It's easier to make good men wise, than bad men to good

Tom, is innately good in pursuit of wisdom, which Tom finally attains in his union with Sophia. His exuberant nature has now matured to a wise discernment of virtue. It's certainly easier to make good men wise

CJ: Bhaskar Banerjee

Mon, Jul 06, 2009 10:32:39 IST

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Life and God :

FIELDING'S TOM JONES is the story of a foundling whom nature has endowed with physical beauty and happy vitality. But the young Tom did not always act rightly, so that he seems to be something like an unheroic hero. He acts on impulse, sometimes well, sometimes ill and he lacks a settled kind of duty. It was a case of his seeing and approving the higher and following the lower impulses. His sexual escapades are morally outrageous.

But although Tom sins a number of times in the heat of his blood, his heart is in the right place. In his sexual adventures with Molly Saegrim, Jenny Waters and the lady of Bellaston, these women were the seducers and Tom the seduced. Besides, though Tom is a rake, Fielding finds Tom’s happy animality preferable to other graver sins like malice, cruelty, meanness and hypocrisy. Fielding genially comments that Tom the bachelor, in choosing to be a rake, probably thought one woman better than none, and that Moll probably imagined two men to be better than one! But though Tom confesses to being guilty with women, he claims that he has not injured or caused misery to any as a consequence.

Tom, thus, is not an anti-hero. If only Tom had prudence, he would not have involved himself in all his scrapes. Squire Allworthy is convinced that Tom has much generosity, goodness and honour and if only he would add prudence and religion to these, he would be happy. The novel is in part, an account of “how Tom learns to add prudence,” which to Allworthy perhaps means practical religion.

Fielding directs us to Tom’s generosity and compassion towards the dissolute Anderson family and to Tom’s active and warm-spirited services on behalf of Nightingale and Nancy and to Tom’s rejection of Mrs Hunts’ offer of a comfortable marriage. He tells Mrs Hunt that it would be dishonourable to accept her offer as he loves someone else, while admitting at the same time that he has little hope of ever winning Sophia.

Fielding states in his dedication that it is easier to make good men wise that to make a bad man good. He presents Tom who is innately good in pursuit of wisdom, which Tom finally attains in his union with Sophia. His exuberant nature has now matured to a wise discernment of virtue.

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