Fielding's Definition of Wisdom: Some Functions of Ambiguity and Emblem in Tom Jones

Abstract

To alter the terms of his own simile for the ancient authors, Fielding's novels may be considered as a rich common, where every critic has a free right to fatten his bibliography. As the number of commentaries in recent years attests, Tom Jones offers an ample field for critical investigation, with many aspects requiring a variety of approaches. At present I wish to explore only two of these: the substance and the form of the novel's most important theme, the definition of Wisdom. In dedicating the book to Lyttelton, Fielding himself provides the clue both to his moral purpose in Tom Jones and (in part at least) to his method of implementing that purpose. He declares