Character Study of Joseph Andrews Henry Fielding

 

Character Study of Joseph Andrews Henry Fielding

Henry Fielding's Joseph Andrews is populated by a wide variety of characters drawn from different levels of eighteenth-century English society. One of Fielding's major achievements is his ability to create characters who are simultaneously comic individuals and recognizable social types. Some characters are deliberately exaggerated, while others possess considerable moral and psychological complexity. Through their interactions, Fielding creates the lively and varied social world through which Joseph and Parson Adams travel.

1. Joseph Andrews

Joseph Andrews is the protagonist and the central figure around whom the narrative is organized. He is introduced as a young, handsome footman serving in the household of Lady Booby. He is also presented as the brother of Pamela Andrews, thereby establishing the connection with Richardson's Pamela.

Joseph's characterization initially depends upon a deliberate reversal of Richardson's situation. In Pamela, a young female servant resists the advances of her master; in Joseph Andrews, a young male servant resists the advances of his female employer. Lady Booby attempts to seduce Joseph, but he refuses her because of his attachment to Fanny and his commitment to his own moral principles.

Joseph's most important characteristic is therefore his constancy. He remains devoted to Fanny even when he is placed in difficult circumstances. His refusal to compromise his principles establishes him as a virtuous protagonist, but Fielding presents him in a comic rather than heroic manner.

Joseph is not an extraordinary epic hero. He is an ordinary young man who experiences extraordinary situations. His journey from London to the countryside provides the narrative framework for the novel, and his encounters with different characters gradually reveal different aspects of his personality.

However, Joseph does not undergo a dramatic psychological transformation. His character remains relatively stable throughout the novel. This is an important distinction between Joseph and Parson Adams. Joseph is the central hero of the plot, but Adams is arguably the more developed and memorable character.

The revelation of Joseph's true parentage near the end of the novel also changes his social position. He is discovered to have a respectable birth, which helps resolve the difficulties surrounding his relationship with Fanny. This recognition is characteristic of the comic structure of the novel.

2. Parson Abraham Adams

Parson Abraham Adams is undoubtedly the most memorable character in Joseph Andrews. In many respects, he becomes the real centre of the novel even though Joseph's name appears in its title.

Adams is a country clergyman who is learned, sincere, charitable and fundamentally good-hearted. At the same time, he is absent-minded, naïve, impractical and frequently involved in ridiculous situations.

This combination creates Fielding's distinctive comic characterization.

Adams possesses considerable learning, but his knowledge of books does not always help him understand ordinary human behaviour. He can discuss classical literature and religious matters intelligently, yet he may completely misunderstand a simple social situation.

This contrast between intellectual learning and practical naïveté makes him highly comic.

However, Fielding never reduces Adams to a fool. His apparent foolishness exists alongside genuine moral courage and compassion. When people are in distress, Adams is willing to help them, even when doing so causes him personal inconvenience.

His encounter with Parson Trulliber is particularly revealing. Adams expects another clergyman to respond sympathetically to a person in need, but Trulliber's behaviour disappoints him. The episode makes Adams's goodness appear more significant because it is contrasted with the selfishness of someone who should theoretically represent Christian virtue.

Adams is also influenced by Don Quixote, particularly in his combination of idealism and comic impracticality. Like Cervantes' hero, he sometimes interprets the world according to ideals that do not correspond to reality.

Yet Adams is not simply a copy of Don Quixote. His idealism is primarily moral and religious rather than chivalric.

His relationship with Joseph is also important. Adams becomes a kind of fatherly companion and protector. Their journey gives the novel its central comic partnership.

Joseph provides the youthful romantic hero, while Adams provides the eccentric intellectual and moral perspective.

For this reason, Adams is often considered one of Fielding's greatest comic creations.

3. Fanny Goodwill

Fanny Goodwill is Joseph's beloved and the principal female character associated with his romantic story.

Fanny is presented as beautiful, modest, affectionate and faithful. She belongs to a socially humble background, and her relationship with Joseph is threatened by their uncertain circumstances.

Unlike Lady Booby and Mrs. Slipslop, Fanny's relationship with Joseph is based upon genuine affection rather than social ambition or sexual manipulation.

Her importance increases as the novel progresses because Joseph's journey is ultimately connected with his desire to reunite with her.

Fanny is not as complexly drawn as Parson Adams, but she performs an important structural function. She gives Joseph a reason for his journey and provides the romantic thread that connects many of the novel's adventures.

Her eventual marriage with Joseph completes the comic resolution of the narrative.

From a modern perspective, however, Fanny's characterization can appear comparatively passive. Fielding gives greater psychological and comic complexity to Adams and several of the older characters than he gives to his heroine.

4. Lady Booby

Lady Booby is one of the most important comic figures in the novel and Joseph's principal antagonist in the opening section.

She is Joseph's employer and becomes sexually attracted to him after the death of her husband. Her position as a wealthy and socially superior woman gives her considerable power over Joseph.

Her pursuit of Joseph creates the basic comic reversal of Pamela.

Lady Booby expects Joseph to respond to her because of her social position and attractiveness. When he refuses, she becomes offended and attempts to exercise her authority against him.

Her behaviour exposes the contrast between social respectability and personal conduct.

Lady Booby is not simply a villain. Fielding treats her largely as a comic figure whose pride, desire and frustration create absurd situations. Her inability to understand why Joseph refuses her advances is part of the humour.

She also represents the power that social status can give an individual. Joseph's position as a servant makes it difficult for him to resist her openly.

Lady Booby's characterization is therefore important to both the comic plot and Fielding's satire of fashionable society.

5. Mrs. Slipslop

Mrs. Slipslop is Lady Booby's servant and one of the novel's most comic characters.

She is herself attracted to Joseph and therefore becomes involved in the same romantic complication as her mistress. However, unlike Fanny, her attraction is presented in an exaggerated and comic manner.

Slipslop is characterized by vanity, pretension and self-deception. She imagines herself to be more sophisticated and desirable than she really is.

Her language is particularly important to her characterization. Fielding uses her speech to reveal her pretensions and lack of genuine refinement.

She frequently tries to disguise her actual intentions beneath elaborate language. The gap between what she says and what she really means produces much of her comedy.

Mrs. Slipslop is therefore an excellent example of Fielding's technique of creating characters whose language exposes their personality.

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6. Parson Trulliber

Parson Trulliber provides a strong contrast to Parson Adams.

Both are clergymen, but their behaviour is radically different.

Adams is poor but generous. Trulliber is materially comfortable but selfish.

The importance of Trulliber lies in the fact that Fielding does not allow professional or social identity to guarantee moral worth. Being a clergyman does not automatically make someone charitable or virtuous.

Trulliber's treatment of Adams is therefore comic but also revealing. He becomes an example of the kind of character Fielding repeatedly exposes: someone whose public identity suggests virtue while his actions reveal something very different.

His characterization is deliberately exaggerated, making him a memorable satirical figure.

7. Peter Pounce

Peter Pounce is another important example of Fielding's satirical characterization.

He is associated with Lady Booby's household and is primarily characterized by his love of money and financial calculation.

Pounce represents a world in which human relationships can be reduced to economic transactions. His behaviour is governed by financial advantage rather than generosity.

Fielding uses him to demonstrate how apparently respectable people can possess deeply selfish motives.

Like Trulliber, Pounce is largely a social type, but Fielding gives him enough distinctive characteristics to make him an effective comic figure.

8. Mr. Wilson

Mr. Wilson is particularly significant because his story is inserted into the main narrative.

He is encountered by Joseph and Adams during their travels and recounts his own experiences.

Wilson provides a more reflective and serious dimension to the novel. His history introduces questions concerning family, education, social experience and personal change.

Unlike some of Fielding's more exaggerated comic figures, Wilson is presented with greater emotional depth.

His story also demonstrates Fielding's method of expanding the narrative through interpolated histories. The novel does not simply follow Joseph from one event to another; it pauses to give other characters their own stories.

9. Pamela Andrews

Although Pamela does not play a central role in the action, her presence is important because Joseph is established as her brother.

Her importance is also literary rather than merely narrative. Fielding deliberately uses her connection with Richardson's Pamela to establish the satirical background of Joseph Andrews.

Pamela represents the literary world that Fielding is responding to. By making Joseph her brother and reversing the gender roles of Richardson's narrative, Fielding immediately signals that his novel will play with the conventions of the popular sentimental and moral fiction of the period.