The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

Mr. Allworthy is an important character who is held up as the model for justice, reason, and good male behavior, as his name suggests. He is a widower who loved his wife and mourns her loss along with the death of his children. As the local magistrate, Allworthy attempts to pass logical judgments, examining witnesses and testimony from all sides. He strives to be fair in his punishments and is quick to offer aid when people are in distress. He is compassionate, even-tempered, and kind. However, Mr. Allworthy does not readily perceive the motives of the people around him and often makes poor judgments based on incomplete information or incorrect assumptions. He is deceived again and again by those in his household, for he naively assumes that their behavior matches his high standards. Although he is kind to women and upholds the principles of mercy, charity, and compassion, he also expects those he aids to express appropriate gratitude. Whenever someone loses his favor, it is because he judges them to be ungrateful for the kindnesses he has shown them.

Sophia is a protagonist and heroine of the novel. She is 17 when she falls in love with Tom and runs away from home to avoid a forced marriage to Blifil. Sophia loves and misses her mother, who, unlike her father, gave her real affection. She has been educated by her aunt and doted on and conditionally indulged by her father, whom she feels obligated to please.

Sophia is beautiful, well-mannered, gracious, modest, and kind-hearted. Allworthy says her best quality is that she is not saucy or pert and makes no affectation to learning or wit. She always listens to and defers to the opinions of men, rather than clinging to any criticism or judgments of her own, and this is deemed to be a virtue in Fielding’s narrative. Though generally compliant and considerate of others, Sophia is intelligent, and she demonstrates a strong sense of justice and compassion. She also stands up for herself in the matter of her marriage and resists marrying either Blifil or Fellamar.

Tom describes her as “all over, both in Mind and Body, consummate Perfection. She is the most beautiful Creature in the Universe” (629). Sophia embodies her culture’s ideal of the perfect woman: beautiful, chaste, virtuous, obedient, and gracious in her social roles as hostess and eventual wife and mother. She also shows the tenuous position of gentlewomen in this era, for her well-being largely depends on the goodwill of those around her. She has little opportunity and small means to act independently but makes the best use of what little agency she has.

Squire Western is a neighbor and foil to Allworthy. He is a stereotype of an English country squire who mistrusts formal authorities, including the government and the nobility, and whose favorites hobbies are hunting and drinking. He has what would be considered coarse or uncultured tastes; the only music he likes are popular ballads, and he does not read or engage in philosophical conversations. He believes that women should exist to serve him and grows exasperated whenever they assert their independence. The Squire argues frequently with his sister but swallows his pride because he hopes to one day inherit her money. He indulges his daughter when she is compliant but insists on her obedience to his will, especially in pressuring her to marry the man he chooses. Overall, the Squire is a caricature: an overgrown bully who insists on having his own way, and who is perfectly genial to everyone once he gets it.

Partridge is a supporting character and a satire of the educated man who affects learning but is not truly wise. Partridge is foolish, superstitious, pompous, and easily manipulated. He is quick to lie or make up stories whenever he thinks it will serve him. He nurses grudges and inflates his own sense of importance. Partridge often serves as the butt of jokes, though he does honestly try to be helpful to Tom, mostly because he hopes to benefit from Tom’s social position. Partridge is another character who is praised as a man of wit even though his moral compass is directed by his own wants and interests. Like Nightengale, Partridge serves as a satire on the 18th-century concept of a gentleman, a status that conveys social rank and respect but does not necessarily guarantee or require upright behavior.

As a young man, Master Blifil is believed by many to be “a prudent, discreet, sober, young Gentleman” (124). As the son of Captain Blifil and Miss Bridget Allworthy, Blifil’s birth is legitimate, which makes him feel superior to Tom. As they grown up together, Blifil serves as a foil to Tom, contrasting Tom’s compassion with an insistence on moral virtue and obedience to the law. Blifil’s self-righteousness makes him unlikeable to Sophia. He agrees to marry her not because he cares about her, but because doing so will give him access to her fortune. He also desires her because she is beautiful, and because he is jealous of Tom. Blifil is deceitful, malicious, and self-serving, and his actions show a complete lack of regard for the feelings or well-being of others. He is another means Fielding uses to satirize the concept of moral virtue and gentlemanly behavior.

Mrs. Western is called “Mistress” after the convention of the time, though she has never married. She grew up on the Western property and now has an inheritance of her own. She is a vain, stubborn woman who believes that others should always concede to her superior judgment. Fielding pokes frequent fun at her pretensions to knowledge, making her another satirical character whose antics are meant to criticize those who pretend to learning but are not wise. This ironic tone becomes clear when she quotes Cicero’s letters while lecturing Sophia on duty to family, for a wry footnote of Fielding’s observes that “no such statement appears in Cicero’s letters […] or anywhere else in his works” (688). Aunt Western is vain and she long grudges. She also loses patience when Sophia declines to take her advice. She is belligerent and quick to scold, and although she would insist that her motives are generous and correct, she generally acts out of self-interest.

Mrs. Miller, a secondary character, is the landlady at the inn where Tom stays in London, and she is the novel’s single example of a virtuous married woman. A widow near the age of 50, she is “one of the most innocent Creatures in the World” (540) and very cheerful. Mrs. Miller thinks the best of everyone and is tender-hearted toward those in need. Born a gentlewoman whose father left her family in poverty, Mrs. Miller married a clergyman for love. She was an affectionate wife and is anxious that her two daughters be given better opportunities in the world. She is distressed to learn that her unmarried daughter Nancy is pregnant, but her greatest fear is not Nancy’s social ruin but her emotional distress at being abandoned by her lover.

Though very honest herself, Mrs. Miller can usually perceive dishonest motives in others, and she senses Blifil’s underhandedness well before Allworthy does. She is grateful to Tom for reconciling Nightengale and Nancy and for helping her impoverished cousins, the Andersons. As an honest businesswoman, Mrs. Miller realizes the importance of maintaining a respectable reputation. When she finds Tom entertaining women in his rooms, she scolds him gently and tells him to either mend his ways or leave her premises.