7. The duty of the novelist at 18th century is to teach people lesson . In joseph Andrews what kind of lesson Fielding wished to teach his people... discuss.

Joseph Andrews is a product not only of its author’s career and education but also of its age in general, which is often called the Age of Reason or the Enlightenment Age. It was a time of major political and doctrinal compromises, and its religious temper was optimistic and non-dogmatic. The Christian outlook of Fielding shares in both these attributes: his novels advocate an easygoing Protestantism in which charitable works are the infallible hallmarks of goodness, sociability is the wellspring of charitable works, and providence is the reliable guardian of the virtuous.