I very strongly disliked Shamela. A lot a lot a lot. I regret not being able to attend class yesterday as I usually gain some sympathy with the characters after we discuss them in class and if it worked for Crusoe it should hopefully work for Fielding. Without the softening influence of class-wide analysis though I will just persist in really disliking this satire. Firstly I much prefer the genuinely funny or witty satire that is in good humor and causes no offence because it is so delivered. Fielding would be Juvenalian and I’m sure he thought he was being very witty but I really don’t agree. Even with Crusoe when I was irritated I was irritated with his character. I just entirely disliked the character which Defoe had depicted and it hampered any possibility of liking the text. With this one I’m not even overly opposed to the character of Shamela because she isn’t much worse than Syrena but Fielding short satire is filled with footnotes. He not only takes issue with Pamela he’s also mad at the Methodists and the clergy and seemingly everyone but himself.
Now that the venting is done with I’ll try to look at this more analytically…
This could only fall if it tried to stand alone. The plot follows Pamela so closely but so condensed that there are footnotes giving where to read in Pamela so Fielding’s scene becomes more understandable. I feel that the turn he took with the character of Pamela and Mrs. Jenks has little precedent in Pamela. While I confess I was a little suspicious of Mrs. Jenks at times it was not in that she was helping Pamela seduce Mr. B but that she was helping Pamela to stay for Mr. B’s sake. Pamela references several times secret talks that Mrs. Jenks has with Mr. B while there is no real indication that she’s practicing any kind of deception with Pamela.
Dr. Jones had mentioned the feud between Fielding and Richardson and, if these two works are compared, Richardson easily wins. While Pamela does have its faults it stands strong in the face of Fielding’s attempts at mocking it. Fielding’s satire has little basis in the original novel but unlike Haywood’s work it doesn’t take on a life of its own and instead is only a shade of what it seeks to destroy.
