HENRY FIELDING Henry Fielding was born in 1707

HENRY FIELDING � Henry Fielding was born in 1707 to Lieutenant George Fielding and his wife Sarah, who was herself the daughter of nobility. Socially, the family hovered at the edges of high society, but they had decidedly middle-class means. Fielding lost his mother in 1718, and his father remarried just a year later and began immediately to raise a new family. That same year Fielding began his education at Eton.

� Fielding's life took a major turn in 1734 with his marriage to Charlotte Cradock. Fielding loved Cradock passionately, and their short life together was marked by intense affection and, at times, intense misery. Fielding's wife Charlotte succumbed to a fever and died. Although Fielding remained heart-broken, he eventually married Mary Daniel, the faithful housekeeper who had looked after him and his first wife even in their moments of extreme poverty. This marriage was a happy one, but Fielding never stopped loving Charlotte, and he would model his two major female characters, Sophia and Amelia, on her.

� Finally, due to his devastating health problems. leaving behind the children from his second marriage, accompanied only by his wife, his first daughter Harriet, and two servants, Fielding left England in the summer of 1754 and went to Portugal. Henry Fielding died on October eight of the same year, in Junqueira, near Lisbon.

�The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling was published in 1749. Almost every aspect of Fielding's own life is apparent in the novel, from the love and reverence he had for his first wife to his extensive knowledge of the Southwestern part of England. Even Tom Jones himself clearly shows the markings of Fielding, exhibiting the same careless good nature as well as a deeply entrenched awareness of poverty and the reversals of fortune.

Tom Jones the novel is a panoramic commentary on England in 1745 and it is also the story of Tom Jones and Sophia Western. Tom and Sophia are rebels revolting against the respectably accepted domestic standards of eighteenth century society. By such standards Sophia should obey her father and Tom should be what Blifil thinks him, an illegitimate upstart who ought to be put firmly in his place. � For the purposes of the plot Fielding makes Tom a gentleman. Tom & Sophia fight conventional society embodied in the character of Blifil. They are not passive in their struggle and that is why Tom Jones is not a tragedy but comedy. � While Blifil is forever on the side of conventional respectability. Tom Jones has the vigor and spirit at spontaneity. He acts naturally and therefore the excesses into which his animal spirits lead him are forgiven. Here in the novel the natural man and the noble savage are pitted against each other. Tom's strength lies in the vigor and spontaneity of Tom's reactions. �

�Fielding's hero Tom Jones is shown as a bewildered young man of great health and spirits. He has so much life that it amounts for the effect of comedy and application of satire equal to him having his own mind. �Tom Jones is an attractive character quite the heroic. But his heroism is tinged with a recklessness of youth, which makes him all the more believable while he is well meaning he gets unintentionally into trouble. �Tom Jones has one failing--his wantonness with women. He cannot resist them and he has more than one affair. While his heart belongs to Sophia Western he constantly gives his physical self away to the pleasures of love. �But ultimately all the goodness in his character pays him rich dividends and he is once again made the heir at Squire Allworthy's large estate. He even manages to get his ladylove in marriage (Sophia Western) and she pardons his numerous infidelities.

The plot movement follows the curve of extreme high and low. Tom comes on the scene as a bastard, his reputation and his hopes are progressively blackened until he reaches his nadir in London. Here he is kept by Lady Bellaston and even accused of murder and thrown into jail. There is further misinterpretation of his character, when he is accused of incest with his supposed mother Jenny Jones. With the exposure of Blifil’s malicious machinations and of Tom’s true goodness his fortune sails to the Zenith of romantic happiness. He is proved to be of high birth and he marries the girl of his choice and he inherits wealth.

� At the end Blifil's treachery is revealed and Squire Allworthy realizes rightly the good nature of Tom Jones. One cannot condemn Squire Allworthy for entertaining doubts about Tom Jones previously, as he does get involved in amorous relationships with other women. But common to all his relationships is that it is always the women, who do the running. Another fact to be mentioned is that it is only towards the end of the novel, that Tom feels himself to be worthy of marriage to Sophia. � Tom Jones does obtain Sophia eventually and their love is finalized in marriage. The blustering careless Tom Jones converts into a responsible and faithful husband. He is one of the few heroes in English literature, who is represented realistically as having negative traits, as well as positive charms.

TOM JONES Tom Jones, Fielding's imperfect and "mortal" hero, is the character through whom Fielding gives voice to his philosophy of Virtue. In contrast to the moral philosophizing of many of Fielding's contemporaries, Fielding does not suggest that Tom's affairs with Molly Seagrim, Mrs. Waters, and Lady Bellaston should reflect badly on his character. Rather, keeping with the Romantic genre, Fielding seems to admire Tom's adherence to the principles of Gallantry, which require that a man return the interest of a woman. Interestingly, all of Tom's love affairs, including his relationship with Sophia, his true love, are initiated by the woman in question, which is Fielding's way of excusing Tom from the charge of lustful depravity. .

� Moreover, the fact that Tom's lovers include a feisty, unfeminine wench and two middle-aged women suggest that his motives are various. Tom also treats women with the utmost respect, obliging their desire to be courted by pretending to be the seducer even when they are seducing him. Tom refuses to abandon Molly for Sophia and is plagued by his obligations to Lady Bellaston. Nonetheless, Tom's refusal of the tempting marriage proposal of Arabella Hunt—whose last name underscores the fact that Tom is hunted more often than he is the hunter—indicates that he has mended his wild ways and is ready to become Sophia's husband. Tom's gallantry reveals itself in his relationships with men as well as women, however. This spirit is evident in Tom's insistence on paying the drinking bill for the army men at Bristol, and in his gallant defense of himself in the duel

�Sophia Western - Sophia Western is Fielding's beautiful, generous heroine and the daughter of the violent Squire Western. Like Tom, Sophia lavishes gifts on the poor, and she treats people of all classes with such respect that one landlady cannot believe she is a "gentlewoman. " Sophia manages to reconcile her love for Tom, her filial duty to her father, and her hatred for Blifil through her courage and patience. Sophia's natural courtesy can be contrasted with her Aunt Western's artificial manners.

QUOTATIONS

“I intend to digress, through this whole History, as often as I see Occasion: Of which I am myself a better Judge than any pitiful Critic whatever. And here I must desire all those Critics to mind their own Business … For, till they produce the Authority by which they are constituted Judges, I shall [not] plead to their Jurisdiction” (chapter II of Book I)

�“…we are obliged to bring our Heroe on the Stage in a much more disadvantageous Manner than we could wish; and to declare … that it was the universal Opinion of all Mr. Allworthy's Family, that he was certainly born to be hanged. ”( Chapter II of Book III)

“Thus a Swarm of foolish Novels, and monstrous Romances will be produced … to the great Loss of Time &3133; in the Reader; nay, often to the spreading of Scandal and Calumny, and to the Prejudice of the Characters of many worthy and honest People. ”(chapter I of Book IX )

� “So Sophia … found such immediate Satisfaction from the Relief of those Terrors she had of being overtaken by her Father, that the Arrival of the French scarce made any impression on her. ”(Chapter VI of Book XI)

� “To paint the Looks or Thoughts of either of these Lovers is beyond my Power…. And the Misfortune is, that few of my Readers have been enough in Love, to feel by their own Hearts what past at this Time in theirs. ”(chapter XI of Book XIII)

�“no matter what the subject is, if there is a woman, just remember the word “submission and know how to shut up. ” � M. Zeki ÇIRAKLI

�Thanks for your patience. . FIRAT KESKİN