Ferdinand Count Fathom’s Narratives of Conflict: Fathom vs. Monimia
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This paper analyzes Tobias Smollett’s third novel, The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom (1753), by using Michael McKeon’s theory in The Origins of the English Novel, 1600-1740 (1987). The novel, according to McKeon’s theoretical analysis, focuses on conflicts that attempt to define truth and virtue, and these conflicts not only form a dialectic of genre formations but also expose how the internal structures of the novel unfold its own narrative of history and record how a character struggles to prove his/her version of truth and virtue. In this paper, I look at how these conflicts are enacted in Smollett’s novel and how they narrate Fathom’s licentious schemes against the heroine, Monimia, who struggles to defend her virtue and prove her narrative to be true. By exposing the intricate details of how Fathom manipulates the narrative of truth and abuses the virtue of vulnerable women, Smollett traces Fathom’s ultimate downfall and emphasizes Fathom’s agonizing acknowledgment of his past guilt. Smollett’s novel, thus, emphasizes instabilities in the narration of truth and virtue portrayed through the conflict between Fathom and Monimia and, further, probes questions defining innocence and guilt not only by delineating Fathom’s despairing moment of guilt and repentance but also by allowing Monimia to forgive Fathom with grace and mercy.
Abstract
This paper analyzes Tobias Smollett’s third novel, The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom (1753), by using Michael McKeon’s theory in The Origins of the English Novel, 1600-1740 (1987). The novel, according to McKeon’s theoretical analysis, focuses on conflicts that attempt to define truth and virtue, and these conflicts not only form a dialectic of genre formations but also expose how the internal structures of the novel unfold its own narrative of history and record how a character struggles to prove his/her version of truth and virtue. In this paper, I look at how these conflicts are enacted in Smollett’s novel and how they narrate Fathom’s licentious schemes against the heroine, Monimia, who struggles to defend her virtue and prove her narrative to be true. By exposing the intricate details of how Fathom manipulates the narrative of truth and abuses the virtue of vulnerable women, Smollett traces Fathom’s ultimate downfall and emphasizes Fathom’s agonizing acknowledgment of his past guilt. Smollett’s novel, thus, emphasizes instabilities in the narration of truth and virtue portrayed through the conflict between Fathom and Monimia and, further, probes questions defining innocence and guilt not only by delineating Fathom’s despairing moment of guilt and repentance but also by allowing Monimia to forgive Fathom with grace and mercy.
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