"Abraham Adams: The Good-Natured Man" by Jon L. Wachs
 

Date of Award

7-1972

Degree Type

Master's Essay - Restricted

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

Abstract

E. M. Forster in his Aspects of the Novel mentions that in ·Joseph Adams, "Fielding set out to use Pamela as a comic mythology." Certainly, it is beyond doubt that without Pamela and the "epidemical Phrenzy" Richardson's work prompted, Joseph Andrews as we know it would not have been written. Critics have long been aware of the significance of Pamela and Shamela in the evolution of Joseph Andrews, and examinations of these topics are most numerous. But Fielding's work may be viewed as far more than mimicry and ridicule of Richardson's Pamela. Father, it is the suggestion of this paper that Fielding took advantage of Pamela to present a creative, original and somewhat divergent conception of the art of prose fiction, and foremost within this concept was Fielding's moral intent. By exposing hypocrisy and vanity the novelist makes a strong statement for the good-natured man, the Christian hero.

Comments

Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

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