2. In addition to Greatness, several other key abstractions are subjected by both the narrator and by Wild to variously ironic meanings in different contexts. "Honour" is an example; "chastity" is another. Consider the patterns of distortion in these cases, but consider as well the cumulative effect of such distortions. What general significance is implied by this vocabulary?
3. The narrator is doubly or triply ironic. Is he consistent, or does his complex irony require him to shift positions? Does he shift so frequently that it is in fact hard to discover what in fact he does mean? Does his irony imply any more significant message than that we should be good rather than bad? (Does it even imply that?) If we can interpret his irony, does that ability make us rather evil ourselves (or at least experienced rather than innocent)?
4. Despite the dominance of Fielding's narrator, Jonathan Wild can be thought of as a collection of various discourses--the cant language of criminals, lower-class pretensions of cultivated speech, the language of trade, the terms of middle-class sentiment; and these are represented in a variety of modes--narrated thought, narrative language, soliloquy, story, and dialogue. What is the relationship between the variety of discourses in the novel and the conflict of values that represents?
5. Should we actually be good rather than bad? Consider the case of Heartfree. Is he a truly good man, or is he an utter fool? (Indeed, is there a distinction to be made between the two?) Is he a ridiculous character, a sympathetic one, or both? Barring unforeseen good fortune, will the path of goodness lead us to the gallows?
6. For the most part, Jonathan Wild is rather an abject failure, not only doing evil but (still worse) going wrong in many of his schemes. Why? What are the flaws in his modes of scheming? Is there a moral lesson to be drawn here? Are there inherent problems in being an evil person, or is Jonathan just an ineffective example?
7. Does Fielding expect us to know much about the historical Jonathan Wild, either from H. D.'s account or from our general knowledge of the eighteenth century? Does he expect us to be familiar with The Beggar's Opera? Is his book a parody either of Gay or of criminal biography?
8. Mrs. Heartfree is clearly both desirable and virtuous, but she may suffer from the same apparent naiveté as her husband, or at least a parallel female version. But her long story (IV.vii-xii) may seem an intrusion at a moment of suspense. Is she a reliable narrator? For what reasons might one be tempted to think she is not, and what would be the consequences of her unreliability? Consider her story as told to the fictional audience. What are the limitations of Mrs. Heartfree as a good character?
9. A fairly evidence contrast to Mrs. Heartfree (as Wild is to Heartfree) is Laetitia Snap. Is she a great woman in the same way that her husband is a great man? In what ways does she, despite their disagreements, parallel him? Are the two an instance of modern (that is, eighteenth-century) marriage, and, if so, what does their example imply about the nature of modern marriage?
10. Macheath is ultimately done in by his sexuality. Does Jonathan Wild have similar problems with sex? (He certainly has similar if not greater urges--as in his adventure with the aptly named Miss Straddle, his unsuccessful efforts the rape Mrs. Heartfree, and his unfortunate success in marrying Laetitia Snap.) What is the relationship between sexuality and avarice in the underworld of the novel or in the psychology of its characters?
11. What is the class structure of the novel? Does Fielding, like Gay, imply that "the lower sort of people have their vices in a degree as well as the rich"? In particular, what are the connections between thievery and the values of thieves on one hand and the operative values of bourgeois society on the other?
12. Similarly, what is the connection between thievery and politics? What are the politics of thieves themselves? Why are thieves so open to the exploitation of a great man, and in what respects does such a person resemble the Prime Minister (especially Robert Walpole). Consider in particular the chapter on hats (II.vi), with Wild's argument that thieves should not bother with political differences. (Compare this chapter with its appropriate parallels in Swift.)
13. One of the most prominent poses adopted by the narrator is that of the writer of history. To what extent and in what ways is Jonathan Wild (among its other parodies) a parody of history. If it is a parody of history, what is the relationship between that parody and the other satiric elements in the novel?
14. What is Jonathan Wild really about? If it is a satire, what are its satiric targets? Its extraordinarily sustained irony seems to imply a great deal of bitterness and anger and of real or apparent cynicism about social behavior and human motivation. But what are the sources and targets of such anger and cynicism?
15. Jonathan Wild was apparently written just before and published just after Fielding's more famous novel Joseph Andrews. In what respects is it novelistic? (In what respects is it untypical of novels?) In so far as it is novelistic, how do its characteristics as a novel relate to or modify its status as satire? Does it provide elements of an explanation why the novel seems to have assumed a number of the functions of satire?