How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
"Sure," cries Jones, "Fortune will never have done with me till she hath driven me to distraction. But why do I blame Fortune? I am myself the cause of all my misery. All the dreadful mischiefs which have befallen me are the consequences only of my own folly and vice. What thou hast told me, Partridge, hath almost deprived me of my senses! And was Mrs Waters, then—but why do I ask? for thou must certainly know her—If thou hast any affection for me, nay, if thou hast any pity, let me beseech thee to fetch this miserable woman back again to me. O good Heavens! incest——with a mother!" (17.2.5)
Tom's realization that he may actually have slept with his own mother is enough to scare him into regretting all of his self-indulgence and bad behavior of past days. He seems genuinely upset about the poor sexual decisions he has made over the course of the novel, particularly since he really doesn't think he can ask Sophia to marry him now, not when he has slept with his own (blegh) mother. This moment of Tom's incest fears may seem a little over-the-top and even contrived. But it does convince us that Tom has finally learned his lesson that he has been, in many ways, "the cause of all [his] misery."