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Unit 7: Joseph Andrews: Character Analysis Comic Epic in Prose and Plot Construction

The arrival of Lady Booby’s nephew, Mr. Booby, and his new wife, who happens to be Joseph’s Notes
sister Pamela, thwarts the legal proceedings. Mr. Booby, not wanting anything to upset his
young wife, intervenes in the case and springs her brother and Fanny. He then takes Joseph
back to Booby Hall, while Fanny proceeds to the Adams home. The next day Lady Booby
convinces Mr. Booby to join in her effort to dissuade Joseph from marrying Fanny. Meanwhile,
Fanny takes a walk near Booby Hall and endures an assault by a diminutive gentleman named
Beau Didapper; when the Beau fails to have his way with Fanny, he delegates the office to a
servant and walks off. Fortunately, Joseph intervenes before the servant can get very far.
Joseph and Fanny arrive at the Adams home, where Mr. Adams counsels Joseph to be moderate
and rational in his attachment to his future wife. Just as Adams finishes his recommendation
of stoical detachment, someone arrives to tell him that his youngest son, Dick, has just drowned
in the river. Mr. Adams, not so detached, weeps copiously for his son, who fortunately comes
running up to the house before long, having been rescued from the river by the same Pedlar
who earlier redeemed the travelers from one of their inns. Adams rejoices and once again
thanks the Pedlar, then resumes counseling Joseph to avoid passionate attachments.

Did u know? Joseph attempts to point out to Adams his own inconsistency, but to no
avail.

Meanwhile, Lady Booby is plotting to use Beau Didapper to come between Joseph and Fanny.
She takes him, along with Mr. Booby and Pamela, to the Adams household, where the Beau
attempts to fondle Fanny and incurs the wrath of Joseph. When the assembled Boobys suggest
to Joseph that he is wasting his time on the milkmaid, Joseph departs with his betrothed,
vowing to have nothing more to do with any relations who will not accept Fanny.
Joseph, Fanny, the Pedlar, and the Adamses all dine together at an alehouse that night. There,
the Pedlar reveals that he has discovered that Fanny is in fact the long-lost daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. Andrews, which would make her the sister of Joseph and thereby not eligible to be
his wife. Back at Booby Hall, Lady Booby rejoices to learn that Joseph and Fanny have been
discovered to be siblings. Everyone then gathers at the Hall, where Mr. Booby advises everyone
to remain calm and withhold judgment until the next day, when Mr. and Mrs. Andrews will
arrive and presumably will clear things up.
Late that night, hi-jinx ensue as Beau Didapper seeks Fanny’s bed but ends up in Mrs. Slipslop’s.
Slipslop screams for help, bringing Mr. Adams, who mistakenly attacks Slipslop while the
Beau gets away. Lady Booby then arrives to find Adams and Slipslop in bed together, but the
confusion dissipates before long and Adams makes his way back toward his room. Unfortunately,
a wrong turn brings him to Fanny’s room, where he sleeps until morning, when Joseph discovers
the parson and the milkmaid in bed together. After being briefly angry, Joseph concludes that
Adams simply made a wrong turn in the night.
Once Adams has left them alone, the apparent siblings vow that if they turn out really to be
sibling, they will both remain perpetually celibate. Later that morning Mr. and Mrs. Andrews
arrive, and soon it emerges that Fanny is indeed their daughter, stolen from her cradle; what
also emerges, however, is that Joseph is not really their son but the changeling baby they
received in place of Fanny. The Pedlar suddenly thinks of the Wilson family, who long ago
lost a child with a distinctive birth-mark on his chest, and it so happens that Joseph bears just
such a distinctive birth-mark. Mr. Wilson himself is luckily coming through the gate of Booby
Hall at that very moment, so the reunion between father and son takes place on the spot.
Everyone except Lady Booby then proceeds to Mr. Booby’s country estate, and on the ride
over Joseph and Fanny make their wedding arrangements. After the wedding, the newlyweds
settle near the Wilsons. Mr. Booby dispenses a small fortune to Fanny, a valuable clerical
living to Mr. Adams, and a job as excise-man to the Pedlar. Lady Booby returns to a life of
flirtation in London.

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