Throughout Joseph Andrews, Fielding uses storms as a motif. They tend to crop up when the plot needs to move along, and, indeed, the arrival of a storm ushers characters to seek shelter—generally at an inn—and makes for the introduction of new characters or new plot lines. In Book 1, Chapter 11, for example, a hailstorm sends Joseph into the company of a stranger who will ultimately lend him a horse in order to help him find Fanny:
A violent Storm of Hail forced Joseph to take Shelter in this Inn, where he remembered Sir Thomas had dined in his way to Town[…]. A Fellow now arrived at the same Inn with two Horses […] likewise forced in by the Storm; for he had Orders to go twenty Miles farther that Evening, and luckily on the same Road which Joseph himself intended to take.
What a serendipitous event! Often, these storms come about with an explicit nod by the author to how a storm moves things conveniently along for the characters—as here, when Fielding notes how “lucky” it is that the Fellow should be on the same road as Joseph when the storm forces them into the same inn.
Later, in Book 2, Chapter 15, a storm is brewing in the distance and forces Abraham Adams to seek cover in an inn:
Adams was no sooner returned the second time, than the Storm grew exceeding high, the Hostess declaring among other things, that if they offered to stir without paying her, she would soon overtake them with a Warrant.
Luckily, Adams finds a peddler who can lend him enough money to pay the hostess—as before, a storm becomes a way for Fielding to chalk convenient plot devices up to luck and send his characters on their way.
In Joseph Andrews, Fielding is highly aware of the contrived nature of many plot points in the English novel, and he wastes no time playing with such conventions—in this case, the convenient storm—to comedic effect. The regular recurrence of storms throughout Joseph Andrews becomes ridiculous to the point of parody, which is exactly how Fielding prefers to poke fun at his fellow novelists.
Throughout Joseph Andrews, Fielding uses storms as a motif. They tend to crop up when the plot needs to move along, and, indeed, the arrival of a storm ushers characters to seek shelter—generally at an inn—and makes for the introduction of new characters or new plot lines. In Book 1, Chapter 11, for example, a hailstorm sends Joseph into the company of a stranger who will ultimately lend him a horse in order to help him find Fanny:
A violent Storm of Hail forced Joseph to take Shelter in this Inn, where he remembered Sir Thomas had dined in his way to Town[…]. A Fellow now arrived at the same Inn with two Horses […] likewise forced in by the Storm; for he had Orders to go twenty Miles farther that Evening, and luckily on the same Road which Joseph himself intended to take.
What a serendipitous event! Often, these storms come about with an explicit nod by the author to how a storm moves things conveniently along for the characters—as here, when Fielding notes how “lucky” it is that the Fellow should be on the same road as Joseph when the storm forces them into the same inn.
Later, in Book 2, Chapter 15, a storm is brewing in the distance and forces Abraham Adams to seek cover in an inn:
Adams was no sooner returned the second time, than the Storm grew exceeding high, the Hostess declaring among other things, that if they offered to stir without paying her, she would soon overtake them with a Warrant.
Luckily, Adams finds a peddler who can lend him enough money to pay the hostess—as before, a storm becomes a way for Fielding to chalk convenient plot devices up to luck and send his characters on their way.
In Joseph Andrews, Fielding is highly aware of the contrived nature of many plot points in the English novel, and he wastes no time playing with such conventions—in this case, the convenient storm—to comedic effect. The regular recurrence of storms throughout Joseph Andrews becomes ridiculous to the point of parody, which is exactly how Fielding prefers to poke fun at his fellow novelists.
