The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

Like virtue, The History of Tom Jones shows the ideal of female chastity to be a complicated topic at best, neither universally revered nor consistently applied. Chastity, the equivalent of virtue for a woman, is defined by her sexual status. A respectable young woman is expected to remain a virgin until marriage; remain sexually faithful to her husband during marriage; and, if widowed, refrain from having sex unless she remarries. Considering that marriages among the higher classes were also mergers of wealth and property, the emphasis on female chastity is historically a matter of controlling a woman’s reproduction and verifying the paternity of heirs. Within this social framework, chastity adds to a young woman’s desirability, as seen in the terms Tom uses to describe Sophia, for he begins by noting her sexual purity, stating, “No Breath ever yet durst sully her Reputation. The sweetest Air is not purer, the Limpid Stream not clearer than her Honour” (629). Conversely, a young woman who has lost her virginity has thereby lost her “honor” and is no longer a desirable marriage partner, as demonstrated by the pregnant Nancy Miller. This is also why Sophia would be left no choice but to marry Lord Fellamar if he succeeded in raping her.

A young woman risks her chastity if she even expresses sexual desire. Mrs. Wilkins, the housekeeper, and Honour, the lady’s maid, both agree that girls who attempt to attract men are “hussies” and “whores” who deserve censure. A girl must act coy, hide her preference, and so value her virginity that she surrenders it only upon compulsion, either through rape or after her marriage is arranged. Because even sexual desire is considered to be unchaste, Sophia takes great care to hide her feelings from Tom, is mortified when Aunt Western discovers them, and is further mortified when she believes that Tom has been bragging about her desire for him at every inn he visits.

For a “respectable” woman in this society, maintaining one’s reputation for purity is just as important as actually refraining from sexual activity. Thus, Fielding introduces several examples of women pretending chastity to preserve their reputations. For example, Bridget Allworthy has Jenny Jones hide Tom in Allworthy’s bed, as she can only raise her son if her brother adopts the boy. (Blifil’s birth eight months after the wedding might have raised eyebrows, but since his parents were married, he is legitimate, which means that his social status, unlike Tom’s, is secure.)

Jenny Jones, who finds her prospects for employment severely limited after falsely admitting to be Tom’s mother, later pretends to virtue by posing as the wife of Captain Waters: a position that garners her more respect than being a mistress. Likewise, Mrs. Fitzpatrick keeps her Irish lover a secret so that she will not lose respect in the eyes of others, and even Lady Bellaston makes an effort to hide her lovers by meeting them in rented rooms. Given that Lady Bellaston’s patronage of young men like Tom is an open secret, and that Allworthy expresses no reproof of his sister for bearing a child out of wedlock or for lying about it, it can be concluded that chastity is less of a moral imperative for older women, who are presumably less sexually desirable by these skewed standards.

This emphasis on female chastity pertains mostly to women of the aspiring middle class, to the gentry, and to business owners like Mrs. Miller, for whom the moral reputation of her business is vital to maintaining her social status and source of income. By contrast, women such as Molly Seagrim and Susan, the maid at the inn at Upton, are free to choose what lovers they please. It is Sophia, the young woman of property, whose sexual preferences are of such great concern, confirming that chastity is the virtue that secures a woman’s social position in a world where her well-being will likely depend on how the men in her life feel about her.