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Book 15, Chapter 2
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
Although Lady Bellaston presents herself as important, the society she lives in is quite small, where people tend to all know each other. One of the customs of this society is that everyone tells a little lie every now and then to spread as gossip. Tom Edwards is part of this society with Lady Bellaston, and one evening, he comes over to play whist with Lady Bellaston, Sophia, and Lord Fellamar. While they’re playing, Edwards casually brings up how he heard a friend of his killed someone in a duel recently. The dead man’s name was Tom Jones. Sophia faints at once.
The narrator discusses Lady Bellaston’s social life as if she’s part of a dedicated club of liars, but it’s likely he’s being tongue-in-cheek—that Lady Bellaston is not part of a formal club dedicated to lying but that gossip and lies are such an accepted part of her social sphere that it may as well be a club ritual. The willingness of Bellaston and Edwards to outright lie to Sophia to get a reaction shows how dishonest and untrustworthy they are.
Active
Themes
Lord Fellamar is now convinced of Sophia’s love for Tom. Edwards tells Sophia after she recovers that the story isn’t true, trying to awkwardly make it seem like it was a joke. Lord Fellamar and Lady Bellaston conspire to allow Lord Fellamar to rape Sophia. He sees nothing wrong with this because he intends to make things “right” later by marrying her. But later, Lord Fellamar has doubts, and he doesn’t go through with the plan at the appointed time.
After learning how dedicated to Tom Sophia is, Lord Fellamar becomes more willing to listen to Lady Bellaston’s plan to rape Sophia. This passage is a dark commentary on rituals around marriage at the time and how a woman marrying her rapist was considered a proper way to avoid scandal. Even the immoral Lord Fellamar hesitates a bit, however, when Lady Bellaston lays this reality out to him so starkly.
Active
Themes
The next morning, Sophia says she doesn’t feel safe alone with Lord Fellamar and wants Lady Bellaston to stay with her. Lady Bellaston tells Sophia that she’s a simple country girl who is mistaken if she thinks every man lusts after her. She suggests Sophia will probably just run away with Tom anyway, but Sophia insists that she has no intention to elope.
Active
Themes
