The Aalyse of The History of Tom Jones

专业：11级汉语言文学

The Analyse of The History of Tom Jones, a Founding

Henry Fielding, the second but more important novelist of the 18th century. As a founder of English realistic literature, he wrote four great novels, and The History of Tom Jones, a Founding is generally regarded as his masterpiece. This paper focus on the analysis of Tom Jones.

As a forerunner of English realistic literature, Fielding described different kinds of people in Tom Jones. Now, I select three main characters to analyse. First, let’s have a simple cognition about Tom Jones, the hero of the book.There is no doubt that Tom is a handsome young man. His praiseworthy qualities is “good nature” and “goodness of heart.” He is very generous to friends and have great sympathy for other people. He even never do trifling harm to anybody. Although Tom is a healthy person, he is far from being a model character. In most case, his action is controlled by impulse, not by reason. So he easily falls into crazy excitement and behaves as a madman, which cause him to make some mistakes. But the most serious mistake is that he has the relationship with Lady Bellaston due to sexual passion. He becomes her little lover. But as long as the women’s authentic feature is revealed, he immediately cut the connection with her. No man is perfect, and at the end of the story, Tom overcome his weakness and become a squire.

The second main character is Blifil, in sharp contrast with Tom. The former is the symbol of dishonest person, and the latter represents the good man. Blifil’s biggest feature is hypocrisy. He is “sober, discreet and pious beyond his age,” always with appropriate talk and exemplary manners. But his true colour is the opposite. He tries his best to make Tom into trouble due to jealousy. In order to acquire property, on the one hand, he hastens the death of his uncle Mr Allworthy by giving him bad news. On the other hand, he pretends to fall in love with Sophia with the purpose of marrying her. At the last of the story, he even hire a lawyer to get Tom sentenced to death. Fortunately, people realize his hypocrisy and corruption finally.

The third character is the heroine of the book, Sophia. She is the embodiment of beauty. She is not only tender, but also brave. Instead of agreeing to marry a person who she doesn’t love at all, she leaves her father’s house in the dead of night. On the way to London, she meets many difficulties and overcome it with the courage. In the story, the Fielding created a girl who dare to resist and insist on her right to choose her own mate.

Fielding holds the view that a truthful work must reflect the reality of society accurately. Instead of depicting different kinds of characters, Fielding also exposed the hypocrisy and depravity of the upper class, pictured the poverty and dilemma of the lower people. It showed us a panoramic view of English life in the 18th century in Tom Jones. In the story, through the description of many characters, Fileding revealed

the struggle between kindness and evil, and the former always defeat the latter. It is worth noting that the good person in the story isn’t prefect completely. They are true human with advantages and disadvantages. Fielding drew his characters which is based on the human nature that he observed in the people around him. And at the last, the happy ending also represents the optimism of 18th English novel.

In a word, Tom Jones is a treasure in the history of English novel.