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Book 5, Chapter 10
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 talks about how when stags (male deer) are interrupted in the middle of sex they stand their ground nobly, ready for combat to protect their hind (female deer). Like a stag, Tom leaps out when Thwackum approaches him, trying to give Molly a chance to get away. Thwackum and Mr. Blifil each demand to know who is with Tom, but he refuses to answer if anyone is with him at all. Mr. Blifil is so determined to find the culprit that he physically strikes Tom, who knocks Blifil down. Tom and Thwackum get in a fight, and after he recovers, Mr. Blifil rejoins the fight. Thwackum and Blifil seem likely to win the fight, when suddenly another participant joins: Mr. Western. He just happened to be walking by and thinks it’s shameful for Thwackum and Mr. Blifil to start an unfair fight.
The narrator compares the actions of Tom and other characters to deer in nature in order to suggest that for all the trappings that come with human society and civilization, in many ways humans aren’t so different from other animals, particularly when it comes to sex. In this passage, Mr. Blifil and Thwackum clearly fight unfairly, ganging up on Tom by surprise with superior numbers, but they end up defeated anyway. Their physical weakness in the fight reflects how they are ultimately weak and ineffectual characters who are unable to accomplish much in life because they are driven by superficial desires like jealousy and greed.
Active
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