Greed and Tragedy in Human

Greed and Tragedy in Human Society as depicted in "The Vanity of Human Wishes" by Samuel Johnson and "Rake's Progress" by William Hogarth

Through the arts, artists, be they creators of visual or literary works, provide their own insights about their observations and personal experiences of life as they perceive it. Through these interpretations of life, artists are able to extend to their audiences the importance of reiterating normative values imposed in the society.

This lesson is imparted in the visual and literary works of William Hogarth and Samuel Johnson, respectively. Through the series of paintings entitled, "Rake's Progress," Hogarth tackled the Tom Rakewell's (the protagonist) downfall towards poverty as he succumbed to his greediness. Similarly, Johnson, in his poem "The vanity of human wishes," discusses how greed acts like a plague that feeds on humanity's need to accumulate material wealth, only to later realize that these riches will become their downfall towards disappointment and dissatisfaction in life. These themes, then, become the primary discussion and focus of Hogarth and Johnson in their respective work.

Looking into Hogarth's visual piece, greed is operationalized as a gradual process that soon takes over the persona of Tom Rakewell. Rich from having accumulated the wealth of his father, Tom engages in blatant display of his riches by making extravagant and unnecessary purchases. In plate three, entitled, "The Tavern Scene," Hogarth depicts through the symbol of a prostitute the undesirable effects of unnecessary extravagance and greed for money, and other insatiable needs such as lust and fame. In the third plate, Tom is illustrated as participating in sexual relations with a prostitute and another friend. Hogarth expresses this scene by creating a "disdainful" picture of his protagonist with his 'sexual partners': "She is willing to show her arts and for that end to let herself being brought onto the table in the dress of the chicken with the fork in the breast, as living dish. The plate that is brought through the door there... will be the turntable on which she will pose..." This passage from the plate shows how the woman is likened to the lowly animal, chicken, to demonstrate Hogarth's lowly perception of how Tom had wrongly conducted himself as a wealthy man.

Tom's eventual downfall is shown in the last two plates of "Rake's Progress," wherein he eventually lands in prison for his debt due to his drastic splurging of his wealth, and at the madhouse, where the now-insane Tom is detained, having realized his mistakes but cannot do anything to 'undo' them. Thus, he falls into insanity, the only escape that he can do from all his problems in life. In Tom's life, Hogarth reflects the downfall of humanity through madness and instability of the society, with the proliferation of individuals who become stigmatized for being imprisoned in a prison and a madhouse.