Pictorial Narratives: Hogarth’s Marriage à la Mode Essay

When examining both Robert Browning’s, My Last Duchess, and Charlotte Mew’s, The Farmers Bride, the reader witnesses the poems positions of marriage in the natural world. Within both works, it is quite evident how each relationship is vastly different from the modern world, yet parallel it at the same time. Whether it be: the interactions between the two people or the conditions of the marriage, it is made more than apparent that both can be applied to modern conceptualizations of marriage.

Marriage may not be as simple as just falling in love and living “happily ever-after” with that special partner. It may become complicated when superficial values, such as social standings, money and ones name, become more important than love. Without that thumping in the heart and special someone, marriage may encompass cheating, lies and dominance. These dishonest and threatening tendencies may doom a marriage to fail. In the play Importance Of Being Earnest and the poem My Last Duchess, both Oscar Wilde and Robert Browning utilizes the rhetorical techniques of satire, diction and characterization to show that marriage is not a sacred and honest relationship.

The texts Act I of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, “Life In The Elizabethan England,” and “Bringing Home The Wrong Race,” all have similar ideas about love, and the restrictions that surround it. Each one have distinctions, these differences give each other a take on the situation of love. These distinctions of the relationships, the similarities, and the differences all make up the body of each text.

and the family was seen as a sign of order; it was perceived as the

In this paper I will compare the approach to marriage in the works “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” by Geoffrey Chaucer and “The Flea” by John Donne; in both cases it is a means to an end: in the first the old woman wants to get “the thing that most of all Women desire” and in the second the lover seeks “How little which his lover (thou) deniest him (me)” and uses an allusion to marriage to achieve this.

Dressing appropriately to one’s station was, of course, an idea more than familiar to the premodern world and the subject of numerous sumptuary laws; indeed, throughout history, clothing has carried implicit messages about the wearer, from their gender and personality to their wealth or poverty. Sumptuary laws produced in medieval and early modern Britain, more specifically, ‘typically assigned women social rank on the basis of a male relative’. In light of this, it is unsurprising that when the marquis, Walter, selects the peasant Griselda for his bride when his people implore him to marry (ll. 92-140) that one of his first concerns is making her apparel appropriate to her new, superior position in the social hierarchy. Though his insistence that ‘Bountee comth al of God, nat of the streen / Of which they been engendred and ybore’ (ll. 157-8) – that a person’s goodness or ‘gentillesse’ is not inherited but divinely bestowed – suggests an ability to critique social expectations and divisions, Walter nonetheless succumbs to social convention in reclothing Griselda. Regardless of the strength of her inner qualities and character, the wife of the marquis could not be poorly arrayed: her new rank must be sartorially declared, and must reflect her husband’s rich status than her father’s poor status. Further, it is politically expedient to make Griselda’s

Most often one looks for status and wealth in a partner. However, what happens when this is not the case? When two people choose to marry for reasons of mutual love and loyalty to one another? In the 14th century, this was hardly ever the case. Of the three estates, it was most likely for a woman to marry into the first estate, then the second and rarely the third estate since the wealth reflects onto her. In Geoffrey Chaucer’s edition of, The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer goes into great detail through the use of characters from different backgrounds about the role of the estates and status within a marriage. In a tale told by a Franklin, Chaucer introduces this remarkable concept of marriage for not one’s position in the community but love and

The artwork of William Hogarth is influenced greatly by social factors and the culture of eighteenth century England. In many of his works, Hogarth satirizes English society, rich and poor alike. His paintings and engravings depict the society of which he lived, with the costumes and ways of life of the times all shown in his work. Much of the time he is being satirical, exaggerating some of the faults of the people, other times he is being bitingly realistic in his views. It seems no-one is safe from his caricatures, from the lords and ladies, to slaves, servants, prostitutes, criminals and the poor.

She acts unbelievably contemptuous and ironic when she says, “A hundred and thirty thousand pounds! And in the Funds! Miss Cardew seems to me a most attractive young lady, now that I look at her”, this quote also portrays how marriage was considered as an opportunity for social and financial advancements. Lady Bracknell wants the best for her daughter Gwendolen, therefore, she surely wants the best for her only impoverished aristocratic nephew;

Instead of trying to emulate Mrs. Ramsay’s life by ousting herself into marriage, as Paul and Minta unfortunately did, Lily turns back to her art as a statement of her own individuality and therein “she finally says yes, not to a man, but to her own art” (Goldman, 61). By divorcing herself from the idea of marriage, Lily creates distance between herself and Mrs. Ramsay and represents “an alternative, creative path for women, than the marriage

Benjamin West combines Neoclassicism and a baroque style composition to create a scene greater than an average portrait in Mr. and Mrs. John Custance, 1778. In turn, the content within this theatrical setting illustrates the change of attitude towards marriage during the late eighteenth-century England, especially through the interaction of allegories. The 60¼” x 84⅝” oil on canvas painting was created to celebrate the union of John Custance and Frances Beauchamp-Proctor. The painting was created the same year the couple was wedded. By the end of the eighteenth-century, the concept of marriage had faced various ideological developments, which was indicative of the broader social and economic growth during this period. West takes into account the desire for affectionate marriages rather than ones solely based in economic need through compositional elements and symbolism.

Marriage for the sake of fulfillment relates only to societal norms and not into romance or cohesive partnership. During the 19th century in Britain, the emotions were not driving the matrimony wagon, but rather wealth and class defined the game of marriage. Charlotte Lucas tells Elizabeth Bennet, “I am not a romantic...considering Mr. Collins’s character, connections, and situation in life...my chance of happiness with him...entering the marriage state” (109). Charlotte displays the elements of being fulfilled, connections and situation in life. “Marriage has always been her object: it was the only honorable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune” (107).

Bracknell’s rejection of Jack marrying Gwendolen reflects the aristocracy’s imprint on family stature. “To speak frankly, I am not in favor of long engagements. They give people the opportunity of finding out each other’s character before marriage, which I think is never advisable”. This statement conforms to how aristocracy does not see marriage as love, but as a catalyst for obtaining social

These questions show how the upper class unintentionally elevates trivialities such as appearance, by making this a serious criterion for marriage. At the same time, she ignores occupation and work ethic, which should be considered as consequential. Undoubtedly marriage is a weighty matter and worth serious concern in most people's lives, because a good marriage can provide people with happiness and satisfaction. Most people hope to marry a person they love and a person who can lead to a better life. Wilde does not take issue with Lady Bracknell’s focus on marriage.

In Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”, one of the major themes is love and marriage. Elizabeth is portrayed as a movement towards women’s rights and what is wrong with society and their views of women as material possessions or collateral. Jane Austen seems to do this in a satirical way by bringing light to these issues in a comical romance, hidden in the humor.