English society as depicted in Henry Fielding's Joseph Andrews

Résumé du document

Henry Fielding published Joseph Andrews in 1742, one year after his Shamela, a harsh parody of Richardson's Pamela. The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews, and his Friend Mr. Abraham Adams is supposed to be an elaborated parody of Pamela, but it turns out to be a real description of society of the time and develops a theory of the ?novel'. Then, we can see it as a testimony of society through Henry Fielding. To understand to the extent of Henry Fielding's description of his time relates to the mentality of the people in the eighteenth century.

Extraits

[...] Women can't have the attitude of men in their sex life and loves. Lady Booby is criticized because she walks arm in arm with her servant; and afterwards, because she does not mourn her husband for a long time before to invite a young man in her apartment. The same thing happened for Leonora who did not take enough precautions before to engage with a new and unknown lover. The place of women in society is quite controversial: they arouse passion and love and are the victims of men who want to attack their virtue. [...]

[...] It is the case in book II chapter 14 when Parson Adams meets Parson Trulliber. The latter is a grotesque caricature of a clergyman: he earns more money by selling hogs. As Parson spoke of him as his brother in the inn, meaning his spiritual one, the landlady is nice with Fanny and Joseph who staid with her; but as soon as she understand that Adams is not the real brother of Parson Trulliber, she believes that the three of them tried to abuse her. [...]

[...] Joseph Andrews is not a virulent critic of English society of the eighteenth century but rather a nice satire where the protagonists themselves are kindly mocked for their ignorance and purity. No one can come through this experience of a picaresque style without suffering some alteration in mind and in the perception of the world except Parson Adams, maybe. Henry Fielding's novel is not only that of a journey ending in love, it is above all a discovering of the world, of society and its rules. [...]

[...] As he did previously about science, Adams now explains what the world is through his readings. He lives in a spiritual world, far from the materialism of society and like Thales of Miletus, Greek philosopher and mathematician, who Plato relates fell down in a ditch because he was looking at the stars, Adams cannot avoid the traps of society as he is innocent, generous and a good-hearted man. He does not understand that people mock him and he takes time to see that the squire who threw his dogs at him has invited him for dinner only to entertain the company and to abuse of Fanny. [...]

[...] This idea will be developed later through the examination of the weakness of some men of fashion in the novel, but for the moment we can only conclude that the importance of physical aspect is a recurrent theme in the novel. The absence of clothes which we will speak about later on will therefore be disruptive in how to apprehend a character. Most of the characters in the novel seem indeed to be unable to distinguish worthy and unworthy people if they are not dressed. This statement shows that the external aspect is one of the great concerns of the narrator as far as the eighteenth century society is concerned. [...]