Question

As a reader the Third world.van you relate to the events and happenings in the fieldings Tom Jones? And would you agree that Tom Jones is so simple that it makes no great demand on you as a reader? Discuss with reason.

Answer 1

The female characters in Tom Jones are portrayed as having the full range of emotions and the capability of the good and bad behavior usually reserved for male characters in 18th-century novels. First the novel contains two thoroughly bad female characters: Mrs. Western and Lady Bellaston. Mrs. Western is selfish, self-righteous, and narcissistic, having an exaggerated view of her own abilities and her physical attractiveness and, like her brother, thinking other people exist to do her bidding. She is vindictive when crossed, which is why she leaves her niece Harriet to fend for herself even after she makes several attempts to mend fences with her aunt. But Mrs. Western cannot forgive the fact that Fitzpatrick preferred Harriet to her, and she doesn't care what happens to her young niece. Similarly when Sophia crosses her and refuses to marry Lord Fellamar, Mrs. Western abandons the niece she claims to love and simply turns her over to her father. Lady Bellaston is a villainess and narcissist. She is a promiscuous rake who preys on younger men and drops them when they ask for commitment. When she is outsmarted and rejected by Tom, she does her best to destroy both Tom and Sophia out of spite—first attempting to have Sophia raped so she must marry Lord Fellamar and then attempting to have Tom kidnapped and put on a naval vessel. Fielding also shows women as having sexual desire equal to that of men—and this includes not only a villainess like Lady Bellaston or a promiscuous girl like Molly Seagrim but also a chaste widow like Mrs. Hunt, who falls in love with Tom.




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