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Book 2, Chapter 5
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
The woman in the coach continues her story of Leonora. Leonora visits the injured Bellarmine often, acting like a nurse for him. Some ladies begin to whisper that what Leonora is doing is improper. Within about a month, Bellarmine recovers and sets out to Leonora’s father to propose marriage.
This chapter continues the story-within-the-story of Leonora, which paused at a dramatic moment at the end of Book II, Chapter IV. Similar to what happened to Joseph Andrews in Book I, people’s opinions on Bellarmine change as soon as it becomes clear that he might actually survive his injuries.
Themes
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Leonora’s father gets an anonymous letter written in a woman’s handwriting that says his daughter Leonora has jilted another worthy young man. The father doesn’t pay much attention to the letter until he sees Bellarmine. Leonora’s father only had children by accident and so is eager to get rid of them. He and Bellarmine debate what Leonora’s father will give Bellarmine to marry Leonora: Bellarmine believes he deserves a coach with six horses, but Leonora’s father only wants to part with four horses.
Leonora’s father is just like Leonora’s aunt, viewing marriage as, above all, a business transaction. While he wants to get rid of his daughter, he is only willing to pay a certain amount to do it, and this conflicts with Bellarmine’s plan of marrying Leonora to increase his own wealth.
Themes
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Bellarmine concludes that he can’t marry Leonora with what her father is offering. Leonora’s father says he’s sorry to hear this, but he can’t spare any more. Eventually, Bellarmine gives up and heads back to Paris. He sends a messenger to Leonora, telling her that her father has prohibited the marriage. The woman in the coach concludes that Leonora has lived ever since in a state of misfortune. Meanwhile, Horatio is unmarried and has devoted his life to business, where he’s become wealthy.
Bellarmine’s love for Leonora was shallow—he was willing to marry her for a coach with six horses, but not for a coach with only four horses. Leonora herself only chose Bellarmine over Horatio for superficial reasons, and so she suffers the consequences of this decision. Ironically, if Leonora had just stuck with her original plan to marry Horatio, she might have ended up wealthier than if she married Bellarmine anyway.
Themes
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