Essay About Different Themes And Different Actions

Mandatory Morality in Joseph Andrews
In his novel, Joseph Andrews, Henry Fielding implements irony in order satirize the
respective time period and offer social commentary. Irony results when disjunction occurs
between what is expected and what actually happens. The dominant form of irony in Joseph
Andrews is dramatic irony. This implementation of this type of irony in different actions
within the text allows Fielding to offer teachings to his readers. By giving examples of ill-
fated plans and actions in the vain characters of the novel, Fielding encourages the reader
that “virtue can be a successful way of life” (Williams 480). Fielding is not satirizing
specific people, but the actions; “I declare here once for all, I describe not Men, but manners;
not an Individual, but a Species” (Fielding 203). The manners of multiple characters within
the book serve as the respective teachings. Fielding also uses verbal irony to convey
hypocrisy in his vain characters. Different themes are in the text, and it is within these
themes: vulnerability, charity, religion, vanity, chastity, social class, and hypocrisy, where
the satirical elements and allusions can be found.
The entire novel is structured around an ironic statement Fielding makes in the
beginning: “But as it often happens that the best Men are but little known” (Fielding 61).
In this vein, Fielding introduces Parson Adams. Parson Adamss character mainly deals
with the themes of vulnerability, charity, religion, and social class, and his character is also
full of irony. The duty of a clergyman is to provide guidance to his parishioners. He proves
this because “he was an excellent scholar; He was a perfect Master of the Greek and Latin
languages”, he was also “entirely ignorant of the ways of this World” (Fielding 65). Parson
Adamss naïveté makes him an endearing, kind character. But it is because of this naïveté
which causes him to be vulnerable and taken advantage of by members of society. He trusted
others