Narrative and the Narrator: An Analysis of Joseph Andrews While the novel was merging into a distinct form of literary expression, Henry Fielding introduced a dynamic relationship between the reader and the text developing the role of the narrator and the narrator's responsibility in shaping the overall structure of the work. His narrative creation would become a tradition explored by modern writers. By establishing the narrator as the intermediary, the narrator was free to create and comment on characters, actions, and situations. Fielding could hide his ideas with metaphors and fictional examples as well as with the narrator himself. Although some have criticized Fielding's work for lacking a definitive narrative goal, perhaps the most fruitful quest was and is to discover the narrator's goal (Goldberg 85). Through Joseph Andrews's understanding of the narrator, it may be possible to discern the narrator's objective and, thus, trace the early evolution of this tradition. Fielding's narrator is an all-pervasive commentator and creator. Fielding forces the reader to engage his text as a text inextricably linked to the author's thoughts and perceptions (Bartschi 53). The reader sees only what the narrator allows him to see. In this way the narrator serves as the lens through which all events and characters are viewed. For example, Joseph Andrews' narrative structure was consciously constructed as a reaction and refutation of the ethical system set forth in Richardson's novel Pamela. Fielding links his novel directly to Richardson's fictional world, using devices such as Joseph's letters to Pamela. However, it revives the memory of these characters and events... middle of paper... Gossman, Lionel. "Literature and society in the early Enlightenment: the case of Merivaux". Notes on Modern Language, 82 (1967): 306-333. Hazlitt, William. “A one-of-a-kind piece of statistics.” Lectures on English Comic Writers, London, 1819. Works, ed. P. G. Howe (London: J. M. Dent, 1931) 6: 115.McCrea, Brian. “Rewriting Pamela: Social Change and Religious Faith in Joseph Andrews.” Studies in the Novel 16 (1984): 137-49. Rpt in Joseph Andrews: A Norton Critical Edition. Homer Goldberg, ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1987. Sacks, Sheldon. Fiction and the form of belief. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1964. Taylor, Jr. Dick. “Joseph as Hero in Joseph Andrews.” Tulane Studies in English 7 (1957): 91-109. Rpt in Joseph Andrews: A Norton Critical Edition. Homer Goldberg, ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1987.