Marriage Issues in Tom Jones
Throughout Tom Jones by Henry Fielding, there are many examples of marriage. There is Squire Western's marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Fitzpatrick's marriage, the mentions of Allworthy's wife, the marriage of Nightengale and Nancy, and the marriage of Nightengale's cousin and the clergyman, and finally the marriage of Tom and Sophia. Some of these marriages end with a happy ending and some do not and we, the reader, are supposed to look at these marriages and see why they went wrong or why they are good. Through all these examples of marriage, Fielding is urging us to question the current institution of marriage and what it is based on.
Fortune is a big issue in the book, especially when marriage is involved. Squire Western's wife's father married her off to the Squire against her will because of his fortune, and she became more of his servant than his wife. He treated her badly and they ended up hating each other. Mr. Fitzpatrick also married his wife for her money, which is made evident by the letter sent to Mr. Fitzpatrick by Sam Cosgrave concerning Mr. Fitzpatrick's debt and Mrs. Fitzpatrick's "ready money" (379). Mr. Fitzpatrick and Mrs. Fitzpatrick grew to resent each other, he treated her horribly, and he spent all of her money. Using these examples, Fielding challenges the reader to question if money should be the foundation of marriage.
Squire Western's marriage is prearranged by the Squire and Mrs. Western's father (just as he would like to do for Sophia). It was a tradition in this time for marriages to be prearranged by the parents according to fortune, title, etc. Women had no voice in whom they were to marry and the marriage became more of a t...
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... Injustice and Oppression..."(575) and he likewise says in the book that no one should be married to each other except on the basis of love. Fielding is trying to get the point across to the readers that marriage should be based on love, not fortune, estate, or prearrangement.
In this book fielding gives the reader examples of how a marriage can be if it is prearranged with fortune in mind or how it can be when it is based on love. He challenges the reader to question the current institution of marriage and all it's faults. He, then, suggests a happy alternative through love. In this book fielding is challenging his readers to think about the world around them and about issues such as injustice in marriage and oppression of women through marriage.
Work Cited:
Fielding, Henry. The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling. London: Penguin, 1966.
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The first chapter begins with an exploration of love and marriage in many ancient and current cultures. Surprisingly many cultures either avoid the discussion of love in marriage or spit on the idea completely. China and other societies believed that love was simply a product of marriage and shouldn’t get too out of hand, while a few Greek and Roman philosophers shunned excessive
What do Drew Carey, Gene Hackman, and Lee Harvey Oswald all have in common? They are all, The Few. The Proud. The Marines. Like these young men, many people after high school join one of the many branches of the military. From the U.S. Bureau of Labor, nine out of ten high school graduates go into the military. However with the Marine Corps being the smallest of the branches, only one-fifth of them become Marines. In 2006, according to the Recruit Depot Parris Island for Marines, 99.9% of the students there were high school graduates. Of the 4,420 recruits in 2006, the average age for a Marine was 19.6. Since the branches were formed, the Marine Corps has developed into a military branch that is greatly respected for its achievements and responsibilities.
Expressions of Cambodia: The Politics of Tradition, Identity, and Change. By Leakthina Chan-Pech Ollier and Tim Winter. London: Routledge, 2006. 86-100. Print.
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The first rise of the klan spread to almost every southern state by 1870. The Ku Klux Klan is also known as the KKK. The KKK’s uniforms started off as just random rodes and clothes. Soon the KKK changed their uniforms to white robes with a white pointed mask. The new uniforms also had the KKK symbol on the lower right shoulder. As the KKK’s numbers grew they started to carry out more and more crime. The Crime the KKK did included whippings,
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He continues this argument by examining America's past, one that is very much violent. He states that, " violence i...
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...ailed including Eugene Debs, leader of the American Railway Union who ordered the workers to stop pulling the Pullman cars. The government prioritized a strong healthy economy over a large and happy population.
The difference in social class between Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth affect their ability to get married. Sir Walter doesn't like the idea of having equality with men in the service, because he thinks it makes them unworthy of certain attributes, which is not uncommon for this time period. In this situ...
married. However, “for pragmatic reasons, the author’s conclusions favor marriage as the ultimate solution, but her pairings predict happiness” (“Austen, Jane”). Als...