Tom Jones is one of the earliest English novels and was hugely popular when it was first published in 1749. It tells the story of the foundling Tom and his journey towards adulthood and marriage. As might be expected, this journey is a complicated one: Tom falls in love with a neighbor's daughter, discovers that he has a rival for his love in the shape of the unpleasant Master Blifil, and is expelled from Mr. Allworthy’s house after a series of misadventures. His picaresque journey leads him to encounter a vivid cast of characters including robbers, soldiers, gypsies, and untrustworthy lawyers - the latter perhaps an arch nod to Fielding's own legal career.
Background
The novel is highly organized despite its length. Samuel Taylor Coleridge argued that it has one of the "three most perfect plots ever planned", alongside Oedipus Tyrannus and The Alchemist. It became a best seller with four editions published in its first year alone. It is generally regarded as Fielding's greatest book and as an influential English novel.
About Writer
Henry Fielding (22 April 1707 – 8 October 1754) was an English novelist and dramatist known for his earthy humor and satire and as the author of the comic novel Tom Jones. He and Samuel Richardson are seen as founders of the traditional English novel. He also holds a place in the history of law enforcement by using his authority as a magistrate to found the Bow Street Runners, which some have called London's first active police force.
Characters
Tom Jones - Tom Jones, a "bastard" raised by the philanthropic Allworthy, is the novel's eponymous hero and protagonist.
Sophia Western - Sophia Western is Fielding's beautiful, generous heroine and the daughter of the violent Squire Western.
Mr. Allworthy - Mr. Allworthy is just what his name implies - all worthy. Allworthy has a reputation throughout England because of his benevolent, altruistic behavior.
Master Blifil - Blifil is the antagonist to Tom Jones and the son of Bridget Allworthy and Captain Blifil.
Squire Western - Squire Western is a caricature of the rough-and-ready, conservative country gentleman. Affectionate at heart, the Squire nevertheless acts with extreme violence towards his daughter Sophia, by constantly incarcerating her, and even verbally and physically abusing her.
Mrs. Western - Mrs. Western, the foil of her brother Squire Western, is a caricature of the artificial city lady who always acts out of expediency.
Partridge - Partridge is the teacher whom Allworthy accuses of being Tom's father. He is a kind of comedic Harlequin character (Fielding even compares him to Harlequin). Although pathetic, bumbling, and cowardly, Partridge remains a loyal servant to Jones and deserves his reward at the end of the novel.
Jenny Jones - Jenny Jones (Mrs. Waters) is the student of Partridge whom Allworthy banishes for being Tom's mother.
Bridget Allworthy - Bridget Allworthy is the mother of Blifil and Tom
Lady Bellaston - Lady Bellaston is a London lady, and a relative of Sophia, whose passionate, lusty personality leads her to dabble in intrigues.
Harriet Fitzpatrick - Harriet Fitzpatrick is Sophia's cousin and the wife of Mr. Fitzpatrick. Pretty and charming, she is nevertheless selfish and contrives against Sophia in order to improve her relationship with Squire Western and Mrs. Western.
Mr. Fitzpatrick - Mr. Fitzpatrick is a rash Irishman whom Harriet Fitzpatrick casts in the light of an ogre chasing her across the countryside.
Mr. Dowling - Mr. Dowling is a shrewd, shifty lawyer who becomes a friend of Blifil.
Mrs. Miller - Mrs. Miller is a faithful friend to Tom and the most caring and concerned of mothers to Nancy and Betty.
Nightingale - Nightingale, although a foppish city gentleman, possesses the laudable traits of loyalty and compassion, although not always in affairs of love.
Lord Fellamar - Lord Fellamar is a suitor of Sophia who, though he has a conscience, easily allows himself to be manipulated by Lady Bellaston.
Square - Square is a philosopher who lives with Allworthy. He justifies his questionable behavior (such as making love to Molly Seagrim) by contorting his philosophical notions.
Thwackum - Thwackum is the vicious tutor of Blifil and Tom who constantly beats Tom and praises Blifil.
Molly Seagrim -Molly Seagrim is the rugged, unfeminine daughter of Black George who seduces Tom.
Black George - Black George is the servant who is favored by Tom. Although of dubious moral tincture (Black George steals and lies), Black George's loyalty to and love of Tom nevertheless emerges.
Nancy Miller - Nancy Miller is the daughter of Mrs. Miller who becomes Nightingale's wife.
Narrator - The ironic, intrusive narrator can be assumed to be Fielding himself since he reflects on his process of creating Tom Jones.
Summary
The narrator provides that his purpose in the text will be to explore "human nature." As such, his story veers between several extremes - comedy and tragedy, low and high society, moral and base.
Squire Allworthy, a man defined by his interminable kindness, returns to his Somersetshire estate to find a child abandoned in his bed. He gives the child to his sister Bridget to look after, and they investigate to determine that the child's mother is a young woman named Jenny Jones. She leaves the area, and Allworthy decides to raise the boy, Tom Jones. Tom is brought up alongside Allworthy’s nephew Blifil, Bridget's son. They are educated by two men of differing outlooks, Thwackum, and Square. Blifil is a miserable and jealous boy.
Tom is an impetuous character who supports his friend, the poor gamekeeper Black George Seagrim, even when that support causes him trouble. Meanwhile, through his relationship with Squire Western, Allworthy's boorish but affable neighbor, Tom slowly falls in love with the squire's daughter Sophia, who also comes to love him.
However, Tom cannot pursue Sophia because his girlfriend Molly, daughter to Black George, grows pregnant with what he believes to be his son. When he is revealed not to be the father of Molly’s child, Tom is free to pursue his emerging love for Sophia.
Blifil conspires against Tom, and he is unjustly turned out of Allworthy’s house and away from Sophia. Further, because Tom is a bastard child, Squire Western refuses to support Tom's suit for Sophia and instead wishes her to marry Blifil so that he can consolidate their lands. Sophia hates Blifil and is tortured by her father's cruel insistence.
Allworthy gives Tom a fair sum of money to support himself, but it is stolen by Black George. Tom considers joining the military. He meets up with Partridge, a teacher-cum-barber whose reputation was ruined when he was believed to be Tom’s father years before. Partridge initially believes that he can return to Allworthy’s favor if he reunites the man with Tom, but Partridge ultimately becomes a devoted companion along the way. Tom frequently shows his benevolent spirit by helping an unsuccessful highwayman, a beggar, and a lady in distress - all gestures which are richly repaid later in the novel.
Sophia is locked up for refusing to marry Blifil. She flees, and both Tom and Sophia try to locate each other on their respective journeys to London. She discovers he has slept with Mrs. Waters (a woman he rescues) and that he is mentioning her name to strangers, and she decides he must not love her. She then heads to
London, and Tom follows her.
While in London, Tom takes up with the promiscuous and wily Lady Bellaston, with whom Sophia is staying. She promises to help him but endeavors to keep the lovers apart.
Sophia is also roughly courted by Lord Fellamar. Her aunt, Lady Western, is anxious for her to marry him, whereas her father is still adamant that she will marry Blifil. Sophia decides she will marry no-one without her father’s consent, but will also not be told whom to marry.
Tom is innocently caught up in a duel and imprisoned. His friend Nightingale, loyal companion Partridge, and devoted landlady Mrs. Miller investigate the course of Tom’s imprisonment and sustain his contact with Sophia. There is tension when it is initially believed that Mrs. Waters is Tom’s mother, but this is revealed to be untrue. Allworthy is shocked to discover that Tom is his nephew, Bridget’s illegitimate but first-born son and that Blifil has known about this since his mother’s death. It is discovered that Blifil engineered Tom's imprisonment to get him out of the way.
The charges against Tom are dropped and his marriage to Sophia is blessed by both Allworthy and Squire Western. Blifil is banished but has an annuity from Allworthy and Tom. Sophia and Tom live happily, close to Nightingale and Mrs. Miller’s daughter Nancy, whose union Tom facilitated. Partridge is given an annuity to start a new school and marries Tom’s first girl, Molly Seagrim
Important Questions & Answers
Q1. Why might some of Fielding's contemporaries have missed that Tom Jones is a moral tale?
The comic treatment of sexual matters in the novel genre was new, as was the realistic treatment of sex-in which Fielding frankly shows how both men and women are driven by their physical desires. The fact that the hero was a bastard-something he had no control over but which Fielding's audience would have found offensive-also contributed to their inability to see the moral message within the comedy. Samuel Richardson accused Fielding of attempting to "whiten a vicious character, and to make morality bend to his practices," for instance, while Samuel Johnson called the novel "vicious" and a "corrupt work." Fielding also addresses several forms of hypocrisy that were prevalent in his society. No doubt some members of those groups being laughed at, including lawyers, magistrates, clergy, landowners, and novelists, would have taken exception and then called the novel immoral.
Q2. How is the heroine of Tom Jones, Sophia, an example of womanly virtues?
Sophia is a paragon of decorum and prudence and the example of 18th-century womanly virtues. She is beautiful both physically and in her character. Sophia defers to men in all things, except where her honor is concerned. Therefore, she obeys her father in attending his table every night, going hunting with him because he wants her company, and plays the harp for him whenever he asks. She even plays the vulgar tunes he prefers rather than force him to listen to the classical music she prefers. Sophia also obeys her aunt and has never fought with her until both she and Squire Western insist she marries Mr. Blifil. Sophia knows Blifil is a despicable man and that she cannot be his wife. Rather than be forced into marriage with him she runs away—but goes to a female relative in the hope that she will avoid further danger. She continues to stand up to her relatives and even rejects Tom when he appears to be a faithless suitor. She fights off the advances of Lord Fellamar and refuses to marry for money or to gain a title. In the end, she accepts Tom, who is her choice of husband and is instrumental in her own happy outcome by never violating her own standards of goodness, decorum, and honor.
Q3. Tom Jones can be considered a character too passionate to be a true gentleman. Choose specific evidence from the text to support or refute this claim.
The response needs to give a clear personal opinion and include a detailed explanation of how a gentleman was perceived at the time. Tom's treatment of women, his kindness to those in need, and his willingness to forgive all make him a virtuous person. However, he is persistently uncouth and not equipped for high society, which could ultimately serve as an attack on 'gentlemen' rather than as an attack on Tom. One could also explore his relationships with major characters such as Allworthy, Squire Western, Blifil, and Sophia.
Q4. What symbol could be said to represent the relationship between Tom Jones and Sophia Western? Explain the aspects of their relationship your choice exemplifies.
A degree of personal choice and imagination should be employed. Obvious ideas could be the bird given to Sophia by Tom, her muff, and/or her lost pocketbook. Money may also be referred to, though one would want to note that the value of the money never matters with them - all that matters is the loyalty and devotion that the money represents.
Q5. What attitudes towards marriage does Fielding illustrate in the novel?
In reference to opinions stated by the narrator, Mrs. Western, Mrs. Fitzpatrick, Molly Seagrim, and Mrs. Miller would be useful to consider. Contrary opinions - like those of observations of Master Blifil, Captain Blifil, Squire Western Allworthy, and Nightingale - would supplement. Ultimately, Fielding seems to suggest we should marry for happiness. Most of the characters who describe marriage as a financial arrangement are voicing the views of their high society - but these opinions constantly cause unhappiness and disaster in the work.
Q6. With close reference to Book 12, what do the incidents and discussions at the gypsy camp reflect on the political arguments of the time?
An understanding of Fielding's political leanings and the context of the Jacobite rebellion would be useful to clarify the principles of absolute monarchy and the implications of this as expressed by the King of the Gypsies. Fielding argues in this section for an absolute monarchy but acknowledges that a degree of personal responsibility is necessary for a strong king. He sees equality under the king as valuable, since it limits the number of transgressions that could lead to rebellion.
Q7. The chapters involving The Man of the Hill have been both dismissed as irrelevant digressions and celebrated as important moral explorations. What is your view of the purpose of Book 8, chapters 10-15? Illustrate with evidence from these chapters and the text as a whole.
The Man of the Hill chapters allows Tom Jones to reflect on events and situations which Tom could not really experience firsthand within the course of the novel. His inclusion can be criticized in that he does not actively move the narrative forward, and his story is not so tightly woven with Tom's specific challenges. However, he does help Fielding to widen his net and cover more "human nature," and as such complements the themes of Tom's narrative well.
Q8. The narrator praises English pantomime as "exquisite entertainment" in terms of the contrasts it offers. Support this view with reference to characterization and/or setting.
Clear contrasts can be seen between the different moral outlooks of pairs like Lady Bellaston and Sophia; Tom and Blifil; and even Allworthy and Squire Western. More subtle comparisons could be made between Partridge and Tom; Molly Seagrim and Lady Bellaston; or Sophia and Honour. The contrast of the setting could broadly refer to country and city, or more focused analysis of the gypsy camp, playhouse, or inn. Ultimately, what Fielding enjoys about contrast is it helps to illustrate the complications within all humans - we are none of us purely vicious or virtuous, but rather express contradictory impulses.
Q9. Explore the importance of one of the following characters in the development of Tom Jones - Black George, Mrs. Miller, Partridge, or Nightingale. Consider the lessons Tom learns through his interaction with the character.
Each exploration needs to be clear about the character's purpose and his or her contribution to the growth of Tom Jones. Black George highlights Tom's innate generosity, while his interactions with Mrs. Miller show his desire for happiness in others. Partridge is a foil to present Tom's emerging level-headedness and Nightingale shows the importance of friendship. Through all of these characters does Tom comes closer to his ultimate wisdom.
Q10. How does Fielding's view of marriage in Tom Jones reflect the Enlightenment philosophy of his era?
An important idea that emerged in the Enlightenment period was that individuals had rights and that they should pursue happiness. European marriage had traditionally been based on the idea that people married to unite families, increase wealth and property, and raise children. Romantic love was not tied to marriage, and in fact, such love was often portrayed as occurring outside of marriage. The middle classes began to burgeon in the 18th century, and the freedom and leisure that accompanied economic prosperity also allowed people the luxury of thinking more about happiness and less about survival. This prosperity, along with new philosophical ideas, helped lead to the idea that marriage should increase a person's happiness, which meant a person would marry primarily for love, not for money, or to increase social position-although those considerations were not completely disregarded. Tom Jones is a reflection of the Enlightenment idea that couples who marry should love each other. For example, both Tom Jones and Jack Nightingale marry for love, as does Mr. Allworthy. Blifil had been pursuing a union with Sophia merely out of greed for her property, but he loses Sophia, who ends up with the man she loves Tom-despite his less-than-ideal origin. Luckily Tom ends up inheriting Allworthy's property, which adds sweetness to the union.
Comments
Post a Comment