The Rake's Progress, Plate 1

Tom Rakewell is the son of a rich, but miserly, merchant who has recently passed away. Tom has returned from Oxford University to collect and spend his late father’s wealth.

Tom wastes no time in adapting to his new lifestyle. A tailor is fitting him for a new suit, while a decorator is installing new wall hangings in the shabby house. He also rejects his pregnant fiancé, Sarah Young, by attempting to pay her off. Sarah is sobbing into a hankie while holding her engagement ring in her hand, now, a symbol of Tom’s broken promises. Sarah’s mother stands behind her angrily clutching the love letters Tom once wrote to her daughter. Hogarth laces all his prints with clues to help us decode the scene. Sarah pops up throughout these prints representing a more wholesome life that he could have had if he had chosen love and honor over pleasure and vice.