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Henry Fielding has been thought to reveal a 'male' outlook in his novels. In his last novel Amelia (1751), the narrator makes certain generalizations regarding women which betray the patriarchal conditioning which was prevalent in eighteenth century England. Some women characters in the novel are envisaged as types rather than individuals in their own right. Amelia herself seems to be the perfect embodiment of the ideal woman described in eighteenth century conduct books and moral essays. She is praised by the narrator for her softness, sweetness and modesty. She is the ideal wife and mother delighting in domestic life and dutiful towards her husband. In the second half of the eighteenth century, it is remarkable that three hundred to four hundred women published articles in response to anti-feminist diatribes by men. The tradition of rationalist feminism which flourished at this time concentrated on arguing the right of women to be regarded as men's equals in the possessing of equal rational and moral potential. Critiques of standards in the education of girls accompanied this. In his last novel we will find that at times Fielding felt an essential sympathy with the arguments used by feminists in the eighteenth century. The problems of the married woman including the issue of the deference of a wife to her husband recurs in Fielding's last novel. He suggests that in contrast to other marriages in the novel, the marriage of Amelia and her husband Booth is based on friendship and Amelia's tenderness and care towards her husband is due not to wifely subservience but to her capacity for the highest friendship. Ideas such as the acceptance of the authority of the husband and the separate spheres of activity of husband and wife are discussed and consciously departed from in the relationship between Amelia and Booth. It is also seen that Amelia has excellent presence of mind and can judge people better than her husband. Thus Fielding supports the idea that women are capable of the highest intelligence. He shows Amelia to often disregard the conventions of society and go beyond what was expected of her sex by the patriarchal society of the time. She is morally independent and a source of strength to her husband. Thus while Amelia Fielding's last novel reflects the patriarchal ideology of the eighteenth century, it also departs from it in many ways.