William Hogarths Marriage a la Mode - Essay Example

As the country grew into a world power, achieving its status by being the country with the greatest number of colonies feeding raw materials into the system and developing markets for finished products outside of the country, landowners and merchants began to see their fortunes grow (Eichman, 2009). One of the ways smaller merchants secured a future for their family name was by marrying off their daughters to wealthier merchants or noblemen. Daniel Rice (2008) points out that some of the common features of marriage in those days were the payment of a high price for the marriage certificate, the whole family becoming committed to the arrangement and the marriage was court ordered once the bond payments had been received. Little, if any, interest was given to the two parties getting married and this often led to other problems within the marriage contract. These issues are explored in some depth in a series of paintings by William Hogarth, executed around 1745.

In this series of paintings, Hogarth shows the progression of marriage from the initial signing of the contract through the young couples’ accustomed activities with each other and with others to end finally in their deaths at a relatively young age. The first image depicts the signing of the contract in which only the older members of the group seem to take any interest. The groom seems to be playing cards in the corner while the bride flirts with the lawyer directly behind his back. Neither one seems overly concerned with the activities of the other.

The group of men gathered around the table seems to be trying to work through the contract document, but it seems more of a distraction than the serious business deal it is. Meanwhile, one of the older gentlemen, presumably the groom’s father, stands looking out the window admiring the new mansion he’s building. Thus, this painting sets up the concept of marriage as little more than a business arrangement that must bring some kind of materially mutual benefit to the families involved with very little concern for the interests and abilities of the two people who will have to live with each other. This concept still holds today in many respects as is highlighted by Liz Pulliam Weston (2009) who writes about the need to focus on the business side of marriage more than the romantic concepts.

The second image in Hogarth’s series appears to pick up shortly after the marriage has taken place. Both bride and groom, now husband and wife, seem to be exhausted by their nightly activities. Throughout this and the next two images, the audience sees that the husband is unfaithful – there is a ladies handkerchief tucked into his coat pocket in Tete a Tete and he urges the doctor to determine which of his two recent lovers, one a prostitute and the other a young maidservant, might have given him a venereal disease in The Inspection. The audience is prevented from feeling too much sympathy for the wife by her early flirtations with the lawyer in The Contract and through the fourth painting in the series, The Toilette, where she is again seen in too close proximity to the lawyer.

The story closes with the deaths of the two characters. The young husband dies in a nighttime dual with the lawyer when the lawyer and lady are discovered in a very compromised position. This leads also to the lawyer’s death because of the murder of the young nobleman – this element is not pictured. However, with both young men dead, the wife determines to commit suicide by convincing a servant to bring her poison. She dies leaving a daughter behind, meaning the family has not profited as intended. Her father spends her last moments slipping the wedding band off her finger.

In creating these images, Hogarth highlights the problems inherent in the arranged business marriage and the destruction that caused. Read More