In his dedication to George Lyttelton, Henry Fielding states one of his purposes in writing Tom Jones is to indicate that "virtue and innocence" cannot be "injured" but through "indiscretion" (Fielding 5). He then expands on this idea by relating that only through indiscretion do people fall into the "snares that deceit and villainy spread for them" (Fielding 5). How, then, can we reconcile Fielding's deceptive narrator to his aforementioned intention? In contrast to Samuel Richardson's didactic methods, Fielding prefers to teach his readers through the use of irony and satire; in his own words, to "laugh mankind out of their favorite follies and vices" (Fielding 6). To achieve his ends, Fielding "sometimes work[s] through parody, irony, and wit, tricking and shocking his readers, dissimulating and feigning" (Johnson 12). Fielding's prefatory chapters, while being witty and highly entertaining, nonetheless are didactic in design and integral to his overall design of the narrative. Fielding does not intend just to amuse his readers, but to educate them also. Before Fielding can persuade his readers to embrace his philosophy of living properly, he must first convince us that he possesses the authority and knowledge to assert that his philosophy is the 'best' or 'true' way of living. By claiming narrative authority and instructing readers how to 'judge' his history, Fielding is manipulating us into then accepting his moral philosophy. This essay will examine how Fielding's didactic prefatory chapters complement the overall design of Tom Jones. He uses his prefatory chapters in three ways: (1) to assert his authority as narrator, (2) to instruct on how to judge his narrative, and (3) to teach us the proper mode of conduct. The division of these prefatory chapters into the three aforementioned categories is not to imply they have no connection to each other or the narrative proper. They are "indeed an integral and organically functional part of the novel" (Bliss 237). Whether being instructed on his style, or how to be a 'sagacious' reader, or on our value system, Fielding's rhetoric maneuvers readers into identifying with his "value universe...which is located in and around the concept of mutuality or empathy" (Bliss 238). Bibliography Bliss, Michael. "Fieldings Bill of Fare in Tom Jones." ELH 30.3 (1963): 236-43. Fielding, Henry. Tom Jones. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. Johnson, Maurice. Fielding's Art of Fiction. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1961. |
