The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses references to rape that feature in the novel.

The History of Tom Jones explores the nature of virtue as both a philosophical and moral ideal, and Fielding uses different characters to model various ways in which virtue offers a guideline for improving one’s behavior and successfully pursuing a fulfilling life. Allworthy models virtue in its Latin definition of excellence, combining goodness, strength, and moral principles. Within this conceptual framework, the novel debates whether compassion serves as a strength or weakness. This underlying debate first becomes clear when some characters accuse Allworthy of foolishness for his charity toward the orphaned Tom Jones, assuming instead that his sense of obligation proves that he must be the child’s natural father. Later on, Allworthy outlines the Christian concept of charity in a lecture to Captain Blifil but then reaches the limits of his own charity whenever he learns that the recipients of his kindness have responded with ingratitude. Allworthy’s pattern of behavior therefore suggests that Fielding believes compassion and charity to have less moral value when they permit disorderly conduct or vice. Because Tom’s good-heartedness is admired by other characters and the narrator, his conduct also suggests that compassion must be tempered with good sense and other principles in order to become a virtue.