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Fiction

Notes Mr. Adams what other people have said that he his worth, and Adams replies, “I have heard
some aver you are not worth less than twenty thousand Pounds.” Without confirming or
denying this estimate, Pounce declares that he does not care what the world thinks of him and
his fortune. He boasts that he has acquired all his wealth on his own, inheriting none of it, and
remarks that many heirs of estates fail to manage their money properly and might end up in
situations as pitiful as that of Mr. Adams, “glad to accept of a pitiful Curacy for what I know.”
When Pounce congratulates himself for his generosity in sharing a carriage with “as shabby
Fellows as yourself,” Mr. Adams exits the carriage with as much dignity as he can muster,
though he forgets his hat, and walks beside Joseph and Fanny for the final mile to Booby Hall.

Task Who promise to visit Adams and Why?

4.3.1 Analysis

The Quack-Doctor turns out to be devilishly insightful when he designs his Socratic prank to
appeal to Adams’s moral gravity, his devotion to Greek literature and philosophy, and of
course his vanity; as critic Homer Goldberg remarks, “An invitation to present one of his
treasured sermons would be welcome in any circumstance; to do so in the role of Socrates
before an imaginary royal court . . . is irresistible.” Much as the prank exposes the parson’s
familiar foibles, however, it is one part of a long episode, the general effect of which is surely
to increase the reader’s protective sympathy for Adams and indignation for his tormentors.
Following the scene of Adams’s “roasting,” however, Joseph continues his return to the spotlight.
The abduction of Fanny is the first time the young couple have been menaced since they
reunited in Book II, and it is a more serious and frightening attack than was the attempted
rape that heralded Fanny’s entrance into the story. In the earlier incident, the danger to Fanny
(still unnamed at that point) came to the reader’s attention only as Mr. Adams and his crabstick
were about to spring into action; here we learn of the Hunter’s criminal designs long before
he enacts them and long before Joseph and Adams have caught on, and we are aware of the
great importance of Fanny’s welfare to Joseph’s strand of the plot. The shift toward greater
suspense regarding the fate of Fanny is consistent with the general raising of the stakes in
regard to the lovers’ plot and with the refocusing of the narrative onto the lovers.
Self Assessment

State the following sentences are True or False:
6. Mr. Wilson sits down to dinner with the Hunter of men while Joseph Andrews and
Fanny goodwill dine in the kitchen.
7. Joseph and Fanny finds Adams horse too refractory.
8. The player and the poet make their exit, feeling on the poet horse.
In terms of characterization, though, more remains to be said about Fanny as a magnet for
attempted sexual assaults, of which the current episode is the second of three. Unlike Joseph
when he is under assault from Lady Booby and Mrs. Slipslop, Fanny never even attempts to
extricate herself from these encounters on her own; instead, she awaits the intervention of
various male protectors, at least one of whom will always be providentially on hand. The
thematic point of these episodes of near-rape would seem to involve the distinction Fielding
would like to draw between lust on the one hand and virtuous physical love on the other.
Only the violent characters ever try to force Fanny to gratify their desires, and forcible gratification
appears to be the only kind of sexual gratification these characters can imagine.

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