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
Lady Booby’s coach catches up with the other travelers, and she blushes when she sees Joseph Andrews. The people of the parish are glad to see Lady Booby returning because they rely on her money, which they didn’t receive when she was away in London. Parson Abraham Adams gets an ever more enthusiastic welcome at the parish, and Joseph and Fanny also receive a warm greeting. Adams takes the travelers back to his house to eat whatever food his wife can provide.
Book IV marks a return to where the book started, although a lot has changed along the way. Lady Booby doesn’t realize how important her patronage is to the people in the parish—her whims about where to live have dramatic economic consequences for the people around her, illustrating how precarious life is for people who don’t have the same wealth as Lady Booby.
Themes
While it’s a joyous meal at Abraham Adams’s house, Lady Booby is still haunted by Joseph Andrews, who has lingered in her memory ever since she fired him. Shortly after firing him, she had a conversation about the decision with Mrs. Slipslop, who tried to reassure her that she did the right thing. Lady Booby, however, began to get angry at Mrs. Slipslop for advising her to fire him. She doesn’t fire Mrs. Slipslop, but Lady Booby’s passion for Joseph continues to bother her.
Lust continues to be a powerful force in the novel. While Lady Booby’s interest in Joseph may have started as just a passing fancy, it has now grown into something that consumers her and that will motivate her actions throughout much of what remains of the novel.
Themes
The morning after she arrives at her country residence, Lady Booby goes to church. There, Abraham Adams stands up and announces that he is going to publish the banns (public legal notice) of marriage for Joseph Andrews and Fanny. It is unclear to the narrator at first what Lady Booby’s reaction to this news is.
The banns of marriage are a public legal notice about an upcoming marriage. They offer a chance for people to raise objections to the marriage. While sometimes they are just a formality, the emphasis on the banns here suggests that they will be an important plot point.
Themes
