📚 Need a custom study guide on any literary text? Get the best study guide money can buy from us at Literature PADI! Detailed, insightful, and crafted by literature experts to give you maximum value for your money.
[See Pricing & Details!]
Overview
The Vicar of Wakefield is a domestic realism novel by Oliver Goldsmith set in rural England in the eighteenth century. The novel was first published in 1766. Some of the characters in the text are Dr. Primrose who is the inferred vicar of Wakefield in the title, his wife—Deborah—and their children—George (the oldest son), Sophie (the younger daughter), and Olivia (the older daughter).
Other characters in The Vicar of Wakefield include Mr. Burchell who in reality is Sir William Thornhill, Squire Thornhill (Dr. Primrose’s landlord and Olivia’s betrayer), and Arabella Wilmot (George’s fiancee).
Plot Summary of The Vicar of Wakefield
Dr. Primrose and his wife, Deborah, were blessed with five fine children. The two daughters, Olivia and Sophia, were remarkable for their beauty. The Primrose family lived in a quiet rural community, where they enjoyed both wealth and good reputation. The oldest son, George, fell in love with Arabella Wilmot, the daughter of a neighbor, and the two families made mutual preparations for the wedding.
Before the wedding, however, Dr. Primrose and Miss Wilmot’s father quarreled over the question of a man’s remarrying after the death of his wife. Dr. Primrose stoutly upheld the doctrine of absolute monogamy. Mr. Wilmot, who was about to take his fourth wife, was insulted. The rift between the two families widened when news came that Dr. Primrose’s broker had run off with all of his money. Mr. Wilmot broke off the wedding plans, for the vicar was now a poor man.
George departed for London to make his fortune, and the rest of the family prepared to go to another part of the country, where Dr. Primrose had found a more modest living. On the way, they met a man who won the admiration of Dr. Primrose by a deed of charity to a fellow traveler. The man, Mr. Burchell, rode along with them. Suddenly, Sophia was thrown from her horse into a stream, from which Mr. Burchell was able to save her. The gratitude of Deborah assured Mr. Burchell of a warm welcome whenever he should choose to call on them.
Their new home was on the estate of wealthy Squire Thornhill, a young man known for his attentions to all the young ladies in the neighborhood. Deborah thought that either of her daughters would make a good match for the young squire. Soon afterward, a fortunate meeting drew the squire’s attention toward Olivia, and her mother’s scheming made Squire Thornhill a steady caller at the Primrose home, where Olivia blushingly protested that she thought him both bold and rude.
Mr. Burchell also called frequently, but his interest seemed to center upon Sophia, who did not deny her pleasure at his attention. Dr. Primrose, however, could not approve of Mr. Burchell, for he had lost all of his fortune and seemed to live in relative poverty, which revealed an indifference to his fallen condition.
Two noble ladies from the city met the Primrose family in their rustic retreat, and Sophia and Olivia became charmed by talk of city ways. When the women spoke of their need for companions in their households, Deborah immediately suggested that Olivia and Sophia be selected. The two daughters were pleased at the thought of going to the city, despite Mr. Burchell’s vigorous objections.
All was set for the journey, however, when Deborah received a letter stating that a secret informant had so slandered Olivia and Sophia that the city ladies would not consider them as fit companions. At first, Deborah and her husband could not imagine who the slanderer could have been. When they learned that Mr. Burchell had been the informant, Dr. Primrose ordered him from the house. Mr. Burchell left with no signs of remorse or shame.
Olivia began to insist that Squire Thornhill’s repeated visits meant only that he intended to marry her. Dr. Primrose did not believe that the squire really would marry Olivia and suggested to his daughter that she consider the offer of a neighboring farmer, Mr. Williams. When the squire still failed to ask for her hand, Olivia agreed to marry the young farmer, and the wedding date was set.
Four days before her wedding, Olivia ran away. With the help of Squire Thornhill, Dr. Primrose learned that it was Mr. Burchell who had carried the girl away.
Saddened by his daughter’s indiscretion, the resolute father set out to find her and to help her. On his journey, he became ill and lay in bed in an inn for three weeks. On his recovery, he gave up all hope of finding Olivia and started home. On the way, he met Miss Arabella Wilmot, who inquired about George. Dr. Primrose assured her that George had not been heard from since he had left his family to go to London.
Squire Thornhill, who was courting Arabella, asked about Olivia, but the father could give him no news. Fortune brought George, impoverished and in ill luck, back to his father at that time. Pitying the bad fortune of the young boy, Squire Thornhill gave him a commission in the army and sent him away. Arabella promised to wait for her former sweetheart to make his fortune and to return to her.
Dr. Primrose started for home once more. At a roadside inn, he found his dear Olivia, who told him her terrible story. The villain with whom she had run away was not Mr. Burchell. It had been Squire Thornhill, who had seduced her after a mock ceremony by a false priest. The squire had then grown tired of her and had left her.
Dr. Primrose took the girl home with him. Bad luck, however, had not forsaken the vicar. As he approached his house, he saw it catch fire and bum to the ground. His family escaped, but all of their belongings were destroyed.
Kindly neighbors helped the penniless Primroses to set up living quarters in an outbuilding on the estate. News came that Squire Thornhill intended to marry Arabella Wilmot. This report angered Dr. Primrose; then to add to his indignation, Squire Thornhill came to see him and offered to find a husband for Olivia so that she could stay near the squire. The doctor was enraged at this offer and ordered him away. The squire then demanded Dr. Primrose’s quarterly rent payment which, since the disaster of losing his home, the vicar could not pay.
Squire Thornhill had Dr. Primrose sent to debtors’ prison. Soon after being lodged in prison, the vicar encountered his son, George, who, having learned of the squire’s cruelty, had attacked him and had been sentenced to hang for attempted murder. Dr. Primrose felt that the happiness of his life was completely shattered. Next, he learned that Sophia had been kidnapped.
Nevertheless, virtue and honesty were soon rewarded. Sophia had been rescued by Mr. Burchell, who turned out to be the squire’s uncle, Sir William Thornhill. With the squire’s treachery exposed, the Primrose family was released from its misery. Arabella and George were reunited. Even Olivia was saved from shame, for she learned that the priest who had married her to the Squire had been a genuine priest. Sophia married Sir William, and Arabella married George.
Dr. Primrose looked forward to his old age with happiness and joy in the good fortune of his children. In the end, even he was rewarded for his virtue. The broker who had run away with his money was apprehended, and Dr. Primrose was once again a wealthy man.
Analysis of The Vicar of Wakefield
Two themes dominate Oliver Goldsmith’s story of domestic tragedy and joy: The first is a satiric look at the insidious workings of vanity, even on such unpretentious people as Dr. Primrose and his family; the second is the instability of fortune, which ensures that happy people must expect disaster and miserable people may expect relief.
The first theme is the more significant. As the novel’s narrator, Dr. Primrose portrays himself as a man committed to intellectual pursuits and charitable actions, one who rejects the world’s vanities. His self-evaluation is not inaccurate. He has assigned his income to the relief of the poor (although he has done so unwisely, as he learns), and he has certainly committed himself to rarefied intellectual activities, although his subjects—specifically his promotion of a religious dogma of monogamy that disallows second marriages even on the death of one’s spouse—are of only minor interest to the world.
What Dr. Primrose does not understand, however, is his own naivete, and that blindness is the source of the novel’s ironic humor. While Primrose tells his story through the filter of his own innocence, Goldsmith arranges that the reader will understand—or at least suspect—the things that Primrose ignores. This disparity between the narrator’s limited vision and the reader’s insight creates an ironic point of view that allows the reader to laugh at Dr. Primrose even while sympathizing with him.
The irony of Primrose’s limited self-understanding colours much of what he does. He fails to imagine that his family might come to need the income he has signed over to charity. He fails to imagine that financial advisers might be dishonest. Most important, he fails to recognize the difference between the honest values of Mr. Burchell and the false values of the attractive Squire Thornhill and his flashy companions.
As a result of the vicar’s limited understanding of the world, his responses to it are frequently wrong. They are often the result of his own vanity, particularly of his intellectual capabilities, which are not nearly so penetrating as he imagines. These limitations lead him to various errors. His intense commitment to the minor doctrine of monogamy leads him to offend his son George’s future father-in-law and thus to spoil the prospects for his son’s marriage. His reverence for the classics and the limitations of his ability in disputation lead him to confuse the flimflam of the deceitful Jenkinson for real learning, again with disastrous results for his family.
It would be wrong simply to dismiss Primrose as a fool, however, for Goldsmith underscores that Primrose’s understanding may be limited, but his heart is golden. Primrose is quick to offer aid to those who need it; he is quick to forgive Olivia in her disgrace and devastated at the news of her death; he is genuinely devoted to his family and finds their presence enough to give him courage even in debtors’ prison. Goldsmith never suggests that shrewdness is to be preferred to love as a value to live by.
Primrose’s innocence and his vanities are shared by his family; they too mistake things that glitter for true gold. No one in the family seems able to see beyond the glamorous clothes and pretentious talk of the town ladies whom Thornhill brings to the house. No one recognizes the virtue of Burchell’s offering unpopular opinions about the family’s actions. No one suspects that his damning letter might be interpreted as a condemnation of the town ladies rather than of the Primrose daughters. Olivia is quick to be attracted to Thornhill, even though she has every reason to believe in his reputation as a rake.
Olivia’s situation demands closer examination. Her elopement with Thornhill on his false promises of marriage, his betrayal of her with what seems to be a fraudulent wedding ceremony, and her subsequent decline because of her shame—all are common elements of eighteenth and early nineteenth century fiction. Similar events occur in Samuel Richardson’s Pamela (1740) and Clarissa (1747-1748), and in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813). The values of the age demanded that respectable women be virgins when they married, and custom assumed that any woman who eloped surely had been involved in sexual relations with her partner. The rakehell young man who would go to any lengths to seduce women who attracted him—even arranging false marriages—is another conventional character in fiction of the period. Goldsmith never challenges these conventions; like the Primroses, he assumes that marriage, even to one who has proven himself to be a scoundrel, is a satisfactory solution to Olivia’s disgrace.
The eighteenth century saw a vogue for sentimental fiction, and The Vicar of Wakefield is an example of that fashion. It is characterized by the idealized pictures of rural family life that appear throughout this novel, as well as in the pathos of the disasters that befall Primrose and his family. The family’s lost income, the fire, the disgraced daughter, Primrose’s unjust imprisonment, all exemplify the taste of the age for exercising one’s tender emotions. Olivia’s sad song, which asserts that “when lovely woman stoops to folly” the only fate appropriate to her is to die, offers another example of this sentimentality. That such fiction is not intended to be realistic can be seen from this novel’s use of coincidences and disguise.
Through all the family’s disasters, however, Dr. Primrose remains faithful in his belief that better things are surely in store for them all, just as he continues to assert that the loving presence of his family can make up for any losses. Along with its gentle humor, this theme must be the source of much of this novel’s appeal. For all of their follies, the Primrose family clings to love as a main strength for enduring adversity, feeling certain that the fortunes of the miserable must surely rise if they only endure.
Related:
Join Our Social Media Channels:
- WhatsApp: Literature PADI
- Telegram: Literature PADI
- YouTube: @literaturepadi
- Facebook: Literature PADI
We also have two WhatsApp chatrooms with a little above 1,300 like-minded members. You can join any of them for further literary discussions:
Ensure you join one at a time to allow others to be part of our wonderful community.
