Fielding’s art of characterization

Joseph Andrews is Fielding’s first novel. It is a classic example of a literary work which started as a
parody of Richardson’s Pamela and ended as an excellent work of art in its own right. Fielding was
certain of giving a new literary form with Joseph Andrews which he called a comic epic in prose.
Fielding is a great master of the art of characterization. Fielding’s broad world sympathy coupled with
his keen observation of even the faintest element of hypocrisy in a person is his basic asset as a
master of characterization. He laughs and makes us laugh at some of his characters, but he is never
cynical or misanthropic. He treated life very casually and recklessly. He breathed life into the
characters he portrayed. In “Joseph Andrews”, there is authentic and individualized portrayal of
characters that have been depicted neither as angelic nor as monstrous. Fielding portrayed his
characters as real human beings compounded of both good and evil elements. He not only presented
an account of the general state of society but also moral, political, social and religious prospectives
of that time of society of England. His characters present all strata of society, from aristocratic class
like Lady Booby to lower class like Joseph and Fanny. His characters are real as well as active. It is
because of his wide experience of men and their nature, and his keen and acute surveillance that he
could become a much skilled portrayer of characters. He himself declares that: “I describe not men,
but manners; not an individual, but a species.”
As Fielding shaped this novel as episodic adventures of a vagabond, Joseph Andrews so he exploits
various encounters of Parson Adams and Joseph Andrews to expose the vanity, hypocrisy and
pretentiousness of the contemporary society. He not presents any characters just for the element of
fun or pleasure but every character of his novel is the symbolic representative of the 18th century
England society.
Joseph Andrews is the nominal hero of the novel. At the age of ten, he gets apprenticed to Sir Thomas
Booby and by the time he is seventeen, he grows into such a handsome and spirited youngman that
he captivates the lustful Lady Booby who makes him her footman. He is a man of singular nobility,
piety and courage. When he is taken by Lady Booby to London, his life completely changed and he
becomes almost a dandy. But his morals remain absolutely uncorrupted. Here, Fielding portrayed a
character who is so simple and innocent that society’s corruption has no effect on him and while
living in the midst of a morally corrupt society he preserves his chastity also. Neither temptations nor
threats can persuade him to surrender his virtue of the sexual gratification of Lady Booby. Just like
the development of novel, Fielding also develops the character of Joseph from simple minded to a
mature person who can not only expresses an independent opinion but also exercises an
independent judgement. Joseph’s character presents the lower-class ordinary characters whose lives
fully blossom after going through all the hardships of life.
Although the novel is titled “Joseph Andrews”, it is Parson Adams who is the centre of the interest.
Throughout the novel, it is Adams’ character who comes into spotlight with all its positive and
negative aspects of life. Fielding describes the character of Parson Adams as: “he was besides a man
of good sense, good parts, and good nature; but was at the same time as entirely ignorant of the
ways of this world, as an infant just entered into it could possibly be. As he has never any intention
to deceive, so he never suspected such a design in others. He was generous, friendly and brave to an
excess; but simplicity was his characteristic.” Fielding’s imagination evolved the strikingly new
conception of the absent-minded scholar- Parson- a character of perfect simplicity, and at the same
time, of singular goodness, distinction and charm. He is only a curate who lives in parsonage in Sir
Thomas Booby’s parish. He is a very conscientious priest. Just as Don Quixote imagined himself living
in the vanished world of chivalry, so Adams imagines himself living in the vanished world of Greece
and Rome. Being so naïve and guileless he is constantly imposed upon. Fielding presents Adams’
character as a foil when he portrayed the characters of Parson Barnabas and Parson Trulliber. The
native and gullible but noble and dignified Parson Adams bears no similarity with either Parson
Barnabas to whom punch is more important than prayer or with Parson Trulliber whose corpulence,
a loud braying voice and hypocritical greed give him a hog like appearance. Here, Fielding presents
the clergy of his time. Trulliber and Barnabas both possess different rather opposite characteristics
than Adams. They are all the symbols of clergymen of that time of 18 th century England. Fielding
satirised and humourized the clergymen of his age, as one is so simple and of forgetful nature that
he cannot even detect hypocrites, and for other two duty towards religion is not of that much
importance.
Another main character, Lady Booby, through which Fielding’s art of characterization is evident. She
is a dissolute woman. She is meant to be a repulsive character in the novel, though she has a complex
personality. She is the representative of the aristocratic class for whom her reputation is the most
important thing to preserve. When she fails to persuade Joseph and Mrs. Slipslop suspected her. She
wanted to dismiss Mrs. Slipslop also just like Joseph but there is an inner conflict upon dismissing
Mrs. Slipslop. She realized that she could not afford to dismiss Mrs. Slipslop and imperil her
reputation. Fielding described it as, “she had the utmost tenderness for her reputation, as she knew
on that depended many of the most valuable blessing of life; particularly cards, making courtesies in
public places, and above all, the pleasure of demolishing the reputations of others……”. Here, Fielding
satirized the hypocrisy so typical to the aristocracy of his age. He criticised her pretention of virtuous
nature which was vice in her real intention. Fielding is highly contemptuous of such a superficial
concept of virtue and reputation.
Another character of false pretention is of Mrs. Slipslop. Fielding portrayed her as Lady Booby’s
‘waiting gentle-woman’. Like Lady Booby, Mrs. Slipslop is also given to an amorous disposition, which
makes her even a grotesque character. Her passion for Joseph is a parody of Lady Booby’s fascination
for him. Just like Lady Booby, she also tried to seduce Joseph but failed. She is also a lady of peculiar
vile temper, which she keeps on venting on the lower servants. She gives a convincing display of her
temper when she refuses to recognise Fanny and talk to her during her journey. In book II chapter
13, Fielding has a fine fling at her vanity through his discourse on high people and low people.
Through her character, Fielding presents the lower strata of society which hates other people of their
own class. Fielding describes her as a ‘mighty affecter of hard words.’ Just like Lady Booby, she is
egoistic, conniving, lustful and hypocritical but she is more human than her. According to Robert
Alter, “In contrast to Lady Booby, Mrs. Slipslop’s lust could be called warm, for it does in one way
connect her with humanity.” In any case, she is more alive than Lady Booby, on account of the zest
and joyful inventiveness with which Fielding has imagined her.
Fanny, though the heroine of the novel, has a very minor role to play. She is meant to be a beautiful
and virtuous girl that offers motivation to all the actions of Joseph. Fanny represents innocent
sensuousness, modesty and sweet temper. The depiction of Fanny has obviously been influenced by
Fielding’s wife Charlotte Cradock. She has very limited natural capacities which have not been
developed by even the most rudimentary education. But she does present an effective contrast to
the high-society rakes like Lady Booby and the crude, vulgar and hypocritical women like Mrs.
Slipslop.
Leonara, another important character through which Fielding presented the materialistic approach
of society. She was an attractive but vain young woman living with her aunt in a country town. She
was courted by Horatio a handsome young man of a good family, and a barrister by profession. His
devotion to her was sincere and eloquent. When he left to attend a law session some twenty miles
away, Leonara fell for a foreign, wealthy gentleman, Bellarmine, dazzled by his external glory and
inclined towards him. Fielding describes her vanity and slippery character that despite being courted
by Horatio she immediately fell for Bellarmine and even accepted his proposal. Her aunt played a
great role in dissuading her when she thought that world would condemn her for betraying Horatio.
She also assured her that nothing stood in comparison with money, and she knew none wo had not
married for money. Here lies the materialistic approach of the society that the society in which we
live what matters is money neither love nor affection.
The character of Betty is just like Lady Booby and Mrs. Slipslop. Thus, the same appetite or lust
operates in one way or other in the gentle and cultivated minds of all these characters. And yet in
another way in the simple little Betty, the chamber-maid at ‘The Dragon’. She also tried to seduce
Joseph but failed. Through her character, Fielding presented those characters who are unable to
preserve their virtue or chastity while living in the corrupt society. She has a sudden switch of
character that she fell for every handsome and young person like the hostler, the coachman, the
handsome traveller and then Joseph. Fielding used the technique of Bathos to describe his
characters, where he first describes all the positive aspects of the characters and then suddenly shifts
towards the negative portrayal of the character. He ruthlessly tears the mask of apparent reality and
uncovers the essential reality.
Fielding exploits various encounters of Parson Adams and Joseph Andrews to expose the vanity,
hypocrisy and pretentiousness of the contemporary society. A careful study of the novel reveals that
these adventures are used merely as an excuse to introduce certain characters and depict some
interesting incongruities of human nature. All characters are clearly distinguished from one another
and each one of them is clearly individualised. However, it should be clearly understood that Fielding
does not just transcribe from life. His characters draw from both observation and invention. He takes
real life models but fuses fact and fancy and adapts them to the needs of the novel. Booby and
Didapper, Trulliber and Barnabas, Peter Pounce and Slipslop are all typical products of the eighteenth
-century. But underlying their local and temporal forms, these characters also reveal the true
universal nature.
In the opinion of Scott, the creation of Parson Adams ‘alone is sufficient to stamp the superiority of
Fielding over all writers of his class’. On Fielding’s art of characterisation, Harold Child, in The
Cambridge History of English Literature observes: “Fielding, a master of the philosophical study of
character, founded the novel of character, and raised it to a degree of merit which is not likely to be
surpassed.”