The word prudence appears dozens of times throughout Tom Jones, and the reader must prudently discern the tone with each use, for the narrator can rarely be taken at face value. Most often, the word is used satirically in order to correct various forms of false prudence. Fielding believed that “it is much easier to make good men wise than to make bad men good.”23 Teasing out what true prudence consists of advances Fielding’s hope “to make good men wise.”
