The Vicar of Wakefield---An Introduction

A vicar (/ˈvɪkər/; Latin: vicarius) is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, vicar is cognate with the English prefix "vice",    similarly meaning "deputy".A Priest is someone who can perform the sacred rituals of the mass, specifically the Liturgy of the Eucharist, as many of the other rituals can be performed by a deacon (Marriage, Funeral, Baptism, etc.). A Vicar is someone who acts as a representative of another (performing the duties of the office vicariously). 

Published in 1766, The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith became one of the most widely read novels of the Victorian era. It is widely referenced in British literature—from Charles Dickens' Tale of Two Cities to Jane Austen's Emma and George  Eliot's Middlemarch. Goldsmith was an Irish novelist and this novel, written from the point of view of the vicar, was widely popular among Victorians in the late nineteenth century. Goldsmith was friends with Dr. Samuel Johnson, a well-known literary critic and author. Johnson reportedly helped Goldsmith publish the novel in order to pay back rent. Although the novel incorporates multiple genres—everything from poetry to sermons to prose—most critics consider The Vicar of Wakefield to be a fictional memoir told in the first person.

A book about family endurance, the drama surrounds the characters of the Primrose family: Dr. Primrose as the Vicar of Wakefield, his wife, and their many children. The Primrose's idyllic country life is turned upside down when they lose their financial footing and a daughter is abducted.

The circumstances in which the novel was published were nearly as dramatic as the work itself. Dr. Samuel Johnson was one of Goldsmith's closest friends. One morning, Johnson received a message from Goldsmith asking him to meet the writer at his home. Goldsmith couldn't pay his rent, and his landlady was about to evict him. When Johnson arrived, Goldsmith handed him the completed novel and begged Johnson to quickly secure a publisher. Johnson did just that, selling The Vicar of Wakefield to a bookseller for 60 pounds. Goldsmith used the money to avoid eviction.

Goldsmith did not always take credit for his literary works. In the beginning of his writing career, he used the pen name "James Willington," which was the name of old classmate from Trinity. Sometimes he wrote anonymously. Although one of his most famous works, The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes, is attributed to him, he never claimed it as his own. John Newbery published the book in 1765 without providing the name of the author. Goldsmith wrote children's books for Newbery as one means of paying off the gambling debts he frequently incurred. 

The Plot

The Vicar's family experiences instability at the novel's start. When the Vicar's son, George, is about to marry the wealthy Arabella Wilmot, the Vicar loses his family's inheritance to a merchant investor who leaves town with the money. As a result, Wilmot's father calls off the wedding, and George also leaves the parish. After the wedding fiasco and family bankruptcy, the remaining Primrose family members move to a more humble parish on land owned by Squire Thornhill. Relocating to the parish seemed to provide the peace and tranquility the Primrose family desired. However, this does not last long.

Sophia, the Vicar's daughter, is smitten with Mr. Burchell, a poor man that Sophia's social-climbing mother discourages her daughter from seeing. Olivia, the Vicar's eldest daughter, disappears and the Vicar initially accuses the impoverished Mr. Burchell of abducting her. Rather, it was Mr. Thornhill, the landlord, who had taken Olivia, marrying her in a mock ceremony with plans to leave her thereafter.

The calamity does not end with the abduction. The Primrose home catches fire, destroying all of their belongings. And when the Vicar cannot pay the rent to Mr. Thornhill, he is thrown in prison. He is followed there by his son who challenges Mr. Thornhill to a duel. Things become even more surreal when the impoverished Mr. Burchell is in fact not downtrodden but one Sir William Thornhill (not to be confused with the evil landlord), a wealthy nobleman and Squire Thornhill's uncle, who travels the countryside in disguise. This is where things begin to look up for the Primrose family. Sir William marries Sophia, and George finally marries Arabella. The Vicar also finds financial security again when the merchant who caused the family's bankruptcy is found and held accountable. As for Olivia, it turns out her sham marriage was in fact legalized, and she is tied to the terrible Squire Thornhill.

Themes in The Vicar of Wakefield

The Vicar of Wakefield touches on many themes: class, gender, and the strength of family. But religion, or lack therefore in the novel, is also worthy of note. Although Goldsmith's protagonist is part of the clergy, and moral messages run throughout the novel, the Vicar doesn't have a particularly intimate relationship with God. Rather, he uses religion to selfishly advance his family to their determent.

The Vicar of Wakefield-- The Genre of Sentimental Fiction

The phrase "sentimental fiction" usually refers to novels published in Europe during the 18th century. These works were generally marked by their use of conventional situations, stock characters, and rhetorical devices to arouse a feeling of pathos in the reader. As The Vicar of Wakefield both employs and subverts the conventions of the genre, it is useful to understand it when reading the novel.

In sentimental fiction, emotion is shown as superior to reason. Its novels accepted a popular 18th century belief that claimed human emotions as pure and good, derived from a natural state. As a result, its novels have a tendency towards being emotionally overwrought. (What most immediately distinguishes The Vicar of Wakefield from its potential peers is its heavy use of wit and irony.)

The characters in these novels are often extremely, if not cloyingly, virtuous. Further, they are posed against a hostile world for which they are initially unfit. However, their emotions and superior judgment leads them to continue along the path of righteous conduct until they eventually triumph over their adversaries. In this way, sentimental fiction tends to be extremely moral and didactic, even when the author does not underline those lessons.

The first sentimental novel is also one sometimes considered the first novel written in English: Samuel Richardson's Pamela (1740). Richardson's next novel, Clarissa (1747-48), is also a paragon of the genre. He appealed to a mostly female readership by utilizing a common plot trope of the day – that of a young poor woman working her way up through society. His novels, like many of those in the genre, were told in a histrionic first-person style, and included the text of the narrative as well as letters written by the characters. The more serious writer Henry Fielding parodied Pamela with his own Shamela (1741).

Some of the most famous sentimental novels include English writer Laurence Sterne's A Sentimental Journey (1768), French writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau's La Nouvelle Heloise (1761), and the German writer Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther. Frances Burney's Evelina (1778) is also considered to be a sentimental novel, though it expanded on the style in notable ways.

Sentimental fiction fell out of favor in the 1800s. Writers like Jane Austen and Elizabeth Gaskell deplored the predictability of its plots; the former's Sense and Sensibility (1811) is commonly assumed to satirize the genre's excesses. The reading public also began associating sentimental novel with "sex tales," as many of them featured young women being seduced by rapacious men. Young girls were encouraged to avoid such tawdry tales, ironic considering that the novels initially aimed to tout the very virtues they were now accused of corrupting.

Ultimately, The Vicar of Wakefield utilizes the sentimental conventions in a way that makes it a breezy, charming story, while also upending those conventions to make much more serious observations about human nature.

 

Some more observations on this:

Sentimental novel, broadly, any novel that exploits the reader’s capacity for tenderness, compassion, or sympathy to a disproportionate degree by presenting a beclouded or unrealistic view of its subject. In a restricted sense the term refers to a widespread European novelistic development of the 18th century, which arose partly in reaction to the austerity and rationalism of the Neoclassical period. The sentimental novel exalted feeling above reason and raised the analysis of emotion to a fine art. An early example in France is Antoine-François Prévost’s Manon Lescaut (1731), the story of a courtesan for whom a young seminary student of noble birth forsakes his career, family, and religion and ends as a card shark and confidence man. His downward progress, if not actually excused, is portrayed as a sacrifice to love.

 

The assumptions underlying the sentimental novel were Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s doctrine of the natural goodness of man and his belief that moral development was fostered by experiencing powerful sympathies. In England, Samuel Richardson’s sentimental novel Pamela (1740) was recommended by clergymen as a means of educating the heart. In the 1760s the sentimental novel developed into the “novel of sensibility,” which presented characters possessing a pronounced susceptibility to delicate sensation. Such characters were not only deeply moved by sympathy for their fellow man but also reacted emotionally to the beauty inherent in natural settings and works of art and music. The prototype was Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy (1759–67), which devotes several pages to describing Uncle Toby’s horror of killing a fly. The literature of Romanticism adopted many elements of the novel of sensibility, including responsiveness to nature and belief in the wisdom of the heart and in the power of sympathy. It did not, however, assimilate the novel of sensibility’s characteristic optimism.

SUMMARY

Dr. Primrose, the vicar of Wakefield, is a wealthy man who lives in a peaceful community with his family. He has two daughters, Olivia and Sophia, and his four sons, George, Bill, Moses, and Dick, and his wife, Deborah. His son George is engaged to Arabella Wilmot, but on the night of their wedding, Dr. Primrose loses all of his money after his broker declares bankruptcy. Arabella's father subsequently cancels the wedding.

George is then sent to London, and the family is forced to move to a parish on Squire Thornhill's lands. Mr. Thornhill has a reputation of being a ladies' man who is living off of his wealthy uncle, Sir William Thornhill. At first, the family has trouble fitting into the new, less fashionable region. Shortly after moving to the area, Mr. Primrose meets Mr. Burchell and Squire Thornhill.

Mr. Burchell saves Sophia from drowning, and both show attraction to one another. The vicar discourages the romance because Mr. Burchell is a poor young man. Squire Thornhill seems courteous, charming, and friendly, despite his poor reputation. Thornhill shows an interest in Olivia, which pleases Mr. Primrose. For a brief time, the family lives happily. Squire Thornhill continuously encourages the Primrose family to go after social ambitions that exceed their class status, and this leads to many embarrassments.

Eventually, Mr. Primrose discovers that Squire Thornhill has been deceiving the family. Olivia leaves with him instead of marrying the man her family chose for her, thus sacrificing her reputation. The vicar goes after her and falls ill during the trip. After a series of unfortunate events that ruin the family's reputation, Mr. Burchell saves the family from disgrace and reveals himself as the gracious Sir William Thornhill.

The novel opens with the vicar and his family. Dr. Charles Primrose lives in his country parish with his wife, Deborah, and their children, among whom are George, Olivia, and Sophia. They can afford their comfortable lifestyle because Charles wisely invested inheritance he received from a relative, who passed away before the story begins. Of his wealth, he donates thirty-five pounds to orphans and veterans alike. That money comes from his wages. Charles’ son George is set to marry Arabella Wilmot the next day. Arabella comes from a wealthy family, so the match is considered beneficial to both families until the vicar’s investor goes bankrupt and loses all of the vicar’s money before leaving town in a rush.



As a result, Arabella’s father calls off the wedding and George is sent to town. With his Oxford education, the Primrose family hopes he can make his own way there. The others all move to another parish, humbler in situation than where they lived at the start of the book. It is on land  owned by Squire Thornhill. On their way there, they learn about Thornhill’s womanizing reputation. They hear, too, about his uncle’s reputation, which is one of generosity and worth. His uncle is named Sir William Thornhill.

Meanwhile, Sophia nearly drowns but is rescued by a man named Mr. Burchell. The family met him at an inn on their way to their new parish. However, Deborah, who is ambitious for her children and wants them to make advantageous matches, discourages any feelings of attachment Sophia might have for Mr. Burchell. Life settles into happiness and regularity. Both Mr. Burchell and Squire Thornhill visit the family frequently.

Olivia is swayed by Squire Thornhill’s charm and good looks, but she’s not the only one. Both Deborah and Sophia become convinced that their ambitions will be answered should he marry one of them. After Olivia reportedly flees the parish, Charles initially believes Mr. Burchell to be the driving force behind her disappearance. However, when he finds Olivia, he learns that it was Squire Thornhill who persuaded her to leave. He had convinced her they would marry, though he intended only to undergo a mockwedding, and planned to leave her afterwards, which Charles learns is Squire Thornhill’s modus operandi.

Olivia returns home with Charles, only to find that their house is on fire. The family lives, but they lose all of their possessions and money. Squire Thornhill continues to demand that Charles pay rent, despite the fact that the house is destroyed. Since Charles cannot pay, Squire Thornhill has him arrested and brought to debtor’s prison. George, hearing of Squire Thornhill’s behavior, challenges him, but is arrested as well. Sophia is abducted and Olivia reported dead. All seems lost for the vicar, at least until Mr. Burchell returns.

After rescuing Sophia, Mr. Burchell determines that Olivia is alive. The vicar learns that Burchell’s true identity is none other than Sir William Thornhill, the uncle of whom the Primrose family had heard such favorable reports. At the end of the story, there is a double wedding during which George and Arabella are finally able to marry, and Sir William Thornhill marries Sophia. As it turns out, the mockwedding that Squire Thornhill had planned with Olivia wasn’t fake at all, and they are actually married. In a final benevolent twist, the bankrupt investor who lost the vicar’s money at the beginning of the story is rediscovered, and Charles’ wealth is restored.

While this work can be viewed as a satire on sentimental fiction, the main theme of the story is faith. Dr. Charles Primrose, the vicar, can be viewed as Job from the Bible, who suffers and suffers but never loses faith, and whose continued devotion is ultimately rewarded by God. Wakefield is an important site for Christian literature. The Wakefield Master, known for writing the Wakefield Mystery Plays, was a celebrated contributor of mystery plays that conveyed the mysteries of the Christian faith in a way that was accessible to the people. The Wakefield Master’s works are well-known and studied in literary criticism to this day. By placing the vicar in Wakefield, Goldsmith draws a bridge between The Vicar of Wakefield and those mystery plays.

Oliver Goldsmith has qualities of an essayist with Addison’s  fine polish but with more sympathy for human life. He is a greater novelist than poet, essayist and dramatist because he set himself to the important work of purifying the early novel of its brutal and indecent tendencies. He has given the readers one of the most enduring characters in English Fiction, The Vicar of Wakefield. In his matter, in his sympathy for Nature and human life, he belongs unmistakably to the new romantic school. Altogether he is the most versatile, the most charming, the most inconsistent, and the most lovable genius of all the literary men who made the age of Johnson famous.

Works of Goldsmith: The Traveller (1764) is a long poem, in rimed couplets, giving a survey and criticism of the social life of various countries in Europe, and reflects many of Goldsmith’s own wanderings and impressions.

The Deserted Village (1770) though written in the same mechanical style, is so filled with honest human sympathy, and voices so perfectly the revolt of individual man against institutions, that a multitude of common people heard it gladly, without consulting the critics as to whether they should call it good poetry.

The Good-Natured Man and She Stoops to Conquer are Goldsmith’s two comedies. The former is a comedy of character, though it has some laughable scenes and one laughable character Croaker but met with failure on the stage, and has never been revived with any success. The latter is a comedy of intrigue, is one of the few plays that has never lost its popularity. Its lively, bustling scenes, and its pleasantly absurd characters, Marlowe, the Hardcastles and Tony Lumpkin still hold the attention of modern theatre goers.

The Vicar of Wakefield is Goldsmith’s only novel, and the first in any language that gives to home life an enduring romantic interest. Goldsmith like Steele, had the Irish reverence for pure womanhood, and this reverence made him shun the vulgarity and coarseness in which contemporary novelists, like Smollett and Sterne, seemed to delight. So he did for the novel what Addison and Steele had done for the satire and the essay; he refined and elevated it, making it worthy of the old ideals which are the best literary heritage.

(All the above observations about the novel, author and the type of novel are taken from different websites.)