The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, often known simply as Tom Jones, is a

comic novel by the English playwright and novelist Henry Fielding. The novel
is both a Bildungsroman and a picaresque novel. First published on 28
February 1749 in London, Tom Jones is among the earliest English prose
works describable as a novel,[1] and is the earliest novel mentioned by W.
Somerset Maugham in his 1948 book Great Novelists and Their Novels
among the ten best novels of the world.[2] Totaling 346,747 words, it is
divided into 18 smaller books, each preceded by a discursive chapter, often
on topics unrelated to the book itself. It is dedicated to George Lyttleton.

Though lengthy, the novel is highly organised; S. T. Coleridge argued that it

has one of the "three most perfect plots ever planned."[3] Although critic
Samuel Johnson took exception to Fielding's "robust distinctions between
right and wrong", it became a best seller, with four editions being published
in its first year alone.[4] Tom Jones is generally regarded as Fielding's
greatest book, and as a very influential English novel.[5]

Plot

The novel's events occupy eighteen books.

The kindly and wealthy Squire Allworthy and his sister Bridget are introduced
in their wealthy estate in Somerset. Allworthy returns from London after an
extended business trip and finds an abandoned baby sleeping in his bed. He
summons his housekeeper, Mrs Deborah Wilkins, to take care of the child.
After searching the nearby village, Mrs Wilkins is told about a young woman
called Jenny Jones, servant of a schoolmaster and his wife, as the most likely
person to have committed the deed. Jenny is brought before them and
admits being the baby's mother but refuses to reveal the father's identity. Mr
Allworthy mercifully removes Jenny to a place where her reputation will be
unknown. Furthermore, he promises his sister to raise the boy, whom he
names Thomas, in his household.

Two brothers, Dr Blifil and Captain Blifil, regularly visit the Allworthy estate.
The doctor introduces the captain to Bridget in hopes of marrying into
Allworthy's wealth. The couple soon marry. After the marriage, Captain Blifil
begins to show a coldness to his brother, who eventually feels obliged to
leave the house for London where he soon dies "of a broken heart". Captain
Blifil and his wife start to grow cool towards one another, and the former is
found dead from apoplexy one evening after taking his customary evening
stroll prior to dinner. By then he has fathered a boy, who grows up with the
bastard Tom.

Tom grows into a vigorous and lusty, yet honest and kind-hearted, youth. His
first love is Molly, gamekeeper Black George's second daughter and a local
beauty. She throws herself at Tom; he gets her pregnant and then feels
obliged to offer her his protection. After some time, however, Tom finds out
that Molly is somewhat promiscuous. He then falls in love with a
neighbouring squire's lovely daughter, Sophia Western. Tom's status as a
bastard causes Sophia's father and Allworthy to oppose their love; this
criticism of class friction in society acted as a biting social commentary. The
inclusion of prostitution and sexual promiscuity in the plot was also original
for its time, and the foundation for criticism of the book's "lowness".[6]

Sophia's father, Squire Western, is intent on making Sophia marry the

hypocritical Master Blifil, but she refuses, and tries to escape from her
father's influence. Tom, on the other hand, is expelled from Allworthy's estate
for his many misdemeanours, and starts his adventures across Britain,
eventually ending up in London. Amongst other things, he joins the army for
a brief duration, finds a servant in a barber-surgeon named Partridge (who
habitually spouts Latin non sequiturs), beds two older women (Mrs Waters
and Lady Bellaston), and very nearly kills a man in a duel, for which he is
arrested.

Eventually the secret of Tom's birth is revealed, after a short scare that Mrs
Waters (who is really Jenny Jones) is his birth mother, and that he has
committed incest. Tom's real mother is Bridget, who conceived him after an
affair with a schoolmaster hence he is the true nephew of Squire Allworthy
himself. After finding out about Tom's half-brother Master Blifil's intrigues,
Allworthy decides to bestow the majority of his inheritance to Tom. Tom and
Sophia Western marry, after this revelation of his true parentage, as Squire
Western no longer harbours any misgivings over Tom marrying his daughter.
Sophia bears Tom a son and a daughter, and the couple live on happily with
the blessings of Squire Western and Squire Allworthy.

Themes

The main theme of the novel is the contrast between Tom Jones's good
nature, flawed but eventually corrected by his love for virtuous Sophia
Western, and his half-brother Blifil's hypocrisy. Secondary themes include
several other examples of virtue (especially that of Squire Allworthy),
hypocrisy (especially that of Thwackum) and just villainy (for example Mrs.
Western, Ensign Northerton), sometimes tempered by repentance (for
instance Square, Mrs. Waters, ne Jones).

Both introductory chapters to each book and interspersed commentary

introduce a long line of further themes. For instance, introductory chapters
dwell extensively on bad writers and critics, quite unrelated to the plot but
apologetic to the author and the novel itself; and authorial commentary on
several characters shows strong opposition to Methodism, calling it fanatical,
heretical, and implying association of hypocrites, such as the younger Blifil,
with it.

The novel takes place against the historical backdrop of the Forty-Five.
Characters take different sides in the rebellion, which was an attempt to
restore Roman Catholicism as the established religion of England and to undo
the Glorious Revolution. At one point Sophia Western is even mistaken for
Jenny Cameron, the supposed lover of Bonnie Prince Charlie. Good-natured
characters are often modestly loyalist and Anglican, even Hanoverian, while
ill-natured characters (Mrs. Western) or only mistaken ones (Partridge) can
be Jacobites or (like Squire Western) just anti-Hanoverians.

11 Dickensian Facts About 'Great Expectations'

Great Expectations begins when a boy named Pip encounters an escaped

convict in a graveyard. The gripping story that emerges from there includes
money from a mysterious benefactor, a bewitching and cold-hearted girl, and
the shut-in Miss Havisham, forever clothed in a tattered wedding gown. Its
wonder that so many people consider Great Expectations to be one of
Charles Dickens's best works.

1. Dickens planned to write a "grotesque tragicomic novel.

While Great Expectations may be one of Dickenss darkest books, he

originally wanted it to be a comic novel. He wrote a friend, You will not have
to complain of the want of humour as in the Tale of Two Cities...I have put a
child and a good-natured foolish man, in relations that seem to me very
funny. In another letter, he said, I can see the whole of a serial revolving on
it, in a most singular and comic manner.

2. He wrote the novel during the most difficult period of his life.

Dickens started Great Expectations in October 1860, not long after

separating from Catherine, his wife of 22 years and the mother of his ten
children. Hed moved into his own place and was pursuing a young actress
named Ellen Ternan. On top of that, his son was running up gambling debts,
his daughter married a man Dickens didnt like, and his elderly mother was
showing signs of dementia. All this was on his mind as he started to write.

3. Estella may have been based his mistress.

Dickens became smitten with18-year-old Ellen Ternan when he hired her to

perform in the play The Frozen Deep. While Ellen seems to have resisted
Dickens's advances at first, she eventually became his mistress. Many
biographers think that the beautiful and unloving character of Estella may
have been Dickenss view of his early relationship with Estella. EstellaLatin
for starcould be a partial anagram of Ellen Ternan.

4. Miss Havisham was based on a real person.

In 1853, Dickens wrote an essay about growing up in London where he

mentions a street person bearing a resemblance to Miss Havisham. The
White Woman is her name. She is dressed entirely in white, with a shocking
white plaiting round her head and face, inside her white bonnet...She is a
conceited old creature, cold and formal in manner, and evidently went
simpering mad on personal grounds aloneno doubt because a wealthy
Quaker wouldnt marry her. This is her bridal dress.

5. Like most of his novels, Great Expectations was published in serial form.

All Dickens novels were first published in serial form, meaning that the story
was broken into installments and published over a period of time in a journal
or newspaper. Great Expectations ran in Dickenss journal All the Year Round
from December 1860 to August 1861. It was published in book form in
Octoberjust in time for Christmas that year.

6. Bentley Drummle was based on a publisher Dickens disliked.

In the novel, Estella marries snobby, cruel Bentley Drummle instead of Pip.
The name is suspiciously close to the publisher Richard Bentley, whom
Dickens believed cheated him out of money. Dickens worked as the editor of
Bentley's Miscellany, the publication that serialized Oliver Twista story
which, of course, was enormously successful. Dickens and Bentley argued
over money for some time. Finally, Dickens bought out his contract as well as
the copyright to Oliver Twist from the publisher and got literary revenge in
the form of the unflattering character.

7. Dickens carefully worked out the ages of his characters.

The working notes for Great Expectations show that Dickens created a
timeline for the characters ages. Pip, Estella, and Herbert are all 23 at the
climax of the novel. Magwitch is 60, Biddy is 24, Joe is 45, and Miss
Havisham is a relatively youthful 56.

8. Great Expectations is one of two Dickens novels written in the first person.

Of Dickenss novels, only Great Expectations and David Copperfield are

written entirely in the first person, with the character telling the story to the
reader. (Bleak House is narrated in the first and third person.) Dickens
wanted Pips voice to be similar to David Copperfield. He wrote, "The book
will be written in the first person throughout, and during these first three
weekly numbers you will find the hero to be a boy-child, like David.

9. He had Cooling Castle in mind for the graveyard scene.

The memorable first section most likely took place at (or was inspired by) St
James' Church in Cooling, Kent. There you can still see Pips Graves, the
gravestones of 13 babies, which Dickens describes as little stone lozenges
each about a foot and a half long, which were arranged in a neat row. Here
are pictures of the church.

10. Great Expectations had an alternate ending.

After finishing Great Expectations, Dickens went to visit the novelist Edward
Bulwer-Lytton. While there, he showed his friend the last chapters of Great
Expectations, which hadnt yet gone to print. Bulwer-Lytton said that the
ending was depressing and urged Dickens to change it. Dickens agreed and
rewrote the ending, which was published in the novel. In it, Estella and Pip
become friends and, its implied, eventually get married. (If thats not
confusing enough, the last line of the novel was altered several times.)
The final paragraph is: I took her hand in mine, and we went out of the
ruined place; and, as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left
the forge, so the evening mists were rising now, and in all the broad expanse
of tranquil light they showed to me, I saw no shadow of another parting from
her.

11. Heres the original, somber ending of Great Expectations

As it was when Edward Bulwer-Lytton read it and found it too depressing:

-------------------

Love

Pride and Prejudice contains one of the most cherished love stories in English
literature: the courtship between Darcy and Elizabeth. As in any good love
story, the lovers must elude and overcome numerous stumbling blocks,
beginning with the tensions caused by the lovers own personal qualities.
Elizabeths pride makes her misjudge Darcy on the basis of a poor first
impression, while Darcys prejudice against Elizabeths poor social standing
blinds him, for a time, to her many virtues. (Of course, one could also say
that Elizabeth is guilty of prejudice and Darcy of pridethe title cuts both
ways.) Austen, meanwhile, poses countless smaller obstacles to the
realization of the love between Elizabeth and Darcy, including Lady
Catherines attempt to control her nephew, Miss Bingleys snobbery, Mrs.
Bennets idiocy, and Wickhams deceit. In each case, anxieties about social
connections, or the desire for better social connections, interfere with the
workings of love. Darcy and Elizabeths realization of a mutual and tender
love seems to imply that Austen views love as something independent of
these social forces, as something that can be captured if only an individual is
able to escape the warping effects of hierarchical society. Austen does sound
some more realist (or, one could say, cynical) notes about love, using the
character of Charlotte Lucas, who marries the buffoon Mr. Collins for his
money, to demonstrate that the heart does not always dictate marriage. Yet
with her central characters, Austen suggests that true love is a force
separate from society and one that can conquer even the most difficult of
circumstances.
Reputation

Pride and Prejudice depicts a society in which a womans reputation is of the

utmost importance. A woman is expected to behave in certain ways.
Stepping outside the social norms makes her vulnerable to ostracism. This
theme appears in the novel, when Elizabeth walks to Netherfield and arrives
with muddy skirts, to the shock of the reputation-conscious Miss Bingley and
her friends. At other points, the ill-mannered, ridiculous behavior of Mrs.
Bennet gives her a bad reputation with the more refined (and snobbish)
Darcys and Bingleys. Austen pokes gentle fun at the snobs in these
examples, but later in the novel, when Lydia elopes with Wickham and lives
with him out of wedlock, the author treats reputation as a very serious
matter. By becoming Wickhams lover without benefit of marriage, Lydia
clearly places herself outside the social pale, and her disgrace threatens the
entire Bennet family. The fact that Lydias judgment, however terrible, would
likely have condemned the other Bennet sisters to marriageless lives seems
grossly unfair. Why should Elizabeths reputation suffer along with Lydias?
Darcys intervention on the Bennets behalf thus becomes all the more
generous, but some readers might resent that such an intervention was
necessary at all. If Darcys money had failed to convince Wickham to marry
Lydia, would Darcy have still married Elizabeth? Does his transcendence of
prejudice extend that far? The happy ending of Pride and Prejudice is
certainly emotionally satisfying, but in many ways it leaves the theme of
reputation, and the importance placed on reputation, unexplored. One can
ask of Pride and Prejudice, to what extent does it critique social structures,
and to what extent does it simply accept their inevitability?

Class

The theme of class is related to reputation, in that both reflect the strictly
regimented nature of life for the middle and upper classes in Regency
England. The lines of class are strictly drawn. While the Bennets, who are
middle class, may socialize with the upper-class Bingleys and Darcys, they
are clearly their social inferiors and are treated as such. Austen satirizes this
kind of class-consciousness, particularly in the character of Mr. Collins, who
spends most of his time toadying to his upper-class patron, Lady Catherine
de Bourgh. Though Mr. Collins offers an extreme example, he is not the only
one to hold such views. His conception of the importance of class is shared,
among others, by Mr. Darcy, who believes in the dignity of his lineage; Miss
Bingley, who dislikes anyone not as socially accepted as she is; and
Wickham, who will do anything he can to get enough money to raise himself
into a higher station. Mr. Collinss views are merely the most extreme and
obvious. The satire directed at Mr. Collins is therefore also more subtly
directed at the entire social hierarchy and the conception of all those within
it at its correctness, in complete disregard of other, more worthy virtues.
Through the Darcy-Elizabeth and Bingley-Jane marriages, Austen shows the
power of love and happiness to overcome class boundaries and prejudices,
thereby implying that such prejudices are hollow, unfeeling, and
unproductive. Of course, this whole discussion of class must be made with
the understanding that Austen herself is often criticized as being a classist:
she doesnt really represent anyone from the lower classes; those servants
she does portray are generally happy with their lot. Austen does criticize
class structure but only a limited slice of that structure.

PRIDE

Pride is a constant presence in the characters' attitudes and treatment of

each other, coloring their judgments and leading them to make rash
mistakes. Pride blinds Elizabeth and Darcy to their true feelings about each
other. Darcy's pride about his social rank makes him look down on anyone
not in his immediate circle. Elizabeth, on the other hand, takes so much pride
in her ability to judge others that she refuses to revise her opinion even in
the face of clearly contradictory evidence. This is why she despises the good-
hearted Darcy for so long, but initially admires the lying Wickham. Yet while
Pride and Prejudice implies that no one is ever completely free of pride, it
makes it clear that with the proper moral upbringing one may overcome it to
lead a life of decency and kindness. In the end, the two lovers are able to
overcome their pride by helping each other see their respective blind spots.
Darcy sheds his snobbery, while Elizabeth learns not to place too much
weight on her own judgments.

-----------------

FIELDING AS REALIST

Realism in Joseph Andrews

Realism means conceiving and representing the things as they are. Henry
Fielding is widely regarded as the first great realist in English novel. He is
among the few writers who, despite the wideness of their scope are capable
of observing the demands of reality with perpetual ease. His novels hold up
to view a representative picture of his age. He is as authentic a chronicler of
his day as Chaucer was of the later 14th century.

It is true that Richardson and Defoe have some claim to have brought
realism to English fiction, it is Fielding who can be called the real pioneer in
realistic mode of novel writing. Fielding reacted against Richardsons
sentimentalism as a falsifying influence on the study of reality, although he
does not reject sentimentalism altogether. His desire, says Cazamian, is to
give sentiment its right place; but also to integrate it in an organic series of
tendencies where each contributes to maintain a mutual balance.

Fieldings realism is called universal realism as well as global. As Fielding

says in the Preface to Joseph Andrews:I believe I might aver that I have
writ little more than I have seen.

Fieldings novels present the fairly comprehensive picture of English society

in 18th century. Though Fielding does not give us material about the
environment of the people, yet their mental and moral characteristics are
displayed with power of realism. The landlords, landladies, doctors,
lawyers, clergyman, postilions and coachmen all go towards making the
picture of society as comprehensive as possible. Fielding rejects burlesque
and caricature, inspiring laughter with humour and amazing realism. The
novel is infused with compassion, comedy, and a heightened sense of
realism, which together turn into a vivid manifestation of the cankers of the
society.

The eighteenth century society which appears on the pages of Joseph

Andrews is not very pleasant picture. It is marked by an astounding
callousness and selfishness. The insensitive hardness of such a society is
brilliantly portrayed by stage-coach passengers who are reluctant to admit
the naked wounded Joseph on account of various pretexts. Only the poor
postillion offers a great coat his only garment, and vows that he would
rather remain in a shirt than suffer a fellow-creature to lie in so miserable a
condition. The surgeon, who is summoned to look at Josephs wounds at the
inn, refuses to come out of his comfortable bed for a mere foot passenger.
Parson Trulliber, who uses his Christian teachings to speak against beggars
and refuses to lend Adam even a few shillings, scornfully declares: I know
what charity is better than to give it to vagabonds.

We have also flashes of kindness amongst this all repressive inhumanity.

Parson Adams, the postilion, the reformed Mr. Wilson, Betty the
chambermaid and four peddlers are only ones to act with generosity.

The society is divided into clear cut classes the high and the low. Dudden
notices a " gulf which seems to separate the classesthe high people' from
the low people..."
 The two classes may have dealings with one another in private, as Fielding
tells us, but they scrupulously refuse to recognize each other in public. The
rich regard themselves as the better and superior in every sense to the poor.
Lady Booby could not think in her wildest dreams of admitting Adams to her
table, for she considers him to be badly dressed. Mrs. Slipslop does not deign
to recognize a nobody like Fanny at an inn. While Fielding exposes such
behaviour to ridicule, we realize the hollow pretension of a society which
indulged in so much of affectation.

The professional classes in general show a marked inefficiency and

indifference. They do not take their work seriously. Parson Barnabas, Parson
Trulliber, the rural magistrate, the Lawyer Scout all are the illustration of
the corrupt and selfish aristcracy of the day. Parson Adams is merely one
good being against so many bad clergymen.

In his novel, Fielding has concentrated more on the countryside. But the little
that he describes of town society is enough to give us its characteristics. The
wealthy society of the town shows a high degree of degeneracy. The story of
Mr. Wilson and Leonora as well as Joseph short stay in London provide us
with the clear idea about the vulgarity, degeneration of morals, the vanity
and hypocrisy which infested town society.

Fielding represents human nature as truthfully as he presents the society.

Fielding effuses realism into his characters and his vivid dialogues. He
presents before us the complete reality and does not intentionally ignore
anything. In his Preface Fielding writes: I have scarce a character or action
produced which I have not taken from my own observations and experience.

Fielding does not project realistic picture of society for mere entertainment.
He has a moral purpose behind the realism. To laugh making out of folly is
his professed aim. He satirizes people in order to reform them:I have
endeavored to laugh at mankind, out to their follies and vices.

Fielding shows a broad tendency of realism in Joseph Andrews. Social,

psychological, individual as well as moral reality can be seen in the novel.

As a painter of real life, he was equal to Hogarth; as a mere observer of

human nature he was little inferior to Shakespeare.
He not merely presented society but also criticized it in order to make the
world a better place to live in.

-------/--------

FIELDING'S CONTRIBUTION

Introduction:

Both in his technique and "the philosophy of life" Fielding set glowing
examples for all novelists to follow. Major novelists such as Jane Austen,
Scott, Dickens, Thackeray, and Meredith as well as the minor ones like Fanny
Burney and Maria Edgeworth accepted his influence in varying degrees and
ways. Even Lessing and Goethe paid Fielding some very glowing tributes. The
English novel, in various respects, is considerably indebted to him. Fielding
might have been less popular with his contemporaries than Richardson, yet
on the development of the English novel he exerted a much greater
influence.

Reaiism:

Fielding was the pioneer of realism in English fiction. Both Richardson and
Fielding were, broadly speaking, realists, and both reacted against the French
romance so popular in their age, as also the effete taste of their
predecessors like Aphra Behn. Fielding also reacted against Richardson's
sentimentalism as a.falsifying influence on the study of reality. Fielding does
not reject sentimentalism altogether-his Amelia is-rich in pathos and
sentiment. "His desire", says Cazamian, "is to give sentiment its right place;
but also to integrate it in an organic series of tendencies where each
contributes to maintain a mutual balance."

Fielding is one of the few writers who, despite the wideness of their scope are
capable of observing the demands of reality with perpetual ease. He works
on a crowded canVas but, as has been said, "all his characters inhabit the
same plane of reality." His novels hold up to view a representative picture of
his age. He is as authentic a chronicler of his day as Chaucer was of the later
fourteenth century. Fielding's truth is not the crude and bitter truth of
Smollett's. A. R. Humphreys observes : "Fielding's is the higher and more
philosophical truth which epitomizes the spirit, the ethos, as well as the
body, of the time which deals primarily not in externals but in the nature of
man and in an intellectual and moral code."

Humour, Satire, and Sharp Sense of Comedy:

Fielding is one of the greatest humorists in English literature. The same

comic spirit which permeates his plays is also evident in his novels. As he
informs us, the author upon whom he modelled himself was Cervantes; it is
not surprising, therefore, that comedy should be his method. Fielding's
humour is wide in range. It rises from the coarsest farce to the astonishing
heights of the subtlest irony. On one side is his zestful description of various
fights and, on the other, the grim irony of Jonathan Wild. Higher! than both is
that ineffable, pleasant, and ironic humour that may be found everywhere in
Tom Jones but is at its best in Joseph Andrews where it plays like summer
lightning around the figure of Parson Adams-an English cousin of Don
Quixote. Fielding's very definition of the novel as "a comic epic in prose" is
indicative of the place of humour and comedy in his novels and, later, those
of many of his followers. It may be pointed our here that Richardson had no
sense of humour; he was an unsmiling moralist and sentimentalist.
Comparing the two, Coleridge says : "There is a cheerful, sunshiny, breezy
spirit that prevails everywhere strongly contrasted with the close, hot, tfay-
dreamy continuity of Richardson." Fielding's humour is sometimes of the
satiric kind, but he is never harsh or excessively cynical as Smollett and Swift
usually are.

Healthy Morality and Philosophy of Life:

No reason proves so compulsive with Fielding in prompting him to parody

Richardson's Pamela as Richardson's hoity-toity moralism added to a
somewhat mawkish sentimental ism. Fielding must have heartily laughed at
Pamela's self-regarding virtue. In his own novels he appealed to motives
higher than prudery and commercialism while dealing with matters moral
and ethical. He endeavoured to show the dignity of the natural and inherent
human values. Thus Fielding preached a morality of his own which, in the
words of David Daiches, is "goodness of heart rather than technical virtue
with sins of the flesh regarded much more lightly than sins against
generosity of feeling." Whether a man is virtuous or not is decided, with
Fielding, not by his external and self-regarding conduct but by the presence
or absence of inner goodness which generally means generosity of feeling.
"This," says Cross, "is a complete repudiation of Richardson, if not of
Addison: the point of view has shifted from the objective to the subjective,
from doing to being, and the shifting means war against formalism." Virtue
is, according to Fielding, its own reward and vice a punishment in itself. In
the dedication to Tom Jones he says: "I have shown that no acquisitions of
guilt can compensate the loss of that solid inward comfort of mind, which Js-
the sure companion to innocence and virtue; nor can in the least balance the
evil of that horror and anxiety, which in their room, guilt introduces into our
bosoms." Even when Fielding insisted that nothing in Tom Jones "can offend
even the chastest eye on perusal," he was charged by many with grossness
and ribaldry Richardon says Edmund Gosse, "bitterly resented allthis rude
instrusion into his moral garden, and never ceased to regard Fielding with
open aversion." Richardson was really mortified, but, in the words of Oliver
Elton, he only "shook his throat like a respectable turkey-cock."

----------/---------

SOCIAL FUNCTION

The novel, Silas Marner, by George Eliot tells the story of a lonely man who
isolates himself from the rest of the world, and must find love and
compassion in an orphaned baby girl, left at his doorstep. Social class
conflicts take place throughout the novel, due to its focus on two characters
on the opposites of the social spectrum, Godfrey Cass and Silas Marner.
Godfrey Cass, the son of the village's Squire, represents the higher class,
while Silas Marner, a poor and lonely weaver, characterizes the lower class.
Many other supporting characters, such as Dustan Cass and Dolly Winthrop
also help understand how each class thinks. Silas Marner focuses on the
hierarchy system in order to understand their behaviors, their mindset of life,
and the lifestyles of each side of the social classes.
The reader can monitor the Cass family and Silas Marner to understand
behaviors that their respective social classes have. Godfrey and Dunstan
Cass tend to act carelessly with their actions, because they have always
lived with luxury and have experienced no hardships. For example, Godfrey
secretly married a drunken lady named Molly Farren, who embarrassed him
so much that he left her due to her opium addiction. Dunstan Cass, a spoilt,
irresponsible, drunkard, always hunted for fun, and he even black mailed his
brother for money when he said, "I might tell the squire how his handsome
son was married to that nice young woman, Molly Farren, and was very
unhappy because he couldn't live with his drunken wife, and I should slip into
your place as comfortable as could be" (Eliot 30). Even Godfrey acted selfish
when he abandoned his wife as soon as he saw a better woman, and later he
even tried to take away Eppie from Silas simply so that he could have his
own child. These actions show that the upper class people have a habit of
thinking only about their reputations and their pleasure without considering
the harm it may do to others. Silas Marner, however, had a greedy
personality in the beginning, but only because his village rejected him, and
he had no one else. He shows off his caring side when he first meets Eppie as
a baby, as he says, "She'd take it all for fun," he observed to Dolly, "if I didn't
hurt her, and that I can't do Mrs. Winthrop" (Eliot 150). All his actions and
feelings towards Eppie show that Silas Marner has a caring personality. Mrs.
Winthrop also has compassionate qualities, as she helps Silas take care of his
baby and tries to help him whenever she can, since, "The good wholesome
woman could hardly fail to have her mind drawn strongly towards Silas
Marner, now that he appeared in the light of a sufferer" (Eliot 99). The
actions and behaviors of these peasants show that they have no
possessions, so they take pride in their compassion. This shows that the poor
low class people have the ability to appreciate what they have, whereas the
spoilt higher class people have no boundaries for their incessant desires.

Silas Marner and Godfrey Cass both have different outlooks towards life,
because of the events that occur due to their social rank. Since Godfrey has
established himself as a respected individual, he cares more about his
reputation than anything else. His outlook towards life is that he must always
please his father and increase him reputation so that he does not have to
live and make his own money. He thinks that he has a wonderful life, but only
if he gets what he wants. If he does not obtain what he wants, he goes
through great hardships to achieve it. For example, when he wanted a child
he got jealous that Silas had a better relation with his child, Eppie, than he
did, so he tried to adopt her, not considering that, "Silas would rather part
with his life than with Eppie"(Eliot 195). He simply tried to convince himself
that he would get what he wanted since, "the weaver would wish the best to
the child he has taken so much trouble with, and would be glad that such
good fortune should happen to her"(Eliot 195). Silas Marner, however,
does not have any possessions or money, so he does not want to lose his
most prized possession: his daughter. Silas had two outlooks on life in the
book, one in the beginning, which only focused on greed and selfishness, like
Godfrey, and another after he meets Eppie. Becoming a father gave him
something to care about and made him forget about his wealth, since he
only focused on the welfare of his baby. His outlook on life after Eppie
became that he would do whatever possible to please his daughter, and he
shed all his selfishness, greed, and loneliness all because of Eppie. Therefore,
the greed and selfishness that is attained in the higher class causes a
negative outlook towards life.

Silas and Godfrey have very different lifestyles because of their economical
and social status. Living standards not only include the state of their homes
and accessories, but also how well they can live with their family. Godfrey
lives in a mansion with his father and his brothers, and does not have to
work because his father provides for his food and shelter. He as everything,
but he does not have a close relationship with his family, since, "Everyone
breakfasted at a different hour in the red house," (Eliot 83). This shows
that the Cass family are not close enough to have breakfast at the same
time, since they cannot get along with each other, and the Squire Cass
frightens the children given that Godfrey says that, " his father's
indulgence had not been kindness"(Eliot 88). Therefore, the Cass family has
excellent living standards, but cannot live with each other because of hatred
and anger towards each other. Silas, however, lives in poverty because he
lost all his money. He has a horrible lifestyle, and works hard to support
himself and Eppie. He has a wonderful relationship with Eppie and his
neighbors, like Mrs. Winthrop, so much so that Eppie refuses to leave him
when Godfrey offers to adopt her. While the previous aspects sometimes
contradicted their placement in the social hierarchy, their lifestyles definitely
reflect their social rank. However, their social lifestyles do not reflect their
living standards, because they have too many or too less material
possessions. Therefore, their living standards resemble a part of their
qualification for their social class, but their ranking does not explain the
amount of love that they have for their family.

Silas Marner teaches the reader that one cannot attain happiness through
their possessions, and that family values are much better to have. Silas
Marner's behaviors make him a good person because he cares more about
his friends and family than material possessions, since does not have too
many belongings. He also has a different outlook to life than Godfrey,
because he believes in compassion and love, whereas Godfrey thinks that his
world will end if his reputation is ruined. Finally, Silas Marner lives in horrid
living conditions because of his low social class and his lack of money, but is
closer to his family than Godfrey as he is not distracted by money and
pleasure. Silas Marner exposes the author's spiritual intake on life, and
teaches the reader how to succeed and be happy in life.

----------/----------

ROLE OF CHANCE IN TESS PF DURBERVILLES

Tess of the D'Urbervilles: Fate and Chance

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chance and coincidence play a vital role in all the novels of Hardy. While
character is certainly responsible to a large extent for the undoing of human
lives in Hardys fiction, chance and coincidence often operate as the deciding
factors. Hardy felt that an evil power ruled the universe, defeating every
endeavour of man to better his fortune or to find happiness. He could not
believe in a benevolent Providence; events were too plainly ironical, so they
must have been contrived by a supernatural power. He believed that fate or
destiny was sometimes indifferent, but most often hostile, to human
happiness. One manifestation of the hostility of fate is to be found in the
irony of circumstances that we meet with in Hardys novels. In other words,
when human beings are not themselves responsible for the frustration of
their hopes, or when their own temperaments and mutual conflict do not
wreck their happiness, fate intervenes in the shape of chance or accident or
coincidence to contribute to, or to complete, their ruin.
Early in the story, Prince, the horse of the Durbeyfield Family is killed in an
accident. Tess father being in no condition to undertake an important
journey, Tess offers to take his place. As she is driving the wagon carrying a
load of beehives to be delivered in a distant market, the mail van coming
from the opposite side collides against Tess wagon and Prince is fatally
wounded. This accident has a profound influence on the life of Tess. The
family business having become suddenly disorganized by the death of the
horse, it becomes necessary for Tess to contract the DUrbervilles living at
The Slopes for help, and the meeting between her and Alec which follows
leads to consequences which are disastrous. Alecs seduction of Tess is a
direct, though not immediate, result of the death of Prince. A sheer accident
is responsible for this seduction which eventually proves the undoing of her
marriage with Angel Clare.

Another notable mischance that deeply affects Tess life is her written
confession, pushed by her under Angels door, going under the carpet and
not reaching Angle at all. Being an honest and conscientious girl, Tess tries
her utmost to acquaint Angel with her past history, but all her efforts prove
futile for one reason or another. Finally, when a chance meeting with a
Trantridge man at a town inn leads to an unpleasant situation, Tess decides
to take no risk and writes down an account of her experience with Alec in
order to tell Angel of the secret of her life. If Angel had received this
statement of the facts in time, he would have either forgiven her or would
have been averted. Since he learns the secret after the marriage, Angel
adopts a stiffer and more rigid attitude that he might have done if he had
learnt it before the marriage. After separating from Tess, Angle goes to
Wellbridge to wind up certain affairs, he kneels by the bedside and says:

Oh, Tess! If you had only told me sooner, I would have forgiven you.

A minor mischance thus has grave consequences.

Chance and coincidence play yet another impish trick in the novel. Tess, in
her misery, decides to visit Angles parents at Emminster. After walking a
distance of fifteen miles when she arrives at the Vicarage, it so happens that
Mr. and Mrs. Clare are not at home. She turns away, deciding to come back
after a while, but it so happens that she overhears the tow brothers of Angel
talking about Angles wife in a most disparaging manner. She feels much
hurt by this conversation, but another chance now occurs. The tow brothers
meet Miss Mercy Chant and all three of them comment adversely on a pair of
boots which they discover behind a bush. The boots belong to Tess, and the
comment hurts her still more. Tess had hidden her thick hoots behind the
bush and put on thin ones of patent leather in order to look pretty to her
parents-in-law. But Angels brothers and Mercy Chant take these boots to be
a beggars. Tess feelings are now so wounded that she changes her mind
and decides to return to Flintcomb Ash without meeting Angels parents. If
she had been able to meet Angels parents, he subsequent life would have
changed of the better because, as Hardy tells us:

Her present condition was precisely one which would have enlisted the
sympathies of old Mr. and Mrs. Clare.

Another mischance that brings disaster into Tess life is her unexpected
meeting with Alec. For three or four years the two have never happened to
meet on any occasion, and now, when Tess salvation lay only in continuing
to keep out of his way, she runs into him. The meeting awakens Alecs
dormant lust once again; he renounces his missionarys role and pursues
Tess with a doggedness that surprises her. If this chance meeting had not
occurred all would yet have been well with Tess. Clare was coming to claim
her and she would at least have been re-united with him to spend the rest of
her life blissfully in his arms. But a chance meeting with Alec becomes fates
device for wrecking her chances of happiness.
Another circumstance now occurs to aggravate the. Tess mother falls
seriously ill and her father becomes unwell too. Tess gives up her job and
rushes home. As chance would have it, her father dies while her mother
recovers contrary to expectations. The death of her father means the
eviction of the family from their cottage of Marlott and their becoming
homeless. The house-owner at Kingsbere, by another mischance, hands over
the possession of his house to another tenant, after having promised it to
Tess mother. This misfortune is an ideal opportunity for Alec to put further
pressure upon Tess who sees no way out of the predicament but to yield.
Thus a number of chance happenings seem to conspire against any
possibility of Tess achieving happiness in life. Her surrender to Alec, which
completes her ruin, thus comes about as a result of coincidences.

The excessive use of chance and coincidence by Hardy makes his stories
somewhat implausible. It is true that chance and coincidence do play a
certain role in every mans life, but this role is a limited one. There are in real
life happy accidents as well as sad ones. What exposes Hardys stories to
adverse criticism is firstly that chance plays too frequent a part in human life
and secondly that this part is always hostile to the characters.

In short, Hardy spoils his case by overstatement and exaggeration. He seems

to manipulate fate against his characters by showing chance and
coincidence at work again and again. However, in Tess of the DUrbervilles,
the logic of cause and effect plays a greater role in the tragedy than chance
and coincidence. The realism of this story is therefore not weakened by the
use of this device to a large extent.

---------/--------

The Philosophy of Thomas Hardy

December 11, 2010 neoenglish MA English-Literature

Hardy: An Artist and Not a Philosopher

Hardy was an artist and not a philosopher. He repeatedly affirmed that the
Views expressed in his novels were not his convictions or beliefs; they were
simply impressions of the moment. His writings were all, mood dictated,
merely, explorations of reality, and so it would be wrong to expect any
systematised philosophy of life. But when certain impressions persist and are
constantly repeated in the creative works, diaries and letters, of a writer, the
readers may be pardoned, if they take them to be his convictions. Moreover,
Hardy is so often passing from particular facts to life in general that we may
safely take some of his views to be his philosophy of life.

Suffering: A Universal

In Hardys considered view, all life is suffering. Man suffers from the moment
of his birth upto his death. Happiness is only occasional, it is never the
general rule. As he says in Vie Mayor of Casterbridge, Happiness is but an
occasional episode in a general drama of pain. There is none who gets more
than he deserves but there are many who get much less than what they
deserve. Not only man suffers, but all nature suffers. Suffering is writ large
on the face of nature. A ruthless, brutal struggle for existence is waged
everywhere in nature. All nature is red in tooth and claw and life lives upon
life. Thus all life, including human life, is subject to this law of suffering and
none can escape the operation of this law.

Imperfections of the First Cause: Human Suffering

But what is the cause of this universal suffering of man and nature alike. In
Hardys view the real cause is the, imperfection of the laws that may be in
force on high. Thus human suffering is the result of the imperfections of the
First Cause, the power that caused or created this sorry scheme of things. He
rejects the orthodox Christian belief that this power is benevolent, all
merciful, omnipotent and omniscient. He cannot reconcile the fact of
universal, undeserved suffering with the omnipotence and benevolence of
God or the First Cause. He indignantly asks, What makes suffering and evil,
necessary to its omnipotence ? He regards this power as blind, indifferent, if
not actually hostile, and unconscious and immoral. He uses it and not He
for this power. This power has no sense of right or wrong, love or hate. In this
blind, unconscious, impersonal working, it does not, and cannot, take into
account human wishes and aspirations. Hence its working often causes
men .much pain and suffering.

Nature as Instrument of the First Cause

This power manifests itself in a number of ways. Sometimes, it expresses

itself through some force of Nature. Usually Nature in Hardy remains
indifferent to, and unconscious of, the suffering of Hardys character. For
example, Tess suffering goes unheeded in Nature. She is violated in the lap
of Nature, but all Nature remains unconcerned and indifferent. But
sometimes, Nature seems to work against the characters of Hardy, or we, in
our sympathy for them, feel nature to be hostile. The Return of the Native is
a tragedy of character and environment; Egdon Heath plays a prominent part
in the novel and is largely responsible for the tragedy. In the Mayor of
Casterbridge, the very stars seem to be hostile to Henchard. The fair
organised by him, with such generosity and care, is ruined by untimely
unexpected rain. The vagaries of weather ruin him financially and make him
a bankrupt. Bad weather had been foretold and on that basis he made
reckless purchases. But the weather cleared and he had to sell at far lower
prices. Then quite unaccountably the weather changed again. There was rain
and hail and Henchard was a financial wreck. Nature, thus, seems to be the
instrument of some hostile power working against Henchard. It is in this
sense that Nature is fate in Hardys novels.

The Irony of Circumstance or Life

Sometimes, the ruling power on high expresses itself through the irony of
circumstance. By irony of circumstance, Hardy simply means that in this ill-
conceived scheme of things the contrary always happens. We except one
thing and get its exact opposite. This results in much undeserved suffering.
Right things never happen at the right time : they happen either not at all, or
too late, when their happening brings nothing but misery and suffering in
their train. The heroines of Hardy, like Tess and Eustacia, as well as his male
characters, like Clym, Henchard, Angel, Alec are all the victims of the irony of
circumstance. The wrong man comes first, and when the right man comes it
is too late. Thus Tess remained a vague, fleeting impression to Angel Clare,
till she had been violated by Alec, and it was too late for them to live happily
together.

Elizabeth-Jane consents to take up Henchards name, and then he suddenly

discovers that she was not his daughter : 77ie mockery (irony) was, that he
should have no sooner taught a girl to claim the shelter of his paternity than
he discovered her to have no kinship with him. This ironical sequence of
things angered him like an impish trick from a fellow-creature. Like Prester
Johns his table had been spread, and infernal harpies had snatched up the
food.

He had planned and schemed for months to have Jane as his daughter and
now the fruition of the whole scheme was such, dust and ashes in his
mouth.

Elizabeth-Jane, too, is the victim of this very irony of fate, for, Continually it
had happened that what she had desired had not been granted her, and that
what had been granted her she had not desired.

In fact, Hardys characters in general, and not in one or two novels alone, are
the victims of this irony. Their intentions and aspirations are constantly
frustrated, as if some hostile power were working against them.

The Role of Chance and Fate

There is a great difference between chance and irony of circumstance.
Chance is entirely unexpected or accidental and has no relation either to
character or to the course of action, while the essence of irony of fate or
circumstance is its opposition to the whishes or merits of a particular
character. Chance may sometimes work in favour of a particular character,
but in Hardys works it always operates against them, for it is caused by the
same indifferent, even hostile, First Cause. Thus Chance is another agent
chosen by the Supreme to express itself. Chance or accident plays an
important part in life and so in the novels of Hardy. The unexpected and the
undesired always happens. Thus Tess suffers because the letter she had
written to Angel on the eve of their marriage never reaches him. By chance it
slips beneath the carpet and is not found. Many such accidents or chance
events also happen in 77ie Mayor of Casterbridge. The coming of Farfrae in
Casterbridge just at the time when Henchard was being taken to task for the
sale of bad wheat, the sudden arrival of Newson in Casterbridge for the
second time, the entirely unexpected appearance of the old furmity-seller in
Casterbridge to drive the last nail in Henchards coffin, etc., are a few of the
chance events that create the impression that Hardy believed in the
operation of fatal forces hovering all around us and driving us to our doom.
Chance or accident is thus an essential element in Hardys philosophy of life.

Love: A Potent Cause of Suffering

Love is another force which causes suffering in the world of Thomas Hardy.
The women-folk, specially, are its chosen victims. As we are told in Tess, the
cruel cause of things has hardened them with the powerful sex-instinct which
they have never desired nor welcomed, and as a result of which they have to
writh feverishly and pass sleepless nights. Love causes untold suffering to
Elizabeth-Jane, to Tess, to Eustacia, to Bathsheba and to all other female
characters of Hardy.

Human Freedom of Action: Its Limitations

Character may be destiny in Shakespeare, but it is certainly not so in Hardys
world-view. In Hardys philosophy, character is responsible for suffering only
to a limited extent. Inherited traits and inborn instincts determine the actions
of a person to a very great extent. Even if he wishes, he cannot act against
them. Moreover, Hardy agrees with Schopenheur in believing that, a person
can do what lie wills, but he cannot will what he wills. Thus man is not a free
agent and is not responsible for his actions to any great extent. He has only
a very limited freedom of action.

Ways for the Amelioration of Human Lot

(1) Tact: But within these limits he can do much. If he is rash, hot-headed and
obstinate, like Henchard, or Eustacia, he can bring about his own downfall.
On the contrary, if he is wise and tactful, like Elizabeth Jane, or Thomasin, he
can make much of his limited opportunities. Anyhow, it is his duty to adjust
himself to his environment. He must not exult when fortune smiles upon him
for at best it is only a short interlude, and may be followed by sudden and
devastating misfortunes. And at such times, he must remember, like
Elizabeth-Jane, that there are many others who have not got what they
deserved or desired.

(2) The Rustic Philosophy of Resignation: Man must be resigned to his lot. It
is useless to complain, for no complains can reform this ill-conceived scheme
of things. It is equally futile to pit overselves against the inexorable, pitiless
laws that govern our destiny, for if we do so we are sure to be pounded to
atoms. We must learn the lesson of resignation, and we can do so only from
primitive communities living in the lap of nature. The Wessex rustics when
confronted with overwhelming misfortunes are never frustrated. They merely
exclaim, it was to be, and go about the daily business of their life with
renewed courage. Hardy is all admiration for such heroic souls, and prefers a
simple life in their midst to an artificial life in a big city.

(3) Social Reform and Loving-Kindness: But this does not mean that in
Hardys view man should make no attempts to ameliorate his lot. Hardy
distinguishes between the natural and the social environment. While man
can do nothing to change the natural environment, and must submit
passively to it, he can do much to change his social environment through
wise social reforms. Marriage laws, for example, should be liberalised in
favour of the weaker sex. Unfortunate women, like Tess, who are more sinned
against than sinning, should be accepted by society. No stigma should attach
to them, for they are essentially pure. A spirit of loving-kindness should
pervade all human relations and then all would be well. Life is suffering, but
man should not increase its misery by this cruelty to his fellow-men, to
women, and to the lower creatures.

Conclusion : Hardys Humanism

Such is Hardys philosophy of life. It is certainly a gloomy one, for he regards

life as suffering and man as a puppet in the hands of Destiny. But it cannot
be called pessimistic, for pessimism implies negation of life, a wish not to
have been born at all. It is only in his last novel, Jude the Obscure, that some
cynism enters and Hardy becomes pessimistic. Otherwise, Hardy is a
humanist, a poet who wants man to turn from nature to his own kind, for,

There at least discourse trills around,

There at least smiles abound,

There sametime are found,

Life-Loyalties.

THEME OF SOCIAL CRITICISM

As in many of his other works, Thomas Hardy used Tess of the d'Urbervilles
as a vessel for his criticisms of English Victorian society of the late 19th
century. The novel's largest critique is aimed at the sexual double standard,
with all the extremities and misfortunes of Tess's life highlighting the
unfairness of her treatment. Society condemns her as an unclean woman
because she was raped, while Angel's premarital affair is barely mentioned.
Angel himself rejects Tess largely based on what his community and family
would think if they discovered her past. Hardy saw many of the conventions
of the Victorian age as oppressive to the individual, and to women in
particular, and in Tess's case the arbitrary rules of society literally ruin her
life.

Even the title of the novel challenges convention. Because it was traditional
at the time to see Tess as an impure woman, the title's addendum A Pure
Woman Faithfully Presented immediately reveals the author as his
protagonist's defender against condemnation. By delving so deeply into
Tess's sympathetic interior life and the intricate history of her misfortunes,
Hardy makes society's disapproval of her seem that much more unjust.

There is also a satirical thread running through the novel's social

commentary. The emphasis on ancient names is played to absurdity with
John Durbeyfield's sudden pretensions upon learning of his ancestry, and the
newly rich Stoke family adding d'Urberville to their name just to seem
more magnificent.

-----------/--------

Compare and contrast Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay. How are they alike? How are
they different?

Although Mr. and Mrs. Ramsays love for each other and for their children is
beyond doubt, their approaches to life could not be more opposite. Mrs.
Ramsay is loving, kind to her children, selfless, and generously giving, while
Mr. Ramsay is cold and socially awkward. He is stern with his children, which
causes them to hate and fear him, and he displays a neediness that makes
him rather pathetic in the eyes of his guests. Despite these profound
differences, however, Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay share the knowledge that all
thingsfrom human life to human happinessare destined to end. It is from
this shared knowledge that their greatest differences grow. Keenly aware of
human mortality, Mrs. Ramsay is fueled to cultivate moments that soothe
her consciousness, while Mr. Ramsay nearly collapses under the weight of
this realization.

-------/-------

JOSEP ANDREWS MORAL

Joseph Andrews: Morality

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Henry Fielding undoubtedly holds moral views far-ahead of his times.

Morality is an approval of adherence to principles that govern ethical and
virtuous conduct.

Fielding was accused of being immoral in his novels. Dr. Johnson called his
novels vicious and corrupting. Richardson echoed the charge of
immorality against him. Modern critics, however, has justified Fielding and
gave him a credit of an estimable ethical code. Strachey declared him a
deep, accurate, scientific moralist. Indeed neither Joseph Andrews nor
Tom Jones strikes the modern sensibility as low or immoral either in
purpose or in narration. Behind the truthful portrait of life, lies his broad
moral vision. His writings are informed by an aim of correcting mankind with
laughter.

I have endeavored to laugh at mankind, out to their follies and vices.

His satire is prompted by the positive and healthy desire to reform. He not
merely presents society, but also criticizes it.

Fielding reacted sharply against the code of ethics as incited by Richardson

in Pamela. He feels that Pamelas virtue is an affectation and a commodity,
exchangeable for material prosperity. Virtue cannot and should not be to
chastity alone. Mere external respectability is not morality. For Fielding:
Chastity without goodness of heart is without value.

A truly virtuous man is disregardful of material benefits. He is devoid of an

affectation which is necessary to avoid for becoming a virtuous man He
finds:

A delight in the happiness of mankind and a concern at their misery, with a

desire, as much as possible, to procure the former and avert the latter

Fieldings moral vision is much wider that Richardsons. Morality is no longer

equated with chastity or outward decorum. It is broad enough to include
every aspect of human behaviour. Ones intentions, instincts, motives are
equally important in judging a man.

Fielding aims to show human beings in various shades of vanity and

hypocrisy and it is done ruthlessly and wittily in Joseph Andrews. Hypocrisy
is worse than vanity. Morality is concerned with inner truth according to
Fielding. A person of affected behaviour is immoral than an unchaste woman.
Fielding exposes the follies, hypocrisy, corruption, affectation and the vices
of his so-called society.

The stage-coach passengers, the coachman, the lawyer, the lady, all are
models of hypocrisy. Each refuses to place Joseph in the coach on various
excuses exposing their inner lack of worth. O Jesus, cryd the lady, A
naked man! Dear coachman, drive on. A man motivated by selfishness
rather than social duty makes all haste possible. Only the poor postilion
favours Joseph and gives him his warm coat. The journey undertaken by
Joseph and Parson Adams reveals vanity or hypocrisy at every stage.

It is significant that Parson Adams jumps with joy at the reunion of Fanny and
Joseph. It reflects an ability to sympathize with others feelings. He can feel
the joys and sorrows of others as keenly as he can feel his own. Simple, kind,
generous and courageous, Adams is the epitome of true feeling and
goodness of heart which is a vital aspect of Fieldings concept of morality.
Adams impulses always prompt him to help anyone in distress. He saves
Fannys life two times.

He is an innocent so completely sincere in his beliefs and actions that he

cant imagine insincerity in other; he takes everyone he meets at face-

value.

Kindness achieved supreme importance in Fieldings moral code. A good and

a moral man takes joy in helping others. Fielding says:

I dont know a better definition of virtue, than it is a delight in doing good.

Fielding is as liberal in ridiculing affectation as he is hard on the lack of

charity. Adams definition:

A generously disposition to receive the poor.

The simple test employed to man by Fielding to see check the capability of
charity is to ask him for loan. When Parson Adams asks for some shillings to
Parson Trulliber, he declares in frenzy:
I know what charity is better than to give it to vagabonds.

This shows 18th centurys clergys degeneracy reluctant to give some

shillings. The rich Parson Tulliber, Mrs. Tow-wouse, Lady Booby and Peter
Pounce lacks natural kindness whereas the poor postilion, Betty and Pedler
are true Christians, for they are ready to help other man in distress asking
nothing in return. But Mrs. Tow-wouse is of opinion,

A man should die on their hands without the money to pay his bills.

Fielding is against the prudish morality which considers sex as an unhealthy

and dangerous for human life. He favours a healthy attitude towards sex. In
his view, the restraint of natural impulses leads to unhealthy inhibition which
is more immoral. Modern opinion is very close to him. But he does not
approve of Lady Boobys desire for Joseph nor does he favour Mr. Slipslops
extreme whims. But Bettys desires spring from a natural heart and feeling. It
is worth noticing that Betty is free of hypocrisy. She acts as ordered by her
nature.

She is good-natured generosity and composition.

Fieldings concept of religion is linked with his views on morality and is
practical. He does not confine religion to going to church on Sundays only. He
criticizes two sorts of ethics. One who thinks that virtue can exist without
religion. In Mr. Wilsons story, they have no belief in Devine command. They
are selfish and unable to resist immoral temptations. The other sort accepts
religion but insists that faith is more important than good works. True religion
encourages both faith and good deeds. Parson Adams is the best
representative of his ideas.

Fieldings views on morality are practical, liberal, full of common sense and
free from hypocrisy that the conventional morality preached by many of his
contemporaries.. He does not believe in prudish or rigid codes. His concept
of human nature is realistic, tolerant, broad and fairly flexible. Modern
opinion has vindicated the moral vision of Fielding as healthy, wide

-----------/---------

Mr. Pumblechook

Character Analysis

Mr. Pumblechook is Joe's uncle, but Mrs. Joe considers him to be one of her
BFFs. He's the local seedsman (he sells seeds and stuff) and is charged with
escorting Pip to Miss Havisham's house for the first time. Because of this, Mr.
Pumblechook believes that he had a big hand in helping Pip to his fortune.
He tells everyone he meets this, and Pip is thoroughly annoyed with him
because, as he brags, Joe is silent.

He hoards food, he's greedy, and he likes to pour water into Pip's milk. Orlick
eventually breaks into Mr. Pumblechook's house, ties him up, sticks flowers in
his mouth, and robs him. We don't like Orlick, but we do think that Mr.
Pumblechook deserves to be taken down a notch.
Uncle Pumblechook Joe's pompous, self-important uncle who arranges for Pip
to visit Miss Havisham's house and who arrogantly assumes himself to be the
reason for Pip's good fortune.

<<<<<<<

Uncle Pumblechook is only slightly above Joe and Biddy in social status, but
he acts like he is far, far above them. He is comical because he tries to act
like a high class person but cannot pull it off because he is uneducated and
talks like a buffoon, using way more words than necessary to express even
the simplest of thoughts. His biggest dark trait is that he is a hypocrite.
Throughout the novel, whenever he is present, he is a kind of candle in the
wind - blowing whichever way the wind blows. In the bar, when Jaggers
makes a fool of him, he first says one thing, then another, depending on
whose opinion is being expressed, and Jaggers calls him out on it, proving
what a blowhard he is. When Pip comes into his money, Pumblechook sucks
up to Pip as if he is the richest man alive. At the end of the novel, when Pip
returns after having lost his money, Pumblechook treats him poorly again,
just like he used to when Pip was a boy. Pumblechook is a slimey character, a
phony.

>>>>>>>

Meet The Uncle

Uncle Pumblechook was the "Uncle" of Pip (he was the brother of Pip's
step-brother, Joe Gargery). He was "a large hard-breathing, middle-aged,
slow man, with a mouth like a fish, dull staring eyes, and sandy hair standing
upright on his head, so that he looked as if he had been all but choked, and
had that moment come to." (page 24) From this excerpt we learn about
Pumblechook's sloppy and messy appearance. "Mr. Pumblechook was very
positive and drove his own chaise cart - over everybody." (page 43)
Pumblechook thought very highly of himself and his driving skills, though he
was quite the road hog, and paid no attention to the feelings of others. "The
miserable man was a man that confined stolidity of mind". (page 101)
Pumblechook could easily hide his feelings and not express them when need-
be. During a time when Pumblechook was forcing Pip to do mathematics, Pip
said that he "would hold me by the sleeve; a spectacle of imbecility only to
be equaled by himself." (page 102) Pumblechook's behaviors made him
appear like the idiot he was, for he would do unnecessary acts that made an
imbecile of him.

Conflict

Uncle Pumblechook is involved in a man vs. man conflict. He had a "conflict"

with Pip, though he really didn't have much of a reason to. Mr. Pumblechook
is ashamed of Pip. He does not think that Pip is grateful enough to Mrs. Joe
for all she has done; "bringing him up by hand." He constantly treats Pip
inferiorly and insists that he is good-for-nothing. When Pip becomes a
gentleman, Pumblechook's conflict is resolved. He tries to take credit for
Pip's newfound wealth, because he is assuming that Ms. Havisham is Pip's
benefactor. He did treat Pip as an equal - and maybe higher- for some time
while he was a gentleman. Though, when Pip returns to his home town at the
end of the book, Pumblechook begins to treat him as a lesser again. He
thought that because Pip had "lost his fortune" and was no longer worthy of
his respect.

Seeing More of Pumblechook

Uncle Pumblechook liked to be heard. "'True again,' said Uncle

Pumblechook.'You've hit it, sir! Plenty of subjects going about, for them that
know how to put salt upon their tails. That's what's wanted. A man needn't
go far to find a subject, if he's ready with his salt box,' Mr. Pumblechook
added, after a short reflection, 'Look at Pork alone. There's a subject! If you
want a subject, look at Pork!'" (page 26). Pumblechook seems to suck up to
others, by praising them, then putting in his two-cents worth. Once Pip had
become a gentleman, Pumblechook began to take credit for his new wealth,
and treated him kindly. "'To think,' said Mr. Pumblechook, after snorting
admiration to me for some moments, 'that I should have been the humble
instrument of leading up to this, is a proud reward.'" (page 162) In this quote,
we see Pumblechook show his selfishness even more, and how he likes to be
the one to be praised. He kept insisting that he shake the hand of Pip. "It
began to be unnecessary to repeat the form of saying he might, so he did at
once". (page 164) "May I, may I?" he would repeatedly ask, shaking his hand,
being ever so annoying and intrusive. Though later in the book, when Pip
loses much of his fortune, Uncle Pumblechook switches back to his original,
cruel self, as he was talking down to Pip when Pip returned to his home town.
"This reminded me of the wonderful difference between his servile manner in
which he had offered his hand in my new property, saying, 'May I?' and the
ostentatious clemency with he had just now exhibited the same fat five
fingers." (page 506) Pumblechook really didn't change into a nicer person to
Pip; he just treated him kindly because he did not want the "rich and
powerful" Pip to get revenge on him. Even when Pip refuses something as
simple as water crest, he even acts superiorly to him. "' You don't eat 'em,'
returned Mr. Pumblechook, sighing and nodding his head several times, as if
he might have expected that, and as if abstinence from water crests were
consistent with my downfall. 'True. The simple fruits of the earth. No. You
needn't bring any, William.'" (page 505) Pumblechook gradually got worse
throughout the book; from being an annoying "uncle" to an insulting enemy.
Mr. Pumblechook is an overbearing, pompous hypocrite.

-----------/---------

AUSTON LIMITATIONS

Not Among the Greatest of the Novelists

Jane Austen occupies a high rank among English novelists, though she is
certainly not one of the greatest of them. Her chief characteristics as a
novelist are as follows:

Few Dramatic or Melodramatic Incidents

There are few dramatic or melodramatic incidents in her stories. Her

exquisite touch renders commonplace things and characters interesting by
virtue of the truth of description and the truth of sentiment. She is not
interested in the paraphernalia of the "romantic" novel. Nor does she show
any capacity to depict "passion". There are no fiery outbursts in her stories,
and no dwelling upon the passion of love. Nor do we have many tragic or
heart-rending or deeply poignant situations to grieve us. She deals
principally with the comic side of life, not its painful side.

Her Detachment

Her narration shows a remarkable detachment or objectivity on her part. She

does not interrupt her stories with her personal comments (as Thackeray and
George Eliot often do). She does not obtrude herself on the reader's
attention, and her novels are free from intrusions by her. Nor is there any
moralizing in her stories. A moral purpose is certainly there, but the reader is
allowed to reach it by his own effort.

Her Limited Range

As her stories are based on her personal experience and an observation of

the life around her, her range is extremely limited. She deals with a narrow
mode of existence, and does not even show much interest in external nature.
She excludes much of human life from her novels, because she does not
have imagination enough to carry her beyond her own observation. But
within her narrow range she is supreme. Her characters are true to life, and
all her work has the perfection of a miniature painting.
A Limited Outlook

The novels of Jane Austen deal almost wholly with the restricted circle of
home life, and round it all social interests are gathered. The atmosphere is
one of provincial calm with a very limited outlook, where the extremes of
wealth and poverty are unknown. We find ourselves in a small world of
country gentry, clergymen, and middle-class people, where social intercourse
is smooth and simple. There are few incidents which can be called dramatic,
although our attention is focused on shades of character. Jane Austen's
realism is more truly psychological than that of Richardson, for it is free from
the tragic obsessions of a moral conscience. There is an extraordinary
degree of truth in her pictures of reality. Each of her novels depicts a group of
human beings, their relations with one another, their clashes and affinities,
their mutual influences, and their conversations.

Her Understanding of the Human Character

Jane Austen shows an intuitive understanding of human character. Her

intuition is so natural and supple that it appears absolutely simple. She reads
the inner minds of her characters as if those minds were transparent. She
seizes them in their depths. The secret complexities of self-love, the many
vanities, the imperceptible quiverings of selfishness, are all indicated or
suggested so calmly and with so sober a touch that the author's personal
reaction is reduced to a minimum. Her stories are perfectly objective and
show a spirit of gentle tolerance, though a subtle suggestion of irony hovers
over every page and reveals a sharpness of vision that could be extremely
severe.

No Strong Passions

Charlotte Bronte said that the passions were perfectly unknown to Jane
Austen. Certainly the surface of the novels does not immediately suggest
strong passions. Jane Austen, in choosing to delineate as accurately as
possible the life she knew, recognized that life was not likely to include mad
wives, French mistresses, orphans and the rest of the paraphernalia of the
romantic novel. Her prime belief that one should come to terms with the
reality of life, that one should deal only with what was probable, is as much
part of her first published novel, Sense and Sensibility, as it is of Emma. And
since her settings are the drawing-rooms, ball-rooms, parks and gardens of a
civilized, leisured class, she was unlikely to introduce lunatics, villains, or
ghostly figures.

Her Limitations

As a novelist, Jane Austen works within strict limitations. This is often put
forward as a criticism of her work. It has been said, for example, that she had
only one plot, that her subject- matter is limited, superficial, repetitive, and
without any real seriousness or relevance to life. Certain limitations were
imposed upon her by the conventions of the romantic novel, whose plot
demanded that she should deal with the courtship and marriage of her
heroine. But she herself claimed that she worked on a "little bit (two inches
wide) of ivory". She was conscious of her limitations, worked strictly within
them, and turned them to her adavntage.-- Norman Sherry

EMMA PLOT

Although convinced that she herself will never marry, Emma Woodhouse, a
precocious twenty-year-old resident of the village of Highbury, imagines
herself to be naturally gifted in conjuring love matches. After self-declared
success at matchmaking between her governess and Mr. Weston, a village
widower, Emma takes it upon herself to find an eligible match for her new
friend, Harriet Smith. Though Harriets parentage is unknown, Emma is
convinced that Harriet deserves to be a gentlemans wife and sets her
friends sights on Mr. Elton, the village vicar. Meanwhile, Emma persuades
Harriet to reject the proposal of Robert Martin, a well-to-do farmer for whom
Harriet clearly has feelings.
Harriet becomes infatuated with Mr. Elton under Emmas encouragement,
but Emmas plans go awry when Elton makes it clear that his affection is for
Emma, not Harriet. Emma realizes that her obsession with making a match
for Harriet has blinded her to the true nature of the situation. Mr. Knightley,
Emmas brother-in-law and treasured friend, watches Emmas matchmaking
efforts with a critical eye. He believes that Mr. Martin is a worthy young man
whom Harriet would be lucky to marry. He and Emma quarrel over Emmas
meddling, and, as usual, Mr. Knightley proves to be the wiser of the pair.
Elton, spurned by Emma and offended by her insinuation that Harriet is his
equal, leaves for the town of Bath and marries a girl there almost
immediately.

Emma is left to comfort Harriet and to wonder about the character of a new
visitor expected in HighburyMr. Westons son, Frank Churchill. Frank is set
to visit his father in Highbury after having been raised by his aunt and uncle
in London, who have taken him as their heir. Emma knows nothing about
Frank, who has long been deterred from visiting his father by his aunts
illnesses and complaints. Mr. Knightley is immediately suspicious of the
young man, especially after Frank rushes back to London merely to have his
hair cut. Emma, however, finds Frank delightful and notices that his charms
are directed mainly toward her. Though she plans to discourage these
charms, she finds herself flattered and engaged in a flirtation with the young
man. Emma greets Jane Fairfax, another addition to the Highbury set, with
less enthusiasm. Jane is beautiful and accomplished, but Emma dislikes her
because of her reserve and, the narrator insinuates, because she is jealous
of Jane.

Suspicion, intrigue, and misunderstandings ensue. Mr. Knightley defends

Jane, saying that she deserves compassion because, unlike Emma, she has
no independent fortune and must soon leave home to work as a governess.
Mrs. Weston suspects that the warmth of Mr. Knightleys defense comes from
romantic feelings, an implication Emma resists. Everyone assumes that Frank
and Emma are forming an attachment, though Emma soon dismisses Frank
as a potential suitor and imagines him as a match for Harriet. At a village
ball, Knightley earns Emmas approval by offering to dance with Harriet, who
has just been humiliated by Mr. Elton and his new wife. The next day, Frank
saves Harriet from Gypsy beggars. When Harriet tells Emma that she has
fallen in love with a man above her social station, Emma believes that she
means Frank. Knightley begins to suspect that Frank and Jane have a secret
understanding, and he attempts to warn Emma. Emma laughs at Knightleys
suggestion and loses Knightleys approval when she flirts with Frank and
insults Miss Bates, a kindhearted spinster and Janes aunt, at a picnic. When
Knightley reprimands Emma, she weeps.

News comes that Franks aunt has died, and this event paves the way for an
unexpected revelation that slowly solves the mysteries. Frank and Jane have
been secretly engaged; his attentions to Emma have been a screen to hide
his true preference. With his aunts death and his uncles approval, Frank can
now marry Jane, the woman he loves. Emma worries that Harriet will be
crushed, but she soon discovers that it is Knightley, not Frank, who is the
object of Harriets affection. Harriet believes that Knightley shares her
feelings. Emma finds herself upset by Harriets revelation, and her distress
forces her to realize that she is in love with Knightley. Emma expects
Knightley to tell her he loves Harriet, but, to her delight, Knightley declares
his love for Emma. Harriet is soon comforted by a second proposal from
Robert Martin, which she accepts. The novel ends with the marriage of
Harriet and Mr. Martin and that of Emma and Mr. Knightley, resolving the
question of who loves whom after all.

Study of Female Protagonist in Eliot's Adam Bede

 Hetty Sorrel in Eliot's Adam Bede is the main representative female
protagonists in the novel. Adam Bede includes the holistic story of the
suffering and at last the most successful female protagonist. One of the very
common conditions of the protagonists is the reference of the contemporary
society.

contemporary society gives clearer vision about the females during the
contemporary period by portraying the female protagonists. The depiction of
Victorian society in regard to the female protagonist is most striking aspect
of the novel. Hetty Sorrel is the niece of Martin Poyser. The novel Adam Bede
is by and large the story of her suffering. She is the central figure in the
novel and one of the most successful female figures of the novelist. She was
forced to face great pain and her lovely dreams ended in tragedy. The
parting with Arthur was a double pain to her. Hetty's girlish happiness died
on the night that she received Arthur's letter of farewell. She thinks of
suicide, but has not the courage to do it, and so wanders along, she can't
return home. Even marriage with Adam is out of the question to her. Hetty's
misery is the primary misery in the novel. When Hetty is under arrest it is for
her own cause, she compels to weep her sufferings and anguish is out of all
proportion to her guilt. Her pretty sensuality is beautifully rendered everyone
in the novel who meets her feels it and so does the reader. Hetty has to
suffer because she has fallen a victim to it herself and arouses it in others.
According to Henry James, Hetty Sorrell is the most successful female figure.
Except her all other prominent characters are idealized. Even Dinah Morris is
represented as a woman who was subordinating her womanhood to the
higher religious pursuit of her. Adam, no matter how hard-working and
sincere, is also idealized. Hetty Sorrel alone is such a character who is not
restricted by G. Eliot's deliberate intention of idealization. She acts upon
impulse. She lives in the world of fantasy. She dares to cross the barrier of
the social chasm by trying to marry a man who is above her in many things.
Her life is undeterred (disturbed) by the passion for religion. She does not try
to understand how, able she is, what background she comes from and who
she is. To dream a dream to be a wife of a feudal lord's grandson is a tall
dream. It is this dream she dreamt that makes her a distinctive character.
Her sensual and sexual pursuit and her affair with Arthur enable her to think
and move above the class distinctions. Her dignity and her being twinkles in
the wake of her tragic moment. Hence, she is one of die most successful
female figure in 'Adam Bede'. The most self-assured female character in
Adam Bede is Dinah Morris, who introduces herself to Lisbeth Bede in
Chapter Ten, stating: "I am Dinah Morris and I work in the cotton-mill when I
am at home." Dinah is projected as a very confident female preacher. The
major cause of her rejection of marriage is that she thinks it will curb her
religious teaching. But later on, her dilemma is solved by Eliot in such a
manner that the readers find it justifiable. In fact, she is not restricted to
marry from her religiosity, but the reality is that she was not proposed by the
right man she loves. Indeed, she turns to be a housewife at the end of the
novel. Another strong female character in Adam Bede is Mrs. Poyser. She is
shown as much more intelligent and smarter than her husband, Mr. Poyser.
She has a balanced control over their farm than her husband does. She is not
afraid to speak in front of the people whom the villagers fear of. She is bold
enough to express her views clearly. The question of female identity is often
at the center of George Eliot's novels. Though the novel is named after a
male Adam Bede, though she herself has to hide her real female identity as
an author, she successfully portrays the strong female voices in her novel
compared to the male characters.

Adam Bede by George Eliot: Summary Dinah Morris is a Methodist

preacher who arrives in Hayslope, a small village in England to provide her
service to the villagers. Mr. and Mrs. Poyser are her uncle and aunt with
whom she has been living in Hayslope. Seth Bede and Adam Bede are
brothers and work as carpenters. Seth loves Dinah, but she rejects his
marriage proposal. Seth's brother, Adam Bede is a foreman at the carpentry
shop which is owned by Jonathan Burge. Adam Bede is presented as honest,
laborious, gentle and respected flung carpenter. Jonathan Burge wants to
make Adam as his partner and also marry his daughter, Mary. But Adam on
the other hands likes too much to Hetty Sorrell, who is Mr. Poyser's niece,
lives with the Poysers and helps with the chores. But Hetty desires to another
handsome captain Arthur Donnithrone.

At the same time Adam's father dies and Adam becomes the source of
dependent ever for her mother too. He possesses double responsibility. Their
mother, Lisbeth, is too worried so Dinah as a preacher goes to comfort her,
and she is able to pacify her where no one else can. Lisbeth wishes that
Dinah could be her daughter-in-law. Both Adam and Seth have a
disharmonious love relation at the opening part. Dinah being a preacher sees
the impossibility in her marriage to Seth.
Captain Donnithorne flirts secretly with Hetty after first meeting her at the
Poysers. They have managed to meet in the woods. They see each other in
the woods many times. They even develop a sexual relationship with each
other. Captain Donnithorne has to leave Hayslope to rejoin his regiment.
Hetty is sure that Captain Donnithorne will marry her and make her dreams
true. Although she does not exactly love him, she loves the wealth and
privilege he represents.

Captain Donnithrone comes to Hayslope and his father manages to celebrate

his birthday, where Adam is respected and offered to sit on the captain's
table. Adam notices that Hetty is wearing a locket that Captain Donnithorne
possesses. He becomes doubtful that she might have a secret lover, but
concludes that it would not be possible for her.

On the last night of Captain Donnithorne in the town, Adam sees him kissing
and embracing Hetty in the woods. When Adam makes noise Hetty goes
away from there. Adam becomes furious and he knocks him unconscious.
Captain Donnithorne tells a lie to Adam that the affair has been just a little
flirtation. At his response, Adam tells him that he must write a letter to Hetty
informing her that the affair is over. Captain Donnithorne does as per the
wish of Adam, and he delivers the letter.

Hetty being pricked by the sense of losing her lover accepts the marriage
proposal of Adam. But gentle and poor Adam tries to post pond the date of
his marriage until he will make an extra room in his home. By the time
Captain Donnithorne leaves, Hetty is pregnant, although neither of them
knows it.

By pretending to meet her sister Dinah, Hetty goes to meet captain

Donithrone. But she couldn't meet him because he had already gone to
Ireland. Being far from home Hetty gives the birth of a child fathered by
captain Donnithorne, in Sarah Stone's house. After giving the birth of a child
fathered by the captain, Hetty leaves the child in the forest and goes on. But
she is arrested for murdering her child. The captain Donnithorne on the other
hand learns all the situation of Hetty, because of his cause when he returns
in Hayslope for his grandfather's funeral from Ireland. When Dinah, Hetty's
sister visits Hetty in the prison, Hetty says that she hadn't killed the child
intentionally rather she had wished to kill herself. At the very critical situation
of Hetty's punishment, captain Donnithorne appears and releases Hetty from
execution. He takes Hetty in another country. Hetty dies a few years later in
while coming back to England.

Dinah on the other hand finds herself drowning in Adam rather than Seth.
Adam realizes that he is in love with Dinah. He proposes, but at first she
rejects his proposal. Later she feels that it is God's will for her to marry
Adam. They are married, and they give birth to two children. Seth lives with
them and he does not marry. Captain Donnithorne eventually returns to
Hayslope, and he and Adam meet stay friends despite all that has come
between them.