Tom Jones Characters

So, we just saw The Avengers, and it hit us like Captain America's spinning shield of doom: Tom Jones is a lot like Thor. Hear us out: not only do both of their names start with "T," but they...

At the start of Tom Jones, we meet Squire Allworthy, a widower living with his unmarried sister Bridget on a fine estate called Paradise Hall in Somerset, in southwestern England. Squire Allworthy...

We get a pretty different sense of Bridget's character at the beginning of the novel and at the end. At the start of Tom Jones, Bridget Allworthy, the squire's sister, comes off as an opinionated o...

The narrator of Tom Jones occupies a pretty weird place in the novel, since he doesn't participate directly in the action of the book (like a central character would), but he does come across as an...

Mrs. Wilkins (and the "Mrs." here just means that she's older, not that she's married) is Squire Allworthy's servant. She's the one who first takes care of baby Tom when Squire Allworthy finds him...

Our opinion of Jenny Jones change a lot over the course of the novel. In Jenny's case, the reason for the change is only partly because we learn more about her in the final books of Tom Jones. Our...

We first find out exactly how generous Squire Allworthy is when we meet poor Doctor Blifil. Squire Allworthy is a patron, which means that he financially sponsors causes (and people) that he finds...

It's probably not too surprising, given that the novel calls him "Captain Blifil," that this guy used to be in the army. But it says something about his character that he keeps going by the title "...

Partridge is your classic sidekick. In fact, he's so classic that the description of the "Bumbling Sidekick" that comes up in TV Tropes might have been made for him: he's an "annoying, incompe...

In our Character Analysis of Tom Jones, we said that Tom is like Marvel's Thor: fun loving, cheerful, a little misguided, but well meaning. And we feel like that match-up between Tom and Thor reall...

Mr. Thwackum is Tom and Mr. Blifil's tutor when they are boys. He is also a clergyman working at a parish on Squire Allworthy's lands. Mr. Thwackum believes that the only way to be a good person is...

Mr. Square is the second tutor for Tom and Mr. Blifil when they are children together. Squire Allworthy hires Mr. Square because he believes that Mr. Square's philosophy will balance out Mr. Thwack...

When we first see Sophia Western, the narrator comes out and tells us that she is our heroine. Not only is she Tom's love interest, but she is also beautiful, graceful, and talented in her own righ...

Squire Western lives on the estate next door to Squire Allworthy's, but he is a very different kind of authority figure. He loves drinking and hunting and spends pretty much all of his time riding...

(Don't let the "Mrs." fool you: Mrs. Western is Squire Western's sister, not his wife. She goes by "Mrs." because she is an older lady, but she is not married.)In a lot of ways, Mrs. Western seems...

Something that is "supple" is soft and bendable. When the word is applied to people, it often means someone who is good at groveling and brown-nosing. And as with Mr. Thwackum (thwack'em), Fielding...

Lady Bellaston's part in Tom Jones is, frankly, a little bizarre. She is a relative of Sophia's, and Sophia runs to her house in London when she is first trying to escape her father and Mr. Blifil....

Lord Fellamar is an aristocrat (duh: lord) and a member of the British army. He is also an oddly contradictory character: on the one hand, as an army man and as a nobleman, he is very serious about...

It's funny: just as Sophia runs away from home, finds Tom at the inn at Upton, and then decides to travel to London to stay with her relative, Lady Bellaston, Harriet Fitzpatrick suddenly turns up....

Molly is Tom's first love. She is the daughter of Black George the gamekeeper, and famous in the area for her attractiveness. But the narrator notes that there is something about her that "would at...

Mrs. Honour is Sophia's maid, and her ability to mingle with servants and catch up on gossip ends up being useful to her employer: for example, it's Mrs. Honour who first hears that Tom is staying...

George Seagrim, also known as Black George, confuses us a little bit. His behavior in this book is mostly horrible: when he and Tom go poaching on Squire Western's land, he lets Tom take a beating...

Book 8 includes this multi-chapter episode in the life of a man ("Jack") who goes primarily by the nickname of the "Man of the Hill." (In our "Detailed Summary," we call him the MotH for short). Th...

There aren't too many nationalities represented in Tom Jones: the big majority of characters are English. Mr. Fitzpatrick is an exception, being Irish. In a lot of ways, he comes across as an obnox...

The scene where Tom and Partridge happen upon a Roma wedding in Book 12, Chapter 12 gives Fielding a chance to think about power and authority from an outsider perspective. The rest of the novel sk...

Mr. Nightingale is a very, very small-scale foil to Tom. We say that because Tom and Mr. Blifil are clearly the real pairing in this novel: Tom is good, and Mr. Blifil is evil. Still, while Mr. Nig...