Although Fielding's first novel bears the
title “Joseph Andrews” , its
main interest centers in Parson Adams. The immense popularity enjoyed by the novel
can be fully attributed to him. In fact , it is difficult to imagine even the
existence of this novel without the endearing figure of the absent–minded
Parson Adams. “If he is not the real hero of the book”,says
Dobson,”he is
undoubtedly the character whose fortunes the reader follows with the closest
interest.”
Dudden remarks:
“The agreeable youngman,
Joseph may be the centre of plot; but it is the ‘old foolish parson’ that is
the centre of interest.”
Adams is one of the most original creations; Fielding himself claims
that he is ‘not to be found in any book now extant’.
Fielding
explains in his preface that he has made Adams a clergyman "since
no other office could have given him so many opportunities of displaying his
worthy inclinations”. While all other characters remain
types, Adams emerges as an individual. He is a positive force not
only as a clergyman who puts his principles of charity into practice, but as a
man who manages to confront the physical obstacles of the world in the most
awkward ways, and prides himself rather too much as a teacher of Latin and as a
writer of sermons.
Adams’
physical appearance is really interesting. He has a “comical face, with bearded chin
and deeply wrinkled cheeks”, a fist “rather
less than the knuckle of an ox”, with a wrist, ”which Hercules would not have
been ashamed of”. His legs are so long that they almost touch the
ground when he drives on his horse’s back. He usually wears a “tattered
old cassock” and a “periwig” on his head. In addition, he is
in the habit of snapping his fingers. He has so shabby an appearnce that Parson
Trulliber mistakes him for a hog-dealer.
Adams serves
as the novel's moral touchstone;Fielding bestowed on his exemplary parson,
childlike innocence:
“He is an innocent …
so completely sincere in his beliefs and actions that he can’t imagine
insincerity in other; he takes everyone he meets at face-value”. Adams is a dreamy idealist;he is as ignorant of the world of his own day “as
an infant just entered into it could possibly be”. The devious ways of contemporary mankind are quite
beyond his comprehension. Being naïve and guileless he is constantly imposed
upon. He is easily taken in by the sentimental bragging of pseudo-patriot as by
the pious platitudes of hypocritical Parson Trulliber. Adams’ endless tribulations at the hands of others serve as an
index of society’s alienation from ethical and moral codes.
Although
simpleton and naïve , Adams is a man of exceptional learning. Educated at the university
of Cambridge, he has made himself familiar with many languages, and, in
particular, has acquired masterly knowledge of the Greak and Latin: “Mr.
Abraham Adams was an excellent Scholar. He was a perfect Master of the Greek
and Latin Languages; to which he added a great Share of Knowledge in the
Oriental Tongues...”
His favourite author, however, is Aeschylus and he carries a transcript of
Aeschylean tragedies for more than thirty years. With the modern literature ---
except a few books of divinity---he does does not have even a nodding
acquaintance. The history of last thousand years is to him almost a blank.
Parson Adams is only a curate. He
lives in the parsonage in Sir Thomas Booby’s parish.He is about fifty years old
and has a wife and six children whom he can barely support on his very small
income as a curate. He considers all his parishioners, especially Joseph and
Fanny, as his children. In contrast with Parson
Trulliber and Barnabas, Parson adams is extremely sincere in his profession .He gets a
very small income from the church but his virtue remains utterly uncontaminated.
He refuses to become a puppet in the hands of Lady Booby when the latter
forbids him to publish the banns of Joseph’s marriage with Fanny .
Fielding
has made adams a comic character . He
has made him absent-minded and given him amusing mannerisms.
However this does not detract Adams’ greatness as a true Christian. Simple,
kind, generous and courageous, Adams is the epitome of true feeling and
goodness of heart. Adams’ impulses always prompt him to help anyone in
distress.He is ever ready and ever willing to fight for the right cause.
Although fifty years of age, Adams is magnificently strong and healthy. He
knows how to use his huge fists in defending others.
Adams’s generosity, friendliness, and
bravery appear to be tied to one another, as indeed they ought to be according
to Fielding’s moral scheme. In Adams, however, bravery is excessive because he
does not regulate it with prudence; “Simplicity,” or naïveté, is certainly more
present in Adams’s character than in any other in the novel
Parson Adams establishes a sort of
unadorned criterion of simplicity against vanity and hypocricy of most of the
other characters. He is a bundle of contradictions, a delightful mixture of
scholarship and simplicity, and pedantry and credulity. He is eccentric and
forgetful; he often leaves his hat and his sermons (which he intends to sell)
behind, and has to return for them.He lands into misadventure after
misadventure - he wanders from inn to inn without the means to pay his bills,
he is beaten, swindled and mocked at, he is involved in hilarious nightly
adventures -but he never loses his innate dignity and goodness.
Martin C. Battestin sees in Adams "the Christian hero, the representative
of good nature and charity, which form the heart of morality."
We can sum up above discussion in the words of Dudden: “Adams emerges from testing adventures
and experienceswith his sweet temper unsoured, his honourable character
unsullied, and his innate dignity unimpaired”