Tom Jones Themes

It doesn't get much more foolish than blaming the spread of gossip on a witch's curse. Or sending a woman a marriage proposal to make her break up with you. Or assuming that a girl traveling with h...

Tom Jones isn't all sex jokes and romantic comedy (though it has plenty of both). There's some serious stuff going on, like Big Moral Issues. According to Squire Allworthy there are two ways to be...

Tom Jones is a foundling, which means that he's not related by blood to any of the people who raise him (or so he thinks). But Tom definitely has a family: he admires Squire Allworthy a whole heck...

Tom Jones really goes up and down the British class hierarchy: you've got the Seagrim family, living practically naked from poverty on Squire Allworthy's estate. And you've got Lord Fellamar, floun...

Lots of people lie in Tom Jones: Bridget lies about being Tom's mom, Mr. Blifil lies about Tom attacking him, and Lady Bellaston lies to Lord Fellamar about Tom's class status. But we're less inte...

Of course, we know intellectually that people had sex before the 21st century. Otherwise, how would we all be here? But it's still kind of surprising to see just how raunchy Tom Jones can be. There...

There are loads of examples in Tom Jones of people saying one thing and doing another: Mr. Thwackum and Mr. Square preach morality but have no interest in practicing it. Mrs. Fitzpatrick talks a go...

95% of the dark comedy of Tom Jones comes from looking past a character's positive appearance to see the weakness and the hollowness within. So, Lady Bellaston appears fashionable and lovely on the...

There is a surprising amount of girl-fighting in Tom Jones: Molly Seagrim fights off a whole group of villagers with a human leg bone in her hand (seriously), Mrs. Honour and Mrs. Western's maid le...

Helpfully, Fielding spends a bunch of his introductory chapters for the different books of Tom Jones explaining (a) what his project is in writing the novel, and (b) how it's different from the oth...