Discuss Joseph Andrews as a realistic novel

Fiedling’s novels present a comprehensive picture of 18th-century English society. William Hazlitt’s comments, “I should be at a loss where to find in any authentic documents of the same period so satisfactory an account of the general state of society, and of the moral, political and religious feeling in the region of George II, as we meet within the adventures of Joseph Andrews and his friend Mr Abraham Adams”. Though Fielding does not give us much about the material environment of the people, his narrative is vivid and lifelike. Their mental and moral characteristics, their activities and habits and ways of living are demonstrated with “unprecedented power realism.”

The opening chapters of Joseph Andrews give us some idea of the nature and temperament of the women of the time. Lady Booby degrades herself by becoming infatuated with a mere foot-man; and her woman-in-waiting, namely Mrs Shipslop, is no better than her mistress. Frustrated by Joseph Andrews’s rejection of her amorous advances, Lady Booby dismisses him from her service but only after she has stayed for some time in London where, regardless of the adverse comments of the ladies of her own class, she makes no secret of her efforts to develop intimacy with her foot-man. Here we have a fair picture of the sensuality of the upper-class woman despite their social snobbery.

However, Fielding’s range of realistic portrayals is not narrow at all. He has selected representatives practically from every class and profession. There are lawyers, doctors and clergymen both good and bad in the novel. The aristocracy is left out, except for a hazy representation in Beau Didapper. The Landlords, Landladies, maids, stewards, and coachmen all go towards making the picture of society as comprehensive as possible. In this respect, Dudden remarks that in his writing “Fielding provides a particularly vivid representation of the life and manners, the interests and pursuits of the people who lived in the country or rather in the west country, which he knew of well in the early Hanoverian times.”

Besides, society as portrayed in Joseph Andrews is marked by astounding callousness and selfishness. The insensitive hardness of such a society is brilliantly exposed in the stagecoach episode. The passengers, who are reluctant to admit Joseph into the coach on various pretexts, show up their selfish and affected mentality. The only person who shows genuine and heartfelt sympathy is the poor position. Again, the surgeon who is summoned to the inn is indignant to be aroused for a patient who cannot pay his bill. Likewise, Mrs Tow-Wouse forbids her husband to show any charity to the shivering Joseph, as she believes that common charity “teaches us to provide for ourselves and our families.” Such instances are illustrated on every page of the novel.

The society in those days was divided into two classes-the high and low. The high class did not regard the other class as even belonging to the same species as themselves. Lady booby for example, would not dream of parson Adams to her table for she considered him badly dressed. In the like manner, Mrs Shipslop, merely by virtue of being in the employ of a lady does not agree to recognize at an inn. While Fielding exposes such behaviour to ridicule, we realize the hollow pretensions of the society that indulged in so much affectation.

Fielding presented an authentic picture of the manner of contemporary society. But he would not be regarded as such a great writer if that were the only kind of realism to be found in his works. Besides depicting society faithfully, Fielding also represents human nature truthfully. It is this quality which makes his lawyers, surgeons, positions, Ladies, Landlords, Parsons and maids universal human figures. Through the particular human character, he presents universal human qualities. His ‘psychological realism’ is not to be found in the accurate and deep probing into individual minds, though of this, too, an example is there in Lady Booby. He exposes the basic follies and secret egotism which characterises the apparently disinterested actions of most human beings, in general.

Being a comic writer, he is more interested in ‘exposing’ than ‘experiencing’ his characters. The portrayal of society and human nature in Joseph Andrews was the consequence of close and keen observation. He includes life in all its variety. He excludes neither the bad nor the good. He frankly presents the ugly as well as the beautiful aspect.

An additional aspect of Fielding’s realism is in his technique of dialogue. The dialogues are of a type which suits the delineation of realistic characters. The racy and colloquial tinge, which he gives to the conversations at inn parlours, could not be more ‘real’. The talks of the innkeepers present their side of life. Simple and familiar gestures have been given in such a way as to suggest realistic behaviour on the part of the people.

Fielding had a moral and didactic purpose behind realism. He wanted to present the reality so that readers would observe it and correct themselves. He, not merely, presented society; but also criticised it. Judgements are implicit, and sometimes explicit, in the picture of society, as offered by Fielding in Joseph Andrews. If he presented the mismanagement at an inn and the rowdy and vulgar behaviour of its occupants, he implied in the presentation, a plea for reform. To laugh mankind out of folly was his professed aim. He held up the cherished values of a correct perspective on life and a broadened understanding of it. He makes clear his own ideas when he exposes vanity and hypocrisy, selfishness malice and greed. He is not blind to the goodness of some people-Parson Adams, the position and Betty, and the Wilsons show generous impulses.

Thus, we may conclude that though Richardson and Defoe have some claim to have brought realism to English fiction, it is Fielding who can be called the real pioneer in the realistic mode of writing novels. In Joseph Andrews, we find realism based on actual experience, embodying life’s wide scope and variety, the good and the bad. Therefore, we may consider him as a realistic novelist and Joseph Andrews as a realistic work.