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Book 1, Chapter 12
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Virtue vs. Vice
Marriage, Romance, and Economics
Appearance vs. Reality
Coming of Age
Storytelling, Literature, and Structure
Summary
Analysis
The narrator notes that it’s popular wisdom that once you rise, you should kick the stool out from under you—discarding any friends or acquaintances who helped you attain your new status. And so, soon after Captain Blifil marries Bridget, he seems to have little use for Dr. Blifil. Dr. Blifil brings concerns about the captain’s behavior to Allworthy, who can’t understand why the captain and Dr. Blifil wouldn’t get along. The two brothers make up in public, but they continue to resent each other in private. Dr. Blifil goes back to London, where he eventually dies of “a broken heart.”
The narrator is being sarcastic when he claims that Dr. Blifil died in London of “a broken heart.” His disappointment is more that his brother didn’t give him a share of Bridget’s property than it is over any emotional issue. The more selfless Allworthy doesn’t think about money and property in the same way, and so he fails to understand the root of the disagreement between Captain Blifil and Dr. Blifil.
Active
Themes
