From Patrimony to Paternity in The Vicar of Wakefield

From Patrimony to Paternity in The Vicar of Wakefield David Aaron Murray In his Advertisement to The Vicar of Wakefield, Oliver Goldsmith declared that his hero, the Reverend Dr Primrose, "unites in himself the three greatest characters upon earth; he is a priest, an husbandman, and the father of a family."1 He is also the narrator of a story, and in all four of these positions of authority, Primrose is quixotically ineffective. As a priest he pursues his "peculiar tenet" (p. 13) of strict monogamy to the point of alienating parishioners, even before the initial loss of fortune that precipitates the novel's action. As a husbandman he proves to be comically inept in managing his resources. Throughout the first half of the novel he is an unreliable narrator. But it is in his role of father that the greatest disparity appears between his own image of himself and his actual authority. Throughout the book Primrose attempts to exercise fatherly authority in three ways: through control of resources, through direct commands, and through wise adages. In all three ways he largely fails. He is "careless of temporalities" (p. 13) in the disposal of material resources, and his entrusting of the family fortune to an unscrupulous merchant precipitates the first of the chain of catastrophes that the family undergoes. His direct commands are ignored. Though he describes their new dwelling I Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield (London: Oxford University Press, 1974). References are to this edition. EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION. Volume 9, Number 3, April 1997 328 EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION as "the little republic to which I give laws," most of his "edicts" are ignored or flouted. The very first Sunday after their removal becomes "a day of finery, which all my sumptuary edicts could not restrain" (p. 25). He admits at the beginning of chapter 10 that "all my long and painful lectures upon temperance, simplicity, and contentment, were entirely disregarded" (p. 49). When his wife and daughters revive the idea of riding a coach to church, Primrose resists for a while; but in the end "All these objections ... were over-ruled; so that I was obliged to comply " (p. 52). At the very first meeting of the family with Squire Thornhill, Primrose's attempts to discourage their acquaintance are ignored: "As I did not approve of such disproportioned acquaintances, I winked upon my daughters in order to prevent their compliance; but my hint was countermanded by one from their mother" (p. 28). Primrose's adages and maxims are about as effective as his commands. He admires Whiston's epitaph for his wife so much that he engraves one for his own wife as well, "in which I extolled her prudence, economy, and obedience till death." Although the Vicar is quite capable of sly humour at his family's expense, he seems sincere here. The epitaph is no mere reproof to a woman who proves vain and silly and exhibits little prudence in urging Olivia's match with Squire Thornhill at all costs. Instead, Primrose insists that the epitaph "answered several very useful purposes. It admonished my wife of her duty to me, and my fidelity to her; it inspired her with a passion for fame, and constantly put her in mind of her end" (p. 13). One way of dealing with the discrepancies between Primrose's imagined (and prescribed) role and his actual behaviour is to stress the primarily satiric nature of the book. Either Goldsmith is poking fun at the bourgeoisie (especially hypocritical clergymen), òr he is indulging in harmless self-parody. One may conclude, as has one of Goldsmith's biographers , that the discrepancies are humorous lapses in what, after all, is supposed to be merely satiric fun; to read into the novel sustained social criticism, as Ricardo Quintana does, is "perhaps to attribute to Goldsmith too deadly an intention"; perhaps Goldsmith is finally "amusing himself from beginning to end."2 A more sophisticated approach is provided by critics who themselves either admired the novel or sought to explain its enduring popularity throughout the nineteenth century and its appeal to such figures as Goethe. They have sought to minimize its discrepancies of plot and character by...