Assignment Name: Appearance versus Reality in Joseph Andrews
Student’s Name: Mumtaz Ali
Course: Novel
Supervisor: Lecturer Adnan Riaz
Date: December 5, 2017
“The underlying assumption is that reality, as opposed to appearance, is completely and perfectly good; to perceive the good, therefore, is to perceive reality”. (The History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell, page 126, chapter XV, topic, The Theory of Ideas,) Appearance is the outward look of a person or thing. Appearance also means the condition, state, manner or style in which a person or object appears, and the reality means the state of being actual or real. What comes into sight may be far from the reality because there is always something …show more content…
Slip Slop. In the second seduction scene, Mrs. Slip Slop who is almost spent half years of his life, looks like the mother of Joseph Andrews, tries to seduce the young Joseph who is almost twenty one years of age. After knowing the reality and falseness hidden behind her virtuous face, Joseph says to a reply, “I have always loved you as well as if you had been my own mother." These two initial characters may not be considered as major characters, but are great examples of appearance versus reality in the novel at an extent because they pretend to be virtuous, but their intention is opposite of it. From these scenes, Fielding not only exposed the covered reality of the characters, but also showed a picture of his society.
The theme of clothing and nakedness is closely related to appearance versus reality. Many characters in the novel appear sometimes in a state of partial or complete nakedness. In the seduction scene, Lady Booby discloses her white neck, which is an example of her reality. Furthermore, it is the revelation of her naked lust in her …show more content…
In the end of novel, Adams appears in a night shirt and by mistake enters in Fanny’s bed, but then goes to sleep even without knowing who is there in bed. So, these two scenes are such examples of appearance versus reality where Fielding shows the difference between a dressed man and naked man, and reveals the truth in front of us that it is not necessary that a dressed man is virtuous and a naked man is sinful. Furthermore, he describes that the reality in an inner quality of a man, that is why it should not be judged by