I. The Heir
Essay 1: Philosophical Analysis of The Heir
By George Biddle '22
The 19th century was a time of massive social upheaval. Colonies were claiming independence, slavery was abolished in many areas, there were the Napoleonic Wars, and the industrial revolution was underway. While not as flashy as the others, the industrial revolution caused incredible and widespread change in every society it touched. There was a lot of abundance and new wealth being made, but there was a lot of displacement, lots of people coming from farms to work as factory workers in cities, leaving good quality lives for dirty, cramped, and less idea living conditions. William Hogarth was an artist during this exciting period of change, documenting what he saw through his artworks. But he wasn’t always an artist. He grew up poor, with a father in debtors prison at times. Eventually he apprenticed with a silver engraver, where his artistic talents came to light and he became a painter and print maker. Prints were a wonderful new form of art. Paintings were too expensive for anyone other than the highest class, and while prints were still too expensive for most people, they allowed the upper middle class to have access to art and even series. From a historical and philosophical point of view, his prints were particularly interesting as they reflected what he saw as the decadence and decay of the 19th century. One of William Hogarth’s print series that most clearly depicts the decadence and decay of the 19th century is his print A Rake’s Progress. Through eight prints, Hogarth documents the life of Thomas Rakewell, a man who comes into his family fortune and proceeds to squander it through his opulent and wanton lifestyle to the point that he is sent to debtors’ prison and then to the madhouse. One of the most interesting prints in the series is the first, titled The Heir. In this piece, Thomas Rakewell’s father has just died, and he has only just come into the family fortune. At this point, the world is his oyster. He is a wealthy young man with every option available to him. Unfortunately, the money he inherited seems to corrupt him immediately, as can be seen through many elements of the print.
One of the first ones to be noticed is the woman crying. Thomas Rakewell is a man of loose morals. As soon as he got his money, he kicked his pregnant fiancé to the curb and started only caring about himself (although perhaps that all he ever cared about in the first place and the money just facilitated his transition quicker than it would have otherwise come about). In the first print, the Heir, however, I see corruption as being at the forefront of philosophical themes. He is a young man being thrust into a new world with no guidance, no father or teacher to show him the right way of doing things, and as such he is going to be corrupted as we see in the later prints. Now that the heir has come into his money, he is ditching his pregnant once fiancé and is handing her mother some coins. This is some very apparent moral corruption that has come along with his newfound money.
While not immediately obvious, the man putting up the wallpaper in the background is very important to the print. I think this part is critical to the whole print, as the Heir is covering up the old and putting up his own new style. The room appears to be in disrepair, so you have to wonder exactly how much wealth he is coming into, but yet instead of fixing some of the more serious problems, or investing the money into the business, he is spending it on covering up with wallpaper. Plato suggest that the truth and the pursuit of it is the only righteous path, and that anything other than that leads to corruption (Plato, Republic VII). The disrepair of the room is the truth, but Thomas Rakewell’s actions of having wallpaper put up over it, papering over the truth, would show in a platonic view how he is going to be lead into corruption.
In the center and foreground of the print, Thomas Rakewell can be seen getting fitted by new clothes. The tailor and this actions is very relevant to his corruption. Again, now that he has come into the family wealth, he is focused on making himself seem better. At the center of the print is the Heir getting tended to by a tailor, getting fitted for new luxurious cloths. He does not seem very broken up by the death of his father. “Tailors are traditionally identified with pride and the emblem is subordinated to the Rake who, symbolically, employs Pride to make new clothes.” (Cowley, An Examination and Interpretation of Narrative Features in ‘A Rake’s Progress’). Thomas Rakewell is a newly rich young man and his money has begun corrupting him to the point that he is just getting a taste of enjoying the feeling of being better than those around him. He has much farther to go.
The final notable piece of the print that I will touch on is the Notary, stealing from Thomas Rakewell. As someone with means, Thomas Rakewell will have people trying to take a piece of his wealth for the rest of his life. This is a theme throughout the prints. The Notary is the first person to steal from him and symbolizes the corruption of his wealth. While Thomas Rakewell may see himself as being a man of means, a gentleman who dresses well and will be able to do as he pleases, the way in which he follows every desire that pops into his head will lead him to be cheated many more times in his life. The notary dipping into Rakewell’s purse while his attention is all taken up by getting new clothes is an early sign of his downfall.
Through his life experiences, William Hogarth was able to produce one of the most compelling works of the time, chronicling decadence and decay, showing the corruption that can come with following desire as opposed to truth. Let Thomas Rakewell serve as a reminder to all: Money doesn’t make the man. When we fail to pursue truth, corruption sneaks in.
Works Cited
Cowley, R. L. (1972). An Examination and Interpretation of Narrative Features in 'A Rake's Progress'. Birmingham: University of Birmingham.
Plato. (n.d.). Republic.
Essay 2
By RJ Milligan '22
William Hogarth painted a series of eight paintings entitled A Rake’s Progress in 1735, chronicling the fall of an heir to a large fortune. William Hogarth was born in London in 1697 to Richard Hogarth, a failed writer and schoolteacher who was sent to Fleet prison for debt. In his early life, Hogarth apprenticed for a silver engraver and set up his own print engraver in his early 20s (Hayes). Coming from a poor family, Hogarth saw the worst that London society had to offer. In 1721, he released his first satirical print. He would go on to publish several series of prints depicting the problems he saw in humanity and London (Hayes). Prior to releasing A Rake’s Progress, Hogarth had already achieved a high level of recognition and made the prints following the success of its prequel, A Harlot’s Progress. This paper will mainly focus on the first print in A Rake’s Progress titled The Heir.
We will be analyzing The Heir through the framework of corruption and how it relates to decadence and decay in the painting throughout this paper. The corruption framework comes from Plato’s philosophy. He believes that people become decadent once they begin to give into desires that are not necessary. In his eyes, people will inevitably convince themselves that all desires are necessary in some way. This will lead to a decline in society, which Hogarth depicts throughout his prints. Plato also believes that everything has an ideal form. Corruption occurs when things do not live up to their ideal. He holds justice above all and believes that “justice [is] the condition of the living in which individual and community alike achieve their full potential through perfect coordination” (Skemp 85). If the individual is acting in his own self-interest instead of the interest of the community, he would view this as corrupt.
A Rake’s Progress follows Tom Rakewell, the son of a wealthy merchant, who inherits a large fortune after his father’s passing. The first in the series of prints, The Heir, depicts Tom receiving the money and the immediate aftermath. The print is packed with a lot of different characters and symbols and chaos seems to be everywhere. In the remaining part of the paper, we will pick out specific aspects of the painting and connect them back to decadence and decay in the framework of corruption.
First, I would like to focus on Tom. In this print, he still looks innocent and youthful, yet everything around him forebodes his incoming decline. From a Platonian perspective, Tom is decadent in this picture because he is giving into unnecessary desires. He is focused on getting new clothes tailored while everything around him is falling apart. He also does not seem to comprehend the madness in his life. He still has a positive expression and seems to be in a good mood despite the fact that his father just passed away. His clothes also suggest a sort of decadence. They are much nicer than the clothes of everyone else in the picture, which Plato would view as corrupt. Decay is not as present in Tom’s representation in the first print of the series because his fall has not yet begun. While Tom’s outfit and expressions can be viewed as decadent, it is the other things in his life that he is ignoring that really point to his corruption in a Platonic sense.
The lady to the right of the picture is interpreted to be Tom’s pregnant wife. Following receiving his inheritance, Tom divorced her and is shown to be giving her some money as compensation. Now that he has a lot of money, Tom wants to see other women and live frivolously instead of being a husband and father and take care of the house. This can clearly be viewed as giving into unnecessary desires. Tom’s wife is also holding her wedding ring in her hand. She clearly is upset by her ex-husband’s actions, but Tom seems to not be able to comprehend this. The fact that he offers her money to stop her from crying shows that he views happiness as directly correlated to finances. Plato would view this as corrupt because his focuses are in the wrong place and not the ideal.
The papers at the bottom of Tom’s feet also tell a story of decadence. They read “mortgages”, “Bonds” and other important documents. Tom seems to be completely dismissing them because they are strewn all over the floor and falling apart. This is clearly an act of decadence in Plato’s views because Tom is ignoring necessary responsibilities to fulfill his own desires. The fact that they are prominently placed in the picture could suggest that Tom knows that they need to be taken care of but has made the decision to attend to himself instead. Decay is also present in the papers. They are crumpled up and being stepped on in the print. In Plato’s eyes, they could be getting further away from their ideal form because Tom is being decadent and corrupt by not taking care of his responsibilities.
Lastly, I would like to focus on the portrait above the fireplace. This is meant to be a portrait of Tom’s late father. Interestingly, it is showing him counting money instead of something more noble. While this clearly shows where Tom’s viewpoint on money comes from, it’s inclusion in the picture shows a darker side of the corruption present in London society in the time. Tom’s father was a well-respected merchant in the area, and a prominent member of the upper class. By including this in the print, Hogarth shows that it is not just Tom who has this sort of decadence. The entire London upper class has the wrong values and ideals that would lead to corruption according to Plato. The portrait is also falling apart on the edges which further show decay. Even a rich merchant is subject to the same forces as the rest of society.
Overall, Hogarth accomplishes his mission of depicting the decadence of London’s upper class in The Heir. Tom has not yet begun his full decline, but evidence of decadence is all around him. He ignores his responsibilities and instead gives into unnecessary desires that do not do good for those around him.
Works Cited
Hayes, John. British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 120-122.
Skemp, J. B. “The Causes of Decadence in Plato’s Republic.” Government and Opposition, vol. 17, no. 1, 1982, pp. 80–93. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44483405. Accessed 20 May 2022.