Love affairs as an element of the plot serve for the purpose of illustration excellently, because what can move somebody’s feelings better than a love affair, especially, if the story is told focusing on the unhappy lover, the victim of the circumstances. On the other hand, the long introductory books about Tom’s childhood and early youth substantiate his development in the kind of person he is depicted as a grown-up, they realistically depict the conditions, under which Tom’s ‘vices’ have appeared and the influence of the surrounding society causing such tendency to love affairs. The first symptoms are given by the case with the Black George, whom Tom hides: “Oh! ho! this is your mistaken notion of honour! This is the boy who was not to be whipped again!" (Fielding, 1982)
Summing up all the mentioned, Tom Jone’s love affairs serve as the promoter of the plot in H. Fielding’s novel Tom Jones, acting simultaneously as a basis for philosophical and moral lectures and discussions, while the author’s ironic attitude towards the facts softens the moralizing tone.
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