
Henry Fielding was born in 1707 to
Lieutenant George Fielding and his wife
Sarah, who was herself the daughter of
nobility. Socially, the family hovered at the
edges of high society, but they had
decidedly middle-class means. Fielding lost
his mother in 1718, and his father remarried
just a year later and began immediately to
raise a new family. That same year Fielding
began his education at Eton.

Fielding's life took a major turn in 1734 with
his marriage to Charlotte Cradock. Fielding
loved Cradock passionately, and their short
life together was marked by intense
affection and, at times, intense
misery. Fielding's wife Charlotte succumbed
to a fever and died. Although Fielding
remained heart-broken, he eventually
married Mary Daniel, the faithful
housekeeper who had looked after him and
his first wife even in their moments of
extreme poverty. This marriage was a
happy one, but Fielding never stopped
loving Charlotte, and he would model his
two major female characters, Sophia and
Amelia, on her.

Finally, due to his devastating health problems
. leaving behind the children from his second
marriage, accompanied only by his wife, his
first daughter Harriet, and two servants,
Fielding left England in the summer of 1754
and went to Portugal. Henry Fielding died on
October eight of the same year, in Junqueira,
near Lisbon.
 The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling was published in 1749.
Almost every aspect of Fielding's own life is apparent in the
novel, from the love and reverence he had for his first wife to
his extensive knowledge of the Southwestern part of
England. Even Tom Jones himself clearly shows the markings
of Fielding, exhibiting the same careless good nature as well
as a deeply entrenched awareness of poverty and the
reversals of fortune.



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 upstart
who ought to be put firmly in his place.
For the purposes of the plot Fielding makes Tom a
gentleman. Tom & Sophia fight conventional society
embodied in the character of Blifil. They are not
passive in their struggle 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 bewildered young
man of great health and spirits. He has so much life that it
amounts for the effect of comedy and application of satire
equal to him having his own mind.
 Tom Jones is an attractive character quite the heroic. But
his heroism is tinged with a recklessness of youth, which
makes him all the more believable while he is well meaning
he gets unintentionally into trouble.
 Tom Jones has one failing--his wantonness with women.
He cannot resist them and he has more than one affair.
While his heart belongs to Sophia Western he constantly
gives his physical self away to the pleasures of love.
 But ultimately all the goodness in his character pays him
rich dividends and he is once again made the heir at Squire
Allworthy's large estate. He even manages to get his
ladylove in marriage (Sophia Western) and she pardons his
numerous infidelities.

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. Here he is kept
by Lady Bellaston and even accused of murder and
thrown into jail. 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. One cannot condemn Squire Allworthy for
entertaining doubts about Tom Jones previously, as
he does get involved in amorous relationships with
other women. But common to all his relationships is
that it is always the women, who do the running.
Another fact to be mentioned is that it is only
towards the end of the novel, that Tom feels
himself to be worthy of marriage to Sophia.
 Tom Jones does obtain Sophia eventually and their
love is finalized in marriage. 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.
TOM JONES
 Tom Jones, Fielding's imperfect and "mortal" hero, is the
character through whom Fielding gives voice to his
philosophy of Virtue. In contrast to the moral
philosophizing of many of Fielding's contemporaries,
Fielding does not suggest that Tom's affairs with Molly
Seagrim, Mrs. Waters, and Lady Bellaston should reflect
badly on his character. Rather, keeping with the Romantic
genre, Fielding seems to admire Tom's adherence to the
principles of Gallantry, which require that a man return the
interest of a woman. Interestingly, all of Tom's love affairs,
including his relationship with Sophia, his true love, are
initiated by the woman in question, which is Fielding's way
of excusing Tom from the charge of lustful depravity.
.

Moreover, the fact that Tom's lovers include a feisty,
unfeminine wench and two middle-aged women suggest
that his motives are various. Tom also treats women with
the utmost respect, obliging their desire to be courted by
pretending to be the seducer even when they are
seducing him. Tom refuses to abandon Molly for Sophia
and is plagued by his obligations to Lady Bellaston.
Nonetheless, Tom's refusal of the tempting marriage
proposal of Arabella Hunt—whose last name underscores
the fact that Tom is hunted more often than he is the
hunter—indicates that he has mended his wild ways and is
ready to become Sophia's husband. Tom's gallantry
reveals itself in his relationships with men as well as women,
however. This spirit is evident in Tom's insistence on paying
the drinking bill for the army men at Bristol, and in his
gallant defense of himself in the duel
 Sophia Western - Sophia Western is Fielding's
beautiful, generous heroine and the daughter of the
violent Squire Western. Like Tom, Sophia lavishes gifts
on the poor, and she treats people of all classes with
such respect that one landlady cannot believe she is a
"gentlewoman." Sophia manages to reconcile her love
for Tom, her filial duty to her father, and her hatred for
Blifil through her courage and patience. Sophia's
natural courtesy can be contrasted with her Aunt
Western's artificial manners.
 “I intend to digress, through this whole History,
as often as I see Occasion: Of which I am
myself a better Judge than any pitiful Critic
whatever. And here I must desire all those
Critics to mind their own Business … For, till
they produce the Authority by which they are
constituted Judges, I shall [not] plead to their
Jurisdiction” (chapter II of Book I)

“…we are obliged to bring our Heroe on
the Stage in a much more
disadvantageous Manner than we could
wish; and to declare … that it was the
universal Opinion of all Mr. Allworthy's
Family, that he was certainly born to be
hanged.”( Chapter II of Book III)
 “Thus a Swarm of foolish Novels, and monstrous Romances will be
produced … to the great Loss of Time &3133; in the Reader; nay,
often to the spreading of Scandal and Calumny, and to the Prejudice
of the Characters of many worthy and honest People.”(chapter I of
Book IX )

“So Sophia … found such immediate
Satisfaction from the Relief of those Terrors
she had of being overtaken by her Father,
that the Arrival of the French scarce made any
impression on her.”(Chapter VI of Book XI)

“To paint the Looks or Thoughts of either
of these Lovers is beyond my Power….
And the Misfortune is, that few of my
Readers have been enough in Love, to
feel by their own Hearts what past at this
Time in theirs.”(chapter XI of Book XIII)
 “no
matter what the subject is, if there is a
woman, just remember the word “submission
and know how to shut up.”

M. Zeki ÇIRAKLI
Thanks
for your patience..
FIRAT KESKİN