Creating Sagacious Readers, continued

Fielding moves into his second stage of informing us how readers should 'read' in the prefatory chapters to Book X and Book XI. In the introduction to Book X, Fielding sets out three "wholesome admonitions" to the reader so that we will not "grossly misunderstand or misrepresent" him (Fielding 453). First, he cautions us "not too hastily to condemn any scene in the narrative as being impertinent and foreign to [his] main design" if we cannot perceive how the scene connects to the overall structure (Fielding 453). He assures us that the "whole is connected," and for us to "find fault" with any part before coming "to the final catastrophe" will be a "most presumptuous absurdity" (Fielding 453).

Here Fielding may be anticipating negative reactions to the sexual encounter between Tom and Mrs. Waters, which takes place in Book X. This encounter is necessary to the overall plot, because if it had not happened then Mrs. Waters would not have come to visit Tom in prison, Partridge would not have disclosed her true identity of being Jenny Jones, and she would not have been compelled to reveal that Tom was Bridget Bliful's son at that time.

In this admonition, Fielding is "directing our attention, controlling our reactions, imposing the pattern" (Kettle 88). He is 'directing our attention' to the fact that there may be, and most likely are, situations that we are ignorant of and will not discover until the "final catastrophe." He controls our reactions by mocking people who hastily and arbitrarily judge novels based on one or two 'bad' scenes; no one would like to admit being that way. Also Fielding is imposing his pattern of a good reader by describing what qualities bad readers have.

Further, Fielding admonishes readers not to "find out too near a resemblance between certain characters here introduced," and "not to condemn a character as a bad one because it is not perfectly a good one" (Fielding 453-54). The first instruction is to inform readers that even though some characters may possess the same characteristics, such as the landladies that Fielding mentions, they are nonetheless individuals, with varying motivations, desires, thoughts, etc. The second instruction is meant to delineate the fact that people, in reality, are not perfect; we all possess qualities of goodness and badness, in varying degrees.

Fielding justifies his use of characters that are not "models of perfection" due to the fact that he has never "happened to meet with any such person" who possessed nothing but virtuous qualities (Fielding 454). Also he believes that people with "little blemishes" have more "moral use" for instructive purposes, since they occasion "surprise" in the reader and are "more apt to affect and dwell upon our minds than the faults of very vicious and wicked persons" (Fielding 455).

Mark Loveridge contends that "readers are encouraged to revise their mental maps in the light of Fieldings course in moral orienteering" (Loveridge 136). In this prefatory chapter, Fielding is steering readers to the position of not condemning Tom too harshly for his subsequent liaison with Mrs. Waters, as being inconstant to Sophia. Since Tom possesses "enough of goodness...to engage the admiration and affection of a well-disposed mind," we the readers should feel "compassion" rather than "abhorrence" for Toms inability, as of yet, to control his sexual passions (Fielding 455).

In the introductory chapter to Book XI, Fielding becomes even more aggressive in his defense against bad readers (critics).

If a person who pries into the characters of others, with no other design but to discover their faults, and to publish them to the world, deserves the title of a slanderer of the reputations of men, why should not a critic, who reads with the same malevolent view, be as properly styled the slanderer of the reputation of books? (Fielding 493)

The adjectives Fielding uses to further describe critics, "odious vermin," "monster," having a "black and infernal mind," "a guest worthy of [the devil]", serves to remind us of what 'good' readers and 'bad' readers are like. Naturally, none of us would want to be thought of as having a "wicked disposition of mind," so we subconsciously identify with the characteristics that Fielding presents good readers as possessing (Fielding 493).

Fielding then arouses our sympathy by likening his book to a baby. He uses such terms as "painful labor," "the care [of the baby/book]," and "paternal fondness" to illustrate how producing a novel is similar to producing a baby (Fielding 494). Harrison writes that "a thoughtful reader of Fielding would tend to find himself envisaging what one may loosely call 'new meanings' for crucial terms in the language of the text" (Harrison 162). This statement is definitely true for the term 'critic'. Fielding employs this word in different contexts, sometimes referring to all readers and sometimes literary critics. As such, it becomes difficult to know for sure that he is condemning bad readers when he is condemning critics. Either way, Fielding manipulates his rhetoric to cause his readers to disassociate themselves with critics and/or 'bad' readers. Thus he maneuvers us into trying to 'read' in imitation of his ideal of the perfect reader.

In the prefatory chapter of Book XVI, Fielding illustrates another aspect of the 'bad' reader; that is, the "indolent" reader (Fielding 734). This is a person who reads books only to "say they have read them" (Fielding 734). In Fielding's view, they do not actively engage with the text or attempt to learn anything from it. Also in this chapter, Fielding once again mentions those critics to whom his introductions will serve as a "whetstone" so that "he may fall with a more hungry appetite for censure on the history itself" (Fielding 734).

Hammond claims that "the only freedom the reader has is to play the part of exactly the kind of liberal reader that the text itself always posits and requires" (Hammond 75). Fielding's rhetoric ingeniously induces us to take on this role of the 'liberal reader.' In summary, Fielding's 'good' reader will refrain from judging rashly, condemning harshly, and reading novels lightly. Now that Fielding has established his authority as narrator and delineated our roles as readers, he then begins to outline his moral philosophy and the reasons why we should accept his views on how to live as being the most perfect way of life.

Bibliography

Fielding, Henry. Tom Jones. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Hammond, Brean S. "'Mind the Gap': A Comment on Lothar Cerny." Connotations 3.1 (1993-94): 72-78.

Harrison, Bernard. "Gaps and Stumbling-Blocks in Fielding: A Response to Cerny, Hammond, and Hudson." Connotations 3.2 (1993-94): 147-72.

Kettle, Arnold. "Tom Jones." Fielding: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Ronald Paulson. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1962. 84-88.

Loveridge, Mark. "Tom Jones and the 'Clare-obscure': A Response to Andrew Varney, Bernard Harrison, and Lothar Cerny." Connotations 4.1-2 (1994-95): 136-50.