“Tom Jones” by Henry Fielding (post 3): “And this, as I could not prevail on any of my actors to speak, I myself was obliged to declare,” the narrator says.

In Part I, Book III, Chapter VII, titled “In which the author himself makes his appearance on the stage,” the nameless narrator advises the reader that “hereafter in this history,” Tom Jones is going to have serious problems “to which, it must be confessed, the unfortunate lad, by his own wantonness, wildness, and want of caution, too much contributed…”

The lesson: “It is not enough that your designs, nay, that your actions, are intrinsically good; you must take care they shall appear so…And this precept, my worthy disciples, if you read with due attention, you will, I hope, find sufficiently enforced by examples in the following pages…

“And this [precept], as I could not prevail on any of my actors to speak, I myself was obliged to declare” (1, pp. 121-123).

Comment

Many people, reading the above, think that the author is joking, because they assume that characters are puppets that will say whatever the author wants.

But this author—like many other authors I have quoted from interviews and essays—says that his characters are not like puppets, but more like willful actors, who have minds of their own.

In short, the fiction writer’s important characters are imaginary people who seem to have minds of their own, which are alternate personalities (who may cooperate, but sometimes won’t).

1. Henry Fielding. [The History of] Tom Jones [A Foundling] [1749]. Edited by John Bender and Simon Stern. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2008.