Tom Jones

Tom Jones the novel is a panoramic commentary on England in 1745 and it is also the story of Tom Jones and Sophia Western. Tom and Sophia are rebels revolting against the respectably accepted domestic standards of eighteenth century society. By such standards Sophia should obey her father and Tom should be what Blifil thinks him, an illegitimate become important suddenly who should be put firmly in his place.  For the purposes of the plot Fielding makes Tom a gentleman.

Tom embodies Fielding’s  concept of  benevolence and good nature, his generous personality reflecting Fielding’s moral philosophy. It is from his impulsive and affectionate nature that many of his troubles spring.
Tom & Sophia fight conventional society embodied in the character of Blifil. They are not passive in their fight and that is why Tom Jones is not a tragedy but comedy. While Blifil is forever on the side of conventional respectability. Tom Jones has the vigor and spirit at spontaneity. He acts naturally and therefore the excesses into which his animal spirits lead him are forgiven. Here in the novel the natural man and the noble savage are pitted against each other. Tom's strength lies in the vigor and spontaneity of Tom's reactions.

Fielding's hero Tom Jones is shown as a young man of great health and spirits. He has so much life that it amounts for the effect of comedy.
Tom Jones is an attractive character quite the heroic. But his heroism is tinged with a recklessness of youth, which makes him get unintentionally into trouble.
Tom Jones cannot resist women and he has more than one affair. While his heart belongs to SophiaWestern he constantly gives his physical self away to the pleasures of love.
But the goodness in his character pays him, in fact  he is once again made the heir at Squire
Allworthy's large estate. He even manages to marry Sophia.
 
The plot movement follows the curve of extreme high and low. Tom comes on the scene as a bastard, his reputation and his hopes are progressively blackened until he reaches his nadir in
London where he is accused of murder.  There is further misinterpretation of his character, when he is accused of incest with his supposed mother Jenny Jones.
With the exposure of Blifil’s malicious machinations and of Tom’s true goodness his fortune sails to the Zenith of romantic happiness. He is proved to be of high birth and he marries the girl of his choice and he inherits wealth. At the end Blifil's treachery is revealed and Squire Allworthy
realizes rightly the good nature of Tom Jones.
Tom Jones gets married to Sophia eventually. The blustering careless Tom Jones converts into a responsible and faithful husband. He is one of the few heroes in English literature, who is represented realistically as having negative traits, as well as positive charms.