Study Guide to Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding

Intelligent Education

• Publisher: Influence Publishers
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781645421894
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Study Aids
• Subtopic: Study Guides

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for Henry Fielding's Joseph Andrews, one of the first novels written in the English language.

As a novel of the eighteenth-century, Joseph Andrews seeks to uncover the faults and flaws of people who view themselves Christan, but are resistant to valuing the importance of charity and philanthropy. Moreover, Joseph Andrews is the first "modern" type of novel to embrace elements of theater and of episodic, and of social class, in a format that is both complex and casual. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Henry Fielding's classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:

- Introductions to the Author and the Work

- Character Summaries

- Plot Guides

- Section and Chapter Overviews

- Test Essay and Study Q&As

The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

INTRODUCTION TO HENRY FIELDING

 

EARLY LIFE

Henry Fielding was born in 1707 at Sharpham Park in Somersetshire, and spent his boyhood on a farm at East Stour in Dorsetshire. His father, Edmund Fielding, was an army officer who later rose to the rank of General; his mother, the daughter of Sir Henry Gould, died when Fielding was eleven. For the next few years he attended Eton, where he accumulated an impressive knowledge of the classics (his father, meanwhile, having remarried and become estranged from the Goulds, so that Henry’s precise relationship with him is uncertain). At the age of nineteen, we find Fielding in London, where, for the next several years, he supported himself by writing for the theater, his first play, Love in Several Masques (a rather artificial comedy of manners), being produced in 1728, when he was 21. For a brief period (1728-29) he studied at the University of Leyden, but returned to London to resume his career in the theater. By 1737, when the Theatrical Licensing Act was passed, effectively ending his dramatic career, he had produced a number of plays, of which The Author’s Farce, Rape Upon Rape, and two translations of Moliere’s dramas, The Miser, and The Mock Doctor are significant. His dramatic adaptation of Cervantes’ Don Quixote is interesting as showing the continuing hold that book had on him, as witnessed also by the references in Joseph Andrews (and on the title page - “written in imitation of the manner of Cervantes”).

Fielding married Charlotte Cradock in 1734, by whom he had two daughters, the eldest of which died in 1742, not long after the publication of Joseph Andrews. His wife, with whom he was deeply in love, died in 1744. Fielding’s vocal opposition to the Walpole government (which had been mainly responsible for the Licensing Act) led to his editing of the Champion, in which his essays appeared most frequently over the pseudonym of Hercules Vinegar. Under the pressure of requiring steady gainful employment, Fielding, for three years, read law and was called to the Bar in 1740, thereafter travelling the Western Circuit.

PAMELA TO JOSEPH ANDREWS

The years of his life which most nearly concern us here are the years 1740 - 42. In November of 1740, Samuel Richardson published his Pamela: Or Virtue Rewarded, the story of a young servant girl, who, upon the death of her mistress, was continually assailed by her young master, “Mr. B”________, with whom she actually fell in love, but whose importunities she had to reject, ostensibly (and apparently this was Richardson’s serious intention) for the preservation of her virtue until, by some stroke of fortune, she might become his wife. To a man of Fielding’s sensibility, however, it was inviting to read the entire affair as the artful manipulation of her charms by a calculating and socially ambitious young woman. In Shamela (1741), Fielding masterfully parodied the interminable letter-writing and involved ratiocination of Richardson’s epistolary novel. In Joseph Andrews (1742), however, he made only glancing references to Pamela, preferring instead to make of an ironic reversal of Richardson’s situation (here, a chaste young man being seduced by a lustful female) a plot which would be the basis for an extended comic treatment of human vanity and affectation.

PREFACE TO JOSEPH ANDREWS

In the preface to Joseph Andrews, Fielding makes it clear that he is writing a “comic epic poem in prose,” burlesque treatment sometimes being admitted in the diction but never in the sentiments of his work. He intends to treat not the “monstrous” but the ridiculous,” mainly because “a more rational and useful pleasure arises to us from it.” The ridiculous arises from vanity and affectation, and these will be the sources of his characterizations, everything in the final analysis being copied from “the book of nature,” even though their immediate source is to be found in his own observation and experience.

LATER LIFE

In 1743 Fielding published Jonathan Wild; in 1747 he married Mary Daniel (by whom he had five children); in 1748 he had the satisfaction of being made magistrate for Middlesex. The year 1749, however, saw the publication of his great triumph, The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling. This sprawling epic of eighteenth-century life and manners has long stood the test of time as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of English comic novels. In 1751 he published Amelia; in 1754 he resigned his judicial office and traveled to Lisbon, where his death occurred at the age of 47. He was one of the last of the great literary figures to combine a successful career in public service with an equally successful mission (in the light of later appreciation of his accomplishments) in literature.

JOSEPH ANDREWS

BRIEF SUMMARY

 

BOOK I

Lady Booby, journeying with her husband to the social season in London from their estate in Somersetshire, is attended by her waiting-gentlewoman Mrs. Slipslop and her footman Joseph Andrews. Even before Sir Thomas’ untimely death, Lady Booby showed many marks of favor to Joey, but after her husband’s demise her importunings become more obvious. Angered by the chaste Joseph’s refusals, she orders Slipslop to dismiss him (which she does, with misgivings, since she too had designs on him). On his way back to Lady Booby’s country seat where he had been raised, Joseph is beaten, robbed, and stripped by highwaymen, then reluctantly rescued by the occupants of a coach, all of whom were utterly lacking in charitable affections except a young postilion, who gave Joseph his great coat. At the Dragon inn, only the chambermaid, Bett, takes an interest in nursing Joseph to health, the Tow-wouses (the owners) give him grudging accommodation, and a surgeon and parson (Barnabas) pay him only the most perfunctory attention. To his great surprise, Joseph encounters his old friend (and curate of Lady Booby’s parish) Parson Abraham Adams at the inn, that gentleman being on his way to London to sell his sermons. Having been introduced to a bookseller by Barnabas, Adams tries to interest him in his sermons, but to no avail, the negotiations being broken off by an uproar created by Mr. Tow-wouse, who discovers her own chambermaid Betty in bed with her husband, whither Betty had repaired after having thrown herself at Joseph, and having been rejected by him.

BOOK II

Adams has actually forgotten his sermons, which causes him to accompany Joseph back to their parish. Using the system of “ride and tie,” Adams set out on foot, leaving Joseph behind with the horse, which he shortly discovers he has to abandon, having no money to pay for his feed. Entering another inn, Adams listens to the conversation of two lawyers who respectively applaud and upbraid the morals and judgment of a local justice (the reason being, as the host explains, that they had argued a case before him). Mr. Slipslop, and then Joseph, happen along, Adams joining Slipslop and the other ladies in a coach, one of whom tells a lengthy story about Leonora and Bellarmine (a sentimental story of the type that the realism of Joseph Andrews is a reply to). At the next inn, Adams rebukes the surly host, who had made a disparaging comment about Joseph’s injured leg, and found himself in a fist fight with the host, whose wife then hurled a pan full of hog’s blood at him, while a certain Miss Graveairs and a much-travelled gentleman cluck disapprovingly, Joseph now entered the coach, leaving Adams to walk, and he meets a man who descants at length on the virtue of bravery, but runs away when he hears sounds of an attack. It is Fanny, Joseph’s beloved, who is rescued from a would-be ravisher by Adams, the two of them, however, being arrested by mob of bird-batters through a wily tick on the part of Fanny’s attacker. Brought before an ignorant and inept justice, they are released only by the timely intervention of Squire Booby. At the next inn, Adams and Fanny encounter Joseph; there is a display of tender affection between the lovers, and of bad grace by Slipslop (who is chagrined to find Fanny, an obstacle to her designs on Joseph, and stalks off). Adams, impecunious as usual, tries to borrow money from Parson Trulliber, only to discover that he is a gross uncharitable hypocrite, but is then bailed out by a poor country peddler. Travelling on, they meet an apparently benevolent squire, who promises Adams a great deal and makes good on nothing, and they hear the story of the inn-keeper’s life, who had himself been victimized by the same squire. The host is surprised to discover in Adams, however, not a sympathetic listener, but a stoic and ascete, who chides him for his interest in material things then walks out in high dudgeon.

BOOK III

Adams, Joseph, and Fanny, retreating from (as they imagine) a band of murderers, arrive at the cottage of Mr. Wilson, who gives them refreshment, and then entertains them with the story of his life-from the fleshpots of London to the retirement of a country farm with his wife (the former Harriet Hearty) - his only regret being the loss of a young son years before (Joseph, as it later develops). They travel on, Joseph and Adams disputing the effect which “public” schools have on national morality, and encounter a hare-hunt. The hunt master (a squire) sets his dogs on Adams; they are beaten off by him and Joseph, and the squire, feigning hospitality, invites them to his house, where he keeps a company of grotesque minions who give Adams a “roasting” until he finally understands the mockery they are making of him, gives the squire a dunking and leaves. They meet a priest at the next inn, who discourses to Adams on the contempt of wealth, and then reveals that he has no money for his bill, after which they retire for the night. In the morning, Fanny is abducted by the squire’s henchmen, and Adams preaches stoic resignation to Joseph while both are tied to a bed-post. The timely arrival of Peter Pounce, Lady Booby’s steward, and his attendants, brings about Fanny’s rescue, but involves Adams in an argument with the unscrupulous and uncharitable Pounce, whose carriage Adams leaps from and continues the journey on foot.

BOOK IV

Lady Booby arrives at Booby Hall simultaneously with the other travellers, and proceeds to try to quash the intended marriage of Joseph and Fanny, first by threatening Adams with the loss of his living, if he should continue to publish the banns, and then by engaging the conniving Lawyer Scout to trump up a charge of theft against the lovers. Squire Booby (her nephew), happening to arrive with his wife Pamela, rescues them from the legal trap that Justice Frolick is about to snap, but tries to persuade Joseph against a marriage with one so far beneath him (Joseph, as everyone now thinks, being Pamela’s brother). Lady Booby, not to be thwarted, next engages the services of Beau Didapper, who first by force and then by blandishments tries to seduce Fanny, but is beaten by Joseph. The lad is then admonished by Adams for repining at the trials Providence has set for him, but sees Adams suddenly brought to passionate outbursts by the (happily, false) news that his son has drowned. The arrival of the peddler (whose now deceased wife had formerly travelled with a gipsy band) brings the revelation that Joseph is not only the sister of Pamela, but also, of Fanny, which causes the lovers first to swoon and then to declare their intention of living together in Platonic friendship. This is quickly succeeded, however, by the arrival of Mrs. Andrews and Wilson, confirming the fact that Fanny is indeed an Andrews, but revealing that Joseph is the son of Wilson, and that they are free to marry after all. The wedding reception is held at Squire Booby’s home, where he gives Fanny a gift of two thousand pounds, Adams a living of one hundred thirty pounds a year, and the peddler a position as exciseman. Lady Booby returns to London, where her next escapade obliterates Joseph’s memory entirely.

JOSEPH ANDREWS

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

BOOK I

CHAPTER 1

In his fictional persona of an amiable earnest cicerone, anxious to ingratiate himself with his readers by relating a moral narrative, Fielding begins with what he pretends is a straightforward explanation of the tradition he is working in and the motives which have prompted him to write. He is going to write a “history” of good people, in the tradition of Plutarch and Nepos, and of such English biographies as those of Jack the Giant-killer, Guy of Warwick, and The Seven Champions of Christendom. But his special models, he declares, particularly valuable since they represent both the sexes, are the recent ”histories’ of the lives of Colley Cibber (“which deals in male virtue”) and of Pamela Andrews.

Comment

The full range of Fielding’s ironic tone is spread before us immediately. By defining the limits of his perceptive powers so narrowly (in lumping Jack the Giant-Killer together with Plutarch), and by archly confusing true history and biography with fiction and romance, Fielding establishes his straight-faced (and somewhat wooden-headed) fictional personality. He is thus able to pretend so effectively that he has really been favorably impressed by the recent autobiography of Colley Cibber, a smug defense of an often dilettantish, rakish, and time-serving career, and by Richardson’s novel Pamela: or Virtue Rewarded, a sentimental piece of fiction extolling the chastity of Pamela Andrews, a heroine who does not appear, however, to have been above an artful manipulation of her attractiveness.

His own “authentic history,” the narrator declares, is concerned with the manner in which Pamela’s brother Joseph preserved his purity in the midst of great temptations.

CHAPTER 2

Since it is traditional for literary heroes to be provided with a lineage, Fielding humorously traces Joseph’s ancestry, though he finds himself unable to go beyond his great-grandfather, an excellent cudgel-player in these parish. Thus forced to waive this requirement, the author takes refuge in the obvious fact that Joseph must have as many ancestors (though his family tree is obscure) as the best man living, but decides to offer the hypothesis that he has none-that he has, for argument’s sake, sprung full-blown from a dunghill. Does this mean that his virtues may not be praised? Is it impossible for him to acquire honor? (Fielding is half-serious here, since the socially mobile mercantilist class, and a degenerating nobility are giving new point to the old medieval peasants’ complaint: “When Adam delved and Eva span / Who was then the gentleman?”) Fielding now describes Joseph’s early life as an apprentice to a country lord, Sir Thomas Booby, an uncle of Mr. Booby (Fielding thus fills out the name of Pamela’s would-be seducer, Mr. B_____________). Beginning as a scarecrow, and advancing successively through the ranks of kennel-boy, stable-boy, and jockey, Joseph made a reputation for his strength and agility as well as for his good character, and found him...