 Morality and moral characters was an important concern within Fielding's works, and his first play serves as a representation for Fielding's believes surrounding the relationship between morality and libertine beliefs that is found throughout his work. The plays also introduces most of the character types that Fielding would reuse throughout his plays and novels. However, his use of libertine themes and characters served as a way for those like Pat Rogers to believe that Fielding lacked an orthodox understanding of Christianity; he believes that Fielding was harsh towards hypocrisy but not against other actions. In particular, Rogers claims, "Fielding was generous enough in that sphere of morality, however implacable he might be in his larger political and religious attachment. Provided that soldiers were brave and loyal he did not require their lives to be models of absolute purity." Tiffany Potter follows this idea by claiming, " Eliminating a moral imperative to drama (and to life in general) gives Fielding the liberty to create unconventional characters and to set plays anywhere from ballrooms to brothels without having to defend anything more than his own stance on issues. The necessity of even that defence, however, is usually negated by his libertine belief in privilege.
