As far as I know, a general process of saving a princess who is locked up in a tower by an evil dragon is like this: a knight runs to the tower, fights against the dragon which is breathing fire and defeats the dragon any way, and finally saves the princess. The important point we should remember is that the weapon of the knight in saving the princess is a sword and a shield. But, it is not the case in Harriet Fitzpatrick’s story in Tom Jones.
Harriet tells her story of confinement and escape from it to Sophia. The reason for Harriet’s imprinsonment was that she did not comply with her husband’s demand to sell her estate to make money. Harriet was locked up in her room about two weeks and became at liberty again with unknown way. On how she regains liberty, Harriet just explained shortly that “gold, the common key to all padlocks, opened my door” (524). What does she mean by “gold”? Soon, however, the meaning of “gold” is uncovered. The fact is that a nobleman, one of Mr Fitzpatrick’s neighbors saved her by bribing the governor.
In this story, a dragon is Mr Fitzpatrick, a husband, a princess is Harriet Fitzpatrick, a wife, and a knight is a neighboring nobleman. Interestingly, the narrator directly compares this nobleman to the knight found in ancient heroic story because he actually “[have] delivered many an imprisoned nymph from durance” (529). Both a knight and the nobleman’s intention to save women in danger might be derived from similar chivalric hearts, but their weapons are quite different: a sword and a shield for a knight and money for the nobleman. Moreover in this story, the narrator criticizes marriage, asserting that
to say truth, I have often susptected that those very enchanters with which romance everywhere abounds were in reality no other than the husbands of those days; and matrimony itself was, perhaps, the enchanted castle in which the nymphs were said to be confined. (529)
In this transformation from ancient heroic story to the eighteenth century novel, I read no more magical romance but money-governing reality. In both situations of the confinement and the escape, money plays the key role. In addition, as the narrator points, I cautiously presume the reason for matrimony’s becoming to the enchanted castle is based also on money since marriage arrangement were based on exchange of one part’s property and the other part’s reputation as we saw in Hogarth’s paintings last week’s class.
In this short episode, I think Fielding clearly suggests that his work of fiction is not like old heroic and magical stories. At the earlier part of the novel, the narrator explains himself “as I am, in reality, the founder of a new province of writing” (68) so readers should follow the way as he leads. Tom Jones is a comic story obviously but this does not mean Fielding includes only the funny things in the novel, i.e., this work is the reflection of contemporary reality. Because of this, as I argue, we encounter the scene that the knight-like nobleman use gold as his weapon “in conformity with the modern art of war” (529).
Works Cited
Fielding, Henry. Tom Jones. Eds. John Bender and Simon Stern. New York: Oxford UP: 2008. Print.
collecting 
I liked your interpretation of this scene, and it did rather have a damsel in distress attitude to the reader. Money plays such a role in the relationships between characters! If Tom Jones had been born recognized as an heir, the whole book wouldn’t have happened! Tom is constantly in and out of money, but more importantly giving it away to those in need. While others may have higher status within the social hierarchy, his generosity makes him well-liked with commoner and aristocrat alike-that is, until he sleeps with their wives/daughters!