Information to Users
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, sorne thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of thi. ntprOduction is depenclent upon the quallty of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, coIored or poor quarlty illusbatiOns and photographs, print bleedthrough. subs18ndard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. ln the unlikely event that the authOr did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages. these will be noted. Also. if unauthorized copyright material had ID be removed. a note will indicale the detetiOn. Oversize materials (e.g., maps. drawings. charts) are reproduœd by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper Ieft-hand corner and continuing from 18ft ID right in equal sections with small overlaps. Photographs induded in tfie original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6- x 9" black and white photographie prints are available for any photographs or iliustnltionS appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly te arder. Bell & Howell Information and Leaming 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 481Q6.1346 USA UMI~ 800-521-0600 UToo Fond to Be Bere Related": • Ironie Didacticism and the Moral Analogy in Henry Fielding's Amelia (1751) by Adam. Budd 25 August 1997 A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Graduation to the Degree of Master of Arts Department of English McGill University Montreal, Canada This work is dedicated to Hr. Lewis Field: grandfather and gentle man • C Adam Budd, 1997. AlI riqhts reserved• National Ubrary Bibliothèque nationale 1+1 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Weflington Street 395. rue Wetlington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada The author has granted a 000 L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library ofCanada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distnbute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies ofthis thesis in microfonn, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic fonnats. la forme de microfiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership ofthe L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts from it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. 0-612-43839-2 Canadl • Where a general abstract principle i5 first established, and i5 afterwards branched out into a variety of inferences and conclusions, may he more perfect in itself, [it] suits less the imperfection of human nature, and is a common source of illusion and mistake. David Hume, An Enguiry concerninq the Principles of Morals 174 Renee, my worthy Reader, console thyself that however few of the other good Things of Life are thy Lot; the best of all Things, which is Innocence, i5 always within thy own Power; and tho' Fortune may make thee often unhappy, she ean never completely and irreparably make thee miserable without thy own Consent. Henry Fielding, Amelia 320 Minute attention to propriety stops the growth of virtue. Mary Wollstonecraft, Collected Letters 141 • UToo Fond to Be Bere Related": Ironie Didacticism and the Moral Analogy in • Benry Fielding's Amelia (1751) Contents: Abstract in Enqlish 4 Résumé en français 5 Chronology of Significant Events 6 Introduction: David Hume and Fielding' s Moral Problem 7 Development: Irony and FormaI Characterization 30 Closing Discussion: Dialogue with Samuel Richardson 52 Notes 68 Works Cited 92 Acknowledgments: l am grateful for the helpful advice l received from the staff at the interlibrary loans office at McGill university and from the hospitable librarians in the Upper Reading Room at the Bodleian Library (Oxford), who made available to me the first editions of the eighteenth-century novels and treatises that l refer to in this thesis. l want to thank David Hensley for his supportive critical insiqht and encouragement. l especially thank my mother, who suppliedme with that particular kind of emotional support and biographical insight which enabled me to start, sustain, and complete this project• • Budd 4 Abstract • This thesis, entitled UToo Fond to Be Here Related": Ironie Didactieism and the Moral Analogy in Henry Fielding's "Amelia" (1751), opens by explorinq the current and historical critical reception of Fielding's final extended work of fiction. In an effort to explain Amelia's "failure"- the prevailing assessment among even its more sympathetic critics--I then argue that this experimental novel offers an innovative engagement with David Hume's moral philosophy. The emerging analogy provides a fascinating but previously negleeted departure from Samuel Riehardson's means of providing moral instruction throuqh a sentimental appeal to upholding a specifie social eontract~ Fielding's unsteady narrator and provocative paradoxical treatment of the novel's protagonists invite us to appreciate the link between Amelia and the progressive social protest novels of the later eighteenth century• • Budd 5 Résumé • Cette mémoire sur l'Amelia d'Henry Fielding, entitulée (Toc Fond te Be Here Related»: Ironie Didacticism and the Moral Analogy in Henry Fieldinq's «Amelia» (1751), prend son ouverture avec une explication de l'accueil critique, historique, et actuelle du dernier roman de Fielding (1707 1754). Elle propose d'adopter une position critique envers le jugem.ement académique traditionnel que ce roman est un véritable «échec», et de suggérer par contre que cette oeuvre lance un engagement innovateur avec la philosophie morale de David Hume. Dans un traitement considérable mais mal reconnu qui s'éloigne de la programme poétique de Samuel Richardson- un auteur qui propose de donner aux lecteurs une education morale par un appel sentimental pour un contrat social--le narrateur chancelant de Fielding et le traitement paradoxical de ses protagonistes nous incitent à considérer les connexions entre Amelia et les romans anglais qui prennent ses débuts et qui empruntent ses consciences sociales dans les derniers années du XVlllème siècle• • Budd 6 Chronology of Significant Events 1689 Birth of Samuel Richardson in Derbyshire 1690 Publication of John Locke's An Essay concerning • Human Understandinq 1707 Birth of Henry Fielding in Somerset 1711 Birth of David Hume in Edinburgh publication of Lord Shaftesbury's Characteristicks 1728 Publication of Francis Hutcheson's An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions 1739-40 publication of Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature 1740-1 Publication of Richardson' s Pamela: or, Virtue Rewarded 1741 Publication of Fielding's An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews 1747-8 Publication of Richardson's Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady, Comprehending the Most Important Concerns of Private Life 1748 Publication of Hume's Philosophical Essays concerning Human Understanding 1749 Publication of Fielding's The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling 1750-2 Publication of Johnson's The Rambler 1751 Publication of Fielding's Amelia Publication of Fielding's An Enguiry into the Causes of the Late Increase of Robbers, with Some ProposaIs for Remedving the Growing Evil Publication of Letters and Passages Restored from the Original Manuscripts of the History of Clarissa 1754 Death of Henry Fielding near Lisbon 1755 Publication of Richardson's A Collection of the Moral and Instructive Maxims, Sentiments,Cautions, and Reflections Contained in the Histories of Pamela, Clarissa, and Sir Charles Grandison 1759 Adam Smith's The Theory of Moral Sentiments 1761 Death of Samuel Richardson in London • 1776 Death of David Hume in Edinburqh Budd 7 Introduction: David Hume and Fielding's Moral Problem • "1 made the same observation," cries Booth: "sure some Misfortune hath befallen her." liA Misfortune indeed!" answered Amelia, "sure Child, you forget what Mrs. Ellison told us, that she had lost a beloved Husband. A Misfortune which l have often wondered at any Woman's surviving, "--at which Words, she cast a tender Look at Booth, and presently afterwards throwing herself upon his Neck, cried--"O Heavens! What a happy Creature am 1; when l consider the Dangers you have gone through, how l exult in my Bliss!" The goOO natured Reader will suppose that Booth was not deficient in returning such Tenderness, after which the conversation became too fond ta be here related. (Amelia 204-205)1 Captain William Booth and his wife Amelia know that they cannat successfully escape the constraints imposed on them by London's sinister justice system and its roving bands of mercenary bailiffs. Yet the hopelessness of the situation provides a special impetus for Amelia--"the most worthy, generous, and noble of all Human Beings"--to reflect positivelyon her predicament (89). Nothing, it seems, might renew Amelia's affections for her husband more effectively than a momentary reflection on another's misfortunes. Indeed, • the psychological pressure that social injustice exerts in Budd 8 this novel makes it a~ost ~possLble for Amelia to take action to improve her circumstances without first considering • --and, at times, sentimentally reenacting--the stories told to her; for this instructive paragon, the qualities of life afforded by "Fortune" or "Providence" always demand an appreciation of another's suffering before they can be evaluated or understood as bearing implications for understanding her own. 2 In contrast, Amelia's "jealous Rival," Miss Mathews, encourages Booth ta narrate his past--and thus reflect on his family's sufferinq--as a means merely ta perform the role of an empathetic listener (161, 164).