He is the elder son and heir of Sir Thomas Bertram, a baronet and wealthy landowner in Northamptonshire, who also owns an estate in Antigua.
Tom's character has much in common with the biblical Prodigal, though he is the elder rather than younger son, and the portion of inheritance he wastes is not his own but his brother's.
[1] Barbara Hayley says that Tom's vices spring from being the elder brother and heir, and 'that without effort or worth on his part, the family's house, estate and money are destined for him'.
Sir Thomas rightly suspects the first repentance to be superficial and removes Tom from the influence of his friends by taking him on a business trip to Antigua for a year.
The second repentance comes near the end of the novel when Tom has a 'fall', both literal and spiritual, at the Newmarket Easter races and, being close to death, sends word to bring him home.
Two wealthy young people, Henry and Mary Crawford move into the area and are living in the parsonage with their half sister, Mrs Grant wife of the new clergyman.
Austen carefully distinguishes between the fashionable elite theatricals of the aristocracy, which were mercilessly lampooned by the press, and the more modest efforts of the gentry.
[2] Josephine Ross says that Austen's experience of hearing her brothers declaim poetry must be reflected in Tom Bertram's reminiscence, 'I am sure my name was Norval, every evening of my life, through one Christmas holidays', a reference to his childhood recitations from the popular eighteenth-century play Douglas, by John Home.
[6] Later in the novel, Tom leaves again to take part in a horse racing meet at Newmarket but has a fall and is injured which, combined with his drinking, causes him to become very ill. His friends abandon him and Edmund has to fetch him home to be nursed back to health.