Tom Jones Finds Sophia

This paper is an account of the amoral nature of the character "Tom Jones" in Henry Fieldings' classic novel of the same name.

1,778 words () | 5 sources | 2001 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper contrasts the selfless amoral actions and the motives thereof of Tom Jones with the other characters of Henry Fielding's classic novel "Tom Jones," most notably with that of Blifil (Jones' rival suitor). This paper looks at exactly why the amoral doings of Jones leads to his attainment of Sophia (Greek for wisdom), and why the moral doings of Blifil do not. This is all explained as a conflict between morality which serves to augment the self and that of amoral action which is desire driven and thus lessens the effect of self-awareness. This unconsciousness then, that Jones lives in is proved to be wisdom; this fact is then proved through references from William Blake, Carl Jung, and Fredreich Nietzsche.

From the Paper:

" Virtue and happiness (wisdom) oppose one another. Fielding himself writes in the first chapter of book fifteen of Tom Jones, "if by virtue is meant (as I almost think it ought) a certain relative quality, which is always busying itself without Doors, and seems as much interested in pursuing the good of others as its own; I cannot so easily agree that this is the surest way to human happiness" (601; bk.15, ch.1). The fulfillment of desire then, leads to happiness and true wisdom; this wisdom being an unconscious realization of the universe at large; a wisdom that is Sophia."