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
The narrator reflects on several philosophical topics, such as how habit controls the human mind. He talks about how this applies to love and how, although women learn about the importance of love at a young age, they are also told to be afraid of men and what they might do if given too much liberty. Ultimately, this leads to them growing to believe that they hate what they love. Lady Booby loves Joseph Andrews in this way.
While the narrator is sometimes sarcastic, in this case, his monologue about people hating what they love seems to be an appropriate description of Lady Booby’s unusual behavior toward Joseph Andrews. She feels passion toward him, but at the same time she hates him for making her feel that passion.
Themes
Lady Booby tells Squire Booby that she looks on Joseph Andrews like family now, and that instead of marrying Fanny, he should instead take up some profession that could put him on the path to being a gentleman; that way, he can eventually marry someone better. Squire Booby agrees and goes to try to persuade Joseph.
Since Lady Booby can’t use the law against Joseph Andrews, she decides to use the next best option at her disposal: social status. Although Squire Booby isn’t willing to send Joseph to prison over a twig, he is willing to potentially interfere with Joseph’s marriage to maintain the social class status quo.
Themes
Squire Booby tells Joseph Andrews why he shouldn’t marry Fanny, explaining that she is beautiful but below his station. Joseph protests that he likes her anyway and that she has even better qualities than beauty. Pamela joins in and tries to convince her brother to resist his passion for Fanny.
Pamela’s behavior here is hypocritical, given that she herself came from a position similar to Fanny’s. This novel suggests that despite her fame for being virtuous, she nevertheless has her own flaws—they’re just well-hidden by her very public shows of virtue.
Themes
Fanny doesn’t have any money, so she’s been living off Abraham Adams’s charity since she returned home. As she is walking toward Lady Booby’s house, a gentleman stops to ask her directions—then he starts trying to kiss her breasts until she pushes him away. He rides off toward Lady Booby’s house, where he is a distant relative visiting, but he leaves one of his servants behind to keep trying to convince Fanny to come with him.
Despite Abraham Adams’s tendency to talk about charity more than he provides it, he isn’t a complete hypocrite, as his charity toward Fanny proves. Adams spends most of the novel trying to exist in a middle ground between the lower classes like Fanny and the upper classes like Lady Booby, but the ending forces him to make a choice.
Themes
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The servant can’t convince Fanny to go with his master, so he sees if she’ll go with him instead. When she keeps resisting, the man physically attacks her, but Joseph Andrews sees and intervenes. He rushes forward and hits the would-be rapist in the neck. The two fight, and Joseph knocks the man out. Fanny is frantic when she sees Joseph bleeding, but afterward, he assures her he’s not hurt. Together, they go to see Abraham Adams.
Fanny gets attacked many times on the road, suggesting both how vulnerable a lower-class woman on the road was and how greedy and rapacious many seemingly refined men actually were. Joseph shows his care for Fanny by physically protecting her from danger.
Themes
