The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

Sophia’s muff (handwarmer) becomes a symbol of Tom’s relationship to Sophia, which has its ups and downs but ultimately endures. Initially, Sophia sees Tom kissing her muff when he thinks he’s alone. This reflects how Tom is in love with Sophia, and although he hasn’t expressed his emotions aloud yet, his love is obvious to her. Later, when Sophia wears her muff to play harpsicord, she does so to show her affection to Tom in return. But Mr. Western gets annoyed with the way the muff interferes with Sophia’s playing and tries to throw the muff into the fire. This foreshadows how, later, Mr. Western will try to break up Sophia and Tom’s relationship.

When Sophia hears that Tom is having sex with Mrs. Waters at Upton, she leaves her muff with her name on it on his bed. Tom finds the muff and is reminded of the implicit promises he made to Sophia when they were younger, and he realizes that he has failed to live up to him. He carries the muff with him from that point on, showing how he is determined to be more loyal to her (although he still has a couple more detours before he ends up with Sophia for good). The muff thus represents different things at different stages of their relationship, showing how as Tom grows, he sometimes strays from his promises to Sophia but ultimately becomes her loyal husband.