On the Road to Discovery: Tom Jones and Property

Abstract

This thesis mainly elaborates on male and female characters¡¦ interaction with and response to property in Henry Fielding¡¦s Tom Jones. I divide property into two possessions: fortune and liberty. Fortune plays a controlling means to reflect the subtle change of human nature on the matter of morality. Also, the deprivation of liberty shows female¡¦s position in marriage and gender¡¦s equality in society. Either morality or gender issue is a challenge to tradition in the eighteenth century. I particularly analyze how Fielding puts these two issues into this novel and the messages he attempts to deliver to us. This thesis consists of three chapters. In chapter one, I focus on the interaction between human nature and property. In chapter two, I deal with male dominance over female autonomy in marriage. In the last chapter, I discuss the reverse positions between men and women as they stand upon in chapter two by the examples of Jones and his three lovers.