This is only just a taste of the plot of Tom Jones. As the novel continues we get more hilarious scenes as well as a thick, rich plot. For example, in book seven, when Tom has a bandage around his head and his coat is bloodstained because he got into a fight with Ensign Northerton. The comedic scene comes when Tom makes his way to Norterton’s room and is shot by Norterton himself because he thought Tom was a ghost. Earlier in the novel, in book two, where Mrs. Partridge is suspecting her husband due to her finding out about Jenny giving birth to the bastard child found in Mr. Allworthy’s bed. She thinks he is involved and she physically assaults him.
This adds to the plot of the mystery origin of the bastard child, who is Tom. Readers find out about Tom’s childhood early on in the novel and the problems he gets into. For example he, with the influence of Black George, who is Mr. Allworthy’s gamekeeper, kills a partridge on a neighbors land. Tom, being kind hearted and virtuous, doesn’t reveal to Mr. Allworthy at first that Black George was involved. He reveals this just as he is about to be beaten and reveals that Black George was involved and, due to Tom’s sense of honor, Mr. Allworthy gives Tom a young horse and dismissed Black George from his position. This is another funny scene because you wouldn’t expect Tom to receive a horse for what he has done. It seems that in Tom Jones anything is possible and anything can happen. This sense of anything can happen adds to the comedic genius that Tom Jones has.
As readers move further along Tom gets a love interest, Sophia. Tom falls in love with her and they sleep together. Sophia has two marriage proposals, one from Tom and one from Blifil. There is a scene in book four where Squire Western, Tom and Sophia are having dinner. The parson informs Western of Molly, who is pregnant. Tom hears about this and leaves the dinning table. This makes Squire Western conclude that Tom is the father of the bastard. This scene is funny because this would be something that happens in real life. You could see this in a sitcom show on television where the male character, after hearing about this female that he slept with is pregnant, leaves the table.
This love between Sophia and Tom takes many turns as Tom is cast out of the house. They exchange letters to each other. Mrs. Honor is the one that exchanges the letters between the lovers. As her name implies she is very loyal to Sophia and keeps her honor in tact even though she knows that if she gets caught it might make her look bad. He eventually meets up with Sophia again toward the end of the novel and gets married. This is another element that shows why Tom Jones helped the development of the comic novel.
The characters add to the comedic scenes as well. Fielding created characters and gave them names that described their characteristics to us. Mrs. Honor would be one example of this.
John E. Loftis, a critic, had this to say
“Fielding systematically critiques trials in various forms in Tom Jones, allowing their flaws and limitations to become clear against the unfolding of events, against the wider, surer understanding of an all knowing omniscient narrator, and against the orchestrated heteroglossia of the novel as a whole.” (Loftis, 6)
What he means is that the names of the characters show what their personality is
like. It shows what they are capable of as the novel progresses. We see how far the
character is willing to go to perform an act of heroism or an evil deed. This
happens to be the case for Mrs. Honor and Blifil.
Tom, much like Fielding’s male characters, is virtuous and kind hearted. (This can be said about Fielding’s other male character, Joseph Andrews. He is very virtuous. In fact this characteristic instilled in Andrews is one of the themes of the novel Joseph Andrews. One example of Tom’s honest and kind-hearted virtue is shown in book three. Tom sells a horse that Mr. Allworthy gave to him at a fair. Mr. Thwackum finds out about this and asks Tom what he has done with the money but Tom refuses to tell him. Tom finally tells him right when Mr. Allworthy enters. Tom has sold the house to provide money for Black George and his family, who is in financial trouble after being dismissed from school. This virtue is seen throughout the book, as Tom never gives up on Sophia no matter what happens. He keeps moving forward to the goal of marrying her. Tom, like Andrews, gives a little money to a beggar who, later in both novels, repays both in their own way.
Tom Jones as well as Joseph Andrews helped the development of the comic novel. Fielding, the writer of both novels definitely contributed to this development with both of these magnificently written comic novels. Both these novels have a great plot, with comic scenes to spice up the plot from time to time, as well as characters that also add to the fun. These characters help display comedy by the names that Fielding gives them, and also by the appearance and the personality that each one has.
“Fielding’s novels are everywhere concerned with the nature of knowing, especially the difficulties of knowing such intangibles as accuracy of reports, biases in judgment, intention and motivation of action, and finally, moral character” (Loftis, 15)
This means that the characters in Tom Jones are trying to find answers to questions or situations. Such situations like who are the parents of Tom Jones? Who will Sophia marry? What motives are behind Blifil’s proposal to Sophia?
The interruptions in each novel can slow the plot down a bit but these can be funny as well. When they are done Fielding jumps right back into the fray and continues to make his readers laugh with every turn of the page.
Work Cited Page
1. Loftis, John E. "Trials and the Shaping of Identity in Tom Jones." 1-20.
