Form and Style in Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding

Q) Discuss the form, structure and style used and adopted by Henry Fielding in his classic novel Joseph Andrews.

Among the pioneer writers of the novels, the name Henry Fielding can only be omitted by some unwanted chance of ignorance. Famous for his classic Joseph Andrews, Fielding appears to formulate his own genre of writing which can neither be said as picaresque or epistolary, alone. Unlike many other writers, Fielding himself debates extensively on the genre, style and form of this novel in the preface of Joseph Andrews as well as through different chapters of the novel as and when required. Among the characteristics stated by the writer, a few to be mentioned include: comic epic in prose, satire, division of the novel and digressions. However, debating on it’s from, style and structure; a lot more other characteristics can be made part of the debate when it comes to Joseph Andrews. This essay shall discuss the novel Joseph Andrews in the terms of its form, structure, style and genre as depicted by the writer Henry Fielding.

As for the form of the novel, Fielding has introduced a completely new idea and has himself claimed that the form of novel he is intending to write has not been “intended before” and which he does not “remember to have seen hitherto attempted in our language” (Author’s Preface). Fielding calls his novel Joseph Andrews a “Comic Epic in Prose”, since according to him this novel contains all the other parts of an epic including “fable, action, characters, sentiments, and diction, and is deficient in meter only” (Author’s Preface). A lot of references can be picked from this novel, that befit the claims made by Fielding about this novel being an epic in prose. Since, it is in the form of prose, therefore we cannot expect the novel to have some rhyme or meter. Considering the rest of the elements of an epic, we find them as we turn the pages going through different happenings and events of the novel.

Joseph Andrews has a fable which is not teemed with magic or supernatural elements; rather it is of more realistic sort. However, we do come across the idea of spirit or ghost at a point when Parson Adams, Joseph Andrews and Fanny are chased by the robbers. They ran for their lives but to their sorrow and surprise, the shadows stopped for a moment, and then disappeared (Fielding 183).  The next element of an epic found in this novel is the action. The action can be seen in various situations; however, unlike an epic poem, the action in Joseph Andrews is mild. In the twelfth chapter of the first book when Joseph leaves Lady Booby’s house, we come across a fight scene between Joseph and the robbers. Joseph tries to fight the robbers as they attempt to strip him naked, intending to rob him completely; however, one of the robbers “damning his eyes, snapped a pistol at his head; which he had no sooner done that the other leveled a blow at him with his stick” (Fielding 39). When Joseph tried to defend himself, he received a blow from the other robber “which felled him to the ground, and totally deprived him of his senses” (Fielding 39-40). Some other events containing action can be also be included which Parson Adam meets Fanny first and saves her from being raped. Likewise, the event in the last book where Fanny encounters Beaus, who allegedly attempts to harass her sexually, she is saved by Joseph at the eleventh hour by fighting with Beaus. In addition to these, sentiments are also an integral part of Joseph Andrews. The extreme sentiments of passion and love can be seen when Joseph meets Fanny at the in having her in his arms. Fanny inquires with affection: “Are you Joseph Andrews?” – “Art thou my Fanny?” Joseph answers and pulls Fanny to his heart. However, the sentiments in the novel not comprise of love, rather the sentiments of anger (Lady Booby), hatred (Slipslop), jealousy (Betty), generosity (Parson Adams) and a diverse range of others can also be found. Moreover, the diction and language, that are important elements of an epic, can be observed within this novel. Although, Fielding remains quite simple and clear in his writing, yet we see the allusions and references made to different languages and people, use of phrases borrowed from other languages, literary devices and archaic language. When Parson Adams meets Parson Trulliber, the submissiveness of Mrs. Trulliber has been depicted by the allusion of Sarah – the wife of Abraham. Aeschylus has been repeatedly talked of within the novel, and we find Parson Adams keeping a copy of it with him all the time. References to Homer have been made in book 3 and has been regarded as “the father of drama as well as the epic; not of tragedy only, but of comedy also” (Fielding 187). Greek language has been emphasized at various occasions and we find Fielding expressing his love for this language through the words of Mr. Wilson as: “Why, truly, there is a dignity in the Greek language which I think no modern tongue can reach” (Fielding 187). In addition to this, the device of personification has been employed in order to pen down a lively debate on the vices such as vanity (Fielding 57). Other epic elements include theme, discovery and characters. The theme, or purpose, of this novel as selected by the writer is primarily ‘the reformation of society’ from the ills of vanity, hypocrisy and affectation. We also come across certain discoveries made by different characters, particularly the one made by Joseph Andrews about his and Pamela’s and Pamela’s and Fanny’s relation. And for the characters, Fielding introduces us to a number of characters from different classes of the society including clergies, lawyers, surgeon, book-seller, judge, footman, inn-keepers, ladyships, chamber women, squire, soldier and many other characters belonging to different classes and professions. Many of these characters can be met in the in the twelfth chapter of the first book which is the crux of the novel.

Besides being an epic, Joseph Andrews also reflects characteristics of a picaresque form of novel. The picaresque novel (Spanish: "picaresca," from "pícaro," for "rogue" or "rascal") is a genre of prose fiction which depicts the adventures of a roguish hero of low social class who lives by his wits in a corrupt society. Following this definition of a picaresque novel, we find Joseph Andrews a true example of a picaresque novel. We have Joseph Andrews as the roguish hero who belongs to a low social class as we see he is presented as Lady Booby’s footman as the novel opens. When Joseph leaves Booby house and sets on his journey to find his Fanny, the reader finds Joseph at the mercy of corrupt society of 18^th century England.  A detailed face of this corrupt society is revealed to the reader within the twelfth chapter of the first book, where Joseph is maltreated by different people including coachman, lady, old gentleman, and a lawyer (Fielding 40). It is also one of the characteristics of a picaresque novel that it talks of people from lower class and from different professions. In Joseph Andrews, this characteristic can be quite vividly seen as we see a coachman who, after seeing Joseph lying lifeless, says: “Go on, sirrah, we are confounded late, and have no time to look after dead men” (40). The comments of a noble lady follow those of the coachman as she discovers that Joseph is naked: “O J – sus! A naked man! Dear coachman, drive on and leave him” (40). An old gentleman, on finding that Joseph was robbed, adds: “Robbed! Let us make all the haste imaginable, or we shall be robbed too” (40). And the lawyer, no less in his meanness, suggested that they must help Joseph since they all “might be proved to have been last in his company; if he should die they might be called to some account for his murder” (40). Furthermore, we meet clergies including Parson Adams, Parson Barnabas and Parson Trulliber who depict no religious inspiration rather serve as a satire on the clergymen.  Nearly all the afore-mentioned characters are from varying professions as well as from the lower class. Yet another element of picaresque novel, i.e. realism, is an integral part of Joseph Andrews. Realism (or naturalism) in the arts is the attempt to represent subject matter truthfully, without artificiality and avoiding artistic conventions, implausible, exotic and supernatural elements. In this novel, the vices of the society have been presented in a real setting rather than a superficial one. It can easily be discerned that Fielding intends to present 18^th century England, and this fact is evident from the choice of places, names, costumes, designations and religion. Furthermore, the characters themselves show a real picture of the age Fielding intends to satire on. Some critics are of the view that Joseph Andrews doesn’t become a picaresque novel till Joseph leaves Booby House which is a good chunk of eleven chapters of the first book.

However, despite containing elements of a picaresque novel, Joseph Andrews also shows qualification of an epistolary novel. An epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of documents. The usual form is letters, although diary entries, newspaper clippings and other documents are sometimes used. The first two letters appear in the very first book of Joseph Andrews, written by Joseph himself to his sister Pamela Andrews. In the first letter he tells Pamela about Lady Booby’s intentions and what passed between them in Lady Booby’s room (Fielding 17). The next letter is also addressed to Pamela in which Joseph tells her that his “mistress is fallen in love with” him (Fielding 34). Later on we see letters written by Leonora and Horatio within a digression chapter 4 of the second book (Fielding 92, 93), and a few others in the later chapters.

Comprising of such unique form, the structure of this novel is no less special in its construction. Fielding selects to divide the novel into various books, and the books into subsequent chapters. This element may also be regarded as trait of an epic, since we find the great epic works in poetry being divided into certain books. Being unique in his style, Fielding always endeavors to justify his style and actions employed in his novel. Likewise, dedicating almost an entire chapter to the idea of division of the novel, Fielding lists a number of logical reasons that govern this idea. The first chapter of the second book under the heading Of Divisions in Authors, Fielding enlists the factors which include: to “consult the advantage of reader” (Fielding 75), “little spaces between our chapters may be looked upon as an inn or resting-place where” the reader “may stop and take a glass or any other refreshment as it pleases him” (Fielding 76), the reader can stay “sometime to repose himself, and consider of what he hath seen in the parts he hath already  passed through” (76), the reader may know from the headings of the chapters “what entertainment he is to expect, which if he likes not, may travel to the next” (76), “it prevents spoiling the beauty of a book by turning down its leaves, when” the readers “return to their study after half-an-hour’s absence, to forget where they left off” (76) and lastly the writer says that “even dictionaries are divided and exhibited piecemeal to the public” (76).

Debating further on the structure of the novel, it can clearly be viewed that Fielding remained quite scientific in writing the content and building the structure of Joseph Andrews. The writer, in this novel, intends to conduct a sort of research on the society and intends to reform it. It is, therefore, more like a social research conducted by a sociologist. Sociology is a scientific discipline and a sub-branch of Social Sciences. Therefore, the research conducted within this discipline ought to be empirical, rational and scientific in its nature. A scientific work or research is organized in its structure. For Joseph Andrews, we see Fielding being organized as he divides his novel into four books and the books into further chapters, where the story in every following chapter clearly follows the continuity of what was happening early in the preceding chapters. Secondly, a scientific method releases a hypothesis or a tentative statement as to inform what the experiment or research shall follow. Likewise, we find a tentative statement or a heading at the beginning of each chapter (sometimes a hint at the end of each chapter), signaling what the reader should expect to find in the next under that statement or tentative phrase. Like a scientific experiment, Fielding describes his apparatus at the beginning of the chapter or a book that he intends to use in the remaining part. Thirdly, a scientific research picks the samples from the population at random without targeting a specific individual. Fielding also clearly states in the book 3, chapter 1 that “I declare here, once for all, I describe not men, but manners; not an individual, but a species” (Fielding 179). Furthermore, when Fielding says that he describe a specie rather than an individual, he continues to follow the scientific method as the purpose of scientific method is to do a good to a humanity at large and to learn the behavior of a specie rather than that of an individual. Fielding also intends to reform the society rather than mocking the individuals of the society. For Fielding, the reasons that he incorporated so many vices are: (1) vices always come in discussion of humans (2) come accidentally in the course of happening (3) to arise dislike rather than ridicule in reader (4) serve as a reference to something (5) vices or taboos not be openly described. Lastly, a scientific research is not for the sake of the researcher, rather it is for other’s betterment. Similarly, Joseph Andrews, is not an autobiography of Fielding, rather it a novel intending to reform the society through the adventures of a boy.

Some people may argue that if Fielding be scientific and organized in his writing, why did he incorporate the digressions in his novel? The answer to it is as obvious as the inquisition itself. Firstly, the digressions incorporated by Fielding, though not directly linked to the main plot of the story, serve the main purpose of the novel i.e. to reform society from the vices. The digression of Leonora in chapter 4 of the second book depicts the greed and selfishness in human nature, the digression of Mr. Wilson in chapter 3 of the third book serves to give a detailed account of the hero and a few other concepts such as debate over significance or insignificance of lineage, and the “The history of two friends” in chapter 10 of the fourth book “may afford an useful lesson to all those persons who happen to take up their residence in married families”. Secondly, these digressions in the novel have been incorporated with such an art, that though they serve the primary purpose of the novel, if they are skipped while continuing with the main story, they shall in no way harm the main plot of the novel. Therefore, Fielding had been much organized and witty when it came to the digressions. Furthermore, the digressions were part of the epic poetry and admired by the readers of the time. Since, Fielding calls his novel “Comic Epic in Prose”, therefore, these digressions are not merely a forced surplus in order to increase the volume of the novel; rather they are carefully written plots, finely incorporated within the novel.

Not only the plot and the structure have been artfully constructed, rather the style of writing adopted by the writer is very convincing, yet very light and humorous. Fielding’s style of writing is very simple, explanatory and vivid. We do not find many literary terms, heavy vocabulary or artificial use of elevated language in this novel. Perhaps, since Fielding’s intention was the reformation of the society, therefore, he remained simple in his writing as to make the lay-man understand his writing. He remains a realist while writing this novel and mentions in the preface that “no other species of writing can differ more widely than the comic and the burlesque. The later is ever the exhibition of what is monstrous and unnatural”, whereas “the former we should ever confine ourselves strictly to nature” (Authors Preface).

Fielding adopts the tool of mockery while writing this novel. Joseph Andrews is a mockery of Richardson’s Pamela, where in the later we find the emphasis on the female chastity and male chastity in the former one. In one of the concluding chapters of the last book we clearly see this mockery when we find Pamela’s comments about Fanny in these words: “She was my equal, but I am no longer Pamela Andrews; I am now this gentleman’s lady, and, as such, I am above her” (Fielding 296).

In Fielding’s style, we see self-reflexivesness, yet an intentional distance created by the writer between the characters of the novel and the readers. Fielding wants the readers to understand the vices he has sugar coated with humor, instead of sympathizing or empathizing with the characters, forgetting the purpose of the novel. He has pointed out some serious vices of a corrupt society in a very light and humorous manner. He has made people laugh on their own follies and made them realize their vices in a friendlier manner. He doesn’t intend to offend or humiliate, rather to correct and reform. In the first chapter of book 3, he states the difference between a satirist and a libeler: “for the former privately corrects the fault for the benefit of the person, like a parent; the later publickly exposes the person himself, as an example to others, like an executioner” (Fielding 180). Fielding considers himself a satirist rather than a libeler. Therefore, he remains light and humorous while pointing out the vices in the human beings.

Moreover, the style of the writer is not didactic, rather he is more suggestive and leaves the reader to reflect and compare themselves with what depiction of human beings Fielding has given within the novel. Perhaps, this is the reason why Fielding has introduced such a vast variety of characters in his novel, instead of generalizing a lot with merely a hand full of characters. People from all sorts of classes, relation and professions can see their reflection in one or the other way within Fielding’s characters. They can then evaluate themselves and may correct their personality without a feeling of being ridiculed or dictated.

A lot more may be debated regarding the form, structure and style of Joseph Andrews. Although this novel was written when the genre of novel was in its infancy and different writers were experimenting with it in different forms and style. Yet, Henry Fielding appears to be a master of this genre even at its early stage and is quite much a perfectionist and has successfully produced a classical that is unique in its form, well organized in its structure and convincing in its style. The writers of the contemporary era certainly owe a great deal to Fielding for producing a classic piece of writing as Joseph Andrews that is mature and perfect in every manner.

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