The “Persistence” of Ideological “Instability” in Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, Or Virtue Rewarded and Henry Fielding’s Joseph Andrews

Abstract

This essay builds on M. McKeon’s premises in The Origins of the English Novel (1987) in order to explore how Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, Or Virtue Rewarded and Henry Fielding’s Joseph Andrews struggle to diminish social and cultural instabilities that persisted in the fluctuating attitudes, namely; the aristocratic, progressive and conservative, towards the individual’s honor in their respective social orders. The novels supposedly, according to McKeon, set to resolve these instabilities; however, the essay underscores the novels’ inability to effectively achieve this objective. The essay demonstrates that both Pamela and Joseph Andrews instead internalized the ideological instability as they failed to uphold distinct reformative perspective at the expense of the other. The novels are usually read as culprits of progressive ideals; that is, they advocate for assessing individuals’ worth according to their actions rather than their lineage, which aristocracy historically instilled as a criterion. However, the essay illustrates how the novels simultaneously exhibit the persistence of that conservative model, recycling of aristocracy, which defines people’s honor based on their nurture.