 Fielding does not limit his analysis of gender roles to just the living ; the image of the ghost plays a significant part in many of Fielding 's plays , including The Author 's Farce , the Tom Thumb plays , and The Covent Garden Tragedy . Even though Fielding fails to explain what the existence of ghosts means , the image of the ghost can serve as a metaphor for Fielding 's expectation of women who are supposed to be publicly virtuous . According to Campbell , 
