The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling - List of Characters

List of Characters

  • Tom Jones (bastard/ward of Squire Allworthy, eventually revealed his nephew and the son of a long-deceased parson’s son, Mr Summers)
  • Squire Allworthy (a wealthy squire with an estate in Somerset, of irreprochable character and good nature, eventually revealed to having unknowingly been Tom Jones’ uncle)
  • Mrs. Bridget Allworthy-Blifil (Squire Allworthy's sister, Tom Jones’ real mother)
  • Captain Blifil (Captain in the navy and Bridget Allworthy's husband, with Methodist tendencies)
  • Master Blifil (son of Captain Blifil and Bridget, a hypocrite and Tom Jones’ foe)
  • Benjamin Partridge (a teacher, later barber/surgeon, erroneously suspected to be Tom Jones’ father due to the extreme ill-nature of his first wife)
  • Mrs. Jenny Jones-Waters (the Partridges' servant, a very intelligent woman who is used by Mrs Allworthy-Blifil to deflect suspicions on Tom Jones’ maternity from herself)
  • Black George Seagrim (gamekeeper to Squire Allworthy & later Squire Western, recipient of many benefits from Tom Jones but eventually betrying him in an hour of need)
  • Molly Seagrim (Black George's second daughter, Tom Jones’ first lover and having a bastard, possibly by him)
  • Mr. Thwackum (Reverend/school teacher to Tom and Master Blifil, a hypocrite who hates Tom Jones, favors Master Blifil and conspires with the latter against the former)
  • Mr. Square (Philosopher/school teacher to Tom and Master Blifil, also a hypocrite who hates Jones and favors Blifil, but who refrains from conspiration and eventually repents)
  • Squire Western (Hunter/wealthy squire who owns neighbouring estate to Squire Allworthy, a simpleton who wants to marry his daughter Sophia to Squire Allworthy’s heir, first Blifil and then Jones, against her will, with quite violent, if not physically, means)
  • Sophia Western (the Squire's only daughter, the model of virtue, beauty and all good qualities)
  • Honour (Sophia's maid, egotistical and inconstant to her employer)
  • Mrs. Harriet Fitzpatrick (ward of Mrs Western and wife of Fitzpatrick, an Irishman, abused by him, a cousin and friend of Sophia but lacking her virtue)
  • Miss Western (the Squire's unmarried sister, who wrongly believes herself to ‘know the World‘ both in international and national politics and in social mores, tries to impose Blifil to Sophia but with less violent means than her brother’s)
  • Mr. Dowling (a Lawyer)
  • Lady Bellaston (Tom's lover and a leading figure in London society, who tries to force Sophia into marriage to a Lord by having her raped by him, so she would have Jones to herself)
  • Mr. Nightingale (a young gentleman of leisure, who is saved from ruining his first true love by Jones’ entreaties)
  • Lord Fellamar (a peer and socialite, who unsuccessfully conspires with Lady Bellaston to rape Sophia so as to force her into marriage)
  • Mrs. Miller and her two daughters, Nancy (later Mrs Nightingale, a good-natured girl who is imposed on by Mr Nightingale and would be ruined by him, together with her family, by lack of constancy in virtue) and pre-adolescent Betty
  • Mr. Summer (son of a clergyman and revealed to be the father of Tom Jones)

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