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Book 17, Chapter 9
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 says this book is the last stage of the journey. He wants to stop joking around and be entirely sincere in this last book, since he has so many things he still wants to cram in. He hopes the story he’s told has been amusing and hasn’t offended anyone. Some critics have taken offense at the narrator’s writing before, but the narrator thinks that they are too sensitive. He hopes that his writing will outlast both his own mortal body and also the writings of his contemporaries.
For the final book’s introductory chapter, the narrator does indeed stick with his promise to speak more sincerely. When this fictional narrator wishes for his book to be well-received and endure through history, it’s likely that the real Henry Fielding, whom this narrator is a stand-in for, felt the same way. And so, while the narrator does not totally give up his sense of humor, he begins the last book on a more serious note.
Active
Themes
