10 - Chapter 5 PDF
10 - Chapter 5 PDF
10 - Chapter 5 PDF
(i)
Henry Fielding (1707-54) was bom in a family, which was not very affluent
but it had aristocratic connections. The world into which he was bom is faithfully
described in his works. He was the son of Edmund Fielding a half-pay army
officer. The half-pay officers had a miserable life as they could not expect any
advance in rank nor could their widows claim any pension. Henry Fielding was
aged seven when his father chose to be a half-pay officer. The result was disastrous
for the family. Fielding’s bitter experience of his childhood days begrudged him
against this horrible system. His writings bore the stamp of resentment at the
corruption of military life. He particularly ventilated his feelings towards the half
pay officers. Fielding in Tom Jones has also depicted the plight of the half-pay
officers by portraying a lieutenant who had been promoted on the field but had
remained in the same rank for 40 years. This was a dramatised and exaggerated
description of his father’s case. In Amelia too, we have the similar case of the half
pay officers and the corruption of the army life, which gives shape to the plot.
Fielding had been enrolled at Eton at the age of twelve, when its headmaster
was Henry Bland, who was responsible for organising tutorials. The teaching of
literature in those days was based upon poetry, and tradition therefore required that
one should memorise long passages of Homer, Virgil, and other poets. Fielding
was thus acquainted with the classical literature. He came under the influence of
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu a second cousin of his. She had no great opinion of
the morals of the English society under the premiership of Sir Robert Walpole.
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Fielding wrote a comedy Love in Several Masques and dedicated the drama to her.
The play was approved by Colley Cibber and Robert Wilks and it was staged at
Drury Dane on 16 February 1728. It did not become a stage success, but it proved
that the young author could manage a pastiche style of Restoration comedy. The
play suggested a capability of imitating rather than writing original dialogues. The
play revolved round Helena the niece of Sir Positive Trap an abrasive and grasping
country squire. Helena sums up her predicament by saying, “To be sold! To be put
Helena can be construed as the voice of the women whose position in the male
dominated society was relegated to be just a commodity for trade. The play also
reflected the society of the times and of the runaway marriages, which took place
between heiresses and opportunistic males. In the last scene when the runaway
heiress and you are guilty of felony and shall be hanged with the whole company
of your abettors.”2 It was a kind of warning that Fielding had himself received
when he was a young man. In 1725 Fielding while staying at Lyme Regis had been
considerable beauty. Her two brothers had died leaving her an heiress and she lived
with her uncle Andrew Tucker. Fielding’s plans of marrying her were negated and
it also brought ill-fame to him. He later confided to a friend James Harris that there
were two kinds of women, there was one type who inspired love, and the other
who inspired lust. Fielding has also utilised the satiric appropriation of masculine
exploitation in his play Love in Several Masques. He utilised the female characters
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of the play to articulate upon the socio-political and economic issues of the times.
The two female characters discuss the meaning of the word feminine and its
Lady Matchless. It is indeed, for virtues, like saints, are never canonised till they
Vermilia. I am afraid it proved abortive, and died before it was bom. But if it ever
had being, it was most certainly feminine; and indeed, the men have been so
Lady Matchless. 0! we are extremely obliged to them; they have found out
housewifery to belong to us too. In short, they throw their families and their
honour into our care, because they are unwilling to have the trouble of preserving
them themselves.” 3
In the year 1732 he staged another play in Drury Lane called The Modern
Husband, the theme of which was the prostitution of a wife for financial gain.
Through the play The Modern Husband Fielding wanted to deliver a moral, to the
audience about the evils of wife selling or exploiting the wife for financial gains by
the husband. Fielding was inspired by Aphra Behn’s The Lucky Chance (1687) and
Elizabeth Haywood’s A Wife to Lett (1723). The theme of The Modern Husband is
that a wife is a commodity and is burdensome and can be gainfully exploited for a
profit. Charles B Wood has remarked that Fielding’s attack was “directed against
not a private but a public evil, a state of affairs which enabled a man to make
money from his wife’s adultery without loss of social prestige.”4 Fielding wanted
to expose that the criminal conversation action was misused and exploited in
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Abergavenny Vs lydell case, where Abergavenny had known of his wife’s
licentious relations, and had trapped the couple to profit 10,000 pounds in
damages. The plot of the drama centers round the marriage of a middle-class
couple, the Modems who aspire to live fashionably in London. The husband had
lost his fortune in the South Sea Bubble, and so he forced his wife to have a
promiscuous relationship with Lord Richly for 1500 pounds. The husband
proposes to procure witnesses to prove his wife’s extra marital liaisons, so that he
may recover the damages. In a parallel plot we find that the Bellamonts had
incurred a few debts and the devious Lord Richly conspires to keep them
impoverished, so that he can force Mrs. Bellamont into an adulterous relation with
himself. He offers Mrs. Modem twenty guineas to pay for her gambling debts,
provided she can procure Mrs. Modem for him. The play exposes the injustice of
marriage and it also shows the willingness of the males to exploit the females for
monetary gains. It also exposes the hypocrisy of the males who while marrying
take the vow to protect and care for the females. Henry Fielding uses Mrs. Modem
to espouse his anger at the duplicity of the males. Mrs. Modem complains, “Have I
secured thy worthless person at the expense of mine? No wretch, ’tis at the price of
thy shame, I have purchased pleasures. Why, why do I say shame? The mean, the
grovelling animal, whom fear could force to render up the honour of his wife must
be above the fear of shame. Did I not come unblemished to thee? Was not my life
That I had sooner seen thee starved in prison, which yet I will, ere thou shall reap
the fruits of my misfortunes.”5 Mrs. Modem’s outburst thus illustrates that her
affair with Lord Richly should not be construed as a promiscuous fling but it is the
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husband who should be ashamed for entreating her to commit the deplorable act.
Mrs. Modem also realises that no self-respecting and ethical person would have
committed such an act and would have sacrificed his wife’s honour for money.
satire on the masquerades, which took place at Haymarket Theatre. The poem
displays Fielding’s moral indignation at the acts, which were committed through
the use of disguise. The poem denounces the vices of the society, that the morals
foundations of the society have become weak, that they are rotten and worm
infested by vice and penury. Fielding wrote, “Cardinals, quakers, judges dance;
society. Fielding’s era was of the Wesleyan period where the conversion to the
Methodist church was a new fangled idea. His hostility towards the moral order of
government of Walpole for its corruption of the society. He saw the distinction
between the poor and the moneyed class, and from his viewpoint it was the affluent
bourgeoisie who manipulated the power and patronage in the offices of the state.
Like Marx he viewed the division of working class. By forty he had mellowed and
the views of the early Fielding were supplanted by an apologist for social virtue
and enlightened justice. It seemed as if a rake had found redemption and reformed.
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Fielding dealt in moral realism and did not defer to authority, but attacked it
mercilessly. If he found public life corrupt he was vociferous about it in the most
violent and vulgar form. He dealt with the communal masculine world of the
eighteenth century, the world, which represented crime, deceit, brute force and
all its faults. In Tom Jones Squire Western dismisses bastardy and considers it of
no importance if a girl had an illegitimate child, thereby reflecting the views of the
male dominated society. The readers of Fielding too were not mortified or forsake
him for the sexual indiscretions in the book. He addressed his writings to an
educated audience who were well versed with the Roman poets, the Greek
literature and to the culture of neoclassicism. His novel Joseph Andrews opens
with an essay on epic both ancient and modem. His novel Tom Jones is written in
mock epic style and even in Amelia we find traces of Greek and Latin from
Simonides and Horace. His serious readers might have been offended by his
crudity whereas his easygoing readers might have been bored by his erudition. As
morals and manners were changing Fielding was in no danger of any criminal
proceedings being brought against him, though the tide of moral sensibility was
against him. The new arbiters of the literary class were the wives, daughters and
the servants of the middle class. His works were remarkable as he gradually
unfolds the infinite complexities of the world. He uses such a method, which
prohibits further assessment and the situations in his works are very close to
experiential reality. He used irony with the intention to correct and to prune the
perversions of the society and this is best expressed in his mock-heroic works.
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(II)
Samuel Richardson’s novel Pamela appeared during November 1740. The
novel was written in the epistolary form and the characters were simple and clearly
defined. The plot was uncomplicated as there was a lecherous master who was
lusting after an innocent maid, there were anxious parents and ambivalent lookers-
on. The action was simple, direct, compulsive and non-slacking which rivetted the
attention of the readers, and it became one of the focal points of the British literary
reappraising the meaning of it. Fielding sought to expose the farragoes of the
the disguise of piety it was sexually ambiguous and even salacious at times. There
was a voyeuristic sense of peeping into the feminine psyche, as it described how
the master Mr. B resorted to peeping through the. keyhole at Pamela who was lying
mingled prudery and prurience through his parodic novel Shamela. Fielding’s
Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews was published on 4 April 1741 as a
pamphlet after three editions of Richardson’s Pamela had appeared in the market.
It was not just a topical parody designed to make fun of Richardson’s novel but it
was also an assault on the inadequacies of the moral and intellectual life of the
times which were propagated through the perspective of the novel. Fielding’s
Shamela sought to expose and identify what may be considered or who may or
may not lay legitimate claim to cultural authority by engaging in a discourse with
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was to commandeer the ambiguities of Pamela and to mimicry it by making it
seem ridiculous. In the title page Fielding made his intentions clear by stating, “An
Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews, In which, the many notorious
Falsehoods and Miscalculations of a Book called Pamela are exposed and refuted;
and all the matchless Arts of the young politician set in true and just Light.
Together with a full account of all that passed between her and Parson Arthur
was quite a familiar practice in the literary world of eighteenth century England.
frightened and gullible female who clings on to her integrity in the face of Mr. B’s
prostitute who skilfully deceives the gullible Mr. Booby into marriage with the
reveals her brazen intention to appropriate Mr. Booby’s wealth by arousing his
sexual interest in the young and attractive servant girl. Shamela lampoons
was calculated to drive Mr. Booby wild with desire and she succeeds in her
endeavours. She writes in her letter to he mother, “Pamela, says he, what book is
that? I warrant you Rochester’s poems. - No, forsooth, says I, as pertly as I could..
Why how now saucy chops, boldfaces says he.- Mighty pretty words, says I pert
again. - Yes (says he) you are a d - 4, impudent, striking, cursed confounded Jade,
and I have a great Mind to kick your A -. You kiss - says I. A-gad, says he, and so
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I will; with that he caught me in his arms and kissed me til made my face all over
fire. Now this served purely, you know to put upon the fool for anger, O! What
precious Fools Men are!” 8 Fielding faithfully reproduced the bedroom scene of
Pamela where Mr. B. tries to molest Pamela and she faints. Fielding parodied it by
making Shamela and her accomplice Mrs. Jervis contrive to deceive Mr. Booby.
Shamela writes about the incident to her mother, “Mrs. Jervis and I are just in Bed,
and the door unlocked; if my Master should come - Odsbods! I hear him just
coming in at the Door. You see I write in the present Tense, as parson Williams
says. Well, he is in Bed between us, we both shamming a Sleep, he steals his Hand
into my Bosom, which I, as if in my Sleep press close to me with mine, and then
pretend to awake. -1 no sooner see him, but I scream out to Mrs. Jervis, she feigns
likewise but just to come to herself; we both begin, she to becall, and I to bescratch
very liberally. After having made a pretty free use of my Fingers, without any great
Regard to the parts I attack’d, I counterfeit a swoon. Mrs. Jervis then cries out 0,
Sir what have you done you have murthered poor Pamela; she is gone, she is gone.
to burst forth.”9 Fielding reverses the role of his heroine, where Pamela was the
victim, Shamela becomes the predator, where Mr. B was rakish Mr. Booby is
oafish. Pamela strives for her integrity, Shamela contrives artifice. Pamela has to
strive hard to prove her worthiness to Lady Davers Mr.B’s sister, but Shamela has
a different task, she has to strive hard to maintain the semblance of a virgin bride
on her wedding night, which she was not. Shamela writes to her mother about how
she was successful in deceiving her master, “In my last I left off at our sitting down
to supper on our Wedding Night, where I behaved with as much Bashfulness as the
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purest Virgin in the World could have done. The most difficult task was for me to
Handkerchief, I did pretty well. ... at last I went to Bed, and my Husband soon
leapt in after me; where I shall assure you, I acted my Part in such a maimer, that
no Bridegroom was ever better satisfied with his Bride’s Virginity. And to confess
the Truth, I might have been well satisfied too, if I had never been acquainted with
thus tried to propagate that Pamela’s Virtue the thing about which she takes so
much care and goes through torture both mental and physical, is after all nothing
but Vartue a secret desire for social enhancement and an ability for cunning
personal advancement. Fielding rewrote the sexual politics removing the notion
that the women were the victims of men’s predatory instincts, he espoused that the
deceifful are the predators and the gullible are the victims irrespective of gender.
culture of his times. Fielding saw the society as driven by money and external
display of pomp and grandeur inhabited by people hopelessly gullible and lacking
in substance. As Dr. Ian A Bell has written in this regard, “By offering such a
decontextualises and redirects the sexual ideology of its source. From Fielding’s
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Fielding through Shamela led an attack on those who had lauded Pamela as a
book likely to promote the cause of virtue and religion.Dr. Benjamin Slocock had
recommended Pamela from the pulpits of St. Saviours Church and it was rumoured
that he had received ten guineas for the favour. The idea of introducing clergymen
into the text like Parson Oliver and Parson Tickletext was to attack the related
issues of the day. Parson Oliver espouses Fielding’s view and represents the
sensible reader of Pamela, who can understand the actual artifice of Richardson’s
is, I think, very plainly this, To look out for their Masters as sharp as they can. The
Consequences of which will be, besides Neglect of their Business, and the using all
Manner of Means to come at Ornaments of their Persons, and that if the Master is
\
not a Fool, they will be debauched by him; and if he is a Fool, they will marry
him.”13 Parson Oliver is contrasted with the credulous Parson Tickletext, who is
infatuated with the steamy book. Parson Tickletext is so infatuated that he joins his
fellow clergymen into extolling the merits of the book from the pulpit. Parson
also provided Shamela with a little library of her own, which contains devotional
books as well as other works. She possesses A Short Account of God’s Dealings
giving legitimacy to the form of outward show of ‘faith’ rather than ‘works or
acts’, which was the criterion for piety. Shamela receives from her mother a copy
of Mr. Whitefield’s sermons from which she is inspired to learn how to ensnare her
‘rich fool’ Mr. Booby. Later when she listens to the preaching of Parson Williams
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/
Whitefield’s view. She writes about the sermon preached by Parson Williams, “his
Text was, Be not Righteous over much; and indeed he handled it in a very fine
way; he shewed us that the Bible doth not require too much Goodness that are not
so. That to go to Church, and to pray, and to sing Psalms, and to honour the
Clergy, and to repent, is true Religion’ and ’tis not doing good to one another, for
that is one of the greatest Sins we can commit, when we don’t do it for the sake of
Religion. That those People who talk of Vartue and Morality, are the wickedest of
all Persons That ’tis not what we do, but what we believe, that must save us, and a
great many other Things; I wish I could remember them all.”l4 Fielding wanted to
demonstrate through his parody about the proper and improper forms of religious
voice wider cultural analysis, which Fielding used as a platform to announce his
(HI)
Richardson’s Pamela, who defends her chastity from the lecherous onslaught of
her master Mr.B. Richardson’s Pamela was intended as a model woman, a working
girl who looks upon her chastity as a virtue. To Fielding Pamela appeared as a
fabrication of the factual world, it was full of improbabilities like the clumsiness of
the persecutor who allowed Pamela to escape, also the voluminous letters, the
magnification of the virtues of the heroine and one theme of the resurrection of the
rake. The life in eighteenth century was whittled down to Pamela and a few
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servants and her persecutor, the conflict between good and evil thus shrunk down
to the physical struggle between Pamela’s defense of her chastity and the lecherous
advances and snares laid by Mr. B to ravish her. Such weakness of the theme led
the comic imagination of Fielding to write Joseph Andrews. The function of the
Richardson and also to lay bare the bones of the eighteenth century life in general.
The dominant theme of the novel is the exposure of vanity and hypocrisy in the
society and the society’s anti-thetical views upon charity and chastity is also
revealed. Fielding in the Preface has written, “Now Affectation proceeds from one
of these two Causes, Vanity, or Hypocrisy: for as vanity puts us on affecting false
revolves around a central moral problem, i.e. the preservation of chastity despite
lustful attacks upon it. Joseph Andrews must protect his virtue from the lustful
advances of women like Lady Booby, Mrs. Slipslop and Betty the chambermaid.
The heroine Fanny Goodwill must withstand the attacks of a lustful beau, a squire,
was afraid about protecting her chastity he creates a hero who is in full control of
his chastity, where Pamela rises in the society he causes his hero to stay in the
same social class of the society for the sake of his lover. In the opening chapters of
the novel Joseph Andrews appears as the brother of the illustrious Pamela, this was
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done deliberately as it was Fielding’s method of having a joke at the expense of
Richardson’s heroine. Fielding wrote, “Mr. Joseph Andrews, the Hero of our
ensuing History, was esteemed to be the only Son of Gaffar and Gammer Andrews
Joseph serves as footman in the family of Sir Thomas Booby and has arrived in
novel that Mr. B’s mother has died so too in Fielding’s novel we find that Sir
Thomas booby has died. Lady Booby contrary to being grief stricken spends six
days playing cards with three of her female friends. She attempts to seduce Joseph
and invites him to her bedroom, where she lay reclined in a state of near
situation despite the invitation from Lady Booby. The refusal of Joseph to comply
with his mistress’s demands provides the humour of the scene. Fielding describes
the scene, “Your Virtue! (said the Lady recovering after a Silence of two Minutes)
I shall never survive it. Your Virtue! Intolerable Confidence! Have you the
Assurance to pretend, that when a Lady demeans herself to throw aside the Rules
of Decency, in order to honour you with the highest Favour in her Power, your
Virtue should resist her Inclination? That when she has conquer’d her own Virtue,
comprehend his mistress’s purpose further infuriates her, and his virtuous
resistance is rewarded with his dismissal from the post. Lady Booby seems to the
reader as caricature of the high society lady, an example of vanity and hypocrisy,
which was prevalent in the society. This would seem that Fielding delighted in a
misogynistic portrayal but it is not true, because he defends her against other
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women for her love affair with Joseph. Fielding reminds us that vanity rules us
even during lust, and Lady Booby’s passion for Joseph interferes with her vanity.
She is physically excited and she has a strong involuntary reaction even when she
meets him accidentally at the end of the book, “She no sooner saw Joseph, than her
Cheeks glow’d with red, and immediately after became as totally pale. ...She
started from her Sleep, her Imagination being all on fire with the Phantom, when
her Eyes accidentally glancing towards the Spot where yesterday the real Joseph
had stood, that little Circumstance raise his Idea in the liveliest Colours in her
Memory. Each Look, each Word, each Gesture rushed back on her mind with
Charms, which all his Coldness could not abate.”l8 Lady Booby cannot expunge
her desires for Joseph, and despite dismissing him from her service she still retains
a soft spot for him. Fielding in portraying Lady Booby was actually ridiculing the
sympathasises with her and tries to illustrate that the passion which governs her is
beyond her comprehension. Fielding explains about the matter, “that as the Passion
generally called Love, exercises most of the Talents of the Female or Fair World;
so in this way they now and then discover a small Inclination to Deceit; ... Miss is
instructed by her Mother, that Master is a very monstrous kind of Animal, ... And
lastly she must never have any Affection towards him; or if she should, all her
Friends in Petticoats would esteem her Traitoress, point at her hunt her out of the
Society. ... To avoid this Censure therefore, is now their only care; for which
purpose they still pretend the same Aversion to the Monster. And the more they
love him, the more ardently they counterfeit Antipathy. By the continual and
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and really believe they hate what they love. Thus indeed it happened to Lady
Booby who loved Joseph long before she knew it, and now loved him much more
than she suspected.”19 Fielding has also used Lady Booby as a mouthpiece to
Virtue!”20 makes us aware that virtue and chastity was expected only from women
and no male was asked to give proof of his being chaste or virgin. As Jill Campbell
has commented, “Lady Booby has reminded Joseph in their first interview of the
attack (“how should I defend myself?”), and her outrage at Joseph’s resistance
when she voluntarily invites sexual advances reflects a sense that the relative
a woman who is a slave of her passion as in the end she finds another male as the
Fielding has created another woman character who lusts for Joseph and she is
Mrs. Slipslop. She was the ‘waiting-gentlewoman’ to Lady Booby. Fielding has
described her as, “She was a Maiden Gentlewoman of about Forty-five Years of
Age, who having made a small Slip in her Youth had continued a good Maid ever
since. She was not at this time remarkably handsome; being very short, and rather
too corpulent in Body; and somewhat red, with Addition of Pimples in the Face.
Her Nose was likewise rather too large, and her Eyes too little; nor did she
resemble a Cow so much in her Breath, as in two brown Globes which she carried
before her; one of her Legs was also a little shorter than the other which
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occasioned her to limp as she walked.” 22 In Joseph’s escapade with Mrs. Slipslop
Fielding has drawn a caricature when it is compared with Lady Booby’s seduction.
approach is ridiculous as she is crazed with desire, “Yes, Joseph, my Eyes whether
I would or no, must have declared a Passion I cannot conquer. - Oh! Joseph! - As
when a hungry Tygres, who long had traversed the Woods in fruitless search, sees
within the Reach of her Claws a Lamb, she prepares to leap on her Prey; or as a
voracious Pike, of immense Size, surveys through the liquid Element a Roach or
Gudgeon which cannot escape her Jaws, opens them wide to swallow the little
Fish: so did Mrs. Slislop prepare to lay her violent amorous Hands on the poor
Joseph, when luckily her Mistresse’s Bell rung, and delivered the intended Martyr
from Clutches.”23 Mrs. Slipslop’s function in the novel is to repeat the words and
ridiculous antics of Mrs. Slipslop crazed with desire to seduce, Joseph is a parallel
of her mistress’s adventures. Robert Alter has commented that Mrs. Slipslop, “ is
both a voice for and critic of the desires her mistress politely conceals, a living
testimony to what lies on the other side of Lady Booby’s fafade of hypocrisy.”24
Mrs. Slipslop is something more than what the critics have written about, she lusts
, *
for Joseph in a natural manner, which is in contrast to Lady Booby’s hot and cold
passion. Mrs. Slipslop is a compassionate person and unlike her mistress would not
have turned Joseph out. She may bemoan about Joseph, but in her heart she has
some sympathy for Joseph and this fact is revealed when she comes to his aid
many times. She is optimistic as she harbours the notion that someday she will
■ri
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Fielding’s example how social education works, and how passions are
Betty the chamber-maid. Betty being employed as a chamber-maid at the inn was
the target of amorous attentions of various kinds of people like the footman,
bartender, soldiers etc. It developed her nature in. such a fashion that she took little
notice of such attentions. Fielding has described Betty as, “She had Good-nature,
those warm Ingredients, which, though the Purity of Courts or Nunneries might
have happily controuled them, were by no means able to endure the ticklish
Army, who sometimes are obliged to reside with them a whole Year together, and
above all are exposed to the Caresses of Footmen, Stage-Coachmen, and Drawers;
all of whom employ the whole Artillery of kissing, bribing, and every other
Weapon which is to be found in the whole Armory of Love, against them.”25 Betty
despite such attentions from various lovers was not immune to the charms of the
love and her escapades with an ensign had left her devastated. She next fell prey to
the courting of John the hostler and she was in the habit of sharing her bed with an
occasional handsome young traveller. Betty was enamoured of Joseph and finding
him alone she could not control her passions and embraced him. Betty’s
promiscuousness forces her to act like this, and Fielding has sympathised with
these women who were driven by their sexual'desires. He tries to convince the
readers that such behaviours are not an aberration but quite usual. Fielding
describes the scene, “Ever since Joseph’s arrival, Betty had conceived an
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extraordinary Liking to him, which discovered itself more and more, as he grew
better and better; till that fatal Evening, when, as she was warming his Bed, her
Passion grew to such a Height, and so perfectly mastered both her Modesty and
Reason, that after many fruitless Hints, and sly Insinuations, she at last threw down
the Warming-Pan, and embracing him with great Eagerness, swore he was the
handsomest Creature she had ever seen. Joseph in great Confusion leapt from her,
and told her, he was sorry to see a young Woman cast off all Regard to Modesty:
but she had gone too far to recede, and grew so very indecent, that Joseph was
obliged, contrary to his Inclination, to use some Violence to her, and taking her in
his Arms, he shut her out of the Room, and locked the Door.”26
Fielding has shown through his portrayal of the various women characters
like Lady Booby, Mrs. Slipslop and Betty in Joseph Andrews that despite their
differences in social class, they are all victims of unsatisfied sexual desire. This
expound the ideology that sexual virtue is not in living according to some abstract
espouse his ideology, “Whither doth this violent Passion hurry us? What Meaness
do we submit to from its Impulse? Wisely we resist its first and least Approaches;
for it is then only we can assure ourselves the Victory. No Woman could ever
safely say, so far only will I go."21 It should not be construed that Fielding is
opposed to virtue; he tries to say that sexual desire does exist and one cannot
ignore it. As Jill Campbell has commented, “When Fielding replaces Richardson’s
woman with a man in the position of an embattled servant, he not only displaces
the defense of chastity from its traditional female preserve but also breaks the
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correspondence between socioeconomic and sexual disempowerment in
of the culturally disentitled because her age, gender, and class position all coincide
conservative suggestion. The very associations between class and gender position
employed by critics when they liken Richardson to a woman writer are explored by
(IV)
Tom Jones was published in the year 1749, but it seems that there were
testifies it, “I have been very well entertained lately with the two first Volumes of
The Foundling, written by Mr.Fielding, but not to be published till the 22nd of
January; and if the same Spirit runs through the whole Work, I think it will be
much preferable to Joseph Andrevjs ”29 Tom Jones gives a panoramic view of the
society in England in 1745. It is the story of Tom Jones and Sophia Western who
are insurgents against the set norms of the eighteenth century society. They are
Blifil and they do not offer a passive resistance as they struggle. The struggle of
Tom Jones and Sophia is to expose the treachery of Blifil. Squire Allworthy and
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fafade of respectability with them. The plot of Tom Jones dramatises the moral
view of the human affairs describing the hidden dangers of naivety. The author’s
nature. Fielding was castigated for endorsing immoral and licentious fiction. The
novel had many detractors and Dr. Samuel Johnson was one such critic who took
umbrage at Fielding’s novel. Dr.Johnson opined that the novel should have
projected exemplary ideas, and conveyed clear and better ethics, as it would be
read by the young who were of an impressionable age. Sir John Hawkins was
another such critic who observed that Fielding’s work actively inculcated vice and
immorality. Sir John Hawkins described the novel Tom Jones as, “... a book
seemingly intended to sap the foundation of that morality which it is the duty of
parents and all the public instructors to inculcate in the minds of the young people,
by teaching that virtue upon principle is imposture, that generous qualities alone
constitute true worth, and that a young man may love and be loved, and at the same
time associate with the loosest women.”30 These criticisms do not correctly
lusted and leered at. He opposed the double standard of the sexual morality of men
and their libertine views of marriage. Fielding accepted the hierarchical structure
of the eighteenth centum family and the dictum that the women should obey their
parents and husbands. Many critics have labelled Fielding as a ‘manly’ novelist.
Angela Smallwood in her book Fielding and the Women Question argues that
Fielding wrote on female issues within, “the same eighteenth century cultural
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consciousness for which women and ideas of femininity were of great
importance.’^ l Angela Smallwood writes that Fielding promoted the view that
women were considered inferior to men not for the reason that they had a natural
defect or that their mental faculties were of an inferior type, but because they did
attention to their subjective lives, to their moral development and to their personal
relationships. Fielding does not tend to individualize his characters but he makes
Tom Jones is compound name created out of the commonest names and it signifies
very clear when in Joseph Andrews he wrote, “I declare here once for all, I
describe not Men, but Manners; not an Individual, but a Species.”32 In Tom Jones
we find some of the principal characters were modeled on Fielding’s friends and
acquaintances, “Lyttleton and Allen provided his model for Squire Allworthy,
Sophia Western was modeled upon his first wife Charlotte Cradock- “one,” he
declared before her death in 1744, “from whom I draw all the solid comfort of my
life.” 33 Sophia Western is both the cynosure and the focal point theme of Virtue in
the novel. Fielding hints at about the allegorical meaning of Sophia, as her name in
Greek means Wisdom. She has been type cast as the wisdom that Tom does not
have, and the whole novel is the chronicle of his trying to achieve wisdom and win
Fielding uses the most eloquent and flattering language to describe her, “For lo!
Adorned with all the Charms in which Nature can array her; bedecked with
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Beauty, Youth, Sprightliness, Innocence, Modesty and Tenderness, breathing
Sweetness from her rosy Lips and darting Brightness from her sparkling Eyes, the
lovely Sophia comes.”34 Fielding did not rest here but invited the Reader to
but even that would be inadequate to describe fully her beauty, “perhaps thou hast
seen the Statue of the Venus de Medicis. Perhaps too, thou hast seen the Gallery of
Galaxy, and all the Toasts of Kit-cat. Or if their Reign was before thy Times, at
least thou hast seen their Daughters, the no less dazzling Beauties of the present
Age whose Names, should we here insert, we apprehend they would fill the whole
Volume. ...Yet is it possible, my Friend, that thou mayest have seen all these
without being able to form an exact Idea of Sophia.”35 Martin C. Battestin gives
the reason why Fielding wished to represent Sophia in such a manner, “Fielding
presents his heroine as the ideal woman, the representative of a beauty of form and
nature alike.”36 As her name implies wisdom Sophia at the tender age of thirteen
demonstrates a far more mature attitude than others, and her understanding of Tom
and Blifil far surpasses that of anyone in the novel. She is an independent spirit but
her existence is never free from her relation to the others round her. Sophia’s
perception about the growing love of Tom for her comes from her wisdom as a
woman.
Molly Seagrim invokes a different kind of response from her. She understands the
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emotional reality between herself and Tom, and she tries in her own way to
stimulate his response and to make him aware of it. The incident about the
illegitimate child of Molly Seagrim, which Squire Western and Parson Supple
were discussing at dinner, confirms her suspicion about Tom’s philandering ways,
but it also kindles the flame of love for Tom in her heart. Sophia’s character has
been much maligned by the critics who opined that she is rather docile. Angela
Smallwood argues that Sophia is a rather courageous girl and she is resolute in her
character, she is also mature and intelligent and that her filial love should not be
Shakespeare. Didgeon observes, “Sophia Western, too shows the same gay courage
Western, who is motherless and therefore perhaps old for age, looks life in the face
and knows how to make a decision... But for all her firmness, she has no lack of
delicacy. She adores music, has a good taste in it, and likes to play Handel. ...this
pure young girl has no sense of false shame when she goes to the help of an
unhappy unmarried mother, even when this mother is Molly Seagrim, of whose
child Tom is the reputed father...Sophia has in fact, the spirit of the realist, who,
without wasting time in fruitless computations of what life might have given,
hastens to gather all that it gives, and joyfully to make the most of it. She loves
Jones, which certainly, needs courage and even a certain amount of foolhardiness,
for every day some new act of Jones’s seems to warn her against him; yet she
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Sophia if she is to be compared to Shakespearean women then she can be
her heart. Her passion is the overwhelming force in her. The incident about the
muff amply describes her feeling for Tom. She had given to her maid Honour her
old muff, but when she leams from her maid about the behaviour of Tom and how
he had kissed her muff, Sophia finds an excuse to take it back. She becomes very
attached to the muff and takes to wearing it constantly. Fielding describes another
incident which shows her attachment for the muff, “She was playing one of her
Father’s favourite Tunes, and he was leaning on her Chair, when the Muff fell over
her Fingers, and put her out. This so disconcerted the Squire, that he snatched the
Muff from her, and with a hearty Curse threw it into the Fire, Sophia instantly
started up, and with the utmost Eagerness recovered it from the Flames,”38 Sophia
is portrayed as a woman who does not have subterfuge in her, i.e. she is not a
cunning manipulator like Lady Bellaston. Sophia being a well beloved daughter of
her father could have married a person of her father’s choice and carry on an
extramarital affair. Sophia on the other hand chooses to confess about her love for
Tom. She is determined to change her father’s opinion not through trickery but
arisen out of her dotage to her father’s wishes and many readers as well as critics
think that Sophia is meek and servile to her father’s wishes but the story proves
otherwise. Squire Western loved his daughter very much and acquiesced to her
demands. His feelings were amply reciprocated by Sophia, and sometimes she had
to bear the brunt at being laughed for her devotion to her father, “as he loved her
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with such ardent Affection, that by gratifying her, he commonly conveyed the
highest Gratification to himself. She was what he frequently called her, his little
darling; and she well deserved to be so: For she returned all his Affection in the
most ample Manner. She had preserved the most inviolable Duty to him in all
Things; and this her Love made not only easy, but so delightful, that when one of
her Companions laughed at her, for placing so much Merit in such scrupulous
Obedience, as that young Lady called it,. Sophia answered, ‘You mistake me,
Madam, if you think I value myself upon this Account: For besides that I am
barely discharging my Duty, I am likewise pleasing myself. I can truly say, I have
myself, my Dear, it is on having this Power, and not on executing it.’” 39 Sophia
had vowed that she would not force herself to marry the man chosen by her father,
but neither would she marry a man without his consent. There is something else,
acknowledgement of the bond, which exists between the two of them. It is not out
of deference to her father’s authority that she submits herself, but it is for the bond,
which she cannot ignore or disown. Deep inside her she wants that her father be
happy with her choice that is why she sets this condition. So when she does marry
the man whom she loves, she wishes to have the approval of her father and in the
process she also satisfies her own desires, as she will not suffer from any inner
conflict. The approval from her father can also be construed in a different manner.
Sophia wishes to have the approval because she wants to show her father that she
is not wrong in her choice and that to approve would mean the acceptance of her
individual right to choose her life partner. Squire Western in the end urges her to
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marry Tom the next day instead of waiting for a year to prove his constancy to her.
Sophia readily acquiesces to his demands without saying anything as the custom
character who would be rather different from the other anti-feminine heroines i.e.
heroine who is emancipated but still retains within her some feminine qualities. Jill
Campbell has remarked upon this, “In creating his heroine in Tom Jones, Fielding
engages directly with the alternative possibilities for female character set up by
Whig pamphlets such as The Female Rebels or A BriefAccount, where the physical
female ‘nature’- are opposed to the passion, strength and willful courage of women
associated with Jacobitism or more generally with an old economic and political
rationality, a trait, which has been illustrated from a very early age. When Fielding
describes the internal conflict, which is raging within Sophia between filial
obedience and romantic love, he is trying to present the conflict between the model
companionate marriage since he was very attached to his wife Charlotte and she
was the role model for Sophia. Jill Campbell has written, “the gesture toward his
own life, and toward Charlotte’s purely domestic and personal reign in his heart -
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provides one kind of powerfully affecting “preceding Pomp” to the introduction of
marriage and of private female character.”4l There is another facet to this conflict
espoused against the docile new woman and the unruly shrewish one. When
Sophia runs away from her father’s house she evokes the notion of the rebellious
woman, but at the same time she is running away to protect the newly formed
notion of romantic marriage. As Lawrence Stone has written, “In this novel
marriage, and the plot revolves around the clash between the two.”42 Fielding
presents his heroine as the ideal woman, who retains some of the old values of
honour and virtue, and yet has an emancipated out-look towards life. Sophia is as
Fielding’s dedication implies the Lconomatic emblem and the embodiment of the
signifies the attainment of true wisdom and is a redemptive act as it restores joy
and order in a man’s troubled world. Martin C. Battestin has written in this context,
“But for one of Jones’s passionate nature the conditions upon which she may be
won are exacting, nothing less, indeed, than the acquisition of prudentia: Tom
must perfect his ‘Understanding’, as Sophia insists (XI. vii), must leam not only to
distinguish between the values of spirit and those of flesh, between the true and the
false, but to discipline his will so that knowledge may govern his life.” 43
by Fielding. She has been treated in a very unusual manner, as most of the readers
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tend to dismiss her at the first reading. She is hardly the part of action of the story,
but is the originator of it and she seems to be created as a pure necessity of the plot.
She seems to be type cast in a particular role and to be moved around as and when
required in the story. She comes out of this mould and asserts her personality. The
conflicting demands within her give her ambiguities and struggles an identity of
her own. She has been portrayed as a unique individual who has been described by
the critics as the supreme example of characterization. The plot demands an old
maid, a lonely woman who is tender hearted and one who should be above
suspicion. Fielding has described her as, “This Lady was now somewhat past the
Age of 30 an Aera at which in the Opinion of the Malicious, the Title of Old Maid
may with no Impropriety be assumed. She was of that Species of Woman, whom
you commend rather for good Qualities than Beauty, and who are generally called
by their own Sex, very good Sort of Women - as good a Sort of Women, Madam
as you would wish to know... and yet so discreet was she in her Conduct, that
Prudence was as much on the Guard, as if she had all the Snares to apprehend
The personality of Bridget develops as the story unfolds, and from a staid old
maid she assumes the characteristics of an amorous lady. The old maid has a lot of
hidden traits, as she turns out to be quite learned too. Fielding it seems takes great
delight in dazzling his readers with his characterizations. The unattractive old maid
<
who has a dour personality, whose opinion is that beauty is an enemy of chastity
and virginity, herself turns out to be amorous and so learned that she can hold
theological discussions. Fielding has taken great pains to gradually develop her
subtle character. Bridget is rather discreet in her dealings and affairs and she also
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seems to have a propensity to have affairs with younger men. Tom is the result of
such an encounter, which she had with Summer, the clergyman, who had been
staying with her brother Squire Allworthy. So discreet was her dealings that the
identity of Tom was well kept secret and the affair was revealed by Mrs. Waters
Allworthy attracts a lot of male attention and she had about five suitors who
claimed her attention, Summer the clergyman, Dr. Blifil the physician, Captain
Blifil, Thomas Square, and Rev. Thwackum the parson responsible for the
education of Tom and Blifil. Fielding seems to have fun at the expense of the
Methodist as Captain Blifil who ultimately marries Bridget for the sake of her
gradual progression of the plot Bridget seems to grow rather careless about her
sexual escapades. After the death of Captain Blifil, whom she had married in
secrecy after a courtship of one month she accepts the attentions of Thwackum and
Square. Bridget particularly was attracted to Square, “but Square’s person was
more agreeable to her Eye, for he was comely man;” 45 and further Fielding has
described Square as having a rather jovial personality and being a favourite of the
Bridget’s passion as Fielding had described them were basically flattery and
courtship, but he subtly also hints that since she was dissatisfied with her marriage
to Captain Blifil she might have indulged in a sexual affair. Fielding writes,
“However, she at last conversed with Square with such a Degree of Intimacy, that
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malicious Tongues began to whisper Things of her, to which, as well for the Sake
of the Lady, as that they were highly disagreeable to the Rule of Right, and Fitness
of Things, we will give no Credit, and therefore shall not blot our Paper with
them.”46
otherwise, and her best-laid plans are negated. Though in the end Tom does
plans. Bridget has been represented as shrewd judge of character, and she had very
carefully studied the character of Jenny Jones and by judging rightly she
meticulously plans her future moves. She knew of the trouble that would arise out
of Jenny’s hobnobbing with Partridge and she also gauged the fact that Jenny
would run away and thereby carry Bridget’s secret away with her. When Bridget
became pregnant and the time for delivery drew near she dismissed her maid and
kept Mrs. Wilkins ready to leave a: the right time. She also managed to send off
her brother Squire Allworthy to London for three months on business. Taking the
help of Mrs. Jones the mother of Jenny, a trusted ally and confidante of her, she
delivers her illegitimate child. She places the child strategically on the bed of
Squire Allworthy, as she knew her brother’s character well. She knew that Squire
Allworthy would not throw the baby out in the streets but would take proper care
of it. She is also a very good actress, for when the baby was brought in the next
morning she keeps silent for a moment and then breaks out in a tirade against the
unknown mother. Fielding describes her action, “However, what she withheld from
the Infant, she bestowed with the utmost Profuseness on the poor unknown
Mother, whom she called an impudent Slut, a wanton Hussy, an audacious Harlot,
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a wicked Jade, a vile Strumpet, with every other Appellation with which the
Tpngue-of Virtue never fails to lash those who bring Disgrace on the Sex.”47 Her
plan succeeds and having ensconced the illegitimate child in the household her
maternal instincts get the better of her, “ for having looked some Time earnestly at
the Child, as it lay asleep in the Lap of Mrs. Deborah, the good lady could not
forbear giving it a hearty Kiss, at the same time declaring herself wonderfully
pleased with its Beauty and Innocence.”48 She keeps up the pretence of being
highly displeased with the child and remarks, “Since it was her Brother’s Whim to
adopt the little Brat, she supposed little Master must be treated with great
Tenderness; For her Part she could not help thinking it was an Encouragement to
Vice.”49 After marriage to Captain Blifil* she tries to balance her plan about
protecting Tom instead of endangering his position. She pretends to take little
interest in Tom and talks against him in private to her brother so as to keep Squire
Allworthy on Tom’s side. She knows that Captain Blifil hates Tom as he thinks
him to be a rival of his own son Blifil. Here too Bridget keeps her relations intact
him her own Example, of conniving at the Folly of her Brother, which she said, she
at least as well perceived and as much resented as any other possibly could.”50
Bridget is human after all, for Tom raises the passion of maternal instincts in her.
She pretends to have an aversion towards Tom and has him whipped by
Thwackum, but still Tom holds a special place in her heart as he is her love-child.
The subsequent behaviour of Tom and his gallant attitude towards his mother
endears him to her and she delightedly sought his company. Fielding remarks upon
the change in the behaviour of Bridget, “However, when Tom grew up, and gave
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Tokens of Gallantry of Temper which greatly recommends Men to Women, this
Disinclination which she had discovered to him when a Child, by Degrees abated,
and at last she so evidently demonstrated her Affection to him to be much stronger
than what she bore her own Son, that it was impossible to mistake her any longer.
She was so desirous of often seeing him, and discovered such Satisfaction and
who exudes and exemplifies evil. Fielding noted for his characterisations has
about Lady Beilaston, “She combines the malevolent rhetoric of Milton’s Satan
with the unnerving aim of Lady Macbeth. As a result the London sequence over
which she presides, is more menacing than Blifil’s plotting in the first six books, or
the dangers posed by the assorted ruffians of the central picaresque section.”52
Anthony Hassall has further elaborated upon the characteristic of Lady Beilaston.
He compares the country episodes to that of Paradise and Blifil as the serpent, the
city as Hell and Lady Beilaston as the Devil in Hell. Sophia when she runs away
from her country home and arrives at London, she seeks refuge at her cousin’s
place i.e Lady Bellaston’s. The lady on the other hand exploits Sophia’s innocence
and naivety. Sophia is maltreated by her relative, she is abused, she is imprisoned
and nearly raped by Lord Fellamar. All these incidents take place with the tacit
represented as an evildoer.
Even Blifil pales into insignificance when compared with the deviousness of
Lady Beilaston. She combines her skills of eloquence and sophistication to its
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maximum effect and potential to perpetrate her evil intentions. She is better
motivated than Blifil, as she has much more to lose if Sophia and Tom are united.
great a Misfortune to have their Inclinations in Love thwarted, that they imagine,
they ought never to carry Enmity higher than upon these Disappointments; again,
he will find it written much about the same Place, that a Woman who hath once
been pleased with the Possession of a Man, will go above half way to the Devil, to
prevent any other Woman from enjoying the same.”53 She easily seduces Tom
who is unable to match wits and sophistication with Lady Bellaston in the game of
of Tom. She has listened to the glowing tributes paid to him by her maid and also
had taken a look at him. She with the connivance of Mrs. Fitzpatrick lays the trap
to entice Tom. Lady Bellaston uses the ruse of masquerade to ensnare Tom. Tom
under the mistaken belief that he is speaking to Mrs. Fitzpatrick, who will lead him
to Sophia his true love bares his heart and falls prey to the machinations of Lady
Tom reveals his displeasure to his readers about masquerades. He never liked the
deception, which takes place from behind the masks worn by the ladies. Tom’s
susceptible to the charms of the female sex. When Tom was confronted with the
proposition he was not one to backtrack from the situation. Fielding describes
Tom’s feelings, “Jones had never less inclination to an amour than at present; but
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gallantry to the ladies was among his principles of honour; and he held it as much
fight.”54 Tom when he falls prey to the guiles of Lady Bellaston he becomes
enmeshed in her evil designs. He becomes a gigolo, and the generosity of Lady
^Bellaston keeps him bound to her. Tom despite having the affair with Lady
Bellaston harbours a love for Sophia. The best-laid plans of Lady Bellaston to keep
the lovers apart are negated, as they meet by chance at Lady Bellaston’s house
itself. Lady Bellaston suspects that Tom still loves Sophia so she wants Tom to
prove his affection for her. She is like a woman possessed and she in a disordered
state of dress goes to Tom’s lodging to demand the proof of his affection and
remarks, “You see Sir, when Women have gone one Length too far, they will stop
at none,”55 The untimely arrival of Sophia’s maid forces her to hide behind a
curtain. She listens to the conversation between Honour and Tom, and Honour
warns Tom of Lady Bellaston’s morals. Tom also professes his deep love for
Sophia, this enrages and arouses the malevolent nature of Lady Bellaston. She
feels that she has been insulted by Tom who has forsaken her for Sophia, “You see,
said she, what I have sacrificed to you, my Reputation, my Honour, - gone for
ever! And what Return have I found? Neglected, slighted for a Country Girl, for an
Idiot.” 56 She decides to avenge herself on Tom. She knew of Lord Fellamar’s
infatuation with Sophia, so she instigates him to rape Sophia. She decides to kindle
his passion. When she learns of the scruples of Lord Fellamar, she exhorts and
incites him to commit the rape. Lady Bellaston remarks to Lord Fellamar, “Fie
upon it! Have more Resolution. Are you frightened by the word Rape? Or are you
apprehensive-? Well! If the Story of Helen Was modem, I should think it unnatural.
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I mean the Behaviour of Paris, not the Fondness of the Lady; for all Women love a
Man of Spirit. There is another Story of the Sabine Ladies, and that too, I thank
Heaven, is very ancient. Your Lordship, perhaps, will admire my Reading; but I
think Mr. Hopk tells us, they made tolerable good Wives afterwards. I fancy few of
serve my Cousin; for I think you will make her a Husband notwithstanding this;”57
Sophia is saved by the timely arrival of her father Squire Western. Tom learns of
the fortunate escape of Sophia from the malevolent clutches of Lord Fellamar, and
decides to break off his liaison with Lady Bellaston with as much decency as
Bellastpn and her morals, “I fancy, my Friend, by your extreme Nicety in this
Matter, you are not well acquainted with the Character of Lady as with the Person.
Don’t be angry Tom, but upon my Honour, you are not the first young Fellow she
Nightingale who instructs Tom how to extricate himself from his predicament by
advising him to propose marriage to Lady Bellaston. Nightingale knew it for sure
that such a proposal would make Lady Bellaston break off her illicit relationship
with Tom.
Tom had not bargained for the deviousness of Lady Bellaston, Fielding in his
opening chapter of Book XIV advises on the scruples of such women like Lady
Bellaston, “Some there are however of this Rank upon whom Passion exercises its
Tyranny, and hurries them far beyond the Bounds which Decorum prescribes; of
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these, the Indies are as much distinguished by their noble Intrepidity, and a certain
from the honest Wife of a Yeoman or Shopkeeper. Lady Bellaston was of this
intrepid Character;”59 Lady Bellaston schemes for the downfall of Tom and finds a
kindred soul in Lord Fellamar. Lord Fellamar after his attempt to rape Sophia has
been negated, unburdens his passion for her before Lady Bellaston, who assures
him of all possible help which she can provide. Lady Bellaston takes this
opportunity to remove Tom from the scene. She advises Lord Fellamar that if the
Other contender for Sophia’s hand is removed, then his path would be clear and he
can easily win Sophia. Lady Bellaston suggests to Lord Fellamar that he should
have his confederates abduct the lowly fellow and have him press-ganged aboard a
ship. She remarks, “I am thinking, my Lord, added she (for this Fellow is too mean
for your personal Resentment) whether it would not be possible for your Lordship
to contrive some Method of having him pressed and sent on board a Ship. Neither
Law nor Conscience forbid this Project: for the Fellow, I promise you, however
well drest, is but a Vagabond, and as proper as any Fellow in the Streets to be
pressed into the Service; and as for the conscientious Part, surely the Preservation
of a young Lady from such Ruin is a most meritorious Act;”60 To further her plans
in bringing the ruin of Tom she gives his letter to Sophia’s aunt Mrs. Western. In
the letter Tom had proposed marriage to Lady Bellaston. Lady Bellaston tells about
the audacity of Tom to Mrs. Western, “Will you believe that the Fellow hath had
the Assurance to make Love to me? But if you should be inclined to disbelieve it,
here is Evidence enough his own Handwriting I assure you,”61 Lady Bellaston
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knew that such incriminating evidence would tip the scales against Tom. Her plans
were nearly fulfilled when the press gang sent to abduct Tom witnesses his duel
Lady Bellaston’s plan was to cause a rift in the relationship between Tom and
Sophia, but in the end the misunderstandings are cleared up, and Tom is released
from prison, and the lovers are united. In representing a character like Lady
Bellaston, Fielding has illustrated that the lady has passion and is averse to be ruled
by it. When most of the women of her social standing were content to lead sedate
and monotonous lives, who curbed their natural passions for fear of losing their
reputation Lady Bellaston is not afraid to restrain her passion. Fielding also
independence and individuality. She is quite firm in her ideas about marriage and it
can be construed as a protest against the unjust treatment meted out to women. She
is quite happy with her present state and remarks to Sophia’s aunt Mrs. Western,
“You know Bell, I have try’d the Comforts once already; and once I think is
enough for any reasonable Woman.”62 Lady Bellaston represents a very small
class, and her anti-thetical pair can be found in Mrs. Western who belongs to the
same social category, and who has a formidable literary and political erudition, but
characters. Mrs. Waters is one such character who is not malevolent, but on the
contrary quite generous minded. Mrs. Waters or alias Jenny Jones was penniless
but intelligent girl and we become acquainted with her in Book I Chapter 6.
Fielding describes her, “This Jenny Jones was no very comely Girl, either in her
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Face or Perspn; but Nature had somewhat compensated the Want of Beauty with
of perfect Maturity; for she had given her a very uncommon Share of
Understanding. This Gift Jenny had good deal improved by Erudition.”63 She
leamt Latin under the tutelage of Partridge, when he was a schoolmaster in the
village. It was this passion for Latin, which caused a lot of misunderstandings in
the marital life of Partridge, and resulted in the termination of the job of Jenny and
her ouster from the household. She found employment in the household of Squire
Allworthy but there too misfortune followed her. Her generosity, liberal
mindedness, loyalty and a hunger for earning a little bit of extra money made her
confess about being the mother of the illegitimate child i.e. Tom. She discloses the
facts about Tom’s parentage before Squire Allworthy, “So far what I confest, said
she, was true, that these Hands conveyed the Infant to your Bed; conveyed it
thither at the Command of its Mother; at her Commands I afterwards owned it, and
thought myself, by her Generosity, nobly rewarded, both for my Secrecy and my
Shame.”64 She left the district and was heard of no more. She resurfaces as Mrs.
Waters when Tom saves her from the murderous assault of Ensign Northerton,
with whom she had an assignment. She has matured and is worldly-wise and she is
not loath to display her physical charms. She does not have any qualms in having a
physical relationship with Tom. Her wisdom is revealed when she realises that
Tom’s heart belongs to someone else, i.e. Sophia, “but after the departure of that
good Woman, she could not forbear giving our Heroe certain Hints of her
suspecting some very dangerous Rival in his Affections, the aukward Behaviour
of Mr. Jones on this Occasion convinced her of the Truth, without his giving her a
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direct Answer to any of her Questions;”65 She is a woman who lives for the
present. Fielding praises the spirit and mettle of Mrs. Waters and of women like
her. The fortuitous arrival of Tom in the woods saves her from death, so she finds
herself indebted to Tom and she is also physically attracted to him. Fielding
describes her reaction, “Mrs. Waters had, in Truth, not only a good Opinion of our
Heroe, but a very great Affection for him. To speak out boldly at once, she was in
Love according to. the present universally received Sense of that Phrase, by which
Love is applied indiscriminately the desirable objects of all our Passions Appetites
and Senses, and is understood to be that Preference which we give to one Kind of
insignificant matter, nor does he accept sin and sex as equivalent things. He
considered that there were sins like malice, injustice or slander, which were worse
than carnal sins. Jenny’s seduction was of a financial nature, as she had been
who had begot an illegitimate child. She had not been seduced by any man for
from the adventurous life that she leads. William Empson has remarked that,
“Fielding always admires women who can walk, instead of being tight laced and
townee, and though he tends to grumble at learned women he had evidently met a
variety of them; he can forgive Mrs. Waters her Latin.”67 Her independence is
depicted through her being enamoured of Tom and taking the first steps to seduce
him, such behaviour on her part does not reflect any malice or on her morality. She
is quite capable of handling obnoxious males and such a trait is evident from her
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handling of Fitzpatrick. She is a conscientious woman who likes to see that justice
is done. She visits Tom in prison and assures him that her supposed husband is
recovering and that there is no question of her husband being murdered. She also
declares to Tom that she was a bit offended at him for not responding to her sexual
Overtures, but further adds that she does not hold it against him. Her letter to him
clears up the matter between Tom and Fitzpatrick’s duel, “P.S. I would have you
that whatever other grievous Crimes you may have to repent of, the Guilt of Blood
is not among the Number.”68 She gives further proof of her generous nature by
disclosing all the facts regarding Tom’s birth so that justice may be done.
Fielding makes Tom stumble thrice in order to propagate the view that
Spphia exemplified wisdom, and womanhood. His three sexual partners, Molly
Seagrim, Mrs. Waters, and Lady Bellaston all help to define the ultimate woman
namely Sophia. Sophia when compared to these three women appears wise and
dutiful, whereas the other three have negative qualities. The most important aspect
about these three sexual partners of Tom is that they contribute towards the
definition of Sophia, and that each woman assists Tom to understand the real worth
of Sophia. Sophia represents the perfect union, and when Fielding named his
Molly Seagrim is Tom’s first paramour, she is the second daughter of Black
George the gamekeeper of Squire Allworthy’s estate. Fielding describes the beauty
of Molly Seagrim as, “The second of these children was Daughter whose Name
was Molly, and who was esteemed one of the handsomest Girl in the Whole
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CQuntry.”69 Molly’s beauty masked her deviousness and her shrewd and
calculating mind. She was a promiscuous girl, who utilised her charms of youth
and physical beauty to ensnare Tom. Fielding describes her deviousness, “And as
most probably she liked Tom as well as he liked her; so when she perceived his
Backwardness, she herself grew proportionably forward; and when she saw he had
entirely deserted the House, she found Means of throwing herself in his Way, and
behaved in such a Manner, that the Youth must have had very much, or very little
of the Heroe, if her Endeavours had proved unsuccessful. In a Word she soon
triumphed over all the virtuous Resolutions of Jones: For though she behaved at
last with all decent Reluctance, yet I rather chuse to attribute the Triumph to her;
since, in Fact, it was her Design which succeeded.”70 She exploits the situation and
extorts money from Tom on the pretext fo being pregnant. Her scheming character
is revealed by her elder sister Betty who divulges the fact that Molly has other
paramours, and that Will Barnes the notorious profligate and ‘country gallant’ was
Seagrim can be compared with that of Lady Bellaston except that Molly is a
propagating the view of an ideal woman, who has wisdom and virtuousness,
sought to contrast the goodness of Sophia with these three women. Molly has been
presented as a trollop as employs her physical beauty to trap and exploit Tom. Mrs.
Waters is presented as a straight forward and mature woman. She seduces Tom but
enjoys life. Paul Hunter has remarked about her, “Mrs. Waters, at once brazen and
fawningly feminine, is as wily and rootless as Sophia, is guileless and firmly self-
239
aware, and her recurrence in different identities and roles is a repeated reminder of
the seductiveness, good intentions and shifting shapes of temptations strewn along
life’s joumey.”7l It is Lady Bellaston among the three, who presents the greatest
danger to Tom. He is least attracted to her, but her malice is beyond the
comprehension of Tom, as she has the motive and the means to destroy Tom’s
happiness.
It has been observed that Fielding represents his women characters from
different perspectives, and his. views shift according to the context. The ideal
domestic arts, but it should not be misunderstood or construed that Fielding was
chauvinistic in his ideals. The fiction of Fielding reveals that he vigorously upheld
women’s property rights, lamented upon the lack of their legal status and
(V)
Amelia was Henry Fielding’s last and most debated novel. It was published in
the December 1751. The book became a subject of discussion between Richardson
and his friends. It was also critiqued in the correspondence of Catherine Talbot and
for his meeting with Sarah Fielding. Richardson intimated his displeasure to her,
“Had your brother, said I, been bom in a stable, or been a runner at a sponging
f
house, we should have thought him a genius, and wished he had the advantage of a
liberal education, and of being admitted into good company; but it is beyond
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conception, that a man of family, and who had some learning, and who really is a
writer, should descend so excessively low, in all his pieces. Who can care for any
of his people? A person of honour asked me, the other day, what he could mean, by
saying in his Convent Garden Journal, that he had followed Homer and Virgil in
his Amelia. I answered, that he was justified in saying so, because he must mean
Cotton’s Virgil Travestied; where the women are drabs and men scoundrels.” 72
The period during which it was published was a most exacting period for
Fielding. When he wrote Amelia Fielding’s view of life had undergone a change,
because the experiences of a magistrate ‘s work in London had its exhaustive effect
Westminster, and for the next five years the best part of his mental and physical
energy were devoted to the establishment of order and security in the city which
was infested with vice and profligacy. The judicial system was corrupt and there
was practically no semblance of law and order. Fielding strictly enforced the law
and his support to the officers of justice paved the way for drastic reforms. Such
exacting work took its toll and he became a sadder and wiser person. The system in
which he had faith gave him shock, but it did not embitter his heart oh the contrary
it made him tender and transformed his outlook. The Fielding of the distant past
who had laughed at mankind’s frailties and foibles metamorphosed into a sedate
and thoughtful person. As Martin Battestin has remarked, “Amelia is very much
the product of the same social concerns and arduous personal circumstances that
served to darken Fielding’s last years. If the opening chapter of Tom Jones presents
the novelist as the keeper of a public ordinary who celebrates the feast of life,
Amelia begins with the author’s ironic observations on ‘the English Constitution’
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and carries us at once to into the courtroom and the prison, institutions meant to
preserve the health of the body politic which instead perpetuate injustice and
corruption.”73
Amelia is the product of Fielding’s mature reflections about the meaning of life
and the grounds of order in the society. Amelia is the most realistic character that
sense of being very private yet a very public documentation of the lives of the
characters of the novel. J. Paul Hunter writes about it, “Moving from the world of
Tom Jones - with its sunshine, vitality, spaciousness, and health - to that of Amelia
is rather like entering an overheated, small, and quarantined room, and most
readers feel grudging about it, vaguely misled, even betrayed by a writer who has
without warning led them to anatomize some of the more dingy and sordid comers
of the human mind.”74 Recent critics like Robert Alter and Claude Rawson have
his introduction of the novel has commented that the book, “may be called the first
novel of social protest and reform in English, a kind of book scarcely attempted
again on such scale before Dickens. In keeping with this polemical intent, his tone
Fielding dedicated the novel Amelia to his friend Ralph Allen, the
philanthropic figure who was praised by Alexander Pope in The First Satire of the
Second Book of Horace Imitated and who was an influential patron of the arts.
Through his dedication Fielding declared his intentions, “The following Book is
designed to promote the cause of Virtue, and to expose some of the most glaring
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Evils as well public as private which at present infest the Country;”76 Fielding
chose to exemplify his moral themes through this novel, and many readers were
appalled by it for it was rather bleak and disturbing in its context. At the level of
public life Fielding illustrates that injustice and refusal tp reward merit were the
principles of the government. The judiciary and the military patron were corrupt,
or ignorant, the public offices were full of unscrupulous people who were also
cheats, and the bailiffs and the gaolers were brutal in the behaviour. Fielding
guiding lights of religion and virtue. J. Paul Hunter comments about it, “Set against
the insistent time of the later books, the walled-in prison books define a modem
relationship of holiday to reality, and their context impressively argues the grim
accomplishment resides in the frequent narrative stasis that reflects the inability of
the characters to cope with forces of oppression. Taken singly, some of the
incidents are simply tedious and slow, but cumulatively they achieve a certain
pathos because passivity comes to seem not a chosen course but a condition thrust
exact account. The book is regarded as a tribute to the lasting love for his first wife
Charlotte Craddock, who had readily accepted to elope with him in 1734 and she
died in his arms ten years later. Booth the hero of the novel in certain respects
resembles Fielding’s father Edmund Fielding, who was a military officer. Edmund
Fielding had acquitted himself gallantly in the Battle of Blenheim under the
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leadership of the Duke of Marlborough. Fielding fictionalised Booth’s campaign in
Gibraltar. In comparison to Booth, Fielding’s father had held a much more exalted
rank in the army. Edmund Fielding’s courtship of Sarah Gould and the articles of
their marriage settlement are also similar to that of the novel’s couple. Sir Henry
Gould and his wife were opposed to the match and resisted the marriage. They
were finally reconciled to the situation, but they made sure through the condition
that Sarah’s dowry would be exclusively utilised to maintain her and her children.
Amelia’s case is also similar and Booth narrates the circumstances of his marriage
to Miss Mattews, “From this instant the doctor told me, he had become my friend
and zealous advocate with Mrs. Harris, on whom he had at last prevailed, though
that I settled every penny which the mother should lay down; and that she would
retain a certain sum in her hands, which she would at any time deposite for my
reflects upon the world, which is dominated by evil forces, which are subtle and
relentless. The evil represented in the novel is simple and ordinary in its character,
but it is this simplicity, which makes it horrifying. The novel grimly reflects the
which they have to face. Fielding in his last novel shows that he is equal to
through his novel Amelia that treading on the path of virtue suggests a trial of
her path of virtue. She is quite aware of the human weaknesses, and she is careful
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enough not to be lured into the trap of temptations. She does not possess any
supernatural control, but is aware of her own frailties and takes care to avoid them.
Fielding portrays a virtuous woman, who has her impulses, which frighten her, as
these impulses if followed can ruin her virtuousness. In his former works like
Shamela, Joseph Andrews and Tom Jones Fielding has represented his women
characters from different perspectives, both good and bad. He had represented
didactic nature of the story. Fielding tried to propagate the view that fortune or fate
should not be blamed always because sometimes people tend to follow their
passions instead of wisdom. Fielding opines that passions stimulate our actions and
that passion can be divided into two types, one good and the other bad. The good
passion is governed by benevolence or by the love for other fellow human beings,
whereas the bad passion is governed by pride and selfishness. By laying stress and
analysing the marital and financial problems of the Booth couple, and by
eighteenth century.
In the novel the hero and the heroine are contrasted sharply as each of them
situation, which leaves him open to temptation, but the heroine Amelia finding
herself in the similar situation tries her level best to extricate herself with her
honour and virtue intact from the predicament, and to avoid unnecessary
tribulations. Fielding tries to depict the fallibility of both men and women. He tries
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to expound the view that human beings are capable <?f averting unnecessary
temptations if they are religious and virtuous, as Qod provides grace when the
temptations comes of its own accord without seeking it. Booth is responsible for
his own predicament, but Amelia avoids sinking into the quagmire of temptations
through her own good counsel though the evasion of the temptations is a challenge
tp her. Amelia is not only beautiful but her virtue itself is a kind of challenge to
them who are enamoured of her, and they wanted to corrupt her by making a
sexual conquest of her. Amelia is delivered from these tormenting and torturous
Hunter has commented upon her trials, .“Fielding shapes most of the narrative
from her trials and tribulations, following the orthodox reading of the ‘three
temptations. The various assaults upon her virtue follow the traditional pattern of
virtue successfully defended because the temptations were imposed and not
sought.’’79 Through the comparison with the three temptations of Jesus Christ,
Fielding has tried to expound the virtuousness of the heroine. She is cautioned,
when she leams of the story of Mrs. Bennett, and it makes her wary about the evil
designs of the Noble Lord. The dream about the conspiracy of colonel James by
Joseph also forewarns her about the impending danger. The greatest threat that she
faces is the sexual attraction towards Joseph Atkinson, which is negated by her
accumulated brotherly feeling tov/ards him. Fielding has employed theology and
The noble Lord is a syphilitic rake and Fielding employs the noble lord to
exemplify the temptation of covetousness and ambition. The vice that the Noble
Lord symbolically represents i.e. ambition and avarice had been the cause of ruin
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of Mrs. Bennett. The noble peer took the advantage of her ambition to improve her
position and the consequences of such dalliance were everlasting shame, disease
and ruin. Amelia and Booth arrive at London and take up lodgings at Mrs.
Ellison’s house. They encounter the noble peer at an oratorio and he is besotted
with the charms of Amelia. The peer puts his evil designs into operation and visits
regiment in the West Indies for Captain Booth to command. He showers gift on
their two children to demonstrate his affection. He also sends two tickets for the
masquerade for Amelia through Mrs. Ellison. The real intention of the peer was to
seduce Amelia. Fielding had launched a vitriolic tirade against these masked balls
and had tried to illustrate that at these masquerades the mask was in fact a prime
symbol of deceit, and betrayal. Fielding has described masquerades as, “of the
many masquerades in the city. In his judicial writings Charge Delivered to the
Grand Jury (1749) and An Enquiry into the Causes of the Late Increase of Robbers
Jones, one would expect little conscious ambiguity on the subject. If anything,
garrulously, consistent.”81 Booth allows his wife to accept the tickets because Mrs.
Ellison insinuates that the peer may be offended if they refused to accept the
tickets, and it would spoil the chances of Booth to obtain command of a regiment.
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The peer’s evil machinations are negated through the timely intervention of Mrs.
Bennett, who writes an anonymous letter to Amelia. Mrs. Bennett in her letter
inquire about the cause for despatching such an anonymous letter. Mrs. Bennett
recounts her unhappy tale of woe, and discloses how the noble peer had seduced
her through the use of his chicanery. She recounts how the noble peer had used the
same excuse of masquerade to seduce her, “At length my lord joined us, and
continued with me all the evening; and we danced several dances together.
...About two o’clock we returned home, and found a very handsome collation
provided for us. I was asked to partake of it; and I did, I could not refuse. I was not,
however, entirely void of all suspicion, and I made many resolutions; one of which
was, not to drink, a drop more than my usual stint. ...I adhered strictly to my
quantity; but in the quality, I am convinced, I was deceived; for, before I left the
ropm, I found my head giddy. What the villain gave me, I know not; but besides
: 1
had also passed on a venereal disease, which caused the death of her husband. She
disclosed that the noble peer behind the facade of his benevolent nature is nothing
but a profligate. The noble peer then settled an allowance of hundred and fifty
pounds a year on Mrs. Bennett and thought by doing so he would procure her
silence. She also discloses that Mrs. Ellison is a procuress and is an accomplice of
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the npble peer. Amelia thus is able to extricate herself from the clutches of the
noble peer by not being lured by the snares of greed and ambition. J. Paul Hunter
has remarked, “The Noble Lord’s is the weakest, though the longest, of the
temptations, but still Amelia is shrewd enough to avoid the masquerade where the
Amelia encounters her next temptation when Colonel James comes to visit
presumption. Colonel James visits her in the absence of Booth who is in prison for
non-payment of debts. Amelia falls prey to his flattery, and the colonel does not
stir from his chair till the clock had struck one. Amelia unguardedly had fallen prey
to flattery, and it is Mrs. Atkinson who makes Amelia aware of the truth. Amelia
thought that the colonel was concerned for Booth but Mrs. Atkinson reminds
Amelia that she had listened rather attentively to the praises of Colonel James,
“Did he not then, said Mrs. Atkinson, repeat the words, the finest woman in the
world, more than once? Did he not make use of an expression, which might have
become the mouth of Oroodantes himself? - If I remember, the words were these -
That, had he been Alexander the Great, he should have thought it more glory to
have wiped off a tear from the bright eyes of Statira than to have conquered fifty
worlds.” “Did he say so? Cries Amelia - I think he did say something like it;
but my thoughts were so full of my husband that I took little notice. But what
would you infer from what he said? I hope you don’t think he is in love with me?”
“I hope he doth not think so himself, answered Mrs. Atkinson; though when he
mentioned the bright eyes of Statira, he fixed his own eyes on yours with the most
languishing air I ever beheld.”85 The real intention of the colonel is to seduce
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Amelia. He is enamoured of Amelia and tries various methods to seduce her. He
offers to bail Booth but reneges on his promise. Colonel James also artfully drops
the hint that he might be able to secure for Booth a commission in the West Indian
regiment. The plans of the colonel are partly foiled by Mrs. Atkinson’s sharp
gave the poor seijeant great uneasiness, and after having kept him long awake,
tormented him in his sleep with a most horrid dream, in which he saw the colonel
standing by the bed-side of Amelia, with a naked sword in his hand, and
threatening to stab her instantly, unless she complied with his desires.”86 Amelia
also is able to see through the evil intentions of the colonel and informs Dr.
The third and final temptation of Amelia comes in the form of carnal desire
and she is able to control it. Joseph Atkinson for a long time had harboured a secret
love for Amelia in his heart. Mrs. Bennett or Mrs. Atkinson as she was in truth
discloses this fact to Amelia, “In short, I have discovered, that he hath always
loved you, with such a faithful, honest, noble generous passion, that I was
consequently convinced his mind must possess all the ingredients of such a
passion;”87 Amelia dismisses the whole thing as joke, but her virtuousness is
finally tested when Atkinson in a state of drunkenness returns her portrait and
confesses to stealing it long ago. He remarks, “I stole it when I was eighteen years
of age, and have kept it ever since. It is set in gold, with three little diamonds; and
yet I can truly say, it was not the gold nor the diamonds which I stole - it was that
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Faced with such a situation Amelia is confused. She had always harboured a
kind of brotherly feeling towards Atkinson but his confession kindles a small
that twinge of passion as Amelia’s weakness as it remin4s Amelia <?f her frailties,
“To say the truth, without any injury to her chastity, that heart, which hacj stood
firm as a rock to all the attacks of title and equipage, of finery and flattery, and
which all the treasures of the universe could not have purchased, was yet a little
softened by the plain, honest, modest, involuntary, delicate, heroic passion of this
poor humble swain; for whom, inspite of herself, she felt a momentary tenderness
and complacence, at which Booth if he had known it, would perhaps have been
displeased. ...and then left the house with a confusion on her mind that she had
never felt before, and which any chastity that is not hewn out of marble must feel
has illustrated that Amelia can understand that she is human and thus is fallible.
She must remain resolute in the face of temptations, and they would pass, as they
are not of her making. Fielding chose lust as the last temptation as he wanted to
prove that Amelia being a representative of the enlightened age should be able to
repulse this vice. J. Paul Hunter has remarked, “Given Fielding’s aims ( and his
protective view of women), lust is the climactic temptation for Amelia; the others,
while sexual, never even forced Amelia to admit fleshly appetite. The portrait of
Amelia as a new Eve, a model of human perfection, makes the temptation of carnal
appetite the logical dramatic climax for Fielding, whose chivalric vision of women
elevated them to such a height that lust was the ultimate test of their morality.” 90
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Fielding always excels in creating his female evil characters. In Amelia too
we come across Miss Matthews, who personifies evil. We are introduced to her in
Frances Matthews but she is always known as Miss Matthews. The charge pressed
against her is that of murder. The enormity of the crime illustrates that she has a
violent passion and that she would do anything to achieve her desired objective.
She exhibits no remorse for committing the murder, “Murder! Oh! *tls music in my
ears. - You have heard then the cause of my commitment, my glory, my delight,
my reparation! - Yes, my old friend, this is the hand, this is the arm that drove the
i
penknife to his heart. Unkind fortune, that not one drop of his blood reached my
hand. - Indeed, sir, I would never have washed it from it. - But tho’ I have not the
saw it run rivers on the floor; I saw it forsake his cheeks. I saw him fall a martyr to
my revenge. And is the killing of a villain to be called murder? Perhaps the law
As the story unfolds it seems that Captain Booth and Miss Matthews were
acquainted with each other. She invites Captain Booth to her cell and both of them
recount their respective tales of woe. Miss Matthews recapitulates how Captain
Booth had gallantly returned her glove, which she had knowingly thrown below,
and from that moment she had been in love with him. The consequent incident
involving Miss Johnson and Captain Booth at the ball further demonstrates the
passionate nature of hers. She remarks, “What made this the more pleasing to me
was, that I secretly hated Miss Johnson. Will you have the reason? Why then, I will
tell you honestly, she was my rival; ... I mean then that she was my rival for
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praise, for beauty, for dress, for fortune, and consequently for admiration. My
her tale of woe and how she was seduced by Hebbers. Miss Matthews then talks
about the value of virtue and how men make women their pawns in the game of
seduction. Fielding has used Miss. Matthews as a mouth piece to propound his
ideals upon female chastity, “0 may my fate be a warning to every woman to keep
her innocence, to resist every temptation, since she is certain to repent of the
foolish bargain. May it be a warning to her to deal with mankind with care and
caution; to shun the least approaches of dishonour, and never to confide too much
in honesty of a man, nor in her own strength, where she has so much at stake; let
her remember she walks on a precipice, and the bottomless pit is to receive her, if
she slips; nay, if she makes her one false step.”93 The didactic tone used by
Fielding here demonstrates that he was aware of the constraints laid upon women
and their chastity. The phrases like ‘walks on a precipice’ and ‘bottomless pit’ used
by Miss Matthews reflects directly upon the attitude of the patriarchal society. It
follows that one false step by a woman will render her homeless and bring shame
and ignominy.
cleverly exploits that situation. He praises her beauty and encourages her to play
the harpischord. He opines that she possesses the talent and is a much better player
of the instrument than her sister. Miss Matthews did not like music, but falling
prey to flattery and vanity she thinks that she can play the harpischord.
Perseverance and practice pays off and she becomes a tolerable player. This
satisfies her vanity and thereby Hebbers is able to win her heart. An occasion for
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feasting in the family leads to disastrous consequences for her. The younger sister
of Miss Matthews got married and there was rejoicing and drinking in the house.
Miss Matthews had drunk a bit more than she usually did and Hebbers took
advantage of her intoxicated state and violated her modesty. Miss Matthews
realises the enormity of the situation later. She passed the next two months trying
to please Hebbers in the hope that he would consent tp marry her, all the while
succumbing to his lustful nature. Hebbers on the other hand procrastinated and
gave various excuses to escape from the situation and even went to the extent to
say that he was transferred. Hebbers meanwhile carried on an affair with widow
Mrs. Cary. Hebbers ran away to London being apprehensive of the consequences,
as he was afraid of Miss Matthews’s brother who might demand that honour be
satisfied in the form of a duel. Miss Matthews’s father proposes a marriage and
Hebbers reluctantly agrees to it. On the day of the nuptials Miss Mathews received
an anonymous letter, which revealed that Hebbers was a married man. This
information shatters Miss Matthews, but Hebbers again uses his manipulative
tongue to persuade her. He assures her that whatever misfortunes that had befallen
her was but an accident and he had all along been very much in love with her. His
actions were the outcome of intense love for her. Miss Matthews heart melts and
that she elope with him and become his mistress. Miss Matthews foolishly
acquiesces to elope with Hebbers thereby jeopardising her reputation. She lived as
his mistress for a year and bore him a child. The libertinism of Hebbers did not
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to go to his quarters at Yorkshire but continued his dalliance with Mrs. Cary. Miss
attention to the widow. The next morning she was insulted by the landlady, who
insinuated that Miss Matthews was a prostitute who had fraudulently taken the
Miss Matthews, that she should return to her family, and he would provide for her
Matthews’s passion was roused and she went to his house and stabbed him. Miss
Matthews describes the incident and her emotions, “In the highest agony of rage, I
went in a chair to the detested house, where I easily got acess to the wretch I had
drawn penknife, which I had prepared in my pocket for the purpose, into his
accursed heart. For this fact I was immediately seized, and soon committed hither;
and for this fact I am ready to die, and shall with pleasure receive the sentence of
the law.” 94 The further revelation of the passionate and promiscuous nature of
Miss Matthews comes from the incident when she and Captain Booth decide to
share the cell at Newgate. The cutting remark by the gaoler when he went to lock
them up caused Miss Matthews some embarrassment but she recovered and
preferred to spend the night with Captain Booth. Fielding describes the scene,
“Tho’ we decline painting the scene, it is not our intention to conceal from the
world the frailty of Mr. Booth, or of his fair partner, who certainly past that
evening, in a manner inconsistent with the strict rules of virtue and chastity.”95
The devious nature of Miss Matthews is revealed when she demands the
undivided attention of Captain Booth. She besieged him with letters asking him to
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continue with their liaisons. She knows fully well that Booth is married, and she
had met Amelia also, but despite this knowledge she demands his attention and
time. She writes to Booth, “To convince you I am the most reasonable of women, I
have given you up three whole days to the unmolested possession of my fortunate
rival; I can refrain no longer from letting you know that I lodge in Dean Street, not
far from the church, at the sign of the Pelican and Trumpet; where I expect tins
evening to see you - Believe me, I am with more affection than any other woman
in the world can be,”96 She besieges him with another letter, to which Booth does
not reply.
She is also instrumental in causing a rift between Colonel James and Booth.
Booth’s revelation to the colonel about his extramarital affair with Miss Matthews
light later that the colonel was the unidentified lover who had sent the hundred
pounds and secured the release of Miss Matthews. He had also provided the
colonel Bath. After being wounded in the duel Bath reveals that he was trying to
avenge the honour of colonel James from the alleged slanders of Booth. Booth
meets colonel James at Bath’s place and both of them go for a walk. Bath jumps to
the conclusion that they must have gone to the dueling field, and when they fail to
return after a long period he thinks that they must have killed each other. Colonel
James informs Booth that it was Miss Matthews who had instigated him against
Booth. Miss Matthews’s love for Booth is roused once again when she receives the
false news that Booth has been killed in the duel. Her passion is revealed in letter
to colonel James whom she curses for murdering Booth and for listening to the
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rantings of a jealous woman. She writes, “I hope this will find you in the hands of
justice, for the murder of one of the best friends that ever man was blest with. In
one sense indeed, he may seem to have deserved his fate, by chusing a fool for a
friend; for who but a fool would have believed what the anger and rage of an
earnest I mentioned it. Know then, cruel wretch, that poor Booth loved you of all
Booth for not paying proper attention to her. She then blackmails him with the
threat that she would expose herself and him at the masquerade if he did not agree
to visit her soon. Miss Matthews again upon encountering Booth in the streets
demands that he fulfill the promise made to her of dining with her. She further
threatens him that she had written to his wife Amelia about his infidelity. Booth
upon returning home makes an excuse that he would be away for a dinner. Booth is
again arrested for debts, and he is visited by Amelia in the prison. Booth confesses
that he had been unfaithful and he had an affair with Miss Matthews but it was all
over now. Amelia too discloses that Miss Matthews had sent her a letter through
post in a feigned hand in which she accused Booth of many things, “In this letter,
which was sign’d by a feigned name, she had acquainted Amelia with the infidelity
of her husband, and had besides very greatly abused him; taxing him with many
faslehoods; and, among the rest, with having spoken very slightingly and
disrespecfully of his wife.”98 Amelia forgave Booth for his philandering ways and
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thus Miss Matthews contrivance to cause a rift in the relation between Amelia and
driven by her passion is exemplary. Miss Matthews like Lady Bellaston in Tom
Jones is a character who does not easily give up her claim upon Booth. Miss
Matthews like Lady Bellaston has been used as a mouthpiece to espouse Fielding’s
views upon the position of a woman in a male dominated society. Though she has
been construed as the ‘other’ woman in a man’s life, but still it was a man who was
didacticism about how it is always the woman who is the loser in the patriarchal
society. Her views upon the value of chastity upholds the religious beliefs and
customs of the eighteenth century society. Just as in Tom Jones so too in Amelia
we find that the hero has been reformed by the patience and perseverance of the
heroine.
Fielding has also shown that there are women who do not hesitate to
endanger other women. Mrs, Ellison is one such character, who being a relative of
the noble peer is also a procuress. The noble peer was besotted with the charms of
Amelia, and it is she who is instrumental in introducing the noble peer to the
Booths. It is she who takes them to the oratario where they meet the peer. It is she
presses them to accept the tickets of the masquerade. When Booth objects to going
to the masquerade, she insinuates that Amelia’s liberty is being stifled by Booth.
She tries to foment a marital discord among the Booths. Her behaviour towards
Amelia was full of congeniality, but behind that fa?ade of amiability lurked an evil
mind with an evil design. Mrs. Ellison’s mentality can be gauged from the song
that her late husband used to sing, because she too believes holds the same opinion,
258
“Love’s but a frailty of the mind,
The other woman characters in Amelia also demonstrate how human nature
functions. The representation of Mrs. James demonstrates the fact she was
hypocritical. Mrs. James knew Amelia very well, but her later behaviour towards
Amelia is rather surprising. She loved the city life as it afforded ample scope for
entertainment for her. She used to spend most of her time playing cards. She was
married to Colonel James, but she hated him heartily. The feeling was reciprocated
by the Colonel who confided to Miss Matthews at the masquerade that Mrs. James
was a tall and awkward woman. The Jameses reach a compromise, by virtue of
which the Colonel would be free to pursue Amelia and that he would be helped by
his wife in his endeavours. She on the other hand would live in London and would
not be sent to the country estate of the colonel. She later berates the colonel that
like a dutiful wife she had done everything to give him an opportunity to seduce
Amelia. His inability to seduce Amelia was his responsibility and not hers, she
remarks, “And nevertheless, did not I, like an obedient wife, comply with your
desires? Did I make any objection to the party you proposed for the masquerade,
tho’ I knew very well your motive? What can the best of wives do more? To
procure you success is not in my power; and if I may give you my opinion, I
Amelia has substantiated the view that Amelia is an embodiment of goodness and
virtue. Fielding espoused the Christian values and tenets through Amelia.
Fielding’s gradual change in his views is evident in Amelia. The affair of Booth
259
with Miss Matthews portrays the betrayal of the marital trust, and the callousness
Sherbum has remarked, “Amelia is not merely the idealisation of of the Ewig-
lacks.”101
When the sexual escapade of Booth is compared with those of Tom Jones we
find that Fielding was lenient in portraying the morals in his earlier works, but it
knew how difficult it was for a woman to survive in the male dominated society if
she was tainted. Amelia the story of a marriage reveals Fielding’s view of the
minutiae of the domestic life and the evils of the prevalent society. As J. Paul
Hunter has remarked, “Amelia clarifies some of Fielding’s other interests and
patterns that, while present are not so prominent or clear in the earlier books. For
ethic. And his shift from a male to a female main character raises info prominence
260
Notes and References
1990. Page 45. The quote has been taken from Henry Fielding’s play Love
2) Ibid. Page 46. The quote has been taken from Henry Fielding’s play Love
and Novels. Stanford University Press. Stanford. 1995. Page 23-24. The
quote has been taken from Henry Fielding’s play Love in Several Masques.
Publishing Division. Volume 38. 1998. Page 458. The quote has been
2 (June 1937)359-373,366.
Publishing Division. Volume 38. 1998. Page 459. The quote has been taken
from Henry Fielding’s play The Modern Husband, Act I Scene iv.
Page 46. The quote has been taken from the poem The Masquerade to be
261
found in Henry Fielding’s The Female Husband and Other Writings, ed.
7) Henry Fielding. : Joseph Andrews with Shamela and Related Writings, ed.
Homer Goldberg. W.W. Norton & Co. New York. 1987. Page. 272
9) Ibid. Page.283.
12) Bell. Dr. Ian A. : Henry Fielding : Authorship and Authority. Longman.
13) Henry Fielding. : Joseph Andrews with Shamela and related Writings, ed.
Homer Goldberg. W.W. Norton & Co. New York. 1987. Page 279.
21) Campbell Jill: Natural Masques : Gender and Identity in Fielding's Plays
and Novels. Stanford University Press. Stanford, California. 1995. Page 68-
69.
262
22) Henry Fielding : Joseph Andrews with Shamela and Related Writings, ed.
Homer Goldberg. W.W. Norton & Co. New York. 1987. Book I Chapter 7
Page 26.
24) Campbell Jill: Natural Masques : Gender and Identity in Fielding's Plays
and Novels. Stanford University Press. Stanford, California. 1995. Page 94-
95. The quote has been attributed to Robert Alter: Fielding and the Nature
Page 117.
25) Henry Fielding : Joseph Andrews with Shamela and Related Writings, ed.
Homer Goldberg. W.W. Norton & Co. New York. 1987. Book I Chapter 18
Page 67.
28) Campbell Jill: Natural Masques : Gender and Identity in Fielding‘s Plays
and Novels. Stanford University Press. Stanford, California. 1995. Page 67-
68.
29) Thomas Donald : Henry Fielding. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. London. 1990.
Page 281.
London. 1994. Page 194. The quote has been attributed to Sir John
263
31) Richetti John, ed. : The Cambridge Companion to Eighteenth Century
Novel. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. 1996. Page 123. The quote
has been taken from the article by Claude Rawson : Henry Fielding.
32) Henry Fielding : Joseph Andrews with Shamela and Related Writings, ed.
Homer Goldberg. W.W. Norton & Co. New York. 1987. Book III Chapter 1
Page 148.
Jersey. 1968. Page 4. The quote has been taken from Martin Battestin’s
Introduction.
34) Henry Fielding.: Tom Jones, ed. Sheridan Baker. W.W. Norton & Co. New
36) Battestin Martin C.: The Providence of Wit: Aspects of Form in Augustan
Page 182
37) Butler. Gerald J.: Henry Fielding and Lawrence’s Old Adam. The Edwin
Mellen Press. Lewiston. 1992. Page 85-86. The quote has been taken from
Aurelien Digeon : The Novels ofHenry Fielding. London. 1925. Page 146-
150.
38) Henry Fielding : Tom Jones, ed. Sheridan Baker. W.W. Norton & Co. New
264
40) Campbell Jill: Natural Masques : Gender and Identity in Fielding's Plays
170.
41) Campbell Jill: Natural Masques : Gender and Identity in Fielding's Plays
170.
42) Stone Lawrence : The Family Sex and Marriage in England 1500-1800.
Page 185.
44) Henry Fielding : Tom Jones, ed Sheridan Baker. W.W. Norton & Cq. New
45) Henry Fielding : Tom Jones, ed. Sheridan Baker. W.W. Norton & Co. New
52) Hassall Anthony : Henry Fielding's Tom Jones. Sydney University Press.
265
53) Henry Fielding : Tom Jones, ed. Sheridan Baker. W.W, Norton & Co- New
68) Henry Fielding : Tom Jones, ed. Sheridan Baker. W.W. Norton & Co. New
71) Hunter J Paul : Occasional Form : Henry Fielding and the Chains of
266
72) Thomas Donald : Henry Fielding. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. London. 1990.
Page 343-344. The quoted letter has been taken from Selected Letters of
73) Henry Fielding ‘. Amelia, ed. Martin Battestin. Wesleyan University Press.
74) Hunter J Paul : Occasional Form : Henry Fielding and the Chains of
75) Henry Fielding : Amelia, ed. Martin Battestin. Wesleyan University Press.
76) Henry Fielding : Amelia, ed. David Blewett. Penguin. London. 1987. Page
3.
77) Hunter J Paul: Occasional Form : Henry Fielding and the Chains of
78) Henry Fielding : Amelia, ed. David Blewett. Penguin. London. 1987. Book
79) Hunter J Paul: Occasional Form : Henry Fielding and the Chains of
J Paul Hunter attributes his discussion to take its terms from Barbara K
Lewalski’s account of the ‘triple equation’ from Theme and and Action in
267
Press. Stanford, California. 1986. Page 184. The quote has been taken from
82) Henry Fielding : Amelia, ed. David Blewett. Penguin. London. 1987. Book
84) Hunter. J Paul : Occasional Form : Henry Fielding and the Chains of
85) Henry Fielding : Amelia, ed. David Blewett. Penguin. London. 1987. Book
90) Hunter J.Paul: Occasional Form : Henry Fielding and the Chains of
91) Henry Fielding : Amelia, ed. David Blewett. Penguin. London. 1987. Book
268
94) Il?id. Page 50-51.
99) Henry Fielding : Amelia, ed. David Blewett. Penguin. London. 1987. Book
Hall of India. New Delhi. 1979. The quote is taken from the article of
102) Hunter J. Paul : Occasional Form : Henry Fielding and the Chains of
269