Is Tom Jones a novel of contrasts? Give reasons for your answer.

Is Tom Jones a novel of contrasts? Give reasons for your answer.

“I mean here the inventor of that most exquisite entertainment, called the English Pantomime.” (183).

After completing the novel, I decided to return to this quote in Tom Jones in order to understand why the narrator seems to admire this low-brow form of entertainment. Perhaps Fielding incorporates this noisy, rowdy form of entertainment into his novel to illustrate the contrast that is paramount among human nature. By praising this form, I feel the narrator may be exemplifying the differences between this novel and literature that preceded it. Pope criticizes and pokes fun at English pantomime entertainment in The Dunciad, but Fielding employs both vulgar humor and high moral education, illustrating that the two can exist side-by-side to demonstrate the contrast between the qualities of human nature. This contrast displays the complications of human nature and the contradictory behaviors many embody rather than portraying human beings as only good or only evil.

English pantomime incorporates this contrast by employing both comedy and tragedy as does this novel. The most apparent contrast in the novel is the setting in which the characters often travel through both city and country. There are also opposing characters and behaviors throughout the novel. For instance, Thwackum and Square represent opposing ideologies. While Square and Thwackum both admire similar morals and behaviors, they contrast greatly as well: “Square held human nature to be the perfection of all virtue, and that vice was a deviation from our nature in the same manner as deformity of body is. Thwackum, on the contrary, maintained that the human mind, since the fall, was nothing but a sink of iniquity, till purified and redeemed by grace” (108). Another clear contrast in the novel also occurs between Tom and Blifil. Although Tom lands himself in a great deal of trouble due to his own weaknesses and flaws, Blifil is also responsible for creating an evil picture of Tom. It is the realization of this contrast between the two that eventually leads to the resolution of the novel. Fielding incorporates the theme of hero versus villain to illustrate these complexities of human nature................................................

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