Social Elements in Joseph Andrews

Social Elements in Joseph Andrews:

The novel Joseph Andrews is a satire on eighteenth-century English social life chiefly in the countryside but also, to some extent, of life in the big city of London. The novel gives us a satirical picture of an upper-class lady’s becoming infatuated with her footman but feeling frustrated in her passion for him. This picture is followed immediately by an equally satirical picture of the failure of that lady’s woman-in-waiting (Mrs. Slipslop) to acquire the same footman as a lover for herself.

There is plenty of social satire in Joseph Andrews, and most of the targets of satire here are affectations of different kinds as well as certain vices. Lady Booby prides herself on her high social status and yet she gets infatuated with a mere footman. In the figures of Mr. Barnabas and Mr. Trulliber, the attitude of the eighteenth-century clergymen has been satirized. Fielding pokes fun at the surgeon who refuses to treat wounded Joseph because of the latter’s low position in society. Fashionable life in London is satirized. Mr. Wilson’s story of his past life is meant to be a picture of the life being led by young men in the London of Fielding’s time, and this picture is satirical. The society Fielding portrays is marked by astounding callousness and selfishness. Class distinction is clear. The rich seem to be rather hard and selfish. The poor seem to uphold the virtue of charity. In short, in the novel, we get a comprehensive picture of 18th-century English society.