Tom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes

First published: 1857

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Didactic

Time of plot: Early nineteenth century

Locale: Rugby, Warwickshire, England

Principal characters

• Thomas “Tom” Brown, a student at Rugby
• Harry East, his friend
• George Arthur, a boy befriended by Tom
• Dr. Arnold, the headmaster of Rugby
• Flashman, a bully

The Story:

Tom Brown is the son of a country squire who believes in letting his children mingle not only with their social equals but also with any children who are honorable. Before Tom left home to attend Rugby School, therefore, he had the advantage of friendship with all types of boys. This training would be of value to him at the famous school. When Tom alights from the coach on his arrival at Rugby, he is met by Harry East, a lower-school boy who has been at the school for a half year. East gives Tom good advice on how to dress and how to take the hazing and bullying that every new boy must endure. The two boys become immediate friends and are to remain so throughout their years at school.

From the first, Tom loves the school. He conducts himself with such bravery, both on the playing field and in dormitory scuffles, that he soon gains popularity among the other boys. One of the sixth-form boys, a leader among the students, makes such an impression on Tom with his talks on sportsmanship and kindness to weaker boys that Tom is almost a model student during his first half year. He does join in some mischief, however, and is once sent to Dr. Arnold, the headmaster. By and large, however, he and East profit by the lessons they learn in classes and in games.

At the beginning of the second half year, Tom is promoted into the lower fourth form, a large and unruly class dominated by bullies and ruffians. Formerly he had liked his masters and tried to please them; now he begins to believe that they are his natural enemies, and he attempts to do everything possible to thwart them. He cheats in his lessons and shirks many of his other duties. He and East disobey many rules of the school and often taunt farmers in the neighborhood by fishing in their waters or killing their fowl. All in all, Tom, East, and their friends behave in very ungentlemanly ways.

Nevertheless, Tom and East also do some good in the school, for they are basically boys of sound character. Both come from good homes and received good early training. They finally decide that something must be done about “fagging,” the custom under which the younger boys are expected to run errands for the older boys. Each older boy is allowed two fags, but some of them make every younger lad in the school wait on them. One particular bully is Flashman. Tom and East decide to go on strike against Flashman’s domination; they lock themselves in their room and defy his demands that they let him in. After attempting to break the door down, Flashman retreats temporarily, but he is not through with the rebels. For weeks, he catches them and tortures them at every possible chance, but they hold firm and persuade some of the other lower-school boys to join them in their strike. At last, Flashman’s brutality to Tom and East and their friends so disgusts even the bully’s best friends that they begin to desert him, and his hold on the school is broken. Tom and East then thrash him soundly, and from that time on, Flashman never lays a hand on them. Not long afterward, Flashman is caught drunk by the headmaster and is sent away from the school.

Tom and East begin to get into trouble in earnest, and Dr. Arnold despairs of their even being allowed to stay in school. The wise headmaster, however, can see the good in the boys, good that they seem to try hard to hide, and he arranges for them to be split up. Tom is given a new roommate, a shy young boy who is new to the school, George Arthur. Arthur is a half orphan, and Tom’s better nature responds to the homesick younger boy. Arthur is to be the greatest influence to enter Tom’s life during his career at Rugby. He is of slight build, but he has moral courage that makes Tom ashamed. Arthur does what he thinks is right, even when it means that he must endure the taunts of his housemates. Tom cannot let a younger boy appear more courageous than he, so he reverts to his own former good habits, which he had dropped because of fear of hazing. He begins again to kneel in prayer morning and night; he reads his Bible and discusses earnestly the meanings of certain passages. Indeed, as East says, although Tom is seemingly becoming a leader in the school, it is really Arthur who is leading Tom and thus the other boys. East fights the change as hard as he can, but in the end he too follows Tom, and, despite himself, he begins to change for the better.

When fever strikes the school, many of the boys become seriously ill, Arthur among them. One boy dies. Arthur remains very weak after his illness, and his mother decides to take him out of school until he can recover his strength. Before he leaves, Arthur speaks to Tom about cribbing. Although Tom, believing that to fool the masters is a schoolboy’s duty, scoffs at his friend’s views on cheating, Arthur as usual prevails. Tom finds it hard to do his lessons honestly, but each time he weakens, the memory of Arthur’s face and voice sets him straight again. East does not completely change in this respect, but he does try harder on his own before resorting to dishonest means.

Another result of Arthur’s influence is that East takes Communion. He has never been confirmed in the Church, but as a result of a conversation with Tom, during which Tom put forth many of Arthur’s beliefs, East talks with Dr. Arnold and receives spiritual stimulation. After he begins to receive Communion, East rapidly changes into the good young man he has unknowingly wanted to be.

So the school years pass. East finishes up and goes off to fight in India. Tom becomes the leader of the school, and he and Arthur, who has returned after his illness, influence many changes in the actions and attitudes of the boys. After graduation, Tom goes on to Oxford. While there, he learns of the death of his old headmaster, Dr. Arnold. He returns to Rugby to mourn the man who played such a large part in influencing his life. It is not until Dr. Arnold is gone that Tom and the others realize how much the good man had done for them. Tom’s friends are scattered over the earth, but he knows that his heart will always be with them and those wonderful days at Rugby.

Bibliography

Allen, Brooke. “A World of Wizards.” New Leader 82, no. 13 (November 1-15, 1999): 13-14. Critical review of the works of J. K. Rowling compares the world of Hogwarts in her Harry Potter books to the public school as depicted in Tom Brown’s School Days.

Briggs, Asa. Victorian People: A Reassessment of Persons and Themes, 1851-1867. Rev. ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. An eminent British historian discusses the notable figures, ideas, and events of the high Victorian era. Includes a brilliant chapter titled “Thomas Hughes and the Public Schools.”

Chandos, John. Boys Together. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1984. Scholarly analysis of the English public school from 1800 to 1864 includes discussion of the central role played by Dr. Thomas Arnold. Examines the importance of Hughes’s Tom Brown’s School Days in popularizing Arnold’s reforms at Rugby.

Mack, Edward C., and W. H. G. Armytage. Thomas Hughes: The Life of the Author of “Tom Brown’s School Days.” London: Ernest Benn, 1952. Standard biography of Hughes, an archetypal Victorian figure, illustrates his many literary, political, and social endeavors. Includes an extensive discussion of Tom Brown’s School Days.

Quigly, Isabel. The Heirs of Tom Brown: The English School Story. London: Chatto & Windus, 1982. Analyzes the development of the numerous stories written about England’s public schools, a genre that began with Hughes’s Tom Brown’s School Days.

Stoneley, Peter. “Family Values and the ’Republic of Boys’: Tom Brown and Others.” Journal of Victorian Culture 3, no. 1 (Spring, 1998): 69-92. Examines Tom Brown’s School Days and Eric: Or, Little by Little (1858) by Frederic William Farrar, describing how these novels depict school as a microcosm of Victorian society.

Trory, Ernie. Truth Against the World: The Life and Times of Thomas Hughes, Author of “Tom Brown’s School Days.” Hove, England: Crabtree, 1993. Biography provides information on Hughes’s writing as well as on his political career.

Worth, George J. Thomas Hughes. Boston: Twayne, 1984. Focuses on Hughes the writer rather than Hughes the politician and public figure. Includes in-depth discussion of Tom Brown’s School Days.