Joseph Andrews Essay

738 Words3 Pages
A Social Observation: 18th Century London via Fielding. Our society has come a long way since the standards of 18th Century London. At a time where crime was high, morality was low and a great disparage between the rich and the poor was existent, Henry Fielding put together an applicable portrayal of the flaws within the culture of the town while hinting at growing lack of ethics. Throughout Joseph Andrews, Fielding uses satire to shed light on the pureness of the lower class through the characters of Joseph and Fanny and expose the immorality of the burgeoning upper-class through characters such as Lady Booby and Beau Didapper. The character of Abraham Adams serves as the voice of reason and righteousness throughout the plot and is used to hint at the underlying theme of the novel. Many of the characters are flat, and aren’t exposed very intimately to show the coldness and emptiness of many citizens at the time. Fielding also employs a third person point of view to deliver his narrative observation of London in the 1700s and its social difficulties. Fielding introduces us to his social examination early in the story writing, “It is a trite but true observation that Examples work more forcibly on the Mind than Precepts” (p.61). What fielding suggests is that through characters and storytelling he can accomplish more than a sermon or a speaker may by exposing different angles of reality that relate to numerous different audiences. Fielding structures the novel into four books, mainly outlined by the anecdotes of several characters the protagonist Joseph interacts with through his journey however the lengthiness of these sidebars sometimes comes off as excess exposition. It’s clear that Fielding’s main intention is to get his message across rather than to entertain, as he addresses many pressing issues during the text. The subtle use of Mr. Adams as a
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