Criticism and interpretation

 

Tom Jones is a daredevil: he does many stupid things, for example he gets drunk, he has sex with many different women, he is happy and impulsive, however he is good, honest and the narrator and the reader like him.

Mr.Allworthy loves him and he usually forgives Tom, but other characters like Blifil and Thwackum are against Mr.Jones and they are two hypocrites.

Sophia,who is good and virtuous, is different from the other women of her century: after falling in love with Tom, she runs away from home and she goes to London because she doesn’t want to get married to Blifil.All the moralists that think to have many virtues are described as hypocrites. Tom,the hero, doesn’t care about morality and philosophy: he is sincere, simple and good; his mistakes aren’t characterised by malice and he is always ready to admit them.

Tom Jones was considered immoral by Fielding’s contemporaries because of many events of the work: a woman gets pregnant after having sex with Tom.  

However in Tom Jones there’s a different morality that is connected with the philosophy of the 18^th century: human nature is good. The sin can be forgiven when it is caused by imprudence and there is the desire of correcting his faults; the will of harming someone can’t be forgiven.

Fielding doesn’t like the hypocrites, in fact they pretend to be good and virtuous but they aren’t. Those who are able to hide their bad plans thanks to their culture and astuteness are worse than hypocrites.

 

 

Contrasts in varieties of life.

In Tom Jones there is a constant detail of contrast in the character relationships, scene relationships and even verbal relationships. By this novel, the full and direct artistic impact of son Quixote is felt.
Just as Cervantes Fielding uses the 'point of views' of the omniscient author. His world is populous and extensive in its spatial design. One character alone does not demand attention, the author's own humorous irony is itself one of the materials of the novel. In the 'head-chapters' a contrast is provided between intelligence focused 'on' the human situation he has created and the intelligence of the characters within the created situation.

Tom Jones, the central character contrasts with Blifil. The wicked Blifil, is indeed Tom’s ‘opposite’ and the chief cause of his misadventures. Blifil is the antagonist of Tom.

The protagonist embodies tragic traits in his own passions and frailties, but he also has comical elements in his  social behaviours. The conflict between hero and villain is propelled to a resolution.
In the end, the rogue (Blifil) who appeared to be a good man is exposed in his true nature as rogue, and the good man (Tom), who appeared to be a rogue is revealed in his true good nature.
 
The major contrast in Tom Jones - the novel is the conflict between natural, instinctive feeling and those appearances by which people disguise deny or inhibit natural feeling – intellectual theories, rigid moral dogmas, economic convenient doctrines of social responsibility.

 This is the broad thematic contrast in Tom Jones. Form and instinctive feeling engage in constant eruptive combat. The battlefield is between with debris of ripped masks. It is shown in many occasions in Tom Jones that the animal or instinctive part of man is denied. Instead, a more formal appearance is adopted. The damaging uses of intelligence in human nature are depicted - in wicked Blifil's calculative shrewdness in Black George's rationalization for keeping Tom's money, in the
absurd intellectual formulas, elaborated by Thwackum and Square. The disparaging effects can also, be seen in Allworthy's high minded ethics and in Tom's own idealism.

 

In the other hand intellectualized thoughts are the instinctive responses that are Tom's. Tom yields formidably and frequently to instinct, and in so doing, he exhibits the 'naturalness, and therefore the rightness of instinct as constituent of the personality.

 Thus, he corrects the overemphasis on formal appearances which we see in other characters. But at the same time, Tom Jones shows a remarkable absence of that useful social sense which we call desertion, a lack which is damaging certainly to himself and a cause of confusion to others.

 It is the incongruity between what a man might 'naturally' be and what he makes of himself  by adopting a formulary appearance or mark, that gives ' human nature ' its variety and funniness and treacherousness.

Apart from the major contracts in characters, there are also prevalent many minor contrasts between what appearances are and what reality is. While Miss Brid get is the real mother of Blifil, this fact is hidden till the end. She is able to self righteously condemn the sexual indulgences of the lower classes, and at the same time preserve the fruit of her own indulgence. But finally we learn about the contrast between her appearance and her reality.