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Book 1, Chapter 10
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Joseph Andrews, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Hypocrisy
Lust vs. Chastity
Social Class
Religion and Charity
Summary
Analysis
Joseph Andrews leaves town, but instead of going to his family, he decides instead to go to Lady Booby’s home in the country (since she’s still in London). Nearby there is a poor but beautiful girl named Fanny who used to work for Lady Booby until Mrs. Slipslop fired her. Joseph wants to see Fanny again. She’s two years younger than Joseph, and they’ve known each other their whole lives. Although they’ve liked each other for a while, parson Abraham Adams argued that they needed to wait a few years until they had more work experience before marrying.
As the novel goes on, it reveals more depth about Joseph Andrews’s character. Rejecting Lady Booby is not just about preserving his chastity but also about loyalty to his real love, Fanny. Fanny represents the opposite of Lady Booby, a poor character without much material wealth but with much greater “wealth” when it comes to virtue.
Themes
During Joseph Andrews’s year away, he and Fanny didn’t communicate because Fanny can’t read or write. On Joseph’s way back to Fanny, a hailstorm forces him to stop at an inn. A man with two horses who works for a neighboring gentleman also enters the inn. He and Joseph talk, and the servant agrees to lend Joseph his master’s horse for a while, even though he isn’t supposed to do it.
Fanny’s inability to read or write shows that she is from an even lower class than Joseph (who lacks a formal education but who is nevertheless literate and has read extensively). Storms are a recurring motif in the story, often forcing characters to stop at an inn. The device is used so many times that it becomes humorous.
Themes
Literary Devices
