After the hopeful note that we ended on last week, everything goes to pieces in the last two chapters—Mrs. Miller’s daughter/Nightingale’s wife dies in childbirth; Sophia can’t get over everything that Tom put her through, and dies lonely and miserable; Tom joins the Navy and dies of scurvy somewhere around Australia; Partridge becomes a successful playwright, Allworthy drinks himself to death, and Blifil becomes Prime Minister.
Okay, no. That’s not even close to it. Instead, we get something akin to Wayne’s World‘s “Mega Happy Ending.”
We start with Allworthy and Tom going to call on Sophia with her Father. Straight away Allworthy and Western leave the two alone. It takes the two a while to start speaking, eventually, Sophia breaks the silence and calls him most fortunate thanks to being freed. Tom rejects that, saying he can’t be fortunate as long as she’s upset. The ice broken, words start flowing.
Tom ensures she understands what happened with that letter—she gets it, but wants him to prove his devotion. But, she assures him,
You will now want no opportunity of being near me, and convincing me that your mind is altered too.
He wants to know how long it’ll take, she guesses maybe a year (but implies it might take longer). He calls that an eternity. She tells him to back off and not pressure her, and he does so and insists he will keep not pressuring her.
Which leads the two of them to kiss. Naturally, that’s when Western comes back in. He’s overjoyed to see this and asks when they’ll get married. Tom tries to get him to stop this, but Sophia overrides that. She’s an obedient daughter, she says—what does her father want her to do? Marry Tom the next day? Well, okay.
Tom’s stunned, Western demands Allworthy’s presence. Allworthy makes sure that she feels no constraint and then gives his blessing. The four of them go off to meet with NIghtingale and his father, but Sophia wants to keep the engagement quiet.
NIghtingale’s father and uncle trade war stories about their offspring’s impetuous and ill-advised marriage? Allworthy’s counsel works its magic and the two fathers accept the new spouses. The next day Sophia and Tom are married in a small, private ceremony.
And just like that,
Thus, reader, we have at length brought our history to a conclusion, in which, to our great pleasure, though contrary, perhaps, to thy expectation, Mr Jones appears to be the happiest of all humankind; for what happiness this world affords equal to the possession of such a woman as Sophia, I sincerely own I have never yet discovered.
But Fielding doesn’t leave us like that—like in those movies that at the end give you a freeze-frame of a character or two with a chyron summing up the rest of their life in a sentence or three, Fielding tells us what happens to the major characters—Blifil never sees his uncle again, becomes a Methodist (so he can court a woman) and plans on buying a seat in Parliament; Partridge marries good old Molly Seagrim and opens another school; Western becomes a doting grandfather to his two grandchildren (particularly his granddaughter); and so on.
Whatever in the nature of Jones had a tendency to vice, has been corrected by continual conversation with [Allworthy], and by his union with the lovely and virtuous Sophia. He hath also, by reflection on his past follies, acquired a discretion and prudence very uncommon in one of his lively parts.
To conclude, as there are not to be found a worthier man and woman, than this fond couple, so neither can any be imagined more happy. They preserve the purest and tenderest affection for each other, an affection daily encreased and confirmed by mutual endearments and mutual esteem. Nor is their conduct towards their relations and friends less amiable than towards one another. And such is their condescension, their indulgence, and their beneficence to those below them, that there is not a neighbour, a tenant, or a servant, who doth not most gratefully bless the day when Mr Jones was married to his Sophia.
So, that’s that. The ending—all of Book 18—felt rushed. But I’m not sure I could’ve taken much more. After all this, it was really just a simple story about an unlikely guy getting the girl—with a lot of insane twists, turns, and hoops to jump through along the way.
I should have more to say. And probably will soon. I’m not quite done with this series yet—see you next week.
that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
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That I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
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