Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Joseph Andrews, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Hypocrisy
Lust vs. Chastity
Social Class
Religion and Charity
Summary
Analysis
That evening, a serious-looking man shows up at the inn. This gentleman doesn’t like the landlady Mrs. Tow-wouse, who has a big forehead and a hoarse voice and who constantly complains about what an imposition Joseph Andrews has been. The gentleman feels sympathy for Joseph after hearing about the robbery.
Although the novel generally presents upper-class characters in a negative light, this unnamed gentleman’s sympathy towards Joseph indicates that he is one of the more positive upper-class characters in the book.
Themes
The gentleman finds the surgeon and asks how Joseph Andrews’s recovery has been going. The gentleman mentions that he himself has some experience with surgery. The surgeon doubts this and asks the gentleman questions to try to trick him. Suddenly, a noise in another room interrupts their conversation, and a mob brings in one of the thieves who robbed Joseph.
The gentleman seems to be either very well educated or perhaps just willing to pretend to be well educated—it isn’t clear yet. Certainly, the surgeon doesn’t appear to be a particularly skillful one, given how little attention he pays to Joseph Andrews.
Themes
Literary Devices
The mob of people search the thief and find Joseph’s clothes and a piece of gold that Joseph Andrews lost. The gentleman recognizes the clothes. He goes up stares and is surprised to recognize the boy as Joseph—and Joseph recognizes the gentleman as Mr. Abraham Adams. Meanwhile, the thief claims he’s innocent, but Betty mentions the little piece of Joseph’s gold on the thief, and this seems to convince everyone of the thief’s guilt.
The reveal that the gentleman is Abraham Adams means that the previous part of the chapter gives an example of how Adams looks from the outside—well-intentioned, although perhaps sometimes acting like an expert in matters he doesn’t actually know that much about.
Themes
