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Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Fielding, Henry, --1707-1754--History of Tom Jones; Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de, --1547-1616--Don Quixote; Don Quixote (Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de); History of Tom Jones (Fielding, Henry); Psycholinguistics;

Abstract

Henry Fielding was greatly interested in the literary works of Cervantes. This interest is reflected in Fielding's writing, especially character development and, to some extent, in his style. There are obvious similarities in thematic content in the dialogues between Tom Jones and Partridge and between Don Quijote and Sancho. There are also obvious similarities in episodes or situations involving these major characters, which are presented and discussed in this thesis. Both major characters, Tom Jones and Don Quijote, leave home to travel with their specific destinations undetermined. Both Tom Jones and Don Quijote have longings for a beautiful woman whom they adore but can't have with them--Tom Jones' Sophia, who is beautiful, real, and living--Don Quijote's Dulcinea, whose beauty is a figment of his imagination but who is, in reality, a homely country maiden. Both are joined in their travels by a character in the capacity of a second, who quickly becomes a close friend. These are the famed characters of Tom Jones' friend, Partridge and Don Quijote's friend, Sancho. Each secondary character enters into the travels, hoping for personal gain--Sancho, the governorship of an island and Partridge, some financial gain because of Tom Jones' relationship with the wealthy Squire Allworthy. When Don Quijote and Tom Jones talk of going into battle neither Sancho nor Partridge wants anything to do with fighting. Linguistic study shows that Tom Jones, Don Quijote, and Sancho are predominantly the sensation- or emotion-type personality while Partridge is the thinking type, according to the Jung typology. It was found, through the linguistic analysis, that Don Quijote experienced subconscious doubts about what he was doing and saying. The linguistic analysis did not reveal any subconscious doubts in the personality of Tom Jones. In comparing Partridge to Sancho linguistically, more differences than similarities were found. Sancho's predominant use of periphrastic expansions indicated his simplicity of character, and his lack of social and intellectual doubts. Partridge used more suprasegmental expansions than periphrastic or simple expansions, indicating his thinking type personality. Sancho also used some suprasegmental expansions which is where the similarity of the two lies, in that their use of the two types of expansions indicates the conflicts in which each found himself. They were trying to fit into two worlds: (1) the natural world in which they had been living and (2) the new world of their new companions. Expansions, such as are listed, analyzed, and classified in this thesis, are closely tied to each character's mental makeup. By analyzing these expansions we determined specific characteristics in the personalities of Don Quijote, Sancho, Tom Jones and Partridge.

Year of Submission

1977

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Department of Modern Languages

First Advisor

Samuel Nodarse

Second Advisor

Nile D. Vernon

Third Advisor

George K. Zucker

Comments

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Date Original

1977

Object Description

1 PDF file (232 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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