Henry Fielding’s short novel Joseph Andrews is in part a parody of a longer novel called Pamela, published by Samuel Richardson just two years earlier in 1740. The novel’s protagonist, Pamela, faces many hardships and threats to her chastity. Ultimately, however, as the title of the book makes plain, she is rewarded for her virtue, affirming the value of chastity and providing a clear lesson to the book’s audience. Unlike Pamela, however, in which Pamela also appears, Joseph Andrews does not necessarily give the audience a straightforward moral lesson about chastity and lust.
Still Joseph Andrews generally portrays chaste (and happily married) characters more positively than lustful ones. The title character, Joseph Andrews, is just as chaste as his famous sister Pamela was before she got married, and his loyalty to his eventual wife Fanny is sincere. This makes Joseph one of the most honest characters in the story. On the other hand, lustful characters often have other prominent flaws that make them less positive characters. Lady Booby, for example, is so blind with lust for Joseph that she tries to sabotage his marriage to Fanny for purely selfish reasons. The equally lusty Mrs. Slipslop helps Lady Booby, trying to selfishly claim Joseph for herself. Nevertheless, the characters in the novel don’t always fit into a black-and-white system of morality. For example, the virtuous Pamela and her husband, Squire Booby, are arguably too supportive of chastity, nearly stopping Joseph’s well-suited marriage to Fanny. Furthermore, Lady Booby faces few consequences for her actions—at the end of the novel, she simply finds another man who helps her forget all about Joseph. Ultimately, Fielding’s Joseph Andrews doesn’t totally reject traditional moral teachings about lust and chastity, but it does complicate the issue, suggesting that it’s possible to be too morally upright—and also that not all villains get punished.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Lust vs. Chastity ThemeTracker
Lust vs. Chastity Quotes in Joseph Andrews
“Don’t pretend to too much modesty,” said she, “for that sometimes may be impertinent: but pray answer me this question. Suppose a lady should happen to like you; suppose she should prefer you to all your sex, and admit you to the same familiarities as you might have hoped for if you had been born her equal, are you certain that no vanity could tempt you to discover her? Answer me honestly, Joseph; have you so much more sense and so much more virtue than you handsome young fellows generally have, who make no scruple of sacrificing our dear reputation to your pride, without considering the great obligation we lay on you by our condescension and confidence? Can you keep a secret, my Joey?”
As soon as Joseph had sealed and directed this letter he walked downstairs, where he met Mrs. Slipslop, with whom we shall take this opportunity to bring the reader a little better acquainted. She was a maiden gentlewoman of about forty-five years of age, who, having made a small slip in her youth, had continued a good maid ever since. She was not at this time remarkably handsome; being very short, and rather too corpulent in body, and somewhat red, with the addition of pimples in the face.
Leonora was the daughter of a gentleman of fortune; she was tall and well-shaped, with a sprightliness in her countenance which often attracts beyond more regular features joined with an insipid air.
“I hope, Fanny, you are not inconstant; I assure you he deserves much better of you.”—“La! Mr Adams,” said she, “what is Mr Joseph to me? I am sure I never had anything to say to him, but as one fellow-servant might to another.”
A little under seventeen I left my school, and went to London with no more than six pounds in my pocket; a great sum, as I then conceived; and which I was afterwards surprized to find so soon consumed.
Peter, being informed by Fanny of the presence of Adams, stopt to see him, and receive his homage; for, as Peter was an hypocrite, a sort of people whom Mr Adams never saw through, the one paid that respect to his seeming goodness which the other believed to be paid to his riches.
“I despise, I detest my passion.—Yet why? Is he not generous, gentle, kind?—Kind! to whom? to the meanest wretch, a creature below my consideration. Doth he not—yes, he doth prefer her.”
Joseph remains blest with his Fanny, whom he doats on with the utmost tenderness, which is all returned on her side. The happiness of this couple is a perpetual fountain of pleasure to their fond parents; and, what is particularly remarkable, he declares he will imitate them in their retirement, nor will be prevailed on by any booksellers, or their authors, to make his appearance in high life.
