William Hogarth 18th Century Britain Was a

William Hogarth 18th century Britain was a society that was undergoing a great deal of political, economic, and social change. The British Parliament was developing the modern form of parliamentary democracy, complete with elections, a Prime Minister, and power residing with the people's representatives. And while the previous centuries had been plagued with religious and political strife, the 18th century would be based upon economics and commercialism. Britain underwent a dramatic economic change which exacerbated the already fractious social divisions and creating an entire new type of society.

One contemporary social commentator, who analyzed 18th century British society through his cartoons was William Hogarth and a study of his work can shed a great deal of light on the type of society in Britain at that time, as well as the types of social discord which were present. The 18th century saw dramatic changes in all aspects of British society; from the poor to the aristocrats. Commercialism, or business, had become the primary concern for the British and the source of a great deal of money.

While titles and family connections were still important, making money was even more so. For example, in a letter written by Voltaire, the French philosopher stated that he was astonished "when the Lord Townshend was Minister of State, a brother of his was content to be a city merchant; and at the time that the Earl of Oxford governed Great Britain, his younger brother was no more that a factor in Aleppo." (Jacob, 2001, p. 124) Being economically successful was just as important as a title or family name.

British society had gone from religious and political strife to the building of an economic empire, complete with winners and losers. It was the losers in this new British society based on capitalism whom William Hogarth used as subjects to comment on the inherent disparity of such a social system. To Hogarth, commercialism was the source of corruption and decadence for the wealthy and suffering for the poor, and this was reflected in his cartoons.

The artist saw the rapid rise of London as a commercial city, and the population rising to close to a million people, as a plight on society. Commercialism had fueled the rise of moral corruption and social decay, and created a place where human beings had no value and the poor were ground up by the system. One particular 1822 engraving by Hogarth that has become a symbol of the greed and corruption of the time is Gin Lane.

(Hogarth, 1822) This piece of art depicted the destruction and suffering caused by gin (the "crack-cocaine" of its day). The new commercial society had created thousands of poor and "working class" people who, because of the misery of their lives, abused alcohol. Gin Alley's central image was a drunken woman who's baby slipped out of her arms and fell to its death. It also presented a man and a dog fighting over a bone, a man pawning his clothes for money to buy gin, and various depictions of violence and chaos.

The meaning is clear, Britain had created a corrupt and.