Analyzing The Character of Tom Jones

Tom Jones is the protagonist of Henry Fielding’s best novel, Tom Jones. Tom’s character brings about sharp criticism from many eminent critics, including Dr. Johnson.

A victim of circumstances from birth to the end, Tom is undoubtedly a charming character. A novel depicts a reality through storytelling, so it cannot and should not detract from real life. It should be true to life. So, the novel’s hero is a human being who cannot be perfect or stainless in character.

Author Henry Fielding has protrayed the same realistic idea in his novel Tom Jones, and precisely, in the title character, Tom Jones. We shall analyze Tom’s character in the novel from both strong and weak perceptions.

Tom Jones Is A Realistic Hero Version of H. Fieldings

Fielding desires to depict things as he sees them, and his vision is not that of Richardson. The shiny and grey sides over the prospect of the mortal world are not distributed in the same way for him. His personal experience is somewhat mixed. Some people are born good, some are born evil, but each has a mixture of good and evil in most cases. It is easy to separate the examples to be followed from those rejected.

The realistic novel Tom Jones represents life, and the author provides the novel with the privilege of choosing between facts and eliminating what is useless. In Fielding’s eyes, Tom Jones is a live treatise on the diverse quality of souls and their different reactions to different experiences. His spontaneous generosity of heart, simple frankness and sincerity about goodness make him an ideal character. These qualities are the precious gems of real-life virtues.

Uprightness and Frankness in Tom Jones’ Character

Fielding abhors hypocrisy while praising frankness. He calls hypocrisy a monster, a detestable vice, the bane of all virtues, morals, and goodnesses. Fielding felt the urge as a novelist to expose and ridicule what he regarded as the hypocrisy of Samuel Richardson’s Pamela.

Tom is virtually free from hypocrisy. He wears no mask. What the man of Hill has remarked about his appearance is quite true of his character. He is justified when he says,

“I have read that a good countenance is a letter of recommendation if so, none ever can be more strongly recommended than yourself.”

Tom and his love interest Sophia stand out from other characters in the novel- the whole Bridget, Blifil Clan, Allworthy, Thwackum and Square, the landlords and the landladies, the Seagrim family. They are more or fewer hypocrites in their actions.

Tom Jones’ Sense of Responsibility and Generosity

Tom accepts responsibility for his actions courageously out of the generosity of his heart. Tom barely evades the consequence of what he has done.

For instance, Black George has, in fact, shot the partridge in Squire Western’s property. Nevertheless, as Tom has initiated the action, he comes forward to take responsibility for the shooting. He insists that he was alone, realizing the gamekeeper will lose his job if convicted of poaching.

As a result, he receives a thrashing, but Mr. Allworthy gives him a small horse to make up for the pain of whipping. The recompense causes acute embarrassment to Tom, for he could more easily bear the lashes of Thwackum than the generosity of Allworthy. Blifil’s betrayals ultimately expose the truth, and Black George loses his job as a result. However, Tom stands by the starving family of the gamekeeper. He preserves the family by selling the horse and the Bible.

Mercy, Empathy, and Sensitivity in Tom Jones

Tom’s actions are constantly inspired by spontaneous generosity. He shows mercy instead of justice toward the ‘highwayman’ who tries to rob him. When he figures out that the main story of his starving wife and children is true, he immediately gives away all the money he has.

Tom even urges Mrs. Millers to take the entire amount of fifty pounds that he received from Mrs. Bellaston for Mr. Anderson’s family. Little he knows that the unfortunate Anderson is Mrs. Miller’s cousin. When they come across at the house of Mrs. Miller, Anderson recognizes Tom as the man he had tried to rob. Nevertheless, Tom does not put him to shame and keeps silent about the incident. He also puts aside Anderson’s protestation of gratitude for the fresh gift.

The Other Side of Tom Jones Completes Him As A Human Being

As has been said already, Tom is not a hero of stainless character that we often come across in fiction. In fiction, the author portrays a hero as a superhuman or an ideal man, free from all the defects of a mortal human being. In fiction, everything is possible, but in reality, things are pretty different.

Fielding does not want to present to us an overrated or superhuman in this novel. His hero, Tom, is a man of flesh and blood who lives in a world of facts and gets acquainted with men and women, aka human beings. His art of characterization rests on intellect as well as realism.

Because of this attitude, this novel has rightly been called modern in its theme and presentation. Something which is far from being a fiction of the unknown and unreal world.

Understanding Tom’s Character through Fielding’s Narrative Method

In “Tom Jones,” Henry Fielding’s narrative method helps us understand the main character, Tom, in a more detailed way. The narrator, with their comments and direct engagement, lets us see Tom’s different sides, moral struggles, and how he changes over time. The use of satire in the narrative adds humor and also makes us think critically about Tom’s choices and the societal norms around him.

The novel’s episodic structure, where Tom goes through a series of adventures, is key to understanding how he develops as a person. It allows us to follow Tom through different phases of his life, giving a complete picture of his growth. Fielding’s storytelling technique isn’t just about telling a story; it acts as a lens that reveals the complexities of Tom Jones’ character while also making us reflect on the society he navigates.

Critical Reception of Tom Jones’ Character

Tom Jones has been unfavorably criticized for his ‘loose morals’ by Dr. Johnson. He once told someone that he scarcely knew a more corrupt work than Tom Jones. We must agree that there are many moral offenses in Tom Jones. However, the author treats those offenses more tolerantly than any Puritan moralist world has done.

However, it is the sexual issue that is crucial both in the moral scheme of Tom Jones and over the objections of its critics. Nevertheless, Fielding does not depict a faultless or sinless fictional hero as Richardson has done. He depicts Tom as a hero possessed of a virtuous heart and possessed of lustiness and lack of deliberation.

However, Tom is a true hero because he has no scheme to corrupt or entice any woman. What has happened in the course of his life is inevitable, and he cannot avoid it. A woman always takes the initiative with Tom, and Tom never violates innocence in the unmarried or virtue in the married. He frankly confesses,

“I have been guilty with women, I own it, but I am not conscious that I have ever injured any. Nor would I, to procure pleasure to myself; be knowingly the cause of misery to any human being.”

EndNote

Tom Jones is the hero of a novel that pictures a living society, not a fictional one. So, his characteristics agree with the condition of an ideal hero who is alive to all the demands of a mortal human being, be it in flesh and blood or the soul.

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