Henry Fielding's Tom Jones and Samuel Richardson's Pamela
John Milton's Paradise Lost, published in 1674, may be the last work in a several thousand year-old epic tradition. In the epic, the hero embodies the sum values and practices of his/her (usually his) culture. Ironically, Milton's Satan may be the last epic hero. By 1712, a scant 40 years after Paradise Lost, Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock marks the death proper of the epic. Far from celebrating an ancient and great civilization, The Rape of the Lock chronicles only the frivolity of a coquettish, vain young woman and the facile tastes of her social circle. The epic, by 1712, is fit only for satire. That Pope can satirize both epic and courtly values, indicates the emergence of an oppositional set of values, albeit, Pope still relies on the epic form. By the early 18th century a new cultural product is emerging, that will chronicle not only the values and practices of a new type of society, but the contestation of values between it and the older one. That product is the Novel.
In Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, Michel Foucault theorizes the shift, beginning at the end of the 17th century, from feudal to disciplinary power paradigms. Assuming that cultural products, like literature, evince cultural practices, the shift from the epic to the early modern, novelistic hero indicates the changing modes of power that Foucault succinctly theorizes. 18th century novels such as Henry Fielding's Tom Jones and Samuel Richardson's Pamela become sites where the contestation of conflicting cultural values get played out.
Fielding's world, in Tom Jones, is governed by a stable, natural social order. Nobility will out. Tom, Fielding's title character, can transgress social taboos of incest and adultery as he plods through a gauntlet of potentially tragic situations. Like the epic hero, Tom embodies his culture's values; Tom's natural virtue, and nobility assures his salvation. In contrast, Mr. B, in Richardson's Pamela, learns virtue from his servant, Pamela. Where a stable class order averts tragedy in Tom Jones, Pamela averts rape, the loss of her virginity, and virtual slavery only through a disciplinary cultivation of virtue. Where virtue is embodied by the nobility in Tom Jones, virtue is learned, and more importantly, taught in Pamela.
This struggle between receding and emergent modes of power is hardly unique to these two novels. The following bibliography outlines a broad range of theoretical, critical, and historical texts illustrating the contestation between modes of power which will, by the 19th century, change English cultural attitudes toward subjectivity, gender roles, and sexuality. However, in the eighteenth century, these attitudes are still in their germinal stage and, arguably, are getting get played out in early modern novels like Tom Jones and Pamela.
The following citations illustrate the older heroic paradigms to which the rest of this bibliography contrasts. The conduct texts, listed under "III. Gender Roles and the Novel," provide an even better view into the norms of pre-disciplinary English culture.
McCoy, Richard, C. The Rites of Knighthood: the Literature and Politics of Elizabethan Chivalry. Berkeley: U of California P, 1989.
Although McCoy deals primarily with Elizabethan culture, his analysis of the politics and literature of this period provides insight into a time period where cultural life revolved around the monarchy. This texts might inform ones reading of Foucault's Discipline and Punish as it gives reference to English culture a century before the rise of disciplinary power. Additionally, McCoy's literary analysis gives the reader a clear, albeit limited, picture of the dominant genres preceding the advent of the 18th century novel.
Postan, M. M. "Population and Class Relations in Feudal Society." The Brenner Debate. Oxford: Cambridge UP, 1985.
Postan's book centers on a debate over the relevance of population demographics to the development of class relations. Though not a piece of literary criticism, Postan's text provides both a quantitative analysis of feudal society and a sort of genealogy of Anglo-European class relations that might inform one's reading of either Fielding or Richardson.
In addition to Michel Foucault's work, I have listed citations by Eve Sedgwick and Pierre Bourdieu among others. While Foucault is useful for understanding the historical shifts giving rise to a system of power relations that visit disciplinary discourse on the body, and make the individualized novelistic character conceivable, the body on which discourse is brought to bear is arguably a male body. Sedgwick provides a more in depth view of the relationship of gender to subjectivity. Bourdieu provides yet another theorization of subjectivity that accounts for the relationship of class, and taste to subjectivity.
Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1984.
Bourdieu attempts a scientific, quantitative analysis of "tastes" and their relationship to socio-economic status. Bourdieu differentiates between social organization and social structure; the former is fluid over time while the latter is fixed. Thus, what constitutes social class changes while class divisions remain in place. Two terms are crucial to Bourdieu's analysis "educational capital" and "habitus": He uses the term "educational capital" to describe the ways in which education becomes a capital investment in class mobility. One may posses educational capital while lacking intellectual capital. Thus, Fielding's "Shamela," lacking intellectual capital, can murder the king's English, mispronouncing virtue. Having educational capital however her training to be virtuous assures her eventual rise in social status. Bourdieu uses the term habitus to describe how subjects enact agency or occupy positions in his paradigm. A habitus is "a structured and and structuring structure" One moves from habitus to habitus by the acquisition of both educational capital and cultural capital.
Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Vintage Books, 1979.
In this text Foucault writes a genealogy of power relations beginning with the shift at the end of the 17th century away from ritualized torture to a system of discipline where correcting the behavior of the offender becomes the central focus of penal justice. For Foucault, this shift signals an epistemic shift in relations of power that functions not only at the level of penal justice but in medicine, education, military training, and the work place as well. Foucault's theory has broad implications for literary study since he sees the advent of disciplinary power as the precondition for both capitalism, and the concept of individuality. Arguably, the advent of discipline makes possible Richardson's belief in upward class mobility as well his insistence that virtue is a learned behavior.
___. The History of Sexuality, Volume 1: An Introduction. 1978. New York: Vintage Books, 1990.
In this book Foucault uses his theory of power relations to dispel the repressive hypothesis. The most significant observation Foucault makes in this text is the ways in which attempts to repress sexuality give rise to new discourses and new subject positions.
___. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972- 1977. New York: Pantheon, 1980.
A collection of interviews of Michel Foucault conducted between 1972 and 1977, Power/Knowledge serves as an excellent complement to Foucault's theoretical text. Of particular interest are the chapters entitled "Body/Power," "Prison Talk," "Power and Strategies" and "The History of Sexuality" In these interviews Foucault elaborates on the themes of both Discipline and Punish and The History of Sexuality.
Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire. New York: Columbia UP, 1985.
Of specific interest in this text is chapter one, entitled "Gender Asymmetry and Erotic Triangles." This chapter lays the ground work for all that follows in the book. In this chapter, as Sedgwick analyses the ways in which heterosexual relations mediate male homosocial relations. Borrowing and modifying Rene Girard's assertion in Deceit, Desire, and the Novel that "in any erotic rivalry, the bond that links the two rivals is as intense and potent as the bond that links either of the rivals to the beloved" (21), Sedgwick theorizes that "in any male dominated society there is a special relationship between male homosocial. . .desire and the structures for maintaining and transmitting patriarchy" (25). Between Men provides one way to interrogate Tom's relationships to Blifil and Sophie in Fielding's Tom Jones.
The following citations represent criticism directly relating 18th century constructions of gender roles to the 18th century novel. Also listed are just a few of the 299 entries on conduct in the English Short Title Index which may usefully illustrate the late 17th century advent of disciplinary practices, or at least the contestation of pre and post disciplinary values. The lengthy titles alone are informative. In the few citations listed one can see a move from bawdy humor and religious zeal of the mid 17th century to a more disciplinary discourse near the end of the century. Interestingly, all the titles I reviewed were written by men.
Bruce, Charles ed. The Book of the Noble Englishwoman: Lives Made Illustrious by Heroism, Goodness, and Great Attainments. London: W.P. Nimmo, 1875. History of Women. New Haven: Research Publications, (1877): reel 369, no. 2567.
Enterline, Lynn. The Tears of Narcissus: Melancholia and Masculinity in Early Modern Writing. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1995.
Enterline attempts a Lacanian analysis of male affect in early modern texts. I include Enterline here even though she is dealing with Renaissance writers because the concept of Melancholia all but vanishes with the advent of Disciplinary practices, giving rise to different male affective characteristics such as B's rage arising from sexual frustration. For Enterline early modern writers are preoccupied with mirrors and one's own reflection. Self watching becomes central to Foucault's theory of panopticism. This Lacanian analysis approaches the idea from a very different angle.
Folkenflik, Robert ed. The English Hero, 1660-1800. London: Associated UPs, 1982.
The essays in this collection trace the development of the English hero from its epic beginning through the 18th century. The premiss that Folkenflik, the editor of the collection seeks to pursue is that by the 18th century the heroic male character has become so "demythologized" from its original form as to be unrecognizable. This collection literally chronicles the change from epic to early modern hero.
Rosen, David. The Changing Fictions of Masculinity. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1993.
Rosen writes in the preface to this work that he is try neither to dispute the claims of feminist theory nor repeat them. An attempt at critical masculinity, this work traces the male gender role construct from Beowulf to D.H. Lawrence. I included it here humorously, because it attempts a deconstructive genealogy of masculinity with the voice of male authority -- something I call hypocriticism. Though contradictory in its premiss, the text nevertheless offers close readings that might inform one's understanding of the development of the male novelistic hero.
Note: All title unless otherwise indicated are available on microfilm under the title Early English Books 1641-1700. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International, 1991.
Gent, W.R. "Advice to lovers: or Certain rules of behavior, shewing them how to demean themselves, so as not to miscarry in the grand affair of love. Wherein also the pretty tricks, odd humors, and fantastic carriage of some paramours, together with several pleasant passages relation to amours and courtship are described." London: printed for Benjamin Shirley, at his shop under St. Dunstan's Dial, 1680.
Halifax, George Savile, Marquis of. "Advice to a daughter as to religion, husband, house, family and children, behavior and Conversation, friendship and censure, vanity and affectation, pride diversions: to which is added The character of a trimmer, as to the laws and government, Protestant religion, the papist, forreign affairs / by the late noble M. of H." London: printed for M. Gillyflower and B. Tooke, 1699.
Simson, Alexander. "The Destruction of in-bred corruption. Or, An antidote against fleshy lust." London: printed for John Wright, at Kings Head in the Old Bailey, 1658.
Wall, Thomas. "Gods holy order in nature, which man and woman were created in, truly stated and explained. Proving first, that man is head of the woman, and how woman is made in subjection to man her husband. Secondly, that God gave unto woman a sign in nature, differing from man, to teach her she is the glory and shame to mans nature. Thirdly, that man is commanded by the law of nature and written law of God, not to wear woman's glory, because he is the image and glory of God. Fourthly... that man that weareth woman's glory, by so doing says he is not the glory of God, nor woman the glory of man her husband. Fifthly, therefore, that Christian men durst not live in the breach of Gods order in nature.... is proved both by scripture and history. Sixthly, and that the Kings and Queens of England;...were careful, that both themselves and all under their charge,...kept Gods order in nature...Seventhly, when the duty began to be omitted by magistrates and guides of the people...a shame to nature, and a reproach to the Christian religion. Therefore humbly presented to the King and Queens most excellent Majesties pious consideration, as also to the ministers of the Gospel." London: printed for the author, and sold by William Marshal, at the sign of the Bible in Newgat-street, 1690.
Although it is difficult to separate issues of sexuality from issues of subjectivity and/or gender, the following citations are listed under their own title heading to provide a greater degree of specificity on the relationship of sexuality to the novel.
Nussbaum, Felicity. Maternity, Sexuality, and Empire in Eighteenth-Century English Narratives. Baltimore: John Hopkins UP, 1995. In Nussbaum's own words, "This book analyzes the connections between eighteenth-century women in England and the women in the emergent English empire. The invention of the 'other' woman of empire enabled the consolidation of the cult of domesticity in England and at the same time, the association or the sexualized woman at home with the exotic, or 'savage' non-European woman" (1). Nussbaum links the attempt to control feminine sexuality with the expansion of empire and the need for surplus labor. A full chapter of the book is dedicated to Mr. B's polygamy in Pamela. This text not only offers an explanation for Richardson's preoccupation with both Pamela's beauty and her virtue, but fits in well with Foucault's analysis of sexuality.
Stanton, Domna C. Discourses of Sexuality: From Aristotle to Aids. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1992. This work is a collection of essays, Part One deals specifically with Foucault's History of Sexuality. Subsequent sections develop their own history of sexuality, that traces various theoretical approaches to knowledge, desire and bodily constructedness to the current AIDs crisis.
The following citations represent the various theoretical and critical approaches delineated above, but applied directly to the two novels in question.
Gwilliam, Tassie. Samuel Richardson's Fictions of Gender. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1993. Of specific interest in this text is Gwilliam's assertion that in Pamela, Richardson is split between to conflicting ideologies of gender (15). Gwilliam points to an older belief that men and women represented two genders of the same sex. She juxtaposes this older notion to one, originating in the 18th century that proffers man and woman as two entirely separate sexes each with its own natural sexuality. According to Gwilliam, Richardson's ambivalence between these two models of sexuality creates a tension in his work over transgressed gender boundaries and feminine duplicity (10).
Boheemen, Christine van. The Novel as Family Romance: Language, Gender, and Authority from Fielding to Joyce. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1987. This is an analysis of the oedipal struggle as it is manifested in literature. Boheemen critiques psychoanalytic theory's tendency to lose sight of historical change in its attempt at universal explanations, but she relies on it nonetheless as a foundation for her theory of subjectivity. In a chapter called "The Novel as Foundling," she discusses Ton Jones' legitimization in terms of his reproducing social hierarchies (5). This chapter puts a slightly different slant on Fielding's world of stable social order. Boheemen extends her individual readings to apply the oedipal search for authority to the history of the novel.
The following citations represent material -- some by the authors annotated above -- that might be worthy of further investigation.
Bowie, Andrew. Aesthetics and Subjectivity from Kant to Nietzsche. New York: St. Martin's, 1990.
Middleton, Peter. The Inward Gaze: Masculinity and Subjectivity in Modern Culture. New York: Routledge, 1992.
Kahn, Madelaine. Narrative Transvestism: Rhetoric and Gender in the Eighteenth-Century English Novel. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1991.
Perry, Gill and Michael Rossington. Femininity and Masculinity in Eighteenth-Century Art and Culture. New York: St. Martin's, 1994.
Smart, Carol ed. Regulating Womanhood: Historical Essays on Marriage, Motherhood, and Sexuality. New York: Routledge, 1992.
Zomchick, John P. "'A Penetration Which Nothing Can Deceive': Gender and Juridical Discourse in Some Eighteenth-Century Narratives." Studies in English Literature, 1500-1800 1989 Summer, 29:3, 535-561.
Bouce, Paul-Gabriel. Sexuality in Eighteenth-Century Britain. Totowa: Barnes & Noble, 1982.
Fout, John C. ed. Forbidden History: The State, Society and the Regulation of Sexuality in Modern Europe: Essays from the Journal of the History of Sexuality. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1992.
Folkenflik, Robert. "Pamela, Servitude, Marriage, and the Novel." Eighteenth-Century Fiction 1993 Apr, 5:3 253-68.
Gwilliam, Tassie. "Pamela and the Duplicitous Body of Femininity." Representations 1991 Spring, 34, 104-33.
Nickel, Terri. "Pamela as Fetish: Masculine Anxiety in Henry Fielding's Shamela and James Parry's The True Anti-Pamela." Studies in Eighteenth Century Culture. New York: Colleagues Press, 1992.
Nussbaum, Felicity. "The Other Woman: Polygamy, Pamela, and the Prerogative of Empire." Women, Race, and Writing in the Early Modern Period. Marge Hendricks and Patricia Parker eds. London: Routledge, 1994.
Richardson, Samuel. Pamela: or, Virtue Rewarded. 1740. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1971.
Straub, Kristina. "Reconstructing the Gaze: Voyeurism in Richardson's Pamela." Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture 1988, 18, 419-31.
Bouce, Paul Gabriel. "Sex, Amours and Love in Tom Jones" Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century. Oxford, England (SVEC) 1984, 228, 25-38.
Carlton, Peter J. "The Mitigated Truth: Tom Jones's Double Heroism" Studies in the Novel, Denton, TX (SNNTS), 1987 Winter, 19:4, 397-409.
Fielding, Henry. Tom Jones. 1749. New York: Penguin, 1989.
London, April. "Controlling the Text: Women in Tom Jones" Studies in the Novel, Denton, TX (SNNTS), 1987 Fall, 19:3,
323-333. =
Masubuchi, Masafumi. "Henry Fielding's Tom Jones as Epic" Aberdeen and the Enlightenment. Jennifer J. Carter and Joan H. Pittcock, eds. Aberdeen: Aberdeen UP, 1987, 339-43.
Rothstein, Eric. "Virtues of Authority in Tom Jones." The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation: 1987 Spring, 28:2, 99-126.
Stamper, Rex. "Tom Jones and Arabella Hunt: The Ideology of Affective Individualism." Publications of the Mississippi Philological Association, Jackson, MI (POMPA), 1986, 176-187.