Read Aloud the Text Content

This audio was created by Woord's Text to Speech service by content creators from all around the world.

Text Content or SSML code:

3.Marriage. Fielding was an advocate of a balanced and happy marriage. He began the novel shortly after the death of his first wife, Charlotte Cradock, and his deep affection for her is embodied in the character of Sophia. He hopes to immortalize the memory of Charlotte through Sophia, as he unabashedly states at the beginning of book 13: “Foretel me that some tender maid, whose grandmother is yet unborn, hereafter, when, under the fictitious name of Sophia, she reads the real worth which once existed in my Charlotte, shall, from her sympathetic breast, send forth the heaving sigh” (607). The institution of marriage is, like the book's other issues, explored through each strata of society. We see Mrs. Partridge and the “envenomed wrath” with which she attacks her husband after hearing the speculation that he has made Jenny Jones pregnant (97). This reflects the anger Mr. Fitzpatrick feels for the lieutenant who is more engaged by his wife’s wit than by his own. Jealousy and unsuitability abound, and their destructive effects almost force the story to an untimely end. Fielding employs an allusion to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in Sophia’s threat to stab herself in the heart rather than marry Blifil, and the squire’s own threat to cast her out if she does not. The reader can see the irony here, in that the story is brought dangerously close to tragedy over this issue. It is only resolved when the lovers are allowed to be together, and this is only enabled by a change in their circumstances, not their affections. The potential for marriage to engender tragedy remains, even if our heroes escape it through fortunate revelations. Before the novel was completed, Fielding had married Mary Daniel, his housekeeper. She was pregnant by him, and Fielding braved a public scandal to stand by her. Through the relationship of Nightingale and Nancy Miller, the novel reflects the potential for happiness despite a match outside social expectation. Mrs Western’s several treatise on marriage exhibit the socially accepted norm of marriage, particularly for the higher classes. She variously describes marriage as being considered “…as men do offices of public trust, only as the means of making their fortunes, and of advancing themselves in the world” (292). This philosophy is evident in her promotion of Lord Fellamar as a suitable husband for Sophia, even though he has been physically aggressive to her. She sees only the financial and social implications, as does Lady Bellaston. She is happy to court Tom (and several other men, we are led to believe) and to assist him financially, but is not prepared to subjugate herself socially or materially, which it what marriage would require.