COURSE: - M.A ENGLISH
SEMESTER: - 1
BATCH: -
2015-2017
ENROLMENT
NO: - PG15101022
SUBMITTED
TO: - SMT.S.B.GARDI
DEPARTMENT
OF ENGLISH MKBU
PAPER NO: -
2
THE NEO-CLASSICAL
LITERATURE
TOPIC: -
WOMEN CHARACTERS IN ‘’TOM JONES” BY HENRY FIELDING.
WOMEN CHARACTERS IN TOM JONES
INTRODUCTION:-
'The History of Tom Jones, a
Foundling', often simply as 'Tom Jones', is a comic novel by the English
playwright and novelist Henry Fielding.
There are many major and minor
characters in the play. We can say that the women characters are only in minor
role. Importance is not given to the women. They are not at the power position.
They are given a subordinate position. We can see the characters with the touch
of feminism.
FEMINISM:-
Feminism is a range of movements and
ideologies that share a common goal: to define, establish, and achieve equal
political, economic, cultural, personal, and social rights for women.
LIST OF WOMEN CHARACTERS:-
There more than 20 characters in the play. Some of the women
characters are discussed in further detail.
1.)
Sophia
western
2.)
Mrs.Bridget
Allworthy Blifil
3.)
Jenny
Jones/ Mrs.Waters
4.)
Lady
Bellaston
5.)
Molly
Seagrim
6.)
Mrs.Deborah
7.)
Mrs.Western
8.)
Harriet
Fitzpatrick
9.)
Mrs.Miller
10.) Nancy Miller
11.) Mrs.Wilkins
12.) Ms.Susan
13.) Mrs.Whitefield
14.) Mrs.Seagrim
15.) Mrs.Patridge
16.) Mrs.Honour
17.) The Nanny
18.) Betty
19.) Mrs.Abigail
20.) Mrs.Arebella
1.)
SOPHIA WESTERN:-
Sophia Western is the heroine of the novel. She is the only daughter of Mr.Squire Western and in deep love with Tom
Jones. She is the model of virtue, beauty and all good qualities. Sophia is an
archetype of character. Henry Fielding tries to make Sophia perfect. It is said
that Sophia’s characterisation is reflection of Fielding’s first wife. Sophia’s
dedication for love shows that though obedient, but she is independent to make
her decisions. When forced to marry Blifil, Sophia runs away from her house. A
question might arise that if Sophia is the heroine of the play, why the title
is Tom Jones rather than Sophia Western. Women are not given equal rights.
Sophia has qualities like Beauty, youth, sprightliness, innocence, modesty and
tenderness, while Tom is handsome but a flaccid character. Sophia portrays a
typical women character. Literature itself is patriarchal. For example: - we
have the father of literature or the father of the nation, but we don’t have
the mother of literature or the mother of the nation.
2.)
MRS.BRIDGET ALLWORTHY BLIFIL:-
She is sister of Squire Allworthy,
wife of Captain John Blifil and mother of master Blifil and Tom jones. At the
end of the novel, the truth is revealed that she is the real mother of Tom
jones. Life and History of Tom Jones depends on Mrs.Bridget. We see that she is
a poor victim of the society.
Tom’s father is shown dead in the
novel. He is removed from the novel, so the mother is blamed. Why the father is
removed? All the things come on Mrs.Bridget. She alone handles the situation.
Men are flaccid by character but the women are given blame for every bad
situation.
“Women are the victim of the interior
colonisation.”
3.)
JENNY JONES OR MRS.WATERS:-
Jenny Jones is the Partridge’s and
Allworthy’s servant. She is a very intelligent woman who is used by Mrs.Bridget
to deflect suspicions on Tom Jones maternity from her. Mr.Allworthy the
so-called noble and kind man, without knowing whether Jenny is the real mother
or not, sends her away from the estate. Why she is not given the chance to
explain herself? She is poor so she is blamed. The lower class people are
always looked upon as immoral by the high class people. Jenny Jones is a
virtuous lady, but the society spoils her virtue. What is the advantage to
being honest? If you are lower class the society then your honesty will have no
value.
Later on she reappears as
“Mrs.Waters” at Upton, where Tom saves her from a robbery and takes her at the
inn to protect. It is said that she seduced Tom at the inn. How can she alone
seduce Tom? We need both our hands to clap. Likewise Tom is too responsible. In
the novel, it is not clear whether she was married to Mrs.Waters or not. She
was living a virtuous life, but she was blamed for something she had not done.
She is living her life differently throughout the novel. She has broken the
shackles of the society, so she is called “a fallen woman”. In a way, she is
happy in her life. Even Tom has many affairs, but Jenny being women is more
accused.
4.)
LADY BELLASTON:-
She is aunt of Sophia Western and a
leading figure in London society. She loves Tom Jones. People read this as a
negative character. Why? Just because he loves Tom or thinking of Sophia
marrying Lord Fellamar. Though her way is wrong, but her intention is to see
Sophia happily married. Why a woman doesn’t have the right to love someone. In
a way, we can see that women are not free. If they think differently, they are
interpreted by the society.
5.)
MOLLY SEAGRIM:-
Molly is Tom's first love. She is the
daughter of Black George the gamekeeper, and famous in the area for her
attractiveness. But the narrator notes that there is something about her that
"would at least have become a man as well as a woman”. Molly is "bold
and forward”, rather than modest and shy.
In other words, Molly is the absolute
opposite of Sophia Western: where Sophia is delicate and feminine, Molly is
rough and even masculine. Where Sophia is chaste and careful in her
interactions with men, Molly has at least three sexual partners that we know
of: Tom, Mr. Square, and Will Barnes. And of course, the biggest difference is
that Molly gets pregnant outside of marriage, while Sophia has to spend much of
the novel caught up as a pawn in a competition between Mr.Blifil, Lord
Fellamar, and even Tom for her hand in marriage.
She is always been cheated by the
male characters. Will Barnes left her alone. It is also said that she is a bad
character. After getting so much disloyalty, how can anyone expect her to be
good? The society looks at flaws of Molly, why the male characters are not
blamed? We can say that in trying to make Sophia perfect, Fielding deliberately
portrays other characters in a bad light. We find exploitation of women in Tom
Jones.
6.)
MRS.DEBORAH WILKINS:-
Mrs. Wilkins (and the
"Mrs." here just means that she's older, not that she's married) is
Squire Allworthy's servant. She's the one who first takes care of baby Tom when
Squire Allworthy finds him wrapped up in his bed. But don't go thinking, just
because she helps to look after young Tom, that Mrs. Wilkins is some kind of
warm and fuzzy type.
She doesn't have a huge role in the
novel, but most of her purpose in the story seems to be to show how ungrateful
and snobby servants can be.
We see this bullying side of Mrs.
Wilkins in her treatment of other women, in particular. It's Mrs. Wilkins who
decides that Jenny Jones must be Tom's secret mother. When Mrs. Wilkins first
"asks" Jenny if she's Tom's mom, she addresses her complete as an
"audacious strumpet"(which means "cheeky prostitute").
Clearly, she isn't exactly willing to give Jenny the benefit of the doubt. As a
loyal servant she helps Mrs. Bridget and in helping her she puts guilt on
Jenny.
7.)
MRS.WESTERN:-
Mrs. Western is Squire Western's
sister, not his wife. She goes by "Mrs." because she is an older
lady, but she is not married.
In a lot of ways, Mrs. Western seems
like what Squire Western would be if he had been born a woman. She is
incredibly arrogant and sure of herself. And like Squire Western, she has
absolutely no interest in Sophia's protests that she doesn't want to marry Mr.Blifil.
Even more horrifying, she refuses to listen to Sophia's objections to Lord
Fellamar, even after Sophia tells her that Lord Fellamar tried to assault her
at Lady Bellaston's house. Mrs. Western's other truly important character trait is that she is vain
as all get-out. We see this vanity over and over again in the novel. So, for
example, while Mr. Fitzpatrick is wooing her niece Harriet right under Mrs.
Western's nose, she never notices. She is so certain that Mr.Fitzpatrick wants
to marry her that she never spots her niece's terrible romantic plans.
8.)
MRS.HONOUR:-
Mrs. Honour is Sophia's maid, and her
ability to mingle with servants and catch up on gossip ends up being useful to
her employer: for example, it's Mrs. Honour who first hears that Tom is staying
at the inn at Upton. But beyond Mrs. Honour's role as a plot device, she does
not have much depth as a character.
Mrs. Honour is a huge chatterbox. She just goes on and on and
on. Her dialogue appears as these huge, intimidating blocks in the novel—we
have to wonder when she has the time to draw breath. Of course, her talking is
mostly gossip about the other characters: not only is Mrs. Honour the one to
first reveal Tom's love to Sophia, but she also seems to know that Lady
Bellaston keeps a love nest in another neighbourhood from her actual house.
Mrs. Honour knows a great deal, but you have to sift through a lot of extra
information and random commentary to get to any substance.
CONCLUSION:-
We see both types of women characters
in this novel, ones with the bad light and with good light. Overall the women
character in this novel faces injustice in one or the other way. Henry fielding
has represented Sympathy for women in thematic terms. Fielding’s ideology is
embedded in the text.
“Woman was made for the comfort and
benefit of man”.
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