Comedy and the “Tragic Complexion” of Tom Jones

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
James E. Evans, Professor (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/

Abstract: Tony Richardson's 1963 film Tom Jones contains an image not explicitly authorized by Fielding?s novel: Tom, with a noose around his neck, being hanged. Fortuitously, he is rescued by Squire Western before gravity takes its toll. Although consistent with other dark film comedies of the 1960s, this image also has considerable basis in the text. Fielding begins the seventeenth book of Tom Jones by putting a hypothetical noose on his hero. With Tom imprisoned, charged with murder, and Sophia Western recaptured by her father, Fielding contemplates an ending for the novel:

Additional Information

Publication
South Atlantic Quarterly 83 (1984): 384-95.
Language: English
Date: 1984
Keywords
Tom Jones, Literature, Comedy, Tragedy, Catharsis

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