II. The Levée
Essay 1: Analysis of The Levée
By Rosie Rao '25
A Rake’s Progress is a series of eight prints produced by William Hogarth in 1734-1735. These works collectively depicts how Tom Rakewell, a young men who inherits a large amount of money, indulges in gambling, extravagant lifestyle and prostitutes. He attempts to live as an aristocrat but doesn’t understand the essence. Therefore, he can’t sustain this live and eventually leads himself to madness followed by death. The specific plate I’m focusing on is plate II, The Levée. It portrays Rakewell, practicing the Monarch’s tradition of dressing and breakfasting in public, is surrounded by musicians and other hangers-on. In this paper, I will explore how shallowness and hypocrisy of the mainstream culture are reflected by this work and then analyze it in the philosophical framework of corruption.
Plato uses corruption to talk about the process of regimes and people descending to inferior forms. To specify, Plato holds logos (truth) the highest value for government, which can be presented by beauty and justice. Therefore, his standard for ideal society is to maintain order, unity, and harmony. The further away a constitution is from achieving these goals, the more decadent it is. Accordingly, the perfect form of governance is aristocracy, in which the ruler is a philosopher king who have a broader view beyond any specific field and thus know the best how to bring unity to the community. A relatively inferior government is timocracy, in which people love honor and victory, and it is self-ruled by the will. Descending from timocracy is oligarchy, a constitution in which citizens self-rule by appetites. There’s no harmony because the rich rule the whole. People value money more than virtue, and they thus only focus on their self-interests. A more decadent form of government is democracy, which is ruled by chaos. Here, individuals have absolute freedom. Consequently, they only care about themselves and act corresponding to their endless appetites. Thus, they don’t make collective effort to bring unity to the community. Eventually, a stronger individual will appear and make decisions for other citizens regardless of their will. Democracy then descends into tyranny, the worst constitution that’s ruled by despots.
Multiple details in the printing show Hogarth’s irony to the shallowness of culture, which leads to Rakewell’s personal downfall. It relates to my framework of corruption in a way that Rakewell is a representation of someone who indulges in their endless appetites instead of pursing logos. He doesn’t think about unity and harmony in the community either, which would be criticized by Plato. His pretended pursuit of aristocratic lifestyle and arts (which represents beauty) is particularly interesting, because these acts don’t make him ideal. Rather, his life driven by spontaneous desires leads him to be more and more decadent. The works shows how people in democracy will gradually cause personal annihilation by their freedom and appetites.
Putting in the context of The Levée, corruption is Rakewell’s decant lifestyle that leads to his personal downfall. According to Yale Center for British Art, the plate shows Rakewell “having just come into his fortune [and] adopting aristocratic habits. ” But his attempt for aristocratic lifestyle is a pretended one. As the central character, the figure of Rakewell is not depicted in the visual center of the print. Instead, he’s he’s turning rightward, making eye contact to a man with a sword, instead of any of the artists around him. This shows that he’s not actually enjoying the music or arts in the levée. Rakewell’s hypocrisy is related to Plato’s definition of corruption that he only focus on the appearance of truth, which is exactly how the physical world deviates from the ideal one.
Another noteworthy element in the print is the painting in the middle, which is a painting of Judgment of Paris. It’s a greek myth that Paris, a Trojan mortal, is asked by Zeus to judge who’s the fairest among the three goddess: Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. All three of them try to bribe Paris with their power. Paris picks Aphrodite after accepting her gift, the most beautiful woman in the world - Helen of Sparta. The story is also the mythological basis of the trojan war later. Greek myth, in this context, is a clear symbol of culture, and its theme beauty, is a form of truth in Plato’s ideal world. However, the way Paris and his beauty standard is affected by bribing can be understand as the hypocrisy inside culture, a corruption in the physical world. The other interesting irony here is that Aphrodite's gift to Paris is a beautiful woman, indicating that Paris does like beauty. In his judgment, the personal desire overrules objectivity, which also explains why Plato dislikes democracy that in this constitution individual wills replaces pursuit of logos.
Additionally, the two paintings besides the Judgement of Paris are very interesting. Two roosters are portrayed facing each other, emblems of cockfighting. This is an activity that is commonly for the purpose of gambling and entertainment and doesn’t match the vibe of the levée. The inconsistency reveals the hypocrisy in Rakewell’s seemingly aristocratic lifestyle. Especially given the echo of cockfighting with the following plate in the series about gambling, the implicit conflict in the plate shows an irony to this levée scene and the corrupted nature of his life.
Furthermore, the quarterstaff instructor standing at the back of the left side of the central painting plays a significant role. Surrounded by others who are facing Rakewell and trying to interact with him, he looks left with a disapproving face. His arms are crossed on his chest, a posture of defense that reveals his discomfort in the scenario and disdain to the levée. His attitude implies the underlying critique of Hogarth to Rakewell and the shallowness and hypocrisy in the mainstream culture he’s trying to pursue.
On the other hand, chapter 6 of The Decadent Society by Douthat provides a perfect complementary angle to examine corruption. In general, this chapter introduces the “pink police state” and its implications. The main feature of the pink police state is that it erases the public/provide divide, but replaces it with “alternative binaries of health/disease and safety/danger instead.” Interestingly, despite granting too much access of personal information to the government that might leads to their tyrannical power, the pink police state isn’t usually regarded as oppression by most people. Rather, the privacy-for-security swap remains acceptable because there’s no other apparent solutions without disconnecting the internet. Gradually, citizens lose control over their privacy and it can lead to tyranny if the government misuse the massive data. It’s also impossible for citizens to reverse this descend because they can’t leave without internet. So they live in the “illusion of privacy” created by the internet as if their conversations are unobserved. This external philosophical source explains how democracy irreversibly turns into tyranny from an alternative modern perspective. The descend is consistent with Plato’s account that in democracy people will become slaves of their endless desire, and Rakewell’s downfall due to indulging in gambling is an example. Then, the constitution will turn into dictatorships because a stronger individual has to maintain order for the community and ensure the public responsibility is taken, so that individuals can keep focusing on their pleasures. On the personal level, citizens eventually lose their self-governance. They might be violently ruled by external powers because of the chaos they create from seeking pleasure. For example, Rakewell’s being arrested later shows the result of his inability to be responsible leads to deprivation of self-control. Hogarth, Plato and Douthat are on the same ground of this unavoidable corruption of individuals who indulge in pleasure.
Works Cited:
Douthat, Ross. The Decadent Society: America Before and After the Pandemic. Reprint, Avid Reader Press / Simon and Schuster, 2021.
“Hogarth Gallery7- A Rake’s Progress II: The Levee | Art and Music in Britain: Four Encounters.” Art and Music in Britain: Four Encounters, artandmusic.yale.edu/handels-london/hogarth-and-music/hogarth-gallery7-rakes-progress-ii-levee. Accessed 10 June 2022.
“A Rake’s Progress | Artble.Com.” A Rake’s Progress, www.artble.com/artists/william_hogarth/paintings/a_rake’s_progress. Accessed 10 June 2022.
Plato, et al. Republic. Harvard University Press, 2013.
Essay 2
By Lin Michell '25
In 1734, William Hogarth (1679-1764) painted A Rake’s Progress as a series that detailed the rise and fall of the main character, Tom Rakewell. The second plate of the series, The Levée, was first engraved and printed in 1735 to illustrate Rakewell’s lifestyle transition after inheriting a fortune from his father. In 2022, Shannon Mussett published a book called Entropic Philosophy. Inspired by modern science, the entropy framework contextualizes the world through a homogenous energy spread. Due to the universal tendency to move from order to disorder, massive energy investment is required to maintain order and uphold the boundaries of a system. Despite creation dates centuries apart, both works by Hogarth and Mussett address the effects of disorder on human life. While Rakewell attempts to escape his humble beginnings by adopting the habits of the upper class, his denial of entropic influences is conversely causing the acceleration of his decline in The Levée.
Among the immediate chaos of overlapping characters, Hogarth uses strategic character positioning and the perspective lines of the room to draw the audience’s attention towards Tom Rakewell, who is slightly off-center in the print. In mimicry of the French royal ritual, Rakewell conducts business with an inner circle of the genteel while dressed in his morning finery. The significance of Rakewell’s interactions with the high-class gentlemen was described by the Soane’s Museum:
“His ambition to rise in society is reflected in his patronage of the genteel, but generally frivolous and unproductive, arts enjoyed by aristocrats and the size of rapacious entourage upon whose services he is spending money liberally, the attendant characters revealing how Tom has passes the seven years since he inherited his miserly father’s fortune.” (Soane)
Proof of Rakewell’s high-society interests can be inferred from the instrumental references. First, the harpsichord player in the lower left-hand corner is captioned with a score from Italian works. As a supporter of British music, Hogarth is satirizing Rake’s decadent music taste and interest in foreign musicians. In addition, the dance master to the immediate left of Rakewell is poised with a kit violin. Overall, Rakewell’s inner group is composed of genteel men that cater to his frivolous and expensive interests. Immediately outside the inner circle, Rakewell’s jockey is kneeling with a trophy awarded to “Silly Tom,” Rakewell’s purebred horse (Soane). All of these side characters complete a collective picture of Rakewell’s habits: in order to distance himself from his humble beginnings, Rakewell is lucratively spending his inherited fortune to attain the surface appearance of an ideal aristocrat.
At a closer look, the existence of Rakewell’s jockey can also be interpreted as a method of introducing entropy into the print. First of all, the physical level difference between Rakewell and the jockey indicates a hierarchy: while Rakewell indulges in the expensive habit of racing horses, the jockey is a kneeling servant that mechanically keeps everything running behind the scenes. Furthermore, the jockey is a noticeable blemish on the otherwise harmonious gathering. Unlike the upright and haughty demeanors of the gentlemen socializing with Rake, the jockey is bent over in a submissive position and ignored by the other men. In a way, his class status dehumanizes him when compared to the hedonistic and attention-seeking attitude of the other men. Through the placement of a character that does not fit his surroundings, Hogarth is able to expose the underlying sacrifice that enables Rakewell’s morning ritual and lucrative spending habits. Despite Rakewell’s attempt at resisting entropy by putting up a veneer of order and harmony, Shannon Mussett points out the long-term impact of disorder and inequality in Entropic Philosophy: “even as we can stave off entropy on the local level (transferring energy from one system to another…) given enough years, there will be no more systems from which to borrow” (Mussett 23). Therefore, the fear of entropy at the local level may establish temporary order in the current system, but it inevitably comes at the cost of increased disorder elsewhere (23). In the context of Hogarth’s The Levée, Rakewell’s excessive consumption is only possible with the sacrifice of his jockey’s labor and time. While the hierarchy may seem to establish order by assigning everyone a role in society, the aristocratic system is only able to be upheld by constantly borrowing work from an external system of servitude.
Apart from the jockey, the Rakewell’s bodyguard is another notable figure in the print. On the surface level, the bodyguard is displaying positive traits: with a hand over his heart and a pledge of his devotion, the bodyguard shows admirable traits of loyalty and faithfulness to Rakewell. On a deeper level, the existence of the bodyguard also proves that Rakewell has experienced a past conflict that puts him in need of one. While there may be tensions in the current system, Rakewell’s employment of a bodyguard is an attempt to reinforce class boundaries and isolate himself from external issues. The bodyguard invests his time and energy to protect Rakewell from potential breakdown and insulation from lower life forms. However, institutional decay is inevitable, and Rakewell’s distaste for the poor and vulgar is unintentionally creating class tensions that contribute to the eventual disorder.
When zooming out from the central group in conversation, the surroundings also give a hint of entropy. At first impression, the high ceilings and decorative paintings create an atmosphere of prosperity and affluence. Specifically, the central painting decorating Rake’s room involves a classic Greek myth about the demise of Paris. As a mortal man, Paris was forced by Zeus to judge the fairest of three goddesses: Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite. After he was promised the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen of Sparta, Paris judged Aphrodite to be the fairest of the three goddesses. Fueled by Athena and Hera’s rage, Paris’ decision to abduct Helen of Sparta as his wife launched the infamous Trojan War. Apart from leading to deaths on all sides of the war, Paris’ abduction of Helen also led to his death. While an expensive painting serves as a way of flaunting Rake’s high status, the topic of the painting can also be interpreted as a grim prediction of Rake’s eventual downfall. Like Paris causing his demise when he gave in to his lust, Rake’s life will parallel that decline when he gives in to his desires and lives decadently. In other words, Rakewell’s material prosperity is a temporary condition that will come at the cost of institutional decay and increased class inequality. As Rakewell lavishly wastes away his inherited fortune, entropy will exponentially decay his high society living conditions as his desires outpace his resources.
Throughout different portions of The Levée, Hogarth displays a gilded level of order and harmony in the morning ritual of Tom Rakewell. In order to keep up a veneer of prosperity, Rakewell ludicrously spends his fortune on expensive hobbies like art, music, and dance. At the same time, Hogarth includes elements of entropy at the edges of the painting, such as through Rakewell’s bodyguard or kneeling jockey. Other characters at the edge of his inner circle have outright disgruntled expressions. The surface perfection is disrupted by a deeper analysis of these chaotic influences. Through Rakewell’s denial of entropy, he is conversely accelerating his decline as his actions lead to increased class tensions and unsustainable inequality.
Works Cited
Mussett, Shannon M. Entropic Philosophy: Chaos, Breakdown, and Creation. Lanham, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2022.
Tinworth, Joanna. "A Rake's Progress II: The Levee." Sir John Soane's Museum Collection Online, Apr. 2021, collections.soane.org/object-p41. Accessed 20 May 2022.