Clothing in Text: Muff "Why, ma'am,' answered Mrs. Honour, "he came into the room one day last wee when I was at work, and there lay your ladyship's muff on a chair, and to be sure he put his hands into it-that very muff your ladyship gave me yesterday. La! says I, Mr. Jones you will stretch my lady's muff, and spoil it: but he still kept his hands in it: and then he kissed it-to be sure I hardly ever saw such a kiss in my life as he gave it" (Fielding 132-133).
Social Commentary: In this scene, the muff shows the double entendre found in so many works of the time period. A quick view of the Oxford English Dictionary will indeed show that "muff" was used to describe female genitalia in 18th century texts. The muff here not only represents her parts, but the female image before marriage.
Tom Jones, a foundling known for his escapades with women, would severely tarnish the reputation of Sophia if he did indeed find her alone. He would "spoil" her "muff" on various levels, yet this is not explicitly stated in the text, as noted by Stephen Dobranski: "In the case of characters’ omitted speeches, the narrator dramatizes not only the emptiness of their words but also the lack of effect that the words have on their auditors" (Dobranski 637). Fielding uses the fashionable muff to represent the ownership and currency of the female, both in a literal and moral sense.
Other Clothing References: "How had she the assurance to wear a gown which young Madame Western had given to mother!" (Fielding 115-116).
"Her bonnet had been blown from her head not less than five times within the last mile; nor could she come at any ribbon or handkerchief to tie it under her chin" (Fielding 399).