Fielding use the device of the journey tells us about England Society at that time . The judicial system at England society was corrupt . Most of the people at that time are hypocrite . They care for money . they don't know what the meaning of humanity . For Example ,At the beginning of the journey when Joseph stripped and robbed by two thieves , the stagecoach episode recalls the parable of the good Samaritan and underscores Fielding's theme of charity .While Joseph shows concern for the clothes he borrowed , only one of the travelers display any real compassion for Joseph's naked and battered state . The coachman thinks of his schedule and his fare ,the lady shock at the thought of a naked man , the old gentleman wants to make haste to avoid being robbed himself , and the lawyer is worried only by the possible legal repercussions . these are all types of selfishness and ingratitude . Only the postillion feels truly compassionate , the other travelers are selfish and hypocritical . Also The clergymen in the novel are not really religious men except Abraham Adams . They don't know anything about justice . In addition , they don't care about justice , they care about money and mirth . Also , they prefer the rich to the poor , all this evidences are example of social criticisms .
Moreover, we see the hero in the first two books is Abraham Adams because Joseph is still young and needs somebody to guide him and teach him like Adams .As his experiences accumulate He becomes the hero because he becomes a wiser and better man and a more credible vehicle for Fielding's moral interests, not because his nature changes but because he learns to handle circumstance with less pomposity and more grace. His maturity develops gradually, through the journey.
However , the journey end when Joseph and Fanny settle in the country , the movement away from the town is complete ; indeed the social order is re-aligned in a manner typical of a Shakespearian comedy , where people find their true natures and their destiny after much confusion and wandering .The same sense of destiny has guided Joseph after his dismissal from lady booby's household to his true home and identity ,
Henry Fielding was born on April 22, 1707, at the family estate, Sharpham Park, in Somerset, England. His mother died when he was eleven years old, and, on his father's remarriage, he was sent to school at Eton. He left Eton at seventeen and spent the next four years as a gentleman of leisure. After studying for 18 months at the University of Leiden in Holland, he began to support himself as a playwright in London. He wrote 25 plays before his satire, Historical Register, For the Year 1736, ridiculing Prime Minister Robert Walpole, led to the passage of the Licensing Act. This act, requiring governmental approval of all new plays, led to the end of his career as a playwright. Fielding sought to support his wife and two children by studying law and became a lawyer in 1740. He supplemented his income by writing for journals. Then in 1741 he wrote a scathing satire of Samuel Richardson's popular novel, Pamela; or Virtue Rewarded under the pseudonym of Conny Keyber. Soon after, he began work on Joseph Andrews, and this comic novel. often called the first realistic novel in English literature, was published in 1742. His beloved wife, Charlotte Cradock, who was the model for characters in his other novels, died in 1744. His support of the government during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, gained him the appointment of Justice of the Peace for two sections of central London in 1847. There he gained a reputation as an honest and fair magistrate. He and his half-brother, John , established the Bow Street Runners, a forerunner of the modern police force, to help curb the rampant crime in 18th century London. In 1749 his second novel, The History of Tom Jones, was published, and, two years later, his last novel, Amelia, appeared in print. The gout that had left him a virtual cripple led him to seek relief in the warmer climate of Portugal in June,1754. He died there on October 8, 1754
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Literary Style
Whereas Defoe and Richardson both attempt to hide the fictional nature of their work under the guise of 'memoirs' and 'letters' respectively, Henry Fielding adopted a position which represented a new departure in terms of prose fiction—in no way do his novels constitute an effort to disguise literary devices. In fact, he was the first major novelist to openly admit that his prose fiction was pure artefact. Also, in comparison with his arch rival and contemporary, Richardson, Fielding presents his reader with a much wider range of characters taken from all social classes.
Fielding's lack of psychological realism (i.e. the feelings and emotions of his characters are rarely explored in any depth) can perhaps be put down to his overriding concern to reveal the universal order of things. It can be argued that his novel Tom Jones reflects its author's essentially neoclassical outlook—character is something the individual is blessed with at birth, a part of life's natural order or pattern. Characters within Fielding's novels also correspond largely to types; e.g. Squire Western is a typically boorish and uncultivated Tory squire, obsessed with fox hunting, drinking and acquiring more property.
So Fielding's comic epic contains a range of wonderful—but essentially static—characters whose motives and behaviour are largely predetermined. There is little emotional depth to his portrayal of them, and the complex realities of interactive human relationships that are so much a part of the modern novel are of negligible importance to him. Perhaps the character we come to know best is the figure of the omniscient narrator himself (i.e. Fielding) whose company some of his readers come to enjoy.[
Fielding’s first venture into prose fiction came a year previously with the publication in pamphlet form of Shamela, a travesty of, and direct response to, the stylistic failings and moral hypocrisy that Fielding saw in Richardson’s Pamela. Richardson’s epistolary tale of a resolute servant girl, armed only with her ‘virtue’, battling against her master’s attempts at seduction had become an overnight literary sensation in 1741. The implicit moral message – that a girl’s chastity has eventual value as a commodity – as well as the awkwardness of the epistolary form in dealing with ongoing events, and the triviality of the detail which the form necessitates, were some of the main targets of Fielding’s parody
Richardson would continue to be a target of Fielding’s first novel, but the Pamela phenomenon was just one example of what he saw as a culture of literary abuses in the mid-eighteenth century. Colley Cibber, poet laureate and mock-hero of Pope’s Dunciad, is identified in the first chapter of the novel as another offender against propriety, morality and literary value.
The impetus for the novel, as Fielding claims in the preface, is the establishment of a genre of writing ‘which I do not remember to have been hitherto attempted in our language’, defined as the ‘comic epic-poem in prose’: a work of prose fiction, epic in length and variety of incident and character, in the hypothetical spirit of Homer’s lost (and possibly apocryphal) comic poem. He dissociates his fiction from the scandal-memoir and the contemporary novel. Book III describes the work as biography.
As becomes apparent from the first few chapters of the novel in which Richardson and Cibber are parodied mercilessly, the real germ of Joseph Andrews is Fielding’s objection to the moral and technical limitations of the popular literature of his day. But while Shamela started and finished as a sustained subversion of a rival work, in Joseph Andrews Fielding merely uses the perceived depravation of popular literature as a springboard to conceive more fully his own philosophy of prose fiction
THEMES IN JOSEPH ANDREWS
• Appearance versus reality. Who is truly virtuous, charitable, chaste, knowledgeable, just, etc. and who merely pretends to be and/or has the reputation of being so? Characters say one thing and mean another, or they act at variance with their speech. How, in Fielding's view, can the reader distinguish the person who pretends out of vanity or who is hypocritical from the truly good man/woman?
• Abuse of power, by individuals, classes, institutions.
• Inhumanity of individuals and society.
• Lust versus chastity.
• The nature of goodness. Fielding admired honesty, integrity, simplicity, and charity, believed that virtue is seen in an individual's actions, but recognized the difficulty of making moral judgments. How is the reader to judge the postilion who gave Joseph his coat but was later convicted of stealing chickens? or Betty, who is charitable and promiscuous? Nor do good men necessarily have harmonious relationships or understand each other, as is seen in Adam's interactions with the Catholic priest and the innkeeper previously hoodwinked by the "generous gentleman."
• Charity. (This theme is related to the issue of faith versus works.)
• Vanity. Are there degrees or kinds of vanity? The vanity of a Leonora is destructive, but what is the effect of Adams's vanity (his pride in his worldly knowledge derived from books, his pride in his sermons, and his pride in his excellence as a teacher)?
• City living versus living in retirement in the country. This was a common theme in eighteenth century literature, as it had been in classical Roman literature. Wilson's story contrasts the useless, aimless, destructive life of London with the idyllic, simple pleasures of living in the country.
Appearance versus reality.
Who is truly virtuous, charitable, chaste, knowledgeable, just, etc. and who merely pretends to be and/or has the reputation of being so? Characters say one thing and mean another, or they act at variance with their speech. How, in Fielding's view, can the reader distinguish the person who pretends out of vanity or who is hypocritical from the truly good man/woman?
Abuse of power, by individuals, classes, institutions.
Inhumanity of individuals and society.
Lust versus chastity.
The nature of goodness
. Fielding admired honesty, integrity, simplicity, and charity, believed that virtue is seen in an individual's actions, but recognized the difficulty of making moral judgments. How is the reader to judge the postilion who gave Joseph his coat but was later convicted of stealing chickens? or Betty, who is charitable and promiscuous? Nor do good men necessarily have harmonious relationships or understand each other, as is seen in Adam's interactions with the Catholic priest and the innkeeper previously hoodwinked by the "generous gentleman."
Charity.
(This theme is related to the issue of faith versus works.)
Vanity.
Are there degrees or kinds of vanity? The vanity of a Leonora is destructive, but what is the effect of Adams's vanity (his pride in his worldly knowledge derived from books, his pride in his sermons, and his pride in his excellence as a teacher)?
City living versus living in retirement in the country.
This was a common theme in eighteenth century literature, as it had been in classical Roman literature. Wilson's story contrasts the useless, aimless, destructive life of London with the idyllic, simple pleasures of living in the country.
Setting and Historical Background
The novel takes place in the early eighteenth century. It mirrors the lifestyle, caste system, hypocrisy, and corruption of the times. England was becoming a commercial power and wealth was shifting from the landowners to the merchants.
The defeat of the Jacobites (the Catholics who wished to restore the Stuart dynasty to the throne of England) at Culloden Moor in 1745 brought to a close any serious threat to the Hanoverian line of British royalty. The rural populace was being drawn to the cities with the lure of higher wages, but the living conditions of the poor were still deplorable. The social caste system was rigid, but beginning to give under the pressure of the new, moneyed middle class
Character:
Joseph Ansrews :: A handsome young fellow who battles for his virginity throughout the novel .
Lady Booby :: A hot-blooded young widow who tries every way possible to seduce Joseph .
Mr.Abraham Adams:: A charitable curate .
Fanny Goodwill :: A beautiful young country girl , Joseph's beloved .
Mrs.Slipslop:: A repulsive servant woman who also pursues Joseph .
Sir.Thomas Booby:: The deceased husband of Lady Booby.
Mr.Booby:: The nephew of sir Thomas Booby.
Gaffar and Gammar Ansrews::Parents of Pamela and, it is believed, of Joseph.
Peter pounce:: The steward of Lady Booby .
The Wilsons::The real parents of Joseph Andrews .
The pedlar(peddler):: The man who reveals the secret of Joseph's parentage .
lawyer Scout :: An unscrupulous lawyer .
Mr.Tow-wouse:: A bumbling , good-natured innkeeper.
Mrs.Tow-wouse:: The greedy wife of the innkeeper .
Postillion:: A generous fellow who offers Joseph an overcoat to cover his nakedness .
Betty::A warm-hearted chambermaid .
Lady Tille And Lady Tattle::Two gossips .
Plain Tim ::A good-hearted host .
Barnabas:: A punch-drinking clergymen .
Tom Suckbribe:: The constable .
Leonora:: A silly young girl who loses tow lovers because of her vacillations .
Horatio::A suitor who has no money but much love for Leonora .
Bellarmine::A suitor who has little love for Leonora but who hopes to inherit her father's fortune .
Lindamira :: A gossip .
Mrs.Grave-airs :: A prude .
Parson Trulliber:: A hypocritical country parson .
Lawyer Scout:: An unscrupulous lawyer .
Mrs.Adams:: Parson Adams disagreeable wife .
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A comparison of characters:
Of the myriad of characters that the reader encounters throughout Henry Fielding's eighteenth-century satirical novel, Joseph Andrews, Parson Adams and Joseph Andrews himself are by far the most memorable. Their encounters and misadventures form the core of the novel's experience. Throughout the novel, their personalities are revealed by their interactions with the other characters and with each other. Being best of friends, they share many characteristics. They devote themselves to God, rise above their peers in moral character, and posses greater learning than their peers. Their friendship does not prevent them from contrasting with each other on several points, however. They differ in their views of schools and their gullibility.
The first and most notable characteristic that Joseph Andrews and Parson Adams share is their devotion to God. Such devotion is clearly evident in Adams, not only because of his position as a clergyman but also in his actions. During an episode in which Joseph and Adams are in great danger, Adams' devotion to God is proven. "Adams now fell on his Knees, and committed himself to the Care of Providence," (206). Joseph is likewise devoted to God. Believing he is about to die, Joseph says, "Poor Fanny, I would I could have lived to see thee! but God's Will be done," (94). Despite his singular obsession with Fanny, he still settles himself to the wishes of God, making his devotion clear.
Throughout their adventures in the countryside of England, Joseph and Adams rise above their peers in moral character. Despite temptations and forces goading them towards an ill deed, they preserve in their morality and ultimately benefit from such resistance. Joseph Andrews, in the beginning of the novel, shows his moral character when he refuses to be seduced by Lady Booby. After she repeatedly attempts to bring him into her bed, she tells him in a frustrated manner, "I find I was mistaken in you, so get you down Stairs, and never let me see your Face again: your pretended Innocence cannot impose on me," (71). His refusal to compromise his moral standards in incidents such as this is made clear by Fielding. Parson Adams also posses great moral character. When he comes to the house of a fellow parson asking for a much-needed loan that he intends to repay in all honesty, he is flatly denied on the grounds that a clergyman shouldn't be traveling about the country as the parson is doing. Adams responds, "but suppose I am not a Clergyman, I am nevertheless thy Brother, and thou, as a Christian, much more as a Clergyman, art obliged to relieve my Distress," (185). When he is once again denied, Adams criticizes the man for not following the Scriptures.
If I may reason from your Practice: for their Commands are so explicit, and their Rewards and Punishments so immense, that it is impossible a Man should steadfastly believe without obeying. Now, there is no Command more express, no Duty more frequently enjoined than Charity. Whoever therefore is void of Charity, I make no scruple of pronouncing that he is no Christian. (185)
Through his keen observation, Adams reveals the man to be immoral, and shows Adams' own moral character to rise above that of the man.
Both Joseph and Adams are educated compared to their peers. Adams most clearly possesses great learning. It is an integral part of his character. In the beginning of the book, a vivid description is given.
Mr. Abraham Adams was an excellent Scholar. He was a perfect Master of the Greek and Latin Languages; to which he added a great Share of Knowledge in the Oriental Tongues, and could read and translate French, Italian, and Spanish. He applied many years to most sever Study, and had treasured up a Fund of Learning rarely to be met with in a University. (65)
In comparison to the normal citizen of the time, Adams seems to be a great deal more intelligent. The first meeting between Adams and Joseph depends upon Joseph's similar aptitude for learning compared to similar people his age. After questioning Joseph about several subjects, Adams declares that, "he answer'd much better than Sir Thomas, or two other neighbouring Justices of the Peace could probably have done," (65). Both Joseph and Adams are learned compared to the other characters they meet in the novel.
Despite their many similarities, Adams and Joseph differ on several points. One of them is their view on schools. The essential debate comes down to the quality of British public schools. Joseph Andrews throws his support towards public schools.
You know, my late Master, Sir Thomas Bobby, was bred at a public School, and he was the finest Gentleman in all the Neighbourhood. And I have often heard him say, if he had a hundred Boys he would breed them all at the same Place. (237)
Adams holds an entirely different opinion on this matter, however, which coincides with his position as a clergyman and his devotion to God. "Public Schools are the Nurseries of all Vice and Immorality. All the wicked Fellows whom I remember at the University were bread at them," (236). Joseph's willingness to contest Adams' opinions shows that they must differ in some ways.
The simplicity of Adams' character is evident in his gullibility compared to Joseph. During one episode, they are promised various extravagant offers by a gentlemen who pretends to be sympathetic to their plight. After giving several excuses that prevent him from following through on his promise, Adams still doesn't understand the situation. "This must be a sudden Accident, as the Sickness or Death of a Relation, or some such unforeseen Misfortune," (193). Adams honestly believes that the man had intentions of honoring his promises. Joseph is less gullible, and realizes that the man has been playing with them. "For whenever a Man of Fashion doth not care to fulfil his promises, the Custom is, to order his Servants that he will never be at home to the Person so promised," (193). Joseph sees through the lies he is being told and falls back upon his greater experience of the world than Adams.
Throughout Joseph Andrews, the relationship between Adams and Joseph forms an important element of the story. Their great friendship brings them through difficult times and benefits them both. This friendship is composed of both their similarities, which help them get along, and their differences, which allow each of them to expand the other's world view. The relationship would not be as dynamic without the interaction derived from these similarities and differences. In comparison, they devote themselves to God, rise above their peers in moral character, and posses greater learning than their peers. In contrast, they differ in their views of schools and their gullibility.
- characterstic -
It is the active virtue in Adams' case, it is flawed by just the right amount of vanity and inconsistency of Adams, Joseph, and Fanny that redeems this book from the flock of hypocrites that peoples its pages. Indeed, Fielding explains in his preface that he has made Adams a clergyman "since no other office could have given him so many opportunities of displaying his worthy inclinations.' It is important we realize that despite Joseph and Fanny remaining types, as do all the other characters, Adams emerges as an individual. He is a positive force not only as a clergyman who puts his principles of charity into practice, but as a man who applies himself to Aeschylus for comfort, as well as to his pipe and ale, manages to confront the physical obstacles of the world in the most awkward ways, prides himself rather too much as a teacher of Latin and as a writer of sermons, and takes people absolutely at face value. He not only fits into the positive side of Fielding's comic pattern, but emerges as a "round" and fully developed character who reinforces his goodness by his humanity.
The other characters are "flat"; they are types, rather than individuals, and are depicted by an emphasis on a single characteristic; greediness sums up Mrs. Tow-wouse, while Mrs. Slip-slop comes to life through her malapropisms. "I describe not men, but manners; not an individual, but a species," Fielding states in Book III, Chapter 1; portraying people as types enables him to include them more easily in his comic visions; we can more easily survey the eccentricities of the rest of the species, using our detachment (Adams' detachment) to place and criticize them.
There are two important points to be made about Fielding's method of characterization. First, when asked about the province of the novel as a genre, most people would probably reply in terms of "the real, the actual, and the everyday." Consider what Fielding does. All of the characters in Joseph Andrews, with one exception, reveal themselves in a realistic and vividly portrayed setting. The exception, of course, is Parson Adams, who exists in the same world, but does not relate to it and, in this way, he becomes a positive force. It is the task of the novelist to convey the actual flavor of life, but there is a place for idealism as well as realism. Just as Fielding's control gives an order to the fragments of real life, so Adams' naivete and innocence add an extra dimension to the strong sense of actuality conveyed in Joseph Andrews.
The second point concerns the idea of appearance. In real life we must always judge people by externals; the novel, however, offers an extra dimension. In the novel, we can penetrate the facades and see what people are really thinking, whereas in real life we have only the evidence of their words and actions. This is not a process in which Fielding indulges himself, however; his dramatic instinct often has his characters confront each other in much the same way that they might in real life. The characters may be deceived by or mistaken about each other, but the theme of appearance versus reality is communicated to the reader. Fielding clearly shows us how difficult it is to penetrate through the trappings to the heart of man.
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- charity -
the contrast between the greedy Peter Pounce who strips Joseph of his livery and the genrouse servant who provides Joseph with a frock and breeches .
Joseph find warmth and humanity Neither Betty the maid nor Mr.tow-wouse are perfect creature , but their kindness to Joseph contrasts strongly with the behavior of the surgeon and with Mrs.tow-wouse outrage .
Baranabs and the surgeon concern only for the advertisment of their own assumed abilities rather than for public justice .
Trulliber does nothing to help Adams he claim to know what charity is while it is only the poor peddler who knows the true charity as with the postillion who offers his greatcoat to the naked Joseph , socitey has not been kind to this truly compassionate man .
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Preface -
The title of the page of Joseph Andrews makes it clear that th novel is based on the romance entitled Don Quixote written by cervantes .The similarty between the 2 work emphasizes in the character of Don and Adam noth of them are inpractical idealists .The Don is living in his dream of eorld romantic finding and definding virtue while Adams is living in the world of the bible and greek philosph . both of them are always absent minded and always falling into troubles also they both are good character .
But where as Don Quixote is serious romance ,Joseph Andrews is comic romance or comic epic in prose as fielding defines the form of his novel in the preface .Felding says that while both the epics and the romances are long works of imaginative experiences , many character of the high rank and elevated language ,Joseph Andrews is a long work of real experience , characters of the low rank and very sinple language .Moreover , unlike the seriouse epics and romances Joseph Andrews is written in prose rather than poetry it's also comic and not serious .By comic Fileding means that his novel is a realistic mirror of the socity at that time .Human nature is the subject of this novel and the assertion of human reclism is the main focus .In other words , Felding is presenting his novel inorder to attack all the unrealistic and dangerous attitude of Don Quixote , Pamela and other .
The Preface defines the content of the novel . The Novel is a satire of the vices of the 18th century English society . The satric thesis of the novel is presented in the conflict between morality and hypocrisy Feilding aim is to reveal affecations or false pretence which usually come from vanity and hypocrisy .
He does that by portraying the rediculous by putting his character into funny situation where the reders are supposed to laugh at the funny diffrence between appearance and reality.
- Note -
-Written in imitation of the Manner of Cervantes, Author of Don Quixote.
- in the preface as a comic epic poem in prose.
-Parson Adams is indeed a truly Quixotic figure and the structure of the book also follows Cervantes. Joseph Andrews is a novel of adventures met while travelling on the road. Joseph loses his employment in Lady Booby’s service in London for refusing her attempts to seduce him as well as those of her maid Mrs. Slipslop. On his way home to the country to his sweetheart Fanny, he meets Parson Adams, whose teaching had so fortified his virtue, walking to London in the hope of getting his sermons published; but Adams has forgotten to bring his sermons with him and so returns with Joseph. Together they run all kinds of adventures meeting a host of characters from low and middle-class layers of society: innkeepers, chambermaids, country squires and clergymen.
-There is also a number of similarities not just in manner but in incident as well, among which we could mention the night adventure in the inn involving Don Quixote, Maritornes and the mule driver with the confusion in Mrs. Slipslop’s bedchamber; Maritornes’ charity with Sancho with that of Betty.
-Characters and plot mutually function to illustrate the dominant thematic motifs of the novel, namely the exposure of vanity and hypocrisy in society and the recommendation of their antithetical virtues, charity and chastity, and the classical ideal of life.
-in Joseph Andrews in particular. For methods of planning, developing and unfolding his plots and presenting his characters, Fielding turned to the drama. He is particularly indebted to the comedy of manners, the light, gay, and burlesque Restoration Comedy
-In his preface to Joseph Andrews Fielding declares his satirical purpose. ‘The ridiculous only (...) falls within my province in the present work’, he says, proceeding to explain the term and how often it has been mistaken. ‘The only source of the true Ridiculous’, he goes on, ‘is affectation... Now, affectation proceeds from one of these two causes, vanity or hypocrisy.
-The comic romance, Fielding tells us in his Preface, differs from the serious one in that its fable and action are ridiculous, its characters are sometimes of inferior rank and manners and its sentiments and diction are ludicrous..
-Fielding himself, in the preface, explains that he has written “a comic epic poem in prose,” with a “light and ridiculous” fable instead of a “grave and solemn” one, ludicrous sentiments instead of sublime and characters of inferior instead of superior rank.
- -Until Joseph Andrews came out, that life had never been exhibited in England with so much sense of character, so clear an insight into motives, so keen an interest. What the book owes to Cervantes is its form, in which the loosely-knit plot follows the travels and adventures of Adams, Andrews and Fanny.
- Form -
Joseph Andrews is a picaresque novel of the road; the title page tells us that it was "Written in Imitation of the Manner of CERVANTES, Author of Don Quixote." Despite its looseness of construction, however, Joseph Andrews does make a deliberate move from the confusion and hypocrisy of London to the open sincerity of the country; one might perhaps apply Fielding's own words in a review he wrote of Charlotte Lennox's The Female Quixote: "...here is a regular story, which, though possibly it is not pursued with that epic regularity which would give it the name of an action, comes nearer to that perfection than the loose unconnected adventures in Don Quixote; of which you may transverse the order as you please, without an injury to the whole."
This journey is undertaken in more than a simply geographical sense. Fielding takes his characters through a series of confusing episodes, finally aligning them with their correct partners in an improved social setting, from which the most recalcitrant characters are excluded; the characters, for the most part, have all measured and achieved a greater degree of self-knowledge. Thus the marriage of Fanny to a more experienced Joseph takes place in an ideal setting--the country--and is facilitated by the generosity of an enlightened Mr. Booby. Lady Booby, unchanged and unreformed, returns to London, excluding herself from the society which Fielding has reshaped.
It is often the business of comedy to correct excess, and Fielding has not spared the devious practices of a lawyer Scout, or the boorish greed of a Parson Trulliber. But his comedy includes a sense of delight, and the order into which he molds Joseph Andrews is a positive affirmation of the qualities of love, charity, and sincerity, expressed by Adams, Joseph, and Fanny.
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- Comedy -
the idea of male chatity seems particularly comic . Joseph is very funny in his passionate defenses of his virtue against the attempts of lady booby , Mrs Slip-sloop and betty the idea of man refusing a women is not acceptable in male controlled society where men are free to do whatever they want . yet , Fielding is not against male chastity but he makes Joseph very funny to
comedy is emphasized by Slip-slop's manner of speaking .
-The two heroes of Joseph Andrews are more than merely comic characters; more than a prudish young footman and a naive parson. They embody the essential virtues of the good man: chastity, and generosity and good nature. The careers of Joseph Andrews and Abraham Adams comprise brilliantly comic analogues to those of their biblical namesakes. The use of biblical analogues is surprisingly subtle contributing to the mock-heroic character of the .
-It is easy to laugh with Fielding at his Hogarthian gallery of vain and hypocritical innkeepers, squires, justices parsons, beaux and coquettes; but as the theory of the Ridiculous implies, Fielding’s laughter is corrective., and his laughter is usually sympathetic.
-Although he respects and admires the virtues of Parson Adams he makes him a laughable figure and even his kindness and honesty, the subject of gentle sympathetic laughter. Similarly he makes Joseph’s virtue amusing and Lady Booby’s amorousness ridiculous. Even when Joseph is stripped naked by thieves and left dying in a ditch he makes his plight ludicrous as he describes the rescue by the party in the stage-coach..
-Fielding’s purpose of laughing vice out of the world.
- The journey -
Fielding employs the journey of his protagonist as a metaphor for the journey of life. In other word he is metaphorically traveling on a journey that will change his life and start something new for him. his life with Fanny. and that He is a different person from when he sets out and when he arrives, as it is for all people when on their own journey of life
Joseph Andrews does make a deliberate move from the confusion and hypocrisy of London to the open sincerity of the country. As he state "a bad place where there is so little good fellowship , that the next door neighbors don't know one another" .
Fielding uses the device of the journey to represent the theme of City living versus living in retirement in the country. This was a common theme in eighteenth century literature, Joseph Andrews contrasts the useless, aimless, destructive life of London with the idyllic, simple pleasures of living in the country.
This journey is undertaken in more than simply geographical sense . Fielding takes his characters through a series of confusing episodes , finally aligning them with their correct partners in an improved social setting , from which the most recalcitrant characters are excluded; the characters , for the most part , have all measured and achieved a greater degree of self-knowledge . thus marriage of Fanny to a more experienced Joseph takes place in an ideal setting – the country- and is facilitated by the generosity of an enlightened Mr. Booby .
In addition, Fielding use the device of the journey tells us about England Society at that time . The judicial system at England society was corrupt . Most of the people at that time are hypocrite . They care for money . they don't know what the meaning of humanity . For Example ,At the beginning of the journey when Joseph stripped and robbed by two thieves , the stagecoach episode recalls the parable of the good Samaritan and underscores Fielding's theme of charity .While Joseph shows concern for the clothes he borrowed , only one of the travelers display any real compassion for Joseph's naked and battered state . The coachman thinks of his schedule and his fare ,the lady shock at the thought of a naked man , the old gentleman wants to make haste to avoid being robbed himself , and the lawyer is worried only by the possible legal repercussions . these are all types of selfishness and ingratitude . Only the postillion feels truly compassionate , the other travelers are selfish and hypocritical . Also The clergymen in the novel are not really religious men except Abraham Adams . They don't know anything about justice . In addition , they don't care about justice , they care about money and mirth . Also , they prefer the rich to the poor , all this evidences are example of social criticisms .
Moreover, we see the hero in the first two books is Abraham Adams because Joseph is still young and needs somebody to guide him and teach him like Adams .As his experiences accumulate He becomes the hero because he becomes a wiser and better man and a more credible vehicle for Fielding's moral interests, not because his nature changes but because he learns to handle circumstance with less pomposity and more grace. His maturity develops gradually, through the journey.
However , the journey end when Joseph and Fanny settle in the country , the movement away from the town is complete ; indeed the social order is re-aligned in a manner typical of a Shakespearian comedy , where people find their true natures and their destiny after much confusion and wandering .The same sense of destiny has guided Joseph after his dismissal from lady booby's household to his true home and identity ,