The Dark Urban Landscapes In Amelia

Henry Fielding(1707-1754),a famous English novelist and dramatist in the eighteenth century,is highly praised as "Father of English novels".He creates lots of writings throughout his life and Amelia is the most controversial one among his four full-length novels.By depicting the story of an innocent couple who leave the countryside for London to shuffle off debts after marriage,the novel presents a gloomy urban landscape which is filled with social disorders,indifference and hypocrisy of human nature,and money worship.Researches at home and abroad on Amelia mainly focus on the image analysis of the characters,the narrative style and artistic features of the novel.This thesis,with an interdisciplinary study,tries to analyze the novel in the light of new cultural geography which mainly interprets space from the perspective of culture and especially studying the cultural landscape of the city as well as the cultural implications of landscape.According to the theory,space is not purely a geographical landscape,but a text that is endowed with profound social and cultural significance.Through an analysis of the cultural connotations of such landscapes as prison,living-place,park in eighteen-century London,this thesis aims to explore Fielding's criticism over the distortion of human nature,a society of property engrossed and judicial corruption resulted from urbanization.The first chapter deals with the prison landscape.The prison should be regarded as a symbol of authority and solemnity,but in the novel,instead of maintaining the social order justice,it has become a breeding ground for crime in which money talks.Criminals can lead a decent life if they have money.Meanwhile,prison is also a place where administration of justice plays favoritism and commits irregularities.Though some prisoners are culpable of punishment in jail,many are jailed for judicial injustice.More absurdly,some even take advantage of the law to escape from the punishment.The second chapter analyzes the living-place landscape.The renting-place,which should have been a shelter for city outsiders who live in,actually,is surrounded by traps.Amelia's landlady is a pimp of the noble lord;she creates opportunities for him to approach beautiful female tenants and then to rape them.Urban family ties,connected by pecuniary interest,connote the nature of transaction,and home is the very place where business transaction happens.Mrs.James marries with Colonel James for his considerable property.In order to lead a decent life,the Trents degenerate into the noble lord's pimps.They hold parties at home in all sorts of names so as to provide the upper class with a place for carrying on clandestine love affairs.Chapter Three mainly discusses the park landscape.London in the eighteenth century became an important place for people to pursue public life during the process of urbanization.The park,as an epitome of public place,should have been a good spot for people to spend their leisure time but becomes a witness of prejudice and lust.The upper class can act capriciously in the public place,which brings harm and insult to the innocent.The child of poor Booth is reprimanded by an officer at the park for no reason.Amelia is blatantly molested by a group of libertines.On the other hand,the park is also a venue for people to pursue their own desires.In masquerades,under the "protection" of mask,people can do shady things and dealings with no fear or shame.Men use their money and power as bait to lure women while women abuse their beauty to satisfy vanity and gain material interests.The whole masquerade is surrounded by deceit,hypocrisy and frame.In the novel,urban landscapes as prison,living-place and park are not dark and evil themselves but have been sheltering evil people and countenancing evil practices in the process of urbanization,and thus they are endowed with dark cultural implications.By revealing evils and problems hidden in urban life at the early stage of urbanization,the novel shows Fielding's anxiety and introspection on social problems like moral decline,indifference of human nature and corruption of judicial system.At the same time,by setting a happy ending that the protagonists go back to the countryside,the novel also reflects Fielding's appeal for a return to traditional morality.