Character of Dr. Primrose

Dr.Charles Primrose is the protagonist of Goldsmith’s novel The Vicar of Wakefield. He is the narrator of the story. He is virtuous, intelligent moral and religious. He is a loving husband of Deborah and a caring father of six children. He considers that all the members of his family are “equally generous, credulous, simple and inoffensive.”

Dr.Primrose has fortune of his own. He donates his small clergyman’s salary to orphans and widows. He never cares for money. His unconcern for money is revealed in the fact that he has entrusted all his money and property with an unscrupulous merchant who finally deceives him. When he loses his money and is compelled to live with a meagre salary of fifteen pounds a year, he readily accommodates himself to the new environment. He often advises his daughters to avoid the traps of worldly pleasures and comforts.

Dr.Primrose is a committed vicar. As he keeps no assistants, he personally knows everyone in the parish. One of his favourite topics to discuss is that of matrimony.  He has written and published many pamphlets arguing that a husband or wife should never remarry if his or her partner dies.  He believes that a person should remain chaste in his or her beloved’s memory. When the vicar fails to pay his annual rent to Squire Thornhill and is put in prison, he regularly delivers sermons to the fellow prisoners. He tells them that the suffering on this world is only a preparation for the joy in the next world.  

The priest is a man of principle. He doesn’t want to compromise his ideology for anything. He argues vehemently with Mr. Wilmot against remarriage fully knowing that he is a polygamist. Even one of his relative warns him that the argument will affect his son’s marriage. But Dr.Primrose angrily cries that he will not “relinquish the cause of truth”.  Similarly, when he is in prison, he boldly attacks the criminal laws that they punish only the weak and not the corrupt. He criticises that these laws are inefficient to reform the sinners. He remains unshaken even during times of calamities.

Though Dr.Primrose usually has a sweet, benevolent temper, he does not possess much worldly wisdom. He is often deceived by the appearances and behavior of those around him.  He often misjudges his family’s supposed friends and neighbours. He has a poor opinion about Mr.Burchell. He discourages Mr. Burchell’s love for Sophia thinking that he is morally weak.  Later, it is only Mr. Burchell, (the disguised Sir William Thornhill) who rescues Dr.Primrose from all his sufferings and sorrows. However, despite all his faults, he is affectionate, faithful, loving, patient, and essentially good-natured.

            Dr. Charles Primrose, the vicar, can be compared to  Job in the Bible, who suffers and suffers but never loses faith, and whose continued devotion is ultimately rewarded by God.