Mr Allworthy sees his good nature and says I am convinced my child that you have much goodness generosity and honour in your temper However Tom is also full of youthful mischief He follows his passion and gets involved with many women like Molly and Mrs Waters This causes him a lot of trouble Tom learns from his mistakes slowly Another lifelike character is Mr Square Allworthy He is kind and generous He gives shelter to infant Tom when he finds him on his bed However he makes mistakes because of his blind trust in people like Blifil and Thwackum He banishes Tom This shows that even good people can be wrong Fielding s lifelike characters make this novel relatable and enjoyable Hypocrites and Villains Fielding skillfully shows hypocrites who pretend to be good but are selfish and cunning Blifil pretends to be obedient and religious But he is actually greedy jealous and deceitful He lies to Squire Allworthy to make Tom appear bad Thwackum Tom s tutor pretends to teach religion but uses religion to punish Tom and support Blifil Through these characters Fielding shows that hypocrisy is more dangerous to religion and goodness than openly bad people As the narrator says Both religion and virtue have received more real discredit from hypocrites than infidels could ever cast upon them Fashionable Class Fielding gives us a clear picture of the th-century fashionable upper-class society through his characterization of Lady Bellaston Lady Bellaston is a clever selfish rich London lady She desires Tom and tries to separate Sophia from Tom So she distracts Sophia by taking her to fashionable parties She even introduces Sophia to Lord Fellamar She sets up Lord Fellamar to sexually assault Sophia The narrator says She Lady Bellaston resolved to get rid of her Sophia by some means or other Lady Bellaston s character gives us an idea about how cruel upper-class people can be to take what they want Comic Characters Fielding uses humour in his characters to lighten serious moments Squire Western Sophia s father is loud and stubborn He hunts always shouts and drinks He is obsessed with forcing Sophia to marry whom he wants His actions create comic moments Partridge Tom s loyal companion is another comic character He is talkative fearful and superstitious These comic characters make the novel enjoyable Grow and Change Another remarkable thing about Fielding s characters is that they grow and change throughout the story This makes them realistic and human Tom Jones starts as a careless and pleasure-seeking youth But he learns carefulness and control over his desires He learns to say no to wrong choices For example he refuses Lady Bellaston because he loves Sophia The narrator says It is much easier to make good men wise than to make bad men good This shows Fielding s belief that good people like Tom can learn and grow While truly immoral people like Blifil are unlikely to change In conclusion Henry Fielding s art of characterization makes the novel relatable and enjoyable His characters laugh cry make mistakes and grow They teach us about human nature society and morality Fielding s art of characterization makes Tom Jones one of the best in English literature