The title page of
Henry Fielding’s first novel reads as follows: “The history of the
adventures of Joseph Andrews and of his friend Mr. Abraham Adams, Written in
imitation of the Manner of Cervantes, Author of Don Quixote.” The
allusion to Cervantes and his masterpiece Don Quixote is significant as it
shows Fielding’s indebtedness to Cervantes. Parson Adams is indeed a truly
Quixotic figure, and the structure of the book also follows Cervantes’
picaresque model. Joseph Andrews is a novel of adventures met while travelling
on the road. Joseph loses his employment in Lady Booby’s service in London, on
his way home to the country to his sweetheart Fanny, he meets Parson Adams.
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.
The picaresque
tradition belongs to Spain and derived from the word “picaro”,
meaning a rogue or a villain. The picaresque originally involved the
misadventure of the rogue-hero, mainly on the highway. Soon, however, the rogue
was replaced by a conventional hero – gallant and chivalric. The comic element
lay in the nature of the hero’s adventures, through which, generally, society
was satirized.
Fielding’s affinity with picaresque model appears first of all in the
representation of rogue and villainy; secondly, in the humorous style which
often takes a mock-heroic turn, and in the geniality of temperament; thirdly,
in the portrait of characters of certain lower classes of men and women; and
finally, in the humorous or satiric descriptions of the contents of the
chapters and the introduction of side stories or episodes into the main
narrative.
Thus, the journey in
Joseph Andrews is not a mere picaresque rambling, a device solely for the
purpose of introducing new adventures such as we find in the classic picaresque
story, , but an allegorical journey, a moral pilgrimage, from the vanity and
corruption of the city-life to the relative naturalness and simplicity of the
country. The picaresque motif helps Fielding to fulfill his aim of ridiculing
the affectations of human beings. The different strata of society can be
represented through the picaresque mode. The travelers meet squires,
innkeepers, landladies, persons, philosophers, lawyers and surgeons, beggars,
pedlars and robbers and rogues. Fielding’s satire is pungent as he presents the
worldly and crafty priests and the callous, vicious and inhuman country
squires. Malice, selfishness, vanities, hypocrisies, lack of charity, all are
ridiculed as human follies.
The Picaresque novel
is the loosest in plot – the hero is literally let loose on the high road for
his adventures. The hero wanders from place to place encountering thieves and
rogues, rescuing damsels in distress, fighting duels, falling in love, being
thrown in prison, and meeting a vast section of society. As the hero meets a
gamut of characters from the country squire to the haughty aristocrat, from
hypocrite to ill-tempered soldiers, the writer is able to introduce with the
least possible incongruity, the saint and the sinner, the virtuous and the
vicious. The writer has a chance to present the life, culture and morality
prevalent in his time, and to satirize the evils.
Fielding acknowledged
his debt to Cervantes, whose Don Quixote is the best known picaresque novel in
Spanish.
Like the Don Quixote
and Panza, Parson Adams and Joseph set out on a journey which involves them in
a series of adventures, some of them burlesque, at several country inns or
rural houses. Like the Don, Parson Adams is a dreamy idealist. But there are
differences, too, between Joseph Andrews and the picaresque tradition, vital
enough to consider Fielding’s novel as belonging to the genre of its own.
The central journey in
Joseph Andrews is not mainly a quest for adventure as it is in the picaresque
tradition. It is a sober return journey homewards. Joseph and Lady Booby are
taken to London and the reader is given a glimpse of society’s ways in that
great city.
It is in Chapter 10 of
Book I that the picaresque element enters the novel, with Joseph setting out in
a borrowed coat towards home. The picaresque tradition is maintained uptil the
end of Book III. Joseph meets with the first misadventure when he is set upon
by robbers, beaten, stripped and thrown unconscious into a ditch. A passing stage-coach
and its passengers very reluctantly convey Joseph to an inn. The incident gives
ample scope to Fielding for satirizing the pretences and affectations of an
essentially inhuman society.
The Tow-wouse Inn
provides a grim picture of callous human beings – the vain and ignorant surgeon
and the drinking parson. Once again kindness and generosity come from an
apparently immoral girl, Betty the chambermaid. With the arrival of Parson
Adams, the picaresque journey takes on a more humorous tone, with plenty of
farce. The encounter with the “Patriot” who would like to see all cowards
banged but who turns tail at the first sight of danger, leads to the meeting
with Fanny. She is rescued by Adams in proper picaresque-romance style with
hero. Several odd characters are met on the way – such as the hunting squire –
the squire who makes false promises. Then comes the abduction of Fanny – and
the reintroduction of something more serious.
We also have the
interpolated stories, which belong to the picaresque tradition. In his use of
this device, Fielding shows how far he has come from the picaresque school.
To conclude, Joseph
Andrews has a rather rambling and discursive narrative, which makes us to
believe that it is a picaresque novel. But, on the whole, it is not a
picaresque novel rather the picaresque mode has helped him in the development
of his comic theory – that of ridiculing the affectations of human beings.
“Joseph Andrews” a
comic epic in prose:
It is true that we can
term “Joseph Andrews” as a ‘comic epic poem
in prose’ because it has almost all the prerequisites that are
important for labeling it as a ‘comic epic poem in prose’.
Fielding himself
termed it as a ‘comic epic poem in prose’ in the “Preface
to Joseph Andrews”. 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 in prose": a work of
prose fiction, epic in length and variety of incident and
character. Fielding has combined the ideal of ‘comic epic’ and
the ‘prose epic’ to produce what he termed as ‘comic
epic poem in prose’.The comic tone of the novel is enhanced by the
mock-heroic style, for Fielding admitted burlesque in the diction. It is
instrumental in heightening the ridiculous nature of situation and
affectations.
A heroic epic has
a towering hero, grand theme, a continuous action, a journey to
underworld, wars, digressions, discovery, high seriousness, a high moral lesson
and bombastic diction in it and in“Joseph Andrews” there
is an ordinary hero, a journey from one place to another place, mock-wars,
digressions, discovery, humour, a high moral and a bombastic
diction in it. Unlike a heroic epic, the hero of “Joseph
Andrews” is an ordinary boy. He is a foot-man of Lady
Booby who has fallen in love with him. But Joseph is very virtuous and
chaste and therfore is dismissed from his job. We can call “Joseph
Andrews” as “The Odyssey on the road” because
both the works, Homer’s “Odyssey” and Fielding’s “Joseph
Andrews” in the first place involve a journey. Like
Odysseus, Joseph Andrews after the displeasure of a lady, sets out on his way
home and meets with many misfortunes on the way. So it would be fairly
justified to call Joseph Andrews “ an epic of the
highway full of adventures, horseplay and not too decent fun.”
Through the journey of
Joseph, Fielding satirizes the society of the day and ridicules them. The
corrupt and hypocritical clergy, Parson Trilluber and Parson Barnabas,
individual like Lady Booby and Mrs. Slipslop, the Squire of Fools and the
Squire of False Promises have been satirized.
The element of wars and conflicts is very important in an epic
and it is no exception in “Joseph Andrews”. First
of all, there is a conflict between lusty advances of lady Booby and Mrs.
Slipslop and chastity of Joseph. Also there is a conflict between generosity
of Parson Adams and misely Parson Trulliber and Mrs. Tow-
Wouse.Then we see some real action in the form of a war in an inn where
Joseph was insulted by the host. Parson Adams was annoyed and challenged the
host. There started the first war between both the parties. The funny
situation of the bloody fight in which Parson Adams gets doused in hog’s blood
is described in Homeric terms. Then Parson Adams rescues Fanny from a ruffian
and then, a squire attacks Parson Adams with his hounds and a fierce
battle is fought between hunter’s hounds and parson Adams. Joseph’s encounter
with the dogs let loose on Parson Adams is described in epic-style.
Similarly There are many other epical elements in the novel to call it a comic
epic.
Another epic convention is the use of digression. There
are two major digressions in “Joseph Andrews”. There
are, seemingly, irrelevant stories of Leonara and Mr. Wilson. Epic
writers considered them as embellishments. Fielding, however, makes the
interpolations thematically relevant. For, these are not irrelevant
in reality.
The formula of discovery, as described by Aristotle, an essential
element of an epic, has also been used by Fielding. In the end of the novel, we
see that Joseph is recognized to be Mr. Wilson’s child and Fanny as the sister
of virtuous Pamela.
High seriousness is an important element in epic. But in “Joseph
Andrews” there is a great deal of comedy and humour, because it is
a comic epic novel; indeed in Joseph Andrews the comic point of view is
sustained throughout the novel. But behind this comedy, there lies a serious
purpose of reformation. We have a gamut of vain and hypocritical
characters in Parson Trilluber, Parson Barnabas, passengers in the
stage-coach, Mr. Tow-wouse, Mrs. Slipslop, Peter Pounce and the various
Squires. The surgeon and the lawyer and the magistrate are also some other
example of hypocrisy and vanity. Each of these characters provides a great deal
of humour and amusement under a serious purpose.
Every epic has a moral lesson in it and this is no exception with
a comic epic. Fielding’s views on morality are practical, full of common sense
and tolerance, liberal, flexible and more realistic. These are devoid of
prudish and rigid codes. Fielding wanted to tear the veil of vanity and
hypocrisy.
The use of grand, bombastic and elevated language is an
important element in an epic. It has heroic diction. But in “Joseph
Andrews” we see that Fielding has used prose for poetry because it
brings us close to the real and actual life and it is much more suitable for
Fielding’s purpose of dealing with comic epic. However, his use of prose is
very good, up to the mark and apt for his novel.
So, we can conclude that
the theory of the ‘comic epic poem in prose’ as
described by Fielding in the preface of “Joseph Andrews” manifests
itself in the novel. Fielding has assimilated the rules and adapted them to his
way of writing so well that we are not consciously aware of the formal
principles which give unity to his materials. According to Thornbury, “Joseph
Andrews” by Fielding is: “An art which conceals art,
but is the art of a conscious artist.”
Realism in Joseph
Andrews:
Realism means conceiving
and representing the things as they are. Henry Fielding is widely
regarded as the first great realist in English novel. He is among the few
writers who, despite the wideness of their scope are capable of observing the
demands of reality with perpetual ease. His novels hold up to view a
representative picture of his age. He is as authentic a chronicler of his day
as Chaucer was of the later 14th century.
It is true that
Richardson and Defoe have some claim to have brought realism to English fiction,
it is Fielding who can be called the real pioneer in realistic mode of novel
writing. Fielding reacted against Richardson’s
sentimentalism as a falsifying influence on the study of reality, although he
does not reject sentimentalism altogether. “His desire”,
says Cazamian, “is to give sentiment its right place; but also to
integrate it in an organic series of tendencies where each contributes to
maintain a mutual balance.”
Fielding’s realism is
called “universal realism” as well as global. As
Fielding says in the Preface to “Joseph Andrews”:“I believe I might aver
that I have writ little more than I have seen.”
Fielding’s novels
present the fairly comprehensive picture of English society in 18th century.
Though Fielding does not give us material about the environment of the people,
yet their mental and moral characteristics are displayed with “power
of realism”. The landlords, landladies, doctors, lawyers, clergyman,
postilions and coachmen – all go towards making the picture of society as
comprehensive as possible. Fielding rejects burlesque and caricature,
inspiring laughter with humour and amazing realism. The novel is infused with
compassion, comedy, and a heightened sense of realism, which together turn into
a vivid manifestation of the cankers of the society.
The eighteenth century
society which appears on the pages of “Joseph Andrews” is not
very pleasant picture. It is marked by an astounding callousness and
selfishness. The insensitive hardness of such a
society is brilliantly portrayed by stage-coach passengers who are reluctant to
admit the naked wounded Joseph on account of various pretexts. Only the
poor postillion offers a great coat “his only garment”, and
vows that he would rather remain in a shirt than “suffer a
fellow-creature to lie in so miserable a condition.” The surgeon, who
is summoned to look at Joseph’s wounds at the inn, refuses to come out of his
comfortable bed for a mere foot passenger. Parson Trulliber,
who uses his Christian teachings to speak against beggars and refuses to lend
Adam even a few shillings, scornfully declares: “I know what
charity is better than to give it to vagabonds.”
We have
also flashes of kindness amongst this all repressive
inhumanity. Parson Adams, the postilion, the reformed Mr.
Wilson, Betty the chambermaid and four peddlers are only
ones to act with generosity.
The society is divided into clear cut classes – the high and the low. Dudden
notices a " gulf which seems to separate the classes–the ‘high
people' from the ‘low people..."
The two classes
may have dealings with one another in private, as Fielding tells us, but
they scrupulously refuse to recognize each other in public. The rich
regard themselves as the better and superior in every sense to the
poor. Lady Booby could not think in her wildest dreams of admitting Adams to
her table, for she considers him to be badly dressed. Mrs. Slipslop does not
deign to recognize a ‘nobody’ like Fanny at an inn. While Fielding exposes such
behaviour to ridicule, we realize the hollow pretension of a society which
indulged in so much of affectation.
The professional classes in general show a marked inefficiency and
indifference. They do not take their work seriously. Parson Barnabas,
Parson Trulliber, the rural magistrate, the Lawyer Scout – all are the
illustration of the corrupt and selfish aristcracy of the day.
Parson Adams is merely one good being against so many bad clergymen.
In his novel, Fielding has concentrated more on the countryside. But the little
that he describes of town society is enough to give us its characteristics. The
wealthy society of the town shows a high degree of degeneracy. The story
of Mr. Wilson and Leonora as well as Joseph short stay in London provide us
with the clear idea about the vulgarity, degeneration of morals, the
vanity and hypocrisy which infested town society.
Fielding represents human nature as truthfully as he presents the
society. Fielding effuses realism into his characters and his vivid
dialogues. He presents before us the complete reality and does not
intentionally ignore anything. In his Preface Fielding writes: “I have scarce
a character or action produced which I have not taken from my own observations
and experience.”
Fielding does not
project realistic picture of society for mere entertainment. He has
a moral purpose behind the realism. To laugh making out of
folly is his professed aim. He satirizes people in order to
reform them:“I have endeavored to laugh at mankind, out to their follies and
vices.”
Fielding shows
a broad tendency of realism in “Joseph Andrews”. Social,
psychological, individual as well as moral reality can be seen
in the novel.
“As a painter of real
life, he was equal to Hogarth; as a mere observer of human nature he was little
inferior to Shakespeare.”
He not merely presented
society but also criticized it in order to make the world a better place
to live in.
Parson Adams:
Character Analysis
Although Fielding's
first novel bears the title Joseph Andrews, its main interest centers
in Parson Adams. The immense popularity enjoyed by the novel can be fully
attributed to him. In fact, it is difficult to imagine even the existence of
this novel without the endearing figure of the absent–minded Parson Adams. “If
he is not the real hero of the book”,says Dobson,”he is
undoubtedly the character whose fortunes the reader follows with the closest
interest.”
Dudden remarks:“The
agreeable youngman, Joseph may be the centre of plot; but it is the ‘old
foolish parson’ that is the centre of interest.”
Adams is one of the
most original creations; Fielding himself claims that he is ‘not to
be found in any book now extant’. 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”. While all other characters remain
types, 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 manages to confront the physical obstacles of the world in the most
awkward ways, and prides himself rather too much as a teacher of Latin and as a
writer of sermons.
Adams’ physical
appearance is really interesting. He has a “comical face, with
bearded chin and deeply wrinkled cheeks”, a fist “rather
less than the knuckle of an ox”, with a wrist, ”which Hercules
would not have been ashamed of”. His legs are so long that they almost
touch the ground when he drives on his horse’s back. He usually wears a “tattered
old cassock” and a “periwig” on his head.
In addition, he is in the habit of snapping his fingers. He has so shabby an
appearnce that Parson Trulliber mistakes him for a hog-dealer.
Adams serves as
the novel's moral touchstone;Fielding bestowed on his exemplary parson,
childlike innocence: “He is an innocent … so completely sincere in
his beliefs and actions that he can’t imagine insincerity in other; he takes
everyone he meets at face-value”. Adams is a dreamy idealist;he is
as ignorant of the world of his own day “as an infant just
entered into it could possibly be”. The devious ways of
contemporary mankind are quite beyond his comprehension. Being naïve and
guileless he is constantly imposed upon. He is easily taken in by the
sentimental bragging of pseudo-patriot as by the pious platitudes of hypocrical
Parson Trulliber. Adams’ endless tribulations at the hands of others serve as
an index of society’s alienation from ethical and moral codes.
Although simpelton and naïve , Adams is a man of exceptional
learning. Educated at the university of Cambridge, he has made himself familiar
with many languages, and, in particular, has acquired masterly knowledge of the
Greak and Latin:
“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...”
His favourite author, however, is Aeschylus and he
carries a transcript of Aeschylean tragedies for more than thirty years. With
the modern literature --- except a few books of divinity---he does does not
have even a nodding acquaintance. The history of last thousand years is to him
almost a blank.
Parson Adams is only a
curate. He lives in the parsonage in Sir Thomas Booby’s parish.He is about
fifty years old and has a wife and six children whom he can barely support on
his very small income as a curate. He considers all his parishioners,
especially Joseph and Fanny, as his children. In contrast with Parson
Trulliber and Barnabas, Parson adams is extremely sincere in his profession .He gets a
very small income from the church but his virtue remains utterly
uncontaminated. He refuses to become a puppet in the hands of Lady Booby when
the latter forbids him to publish the banns of Joseph’s marriage
with Fanny .
Fielding has
made adams a comic character . He has made him absent-minded
and given him amusing mannerisms. However this does not detract Adams’
greatness as a true Christian. Simple, kind, generous and courageous, Adams is
the epitome of true feeling and goodness of heart. Adams’ impulses always
prompt him to help anyone in distress.He is ever ready and ever willing to
fight for the right cause. Although fifty years of age, Adams is magnificently
strong and healthy. He knows how to use his huge fists in defending
others.
Adams’s generosity,
friendliness, and bravery appear to be tied to one another, as indeed they
ought to be according to Fielding’s moral scheme. In Adams, however, bravery is
excessive because he does not regulate it with prudence; “Simplicity,” or
naïveté, is certainly more present in Adams’s character than in any other in
the novel
Parson Adams
establishes a sort of unadorned criterion of simplicity against vanity and
hypocricy of most of the other characters. He is a bundle of contradictions, a
delightful mixture of scholarship and simplicity, and pedantry and credulity.
He is eccentric and forgetful; he often leaves his hat and his sermons (which
he intends to sell) behind, and has to return for them.He lands into
misadventure after misadventure - he wanders from inn to inn without the means
to pay his bills, he is beaten, swindled and mocked at, he is involved in
hilarious nightly adventures -but he never loses his innate dignity and goodness. Martin
C. Battestin sees in Adams "the Christian hero, the representative of good
nature and charity, which form the heart of morality."
We can sum up
above discussion in the words of Dudden: “Adams emerges from testing
adventures and experiences with his sweet temper unsoured, his honourable
character unsullied, and his innate dignity unimpaired”
Theme of Morality in
Joseph Andrews
Henry Fielding
undoubtedly holds moral views far-ahead of his times. Morality is an approval
or adherence to principles that govern ethical and virtuous conduct.
Fielding was accused
of being immoral in his novels. Dr. Johnson called his novels “vicious
and corrupting”. Richardson echoed the “charge of
immorality” against him. Modern critics, however, has justified
Fielding and gave him a credit of “an estimable ethical code”.
Strachey declared him a “deep, accurate, scientific moralist”.
Indeed neither “Joseph Andrews” nor “Tom Jones” strikes
the modern sensibility as ‘low’ or ‘immoral’ either in purpose or in narration.
Behind the truthful portrait of life, lies his broad moral vision. His aim was
to correct mankind by pointing out their blunders: “I have endeavored to laugh at mankind, out to
their follies and vices.”
Fielding reacted
sharply against the code of ethics as incited by Richardson in “Pamela”.
He feels that Pamela’s virtue is an affectation and a commodity, exchangeable
for material benefits. Virtue cannot and should not be to chastity alone. Mere
external respectability is not morality. For Fielding: “Chastity without goodness of heart is without
value.”
A truly virtuous man
is disregardful of material benefits. He is devoid of an affectation.
He finds:
“A
delight in the happiness of mankind and a concern at their misery, with a
desire, as much as possible, to procure the former and avert the latter …”
Fielding’s moral
vision is much wider that Richardson’s. Morality is no longer equated with
chastity or outward decorum. It is broad enough to include every aspect of
human behaviour. One’s intentions, instincts, motives are equally important in
judging a man.
In “Joseph Andrews” we are confronted with a chameleonic
society that quickly changes its appearance to gratify personal lusts. Fielding’s aim was to show human beings
camuoflaged in various shades of vanity and hypocrisy and it is done ruthlessly
and wittily in “Joseph Andrews”.
The stage-coach scene
is perhaps the best illustration of Fielding’s concept of morality. In it we are
confronted the haughty passengers which are all models of hypocrisy. The
coachman simply bids the postillion to "Go on, Sirrah, we are confounded late”. The lady reacts in a contemptible manner: "O
Jesus, a naked Man! Dear Coachman, drive on". The old gentleman deems: "Let us make all the haste
imaginable, or we shall be robbed too".In addition there a lawyer who “wished they had past by without taking any
notice", although his final
advice is “to save the poor creature's life, for their own sakes”.
At last, it is the postillion, “ who hath been since transported for
robbing a hen-roost, voluntarily strips off a great coat, his only
garment" and swears that he would rather remain in a shirt
than "suffer a fellow-creature to lie in so miserable a
condition". Here Fielding shows the contrast between the attitude
of the rich passengers and that of the poor Postillion. What sets him
apart is not his class, but the fact that he alone dismisses his own comfort
and he is the only person who considers Joseph a "fellow-creature" worthy
of such rescue. Fielding emphatically declares: "High
People" are "People of Fashion", but
that they are not "higher in their Dimensions" nor
in "their Characters". The journey undertaken by Joseph and
Parson Adams reveals vanity or hypocrisy at every stage.
It is significant that
Parson Adams jumps with joy at the reunion of Fanny and Joseph. It reflects an
ability to sympathize with other’s feelings. Simple, kind, generous and
courageous, Adams is the epitome of true feeling and goodness of heart which is
a vital aspect of Fielding’s concept of morality. Adams’ impulses always prompt
him to help anyone in distress. He saves Fanny’s virginity two times.
“He
is an innocent … so completely sincere in his beliefs and actions that he can’t
imagine insincerity in other; he takes everyone he meets at face-value”.
Kindness achieved
supreme importance in Fielding’s moral code. A good and a moral man takes joy
in helping others. Fielding says: “I don’t know a better definition of virtue, than it is
a delight in doing good.”
Fielding is as liberal
in ridiculing affectation as he is hard on the lack of charity. Adams’
definition: “A generously
disposition to receive the poor”, is the simple test employed to men by Fielding
to check their capability of charity. When Parson Adams asks for some
shillings to Parson Trulliber, he declares in frenzy: “I know what charity is better than to give it
to vagabonds.”
This shows 18th
century’s clergy’s degeneracy, who is reluctant to give some shillings. The
rich Parson Tulliber, Mrs. Tow-wouse, Lady Booby and Peter Pounce lacks natural
kindness whereas the poor postilion, Betty and Pedler are true Christians, for
they are ready to help other man in distress asking nothing in return. But Mrs.
Tow-wouse scornfully declares: “Common charity my foot.”
Fielding is against
the prudish morality which considers sex as an unhealthy and dangerous for
human life. He favours a healthy attitude towards sex. But he does not approve
of Lady Booby’s desire for Joseph nor does he favour Mr. Slipslop’s extreme
whims. But Betty’s desires spring from a natural heart and feeling. It is worth
noticing that Betty is free of hypocrisy. She acts as ordered by her nature.
“She
is good-natured generosity and composition.”
Summing up, Fielding’s
concept of morality is realistic, tolerant, broad and fairly flexible. Modern
opinion has vindicated the moral vision of Fielding as healthy, wide and
practical.
