nd Master Blifil helps establish the two as one of these sets. Also, the formation of Mr. Allworthy’s less than shining opinion of Tom provides some foreshadowing of his later actions towards our main character. Fielding goes as far as to directly point out this foreshadowing, in a typical intrusion of narrative perspective, when he tells us that this developing shift in opinions has “prepared Mr. Allworthy’s mind for those impressions which afterwards produced the mighty events that will be contained hereafter in this history” (122). This kind of narrative intrusion pops up all over Tom Jones, and it is an exceptionally blatant use of the device later in the chapter which gives this portion of the book such importance when considering Fielding’s moral implications.After establishing the impression of the two boys developed by Mr. Allworthy, Fielding inserts an entire paragraph, written in the author’s own voice, outlining one of the novels major moral assertions. Fielding, aware of this passage’s function, even subtitles the chapter “In which the author himself makes an appearance on the stage” (121), laying out for the reader a clear understanding of the presence of a narrative voice outside the action of the story which serves to clarify the author’s opinion of the chapter’s meaning. He uses the impression of the boys described above to make a comment about the complexities of virtue. Our narrator begins by stating this intent and pointing out its importance. He writes, “In recording some instances of these, we shall, if rightly understood, afford a very useful lesson to those well-disposed youths who shall hereafter be our readers” (122). Here Fielding establishes that the message to come will be a kind of explanation of his theme. He aims, perhaps just a little facetiously, to instruct his readers by means of directly placing his own opinions wi...
