By Sophie Ballinger
Edited by Katherine Cornell and Mark Potter
A Harlot’s Progress, the first of William Hogarth’s great morality series, is a complex and
allusive London narrative in six pictures and was completed in 1732 to be immediately
engraved and published.[1] It depicts the life of Moll Hackabout from her arrival in London to her death after contracting syphilis. Hogarth charts her fall originally as a series of paintings which were then reproduced as engraved prints. He presents the young harlot as losing ‘not only her virtue but also, gradually her health. Moll descends through the stages of hell becomes depraved, criminalised, poor, diseased – and dies lonely and unloved, a victim, a sacrifice, to the wickedness of the urban age.’[2] With this in mind, it can be said that A Harlot’s Progress offers an illuminating depiction of women’s lives in the eighteenth century as ultimately Moll is presented as a victim of society: innocent women become products of
corruption rather than being corrupt themselves. Cruikshank suggests that Hogarth’s ‘harlot
symbolises the duality of life, of human nature – she is deeply desirable yet also an image of
degeneration and disgust; she is a victim in the power of others yet can also exercise – or
threaten with – power.’[3] Thus, it can be argued that whilst women were victims of lustful men and the corrupt society they lived in, they were able to use their sexuality over men. This power, however, could only be exercised so far; eventually, this would be their downfall.
Hogarth’s A Harlot’s Progress serves as an explicit reminder of London’s corruptive
nature; young and innocent women in the eighteenth-century are driven to moral decline as a result of the city. In Plate 1 of A Harlot’s Progress, Moll stands holding scissors and a
pincushion, which indicates that she may have arrived from the countryside naively seeking
employment as a seamstress. It is interesting to note that Moll is dressed all in white,
symbolically alluding to her purity and innocence when she first arrives in London. Her
innocence is harked back to in Plate 6, which depicts her wake; the hat she originally wore
hangs in the background to remind the viewer that her fate was predetermined. This can
similarly be inferred from the teetering pile of pots depicted in Plate 1 that foretells her
inevitable fall, suggesting that this was destined from the moment that she arrived in London. Thus, A Harlot’s Progress serves as a haunting, visual reminder that the lives of working-class women in eighteenth-century London were predictably subject to moral decline.
In 1796, Patrick Colquhoun, a police magistrate, published his experiences of London’s
debauchery. Estimating that London contained fifty-thousand female prostitutes in 1795, he
concluded that there were ‘twenty-thousand full time or professional prostitutes [of whom] he reckoned to have been former menial servants and factory workers’, whilst the additional
thirty-thousand were believed to have been ‘casual or occasional prostitutes, resorting to this
extremity when times were tough.’[4] Though Colquhoun’s statistics remain open to debate, if taken as holding a degree of accuracy, they could suggest that one-fifth of London’s female
population of a sexually active age were involved in the capital’s sex industry by 1800.[5]
Therefore, as a working-class woman, Moll’s journey as painted by Hogarth can be seen as a
typical depiction of the lives of many women living in urban areas in the eighteenth century.
Hogarth implicitly alludes to the fact that Moll’s downfall is not her fault and that she
is in fact a victim of society, men in particular. After naively falling into prostitution when
approached by a syphilitic madame on her arrival to London, Moll is subsequently trapped in
a downward spiral which results, eventually, in her death. This attitude appears to be typical
amongst Hogarth’s contemporaries, as it was commonly believed that women became
prostitutes out of economic desperation. In addition to this, ‘Richard Steele offered a defence
of prostitutes and an indictment of the selfish and lustful men who were the cause of their initial ruin.’[6] Hogarth’s depiction of the lives of women in the eighteenth century aligns with Steele’s interpretation as early as Plate 1, which shows Colonel Charteris, nicknamed the ‘Rape-Master General of Great Britain’, standing in the background leering over the young Moll with his hands in his trousers. [7] Similarly, in Plate 3 the ‘men bursting into the scene are led by Sir John Gonson, a Westminster magistrate notorious in the 1720s and 1730s for his campaign against prostitutes and the keepers of bawdy and disorderly houses.’[8] This is again significant as, by depicting known contemporary figures in his art, Hogarth’s A Harlot’s Progress ‘confirmed popular notions about the sex industry, its victims, villains, and methods of operation.’ Moreover, in ‘referring to well-known characters [he created a series] immensely rich in detail and anecdote’, which adds considerably to the overall power of the piece in its convincing portrayal of the lives of women in the eighteenth century.[9]
When reading A Harlot’s Progress as a harrowing account of the victimisation of
eighteenth-century women by their lustful male counterparts, it is clear from Moll’s descent
that women’s lives were heavily controlled by men, many of whom objectified women and
used them for their sexuality alone. In exercising their power over women sexually, men could raise and lower a woman’s status; ultimately, women’s livelihood was determined by men and entirely out of their control. It should, however, be noted that this level of male manipulation was, for the most part, only experienced by working-class women. That is not to say that women belonging to the upper classes had agency over their bodies, but rather that their health and lives were not as endangered by male dominance as were those of their working-class counterparts. Hogarth allows viewers to gain an understanding of this lack of sexual agency through his depiction of Moll as being a victim of the men she encounters. Her status rises as a result of being the kept mistress of a wealthy merchant in Plate 2, in which she lives a life of luxury. ‘Various early eighteenth-century satirists had criticized the keeping of mistresses for corrupting the normal bonds of marriage’, notes Catherine Molineux. ‘Hogarth's print participates in this critique by comparing the fashion for mistresses with the fashion for owning pets and slaves.’[10] Hogarth’s incorporation of a child slave and monkey into the image further suggests that Moll’s circumstances are comparable with those of a slave. Whilst it can be said that ‘slavery, tyranny, and trade are already figuratively present in Harlot's Progress without the addition of a black slave’, the latter’s presence ‘nevertheless reinforces the association of these ideas.’[11] Thus, whilst the setting she resides in is grand and respectable, Moll herself is not; the room’s ornate walls merely serve as a reminder her entrapment and limitations. Ultimately, she is no more than the fashionable property of the merchant in the same way as his monkey and slave are a symbol of his colonial wealth.
On the other hand, it has been said that rather than being the ‘deluded victims of male
deceit or fallen angels’, the typical eighteenth-century prostitute was ‘an intensely pragmatic
being’.[12] From this perspective, Hogarth’s depiction of Moll Hackabout in A Harlot’s Progress is limited in what it can tell us about the lives of women in the eighteenth century. Whilst Henderson suggests that becoming a prostitute was an economically sensible decision to make, this implies that these women were making this choice freely, rather than for survival. It is clear from Hogarth’s depiction of Moll that, in her case, this does not ring true: she arrives in the city with innocent aspirations. Thus, this does not support Henderson’s evaluation as Moll is depicted as both a victim of corrupt individuals and the wider society in which they reside. Nevertheless, whether through any fault of her own, Hogarth highlights her descent into moral decline through visual indicators such as the witch’s hat and birch of twigs which adorn Moll’s walls in Plate 3. These may be present to suggest that prostitution is the work of the devil and add to Hogarth’s commentary on the place of religion in this corrupt and immoral city, particularly when coupled with the religious images that hang on the wall beside the hat and twigs. Furthermore, that a religious society could allow this level of corruption speaks volumes regarding the morality of the city. Similarly, the moral and social decline she faces is highlighted in the final plate: those who came to her wake treat her with such disrespect that her coffin is used as a tavern bar, indicating that she was just another dead girl – her life was insignificant once she arrived in London and became a prostitute. Moll’s fate is foreshadowed from the start; in Plate 1, the madame who approaches Moll was already showing signs of syphilitic sores on her face. Therefore, this is another key aspect of the lives of women in the eighteenth century that Hogarth demonstrates effectively: the devastating effects of syphilis on women in the sex industry.
In conclusion, Hogarth’s A Harlot’s Progress is useful in giving viewers an insight into
the lives of working-class women living in London during the eighteenth century. Through his artistic depiction of Moll, the innocent country girl who falls into moral decline as a prostitute, the viewer follows her journey whilst also being forced to reflect on the experiences of women like her. It must not be forgotten however, that this is art; whilst it carries illuminating moral and social commentary, it is not intended to be a direct representation of reality. The lives of women were often used as the subject of entertainment, and Hogarth’s work is no exception – the harlot’s tragic progress is what makes the piece commercially viable. People bought prints of the work as it was so relevant to contemporary interests and served as a shocking reminder of the reality that these women faced, condemned to death from syphilis. Ultimately, Hogarth leaves us with a sense that working-class women in the eighteenth century were victims of both lustful men and a morally corrupt society, and it was this that condemned them to a life of moral decay.
Notes
[1] Jerry White, London in the Eighteenth Century: A Great and Monstrous Thing (London: Bodley Head, 2012), p. 279.
[2] Dan Cruikshank, The Secret History of Georgian London: How the Wages of Sin Shaped the Capital (London: Random House Books, 2009), pp. 2-3.
[3] Cruikshank, The Secret History of Georgian London, p. 2.
[4] Cruikshank, The Secret History of Georgian London, p. 33.
[5] Cruikshank, The Secret History of Georgian London, p. 34.
[6] Richard Steele (1712) in Cruikshank, The Secret History of Georgian London, p. 3.
[7] Richard Hillman and Pauline Ruberry-Blanc, Female Transgression in Early Modern Britain: Literary and Historical Explorations (Farnham: Ashgate Publishing, 2014), p. 185. [8] Hillman and Ruberry-Blanc, Female Transgression in Early Modern Britain, p. 13.
[9] Cruikshank, The Secret History of Georgian London, p. 1.
[10] Catherine Molineux, “Hogarth's Fashionable Slaves: Moral Corruption in Eighteenth-Century London”, ELH, 72/2 (2005), p. 499.
[11] Molineux, “Hogarth's Fashionable Slaves”, p. 503.
[12] Tony Henderson, Disorderly Women in Eighteenth Century London (London: Routledge, 1999), pp. 50-51.
Bibliography
Cruikshank, Dan. The Secret History of Georgian London: How the Wages of Sin Shaped the Capital. London: Random House Books, 2009
Dabydeen, David. “From a Harlot’s Progress”. Wasafiri. 14/29, 1999
Dick, Stewart. “William Hogarth: 1697-1764”. Bulletin of the Pennsylvania Museum. 25/129,
1929
Henderson, Tony. Disorderly Women in Eighteenth Century London. London: Routledge,
1999
Hillman, Richard and Ruberry-Blanc, Pauline. Female Transgression in Early Modern
Britain: Literary and Historical Explorations. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing, 2014
Molineux, Catherine. “Hogarth's Fashionable Slaves: Moral Corruption in Eighteenth-
Century London”. ELH. 72/2, 2005
White, Jerry. London In the Eighteenth Century: A Great and Monstrous Thing. London:
Bodley Head, 2012
Comments