The Double-Edged Sword of Morality: An Analysis of Sarah Fielding's Literary Career

Abstract

This thesis discusses the literary work and personality of Sarah Fielding. Despite her original exclusion from the canon, due to the fact she was viewed as a mere disciple of her brother Henry and Samuel Richardson, recent scholarship is revaluing her significance and her contribution to the development of the novel. She was an unmarried woman who managed to exploit the limited opportunities that Eighteenth-Century society had to offer and establish herself as a respected author in a period in which women’s pursuit of cultural endeavours was considered with suspicion.The requirements needed to appear moral enough to be read and maintain conditional yet indispensable approval had the hindering quality of rendering her works either imitative or too ‘appropriate’ to be innovative in the eyes of many. Although Sarah Fielding adopted moral tones and didactic aims, she also presented veiled critiques of her society and especially—though not exclusively—of the expectations placed on women from girlhood to old age. Having spent much of her life as a gentlewoman in economic distress, she proved able to sketch compelling portraits of the dangers such situation posed, from dependency to male rapacity. She demonstrated interest in the psychological exploration of her characters, analysing their arcs and beliefs in detail. Indeed, despite her unthreatening tones, in her deconstruction of marriage and family relations and her assault on the cult of appearances, she seems rather remarkable.