Tom Jones Foolishness and Folly

The narrator insists that Tom Jones is a novel about human nature. Well, from this passage at least, it seems like the narrator's view of human nature is pretty bleak. When the villagers think Jenny Jones is headed to prison, some of them start to feel bad for her. But when they find out she's not going to prison, everyone turns against her—and against Squire Allworthy. They all assume that Squire Allworthy must have some special interest (probably sexual) in Jenny's case to be so kind to her. Even worse, Squire Allworthy becomes a target for gossip because he does so much good in his neighborhood that a lot of the villagers resent and envy him. So this episode suggests that human nature is really stupid and contrary: when you're down on your luck, people will pity (and condescend to) you. But when you are doing well, and when you are trying to help other people, there will be lots of fools who get jealous and nasty.

Okay, so this bit of Tom Jones is definitely darkly funny. Captain Blifil hates his wife, and he hates his brother-in-law. He's at his happiest when he's walking by himself, contemplating Squire Allworthy's death. He has already made a bunch of assumptions: (a) that Squire Allworthy will die soon; (b) that Captain Blifil will inherit his cash (since his wife is a woman and his son is too young); and (c) that Squire Allworthy's fortune is beyond huge. But! Instead, Captain Blifil is the one who dies first, in the middle of one of these fantasy sessions about Squire Allworthy's money. Captain Blifil's death shows a bunch of things: (a) that you can never 100% count on anything in this life, since luck is always a factor, and (b) you shouldn't waste your time fantasizing endlessly about the distant future because it may never happen. Seize the day! Live in the moment! And all of those other clichés you always see in sports drink ads.

As usual, this narrator loves the humor of taking something very stupid and presenting it as very serious. The ridiculous contrast here is pretty obvious: Tom is drunk out of his mind and ready to sleep with Molly in spite of his feelings for Sophia. The narrator addresses Tom's dumb behavior by using extremely formal language and the example of Aristotle (only one of the most highly renowned Greek philosophers ever). This moment is like the novel equivalent of editing together a high-toned video parody of black-and-white French film using fluffy cats. We guess humor hasn't changed that much in two hundred and fifty years—it'll always be funny to take something totally idiotic and treat it like it's The Most Important Thing Ever.

For Fielding, the problem with trying to be clever is that you often wind up outsmarting yourself. He gives this long example of three guys looking for a thief from Wiltshire. They come up with a variety of super-smart reasons for why they should look for him at an inn called "The Wiltshire House." But what they all overlook—even though they are aware of the fact—is that the thief can't read. So why would he choose an inn with a particular name written on the sign to hide in? They assume that the thief thinks in the exact same way that they do, and that's their biggest mistake. The worst kind of foolishness is when you make the mistake of assuming that everyone else has your own motivations; that'll blind you to anything you don't expect or understand in another person's behavior.

The funny thing about this landlady—who is not rich herself—is that she is a huge snob. She looks down her nose at Tom, even though he has been raised by a gentleman. Another example of this kind of snobbery among working class people is Mrs. Western's maid, who lords it over Mrs. Honour because her employer is more fashionable than Mrs. Honour's. But of course, this kind of snobbery is obviously idiotic. As the narrator points out, the landlady is only fooling herself into thinking that she "really belonged to that rank" herself. In the class system that the landlady supports with her snobbery, she is near the bottom. Why do you think that the landlady cares about "people of fashion"? How does she benefit from being a snob when she is, herself, working class?

When the sergeant and the landlord at Upton get together to discuss the devil, they aren't having some kind of late-night, abstract, philosophical jam session about the nature of Evil. They both agree that there has to be a devil because bad people must suffer at some point for their wrongs. In this passage, the devil comes across almost like a tool for these working class guys to imagine some power over people otherwise outside their control. The landlord can't force that cheap officer to pay more money for his room. So he finds the idea of a devil sort of reassuring, because at least the devil can do what he can't: the devil can force people to suffer for what they have done wrong. The devil allows the landlord to fantasize about having some authority, as he imagines that the devil will "pay off some old scores on [the landlord's] account."

In telling the story of her own terrible marriage, Mrs. Fitzpatrick keeps pointing out how weirdly blind Mrs. Western is to the relationship developing between Mr. Fitzpatrick and Harriet, the future Mrs. Fitzpatrick. She decides that Mrs. Western is so vain about Mr. Fitzpatrick's supposed attraction to her that she literally can't see the obvious signs of his flirtation with someone else. And Harriet is also blind to all of the warning signs that Mr. Fitzpatrick is not the great man she believes he is before they get married. This idea of blindness and sight is a major part of Tom Jones. The narrator says that it is his job to see better than most people, to, "strip off the thin disguise of wisdom from self-conceit, of plenty from avarice, of glory from ambition" (13.1.4). This novel is supposed to show people as they are, rather than just as they appear. Which characters in this book seem most clear-sighted about other people's flaws? How have they gained their sharp vision? Are there any characters without blind spots?

Partridge tries to prove to Tom beyond a doubt that witches exist by giving this example of a farrier (which is a blacksmith) he once knew. But the things that he takes as proof that the farrier was cursed by a local witch—a drowned cow and a barrel of wasted beer—could also just be a matter of chance (and drunken carelessness, since the guy was making "merry with some of his neighbours" the night that the keg spigot was inexplicably left open). Fielding uses Partridge's superstition to show that you can "prove" anything you want, if you decide ahead of time what you want the evidence to show.

Fielding compares the writers of a previous generation, who spent all of their wit describing beautiful women and thinking about art, to the commercial writers of his day. Now, Fielding complains, all the writers working for money are writing about business or politics or gambling. They think about everything except human nature (unless it's "her monsters and imperfections"). These writers have all become such smooth experts in their craft that they never really thinkabout anything serious. Fielding is basically giving the 18th Century author equvalent of "kids these days, eh?"

Partridge is pretty funny during this whole sequence, when he keeps commenting loudly on a performance of Shakespeare's play Hamlet. But by the end, Partridge's comments about what makes a good actor actually speak to what Fielding is trying to do with his larger project in Tom Jones. Partridge thinks that the actor who plays Hamlet is an idiot because if he had seen that ghost, he would have "looked in the very same manner, and done just as he did." Partridge believes that Hamlet is a bad actor because he looks too natural and too realistic—he reacts just like any real person would react! Partridge wants his actors to ham it up, so he knows that they are performing.

Now, Partridge is obviously not a reliable judge of acting. But his objection to this performance of habit is kind of self-mocking on Fielding's part. After all, Fielding has said over and over again that he wants Tom Jones to appear natural and realistic. However, people reading his book may find it a little too bare of stylish flourishes and marks that show that it is Literature-with-a-capital-L. Like this poor actor, Fielding runs the risk that readers won't understand the skill and technique that goes into writing a novel about the everyday lives of regular folk.