The Rise of the Novel
C. Knight
Tom Jones: Study Questions
2. Fielding is not entirely consistent in his generic terms for Tom Jones; he compares his book to history, to epic, to the theater, and contrasts it to still other genres, such as newspapers. Do such comparisons help to establish its identity as a novel? If so, how, and why?
3. Fielding was a dramatist before he was a novelist, and, in addition to its concern with scenes and dialogues, Tom Jones utilizes a dramatist's sense of entrances and exits. How do they shape the structure of the novel?
4. Lots has been written and said about the variety, nature, and purposes of Fielding's irony. This questions focuses on irony and the evaluation of character. There are characters whom the narrator dislikes and we dislike; some of these are comic and some not. There are characters whom the narrator pretends to dislike but we like, or pretends (at least at times) to like and we dislike. (How do we know when he is pretending?) There are characters we all like (but sometimes he likes them more or less than we do). Who are all these characters? How do we know what to think of them? What does the complex variety of attitudes towards characters imply about Fielding's view of human nature (and our own). Consider the possibly contrasting cases of Squire Allworthy and Black George.
5. A number of other contrasting characters (besides Allworthy and George) run through the novel. The most obvious of these pairs are Tom and Blifil and Thwackum and Square. Think about the nature of these contrasts and about the usefulness of contrast as a way of introducing and developing both characters and the moral ideas that become associate with them.
6. Tom has successive affairs with Molly Seagrim (first third), with Mrs. Waters (second third), and with Lady Bellaston (last third). Each of these represents choices, values, and alternatives that reflect Tom's position at the time. What do we learn about Tom and his progress from these affairs? What judgments are we supposed to make about them?
7. Sophia is introduced with a great deal of reverential awe, and she continues to be treated by some critics, with similar awe, as an embodiment of Wisdom. Is she also a fallible human being, and if so, what are her unideal characteristics (including her flaws)? What is the relationship between her ideal characteristics and her nature as a rounded character?
8. In Book I, chapter 1, Fielding compares the "more plain and simple Manner" of human nature in the country to the "Affectation and Vice which Courts and Cities afford." In what ways does setting in Tom Jones reflect different moral conditions (and is the reflection sometimes deceptive)?
9. Everyone has a favorite image in Tom Jones--eating, hunting, journeying, the law, the theater, war and soldiers, and so forth. Pick an image and keep track of it during the novel. What do you think are the functions of the image?
10. Fielding's style is sometimes elegant, sometimes exuberant, sometimes ironically overstated, sometimes merely ironic, but seldom straightforward. What does style tell us about the novel as a whole? Is there any relation between what Fielding is doing at various points as a stylist and his general intentions in the novel, or is he concerned primarily with a series of local effects?11. Some milestones (worth discussion in class, certainly worth close reading): Book I, chapter 4 (Allworthy on the hill), IV,3-4 (Sophia's bird), V,5 (Square cornered), V,10-12 (Tom's love-battle), VIII,15 (Tom and the Man of the Hill), IX,3-X,7 (The Inn at Upton), XII,12 (The Gypsy King), XII,14 (The highwayman), XIII,7 (The humours of a masquerade), XIV,4 (Sexual morality), XVI,3 (Tom's letter), XVIII,2 (A tragical incident), XVIII,12 (Tom and Sophia). What other milestones do you find?
12. Critics have been particularly excited about the possible significance of long interpolated stories that seem to have little to contribute to the advancement of the main plot. The story of the Man of the Hill and Harriet Fitzpatrick's long narrative of her marital unbliss are the two principal offenders. What do you make of these stories? How can they be connected to the central action?
13. Critics have also been concerned with the variety of meanings that Fielding attaches to the word Prudence and the variety of tones that he assumes in attaching them? What does prudence mean? Is it a good quality or a bad one? Does its meaning change in the course of the novel?
14. Coleridge spoke of Tom Jones as one of the three works of literature with a perfect plot. (The other two, in case you missed them, are Oedipus the King and Ben Jonson's The Alchemist.) What holds the novel together? Is it really as unified as Coleridge and others seem to think? Does it have other important structures of meaning in addition to what might be called its plot? Or does its plot strike you as too mechanical and contrived?
15. Readers of Tom Jones have sometimes complained that the ending is hasty, contrived, artificial, and generally unsatisfactory? What are the grounds on which such a judgment can be made? Do you agree with it? Does the possible weakness of the end undermine the meaning of the novel as a whole?
16. Various historical events and even characters are included in Tom Jones. And some of the fictitious characters are modeled on real ones. (Fielding tells us that Sophia is modeled on his dead wife.) What is the relationship between fiction and fact in Tom Jones? Why, if at all, are these factual intrusions important in the novel?
17. For many readers the most important character in Tom Jones is not Tom or Allworthy or anyone else but the narrator. What is our relationship to him, and why would some think it so important? Do you agree?