:: The Young Enthusiast ::

Plot Summary: Dr. Primrose, a country vicar and a stout defender of absolute monogamy in his writings, lived with his wife and five children. His eldest son, George, was engaged to marry Miss Wilmot, but between Dr. Primrose’s staunch defense of monogamy (Mr. Wilmot was about to marry his fourth wife) and the sudden lost of Primrose’s fortune Miss Wilmot’s father became annoyed and broke off the engagement. Primrose secured a curate in another county and the family moved there (though George went to London to seek his own fortune). In the new town the country squire, Squire Thornhill, befriends the family and makes his addresses to both of Primrose’s daughters, Olivia (the eldest) and Sophia. Olivia also receives the addresses of Mr. Burchill, an older, impoverished gentleman who she grows to have much affection for.

When two city ladies contract Olivia and Sophia to be household companions for them, the engagement is broken off at the last minute when the wealthy family receives a letter slandering the two girls. After finding the letter in a box of Mr. Burchell’s things Primrose assumes that it is he who has slandered his daughters and turns him away. Meanwhile, things are getting hot and heavy between Sophia and Squire Thornhill, but the family is unable to discern whether Thornhill’s intentions are honorable. In order to figure this out they hatch a plan whereby Sophia is to receive the addresses of a local farmer, hoping that Squire Thornhill would stop the courtship and declare his passion for Sophia. Instead, Sophia runs away with a man and, after Thornhill denies it is him, the family assumes it is Mr. Burchell.

Primrose then sets off on a journey to find his daughter, but is taken ill along the road. While making his way back toward his home he runs into his son George’s former mistress Miss Wilmot, who has began a courtship with Squire Thornhill. Then while at a play they run into Primrose’s son George, who has recently joined an acting troupe and is about to make his debut as Horatio. The company all stay with each other for a few days until Squire Thornhill secures George a commission in the army. Dr. Primrose heads back toward home where he finds Olivia and learns that Thornhill was, in fact, the one to seduce her. They set out towards home, but when they arrives Dr. Primrose finds that his house is on fire. He saves his wife and all of his children but all of his worldly possessions are destroyed.

As they are attempting to build a new home, Squire Thornhill shows up and Primrose, now knowing Thornhill seduced his daughter, gives him a piece of his mind. Thornhill returns the favor by demanding immediate payment of Primrose’s rent, which he cannot remit given his circumstances. As a result, Primrose is put in prison and his family takes up residence near it and visits him every day. While in prison Primrose learns that his daughter Sophia dies and his daughter Olivia is kidnapped. However, Olivia is rescued by Mr. Burchill and it is revealed that Burchill is, in fact, Squire Thornhill’s rich uncle. It is also revealed that Sophia did not, in fact, die and that the (supposedly fake) priest who married Sophia and Thornhill was, in fact, a real priest and that their marriage is binding. They also find Primrose’s lost fortune at the end of the novel and the story ends happily for everyone.

Comments: Much of the first part of the novel is taken up by a discussion of the theme of vanity. Suprisingly, Goldsmith seems to explore the topic relatively deeply; not only is the ostentatious dressing of his wife and daughters called in for censure, but Goldsmith also seems to imply that Primrose’s overly generous contributions to the poor during his time of wealth is a sort of vanity (or, at the very least, imprudence). Primrose is also vain in regards to his intellect; he imagines himself a very important theologian, but in reality the debate he has chosen to devote himself to (absolute monogamy) is an extremely minor one. In addition, he affects a knowledge of classical learning, which allows him to be cheated by a man named Jenkinson who memories a bunch of Latin and Greek phonetically in order to trick people who are vain in just this manner.

In the novel’s concluding chapters Goldsmith also confronts the problem of evil quite directly. Note the heading to Chapter 28:

Happiness and misery rather the result of prudence than of virtue in this life. Temporal evils or felicities being regarded by heaven as things merely in themselves trifling and unworthy its care in the distribution. (164)

This, to me, really seems to get at the heart of the book, which in essence is a Job story in which the protagonist is repeatedly and arbitrarily punished despite his allegiance to God. In the end, this is the best that Primrose can come up with; it is impossible to argue that God gives material wealth to the pious or the faithful, so he simply asserts that those things don’t matter. Indeed, despite all of the pain he endures Primrose actually seems happier in the middle of the novel than he does at its beginning and end. It’s almost as if he enjoys the process of being tested by God and views it as a personal test whether or not he can maintain his spiritual resolve.

One of the more frustrating aspects of the novel for modern readers is the ending, in which Sophia’s marriage to Squire Thornhill is revealed to be legal after all. Some critics assert that marriage—even marriage to a jerk like Thornhill—is the only appropriate and desirable ending for a novelistic heroine at this time, but I find that hard to believe. Are we really meant to believe that Sophia’s life will be anything but miserable simply because she will be provided for monetarily? The entirety of the novel seems to point to a very different conclusion, as the comfort of his family is Primrose’s only solace in times of extreme material hardship.

One should also note that The Vicar of Wakefield is one of the prototypical examples of the sentimental novel. There are dozens of opportunities throughout the novel to shed a tear if one were so inclined, though the plot of the novel doesn’t really turn on the expression of sentiment as it does in other sentimental novels like The Man of Feeling or The Adventures of David Simple.

Another passage of interest is the section of the novel that finds Dr. Primrose in prison. When he arrives at the prison it is portrayed as a sort of Hobbesian state of nature; the prisoners are essentially wild, and they find amusement only in folly and debauchery. However, through persistent rational argument Primrose manages to elevate them to a state of civil society (I believe he refers to it expressely as such) where each person works (I think they carve and sell tobacco pipes) and spends his time contemplating God and in the pursuit of other types of high-minded pleasure. Of course, in true sentimental fashion this is rewarded with a large monetary donation at the end of the novel.

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