History Art / MarriageALaMode

* GenerationalTrauma: The {{paintings}} criticize the then tendency of the upper class to marry out of financial interest and not out of love, and how this negatively impacts everyone involved. The Earl of Squanderfield has been unwise with his family fortune, so he betroths his son to the daughter of a rich, corrupt merchant. It's implied that the son looks down on his fiancée, which combined with the hedonistic lifestyle he learned from his father -- hence, the bankruptcy -- leads to him having frequenting brothels and contracting syphilis. Likewise, the merchant's daughter shares her father's lack of scruples. Seeing the sorry state her husband is in, she decides to engage in a more sexually rewarding extramarital affair with an AmoralAttorney. Consequently, both spouses neglect their daughter, leaving her to be raised by their servants. In the end, it all ends in tragedy, as their mutual unfaithfulness causes them to orphan the little girl, who herself inherited her father's syphilis, implying that the cycle will continue again in a more destructive form.

* GenerationalTrauma: The {{paintings}} criticize the then tendency of the upper class to marry out of financial interest and not out of love, and house this negatively impacts everyone involved. The Earl of Squanderfield has been unwise with his family fortune, so he betroths his son to the daughter of a rich, corrupt merchant. It's implied that the son looks down on his fiancée, which combined with the hedonistic lifestyle he learned from his father -- hence, the bankruptcy -- leads to him having frequenting brothels and contracting syphilis. Likewise, the merchant's daughter shares her father's lack of scruples. Seeing the sorry state her husband is in, she decides to engage in a more sexually rewarding extramarital affair with an AmoralAttorney. Consequently, both spouses neglect their daughter, leaving her to be raised by their servants. In the end, it all ends in tragedy, as their mutual unfaithfulness causes them to orphan the little girl, who herself inherited her father's syphilis, implying that the cycle will continue again in a more destructive form.

* StealthInsult: This is one interpretation of the portrait of the old Earl hanging on the wall in ''The Marriage Settlement'', a portrait packed with incongruities. The Earl is portrayed as a young Jupiter, the god of oaths and treaties, and yet is surrounded by symbols of warfare. He holds symbols of paganism and Christianity in either hand, wears the sash of the French Order of the Holy Spirit and the neck ribbon of the Spanish Order of the Golden Fleece (neither of which, at the time, had ever been awarded to an Englishman[[note]] In reality, only one Englishman, or rather Anglo-Irishman, ever received both awards, and he wasn't even born when Hogarth died; Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, was made the first Protestant Knight of the Golden Fleece in 1812, and the first (and only) Knight of the Holy Spirit from the then-United Kingdom in 1815.[[/note]]), and sits on a cannon firing grapeshot, while the wind is somehow blowing his clothes and his hair in opposite directions. If the artist knew what he was doing, then he correctly assumed that the Earl's ignorance and vanity would prevent him from seeing past his depiction as Jupiter and thus noticing how ridiculous the portrait really is.

* StealthInsult: This is one interpretation of the portrait of the old Earl hanging on the wall in ''The Marriage Settlement'', a portrait packed with incongruities. The Earl is portrayed as a young Jupiter, the god of oaths and treaties, and yet is surrounded by symbols of warfare. He holds symbols of paganism and Christianity in either hand, wears the sash of the French Order of the Holy Spirit and the neck ribbon of the Spanish Order of the Golden Fleece (neither of which, at the time, had ever been awarded to an Englishman), and sits on a cannon firing grapeshot, while the wind is somehow blowing his clothes and his hair in opposite directions. If the artist knew what he was doing, then he correctly assumed that the Earl's ignorance and vanity would prevent him from seeing past his depiction as Jupiter and thus noticing how ridiculous the portrait really is.

* TerminallyIllCriminal: {{Implied}}. The young Earl's excesses have led him to contract syphilis and carry out an unfulfilling sex life. As a consequence, when he discovers his (married for convenience) wife having an extramarital affair with Silvertongue, he has no problems challenging the lawyer to a DuelToTheDeath. At the time, this practice is already illegal so the Earl is prepared to either die at the hands of Silvertongue or to kill him and then die by execution --the then punishment for murder.

* GenerationalTrauma: The {{paintings}} criticize the then tendency of the upper class to marry out of financial interest and not out of love, and house this negatively impacts everyone involved. The Earl of Squanderfield has been unwise with his family fortune, so he betroths his son to the daughter of a rich, corrupt merchant. It's implied that the son looks down on his fiancée, which combined with the hedonistic lifestyle he learned from his father --hence, the bankruptcy-- leads to him having contracted an ETS and frequenting brothels. Likewise, the merchant's daughter shares her father's lack of scruples. Seeing the sorry state her husband is in, she decides to engage in a more sexually-rewarding extramarital affair with an AmoralAttorney. Consequently, both spouses neglect their daughter, leaving her to be raised by their servants. In the end, it all ends in tragedy, as their mutual unfaithfulness causes them to orphan the little girl.

* PoseOfSilence: In ''The Marriage Settlement'', the soon-to-be-married couple is sitting on the same, rather small couch on the far left. The bride is sighing unhappily as she is courted by an AmoralAttorney. Both are leaning toward each other while the groom is cheerfully, obliviously chatting with someone not shown on screen and with his back turned to the bride.

* AntiRoleModel: The series as a whole is a critique of upper-class people who marry for money. The many petty conflicts and irresponsible behaviors the Countess and the Earl engage in --specifically, the former's adultery and the latter's recklessly challenging someone to a duel-- culminate in the Earl being murdered and the Countess killing herself.

[[caption-width-right:350:The first {{painting|s}}, "The Marriage Settlement". The "happy" couple are on the far left.]]

# "[[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Marriage_A-la-Mode_1%2C_The_Marriage_Settlement_-_William_Hogarth.jpg The Marriage Settlement]]"
# "[[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Marriage_A-la-Mode_2,_The_Tête_à_Tête_-_William_Hogarth.jpg The Tête à Tête]]" %% "[[https://mydailyartdisplay.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/marriage-a-la-mode-tete-a-tete-by-william-hogarth.jpg The Tête à Tête]]" in case other link goes blooey
# "[[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Marriage_A-la-Mode_3%2C_The_Inspection_-_William_Hogarth.jpg The Inspection]]"
# "[[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Marriage_A-la-Mode_4%2C_The_Toilette_-_William_Hogarth.jpg The Toilette]]"
# "[[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Marriage_A-la-Mode_5%2C_The_Bagnio_-_William_Hogarth.jpg The Bagnio]]"
# "[[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Marriage_A-la-Mode_6%2C_The_Lady%27s_Death_-_William_Hogarth.jpg The Lady's Death]]"

* AmoralAttorney: In "The Marriage Settlement", Silvertongue, one of the legal counsellors drawing up the paperwork for the marriage contract, shows as much regard for the sanctity of marriage as the simultaneously engaged and unengaged couple. As he sharpens his quill, he begins romancing the bride-to-be, clearly sensing that he could be on to a good thing by getting into the bed of a rich yet unhappily married woman and thus living a life of luxury at her and especially her husband's expense. (She, meanwhile, is happy to have a sexual partner who is not a vain, syphilitic fop.)

* ApothecaryAlligator: Among the many oddities crammed into Monsieur de la Pillule's office in "The Inspection" is the obligatory stuffed alligator hanging from the ceiling... with an incongruous ostrich egg suspended from its stomach, which deliberately makes no sense in context to emphasise that the doctor is an unqualified charlatan.

* AuthorTract: As with most of his satirical paintings, Hogarth fills every square inch of his canvas with details that in some way reflect his aesthetic and personal philosophies. As well as the attack on ArrangedMarriage that dominates the series, Hogarth also took aim at artistic and architectural styles he found repugnant. For example, in "The Marriage Settlement" the Viscount's effeminate foppishness is emphasised by the black bow on his wig and the raised red heels on his shoes, high fashion in the courts of Paris and thus detested by the French-hating Hogarth. Meanwhile, the Earl's opulent new house seen through the window is a hideous parody of the neo-Palladian style (the two colonnades feature different numbers and styles of columns, while the basement windows are triangular and the coach house door is barely tall enough to accommodate a coach, never mind a coachman), which Hogarth despised.
* AwfulWeddedLife: "The Marriage Settlement" sets the tone for the Viscount's marriage to the alderman's daughter; they aren't even looking at each other (the Viscount is gazing adoringly at his own reflection while the bored alderman's daughter is having her attentions courted by Silvertongue), and the two dogs chained together in the lower left represent the misery their marriage will bring both of them. They both have adulterous affairs, spend money irresponsibly on gambling and garishly ugly home decoration, and are generally completely miserable with each other.
* BackAlleyDoctor: "The Inspection" sees the Viscount paying a visit to Monsieur de la Pillule, a French doctor, to discuss the case of a young girl whom he has infected with syphilis. Hogarth thought all French doctors were quacks, and de la Pillule is no exception; the narwhal tusk and comb on his wall suggest that, like many disreputable doctors of the 1700s, he trained as a barber rather than a doctor, and the gallows-shaped tripod on the top of his cabinet implies that he has had brushes with the law. This has not stopped him from inventing mechanical contraptions that look more likely to kill patients than heal them, as evidenced by the device intended to re-set dislocated shoulders on the right of the painting (the other is used as a corkscrew). The Viscount presumably values discretion over qualifications when it comes to seeking treatment for venereal disease.
* BlueBlood: As seen in "The Marriage Settlement", the old Earl is very proud of his lineage, to the point of putting coronets on everything from the crutches necessitated by his gout to one of the two dogs who are chained together. He is pointing proudly to his family tree, which literally sprouts from William the Conqueror.[[note]] Statistically, there's a good chance the alderman was also descended from William, but not in a way that could be documented.[[/note]] The possibility of marrying into a very remote branch of the Royal family is part of the appeal of the contract to the alderman. Neither he nor the Earl notice the severed branch with a royal coronet on just one of the two circles, representing a similarly doomed cross-class marriage higher up the family tree.
* CuckoldHorns: In "The Toilette", a young page boy cheekily points at the horns on a statue of Actaeon, implying he knows that Silvertongue is sleeping with the Countess behind her husband's back.

* DrivenToSuicide: In "The Lady's Death", already ashamed of having brought about her husband's death in a duel, the Countess is completely broken by the news that Silvertongue has been hanged at Tyburn for the crime. She poisons herself with laudanum which she has bribed a dim-witted manservant (the man in the loose-fitting, incorrectly-buttoned coat) to buy for her. Since this makes what remains of the Earl's money forfeit to the state, the only money her father can get back from her dowry is from selling her wedding ring, which he is busy removing.
* DuelToTheDeath: Despite being weak and sickly, the Viscount - later Earl - is prone to getting in swordfights on matters of honour (in "The Tête à Tête", his sword lies broken at his feet after he returns home from a night of carousing). When he finds his wife in bed with Silvertongue at the Turk's Head (a real bagnio near Covent Garden), he challenges him to a duel, and in "The Bagnio" we see the aftermath of the duel; the positions of the characters suggest that, as well as being a poor swordsman to begin with, the Earl had the light from the fire in his eyes, allowing Silvertongue to run him through twice (meanwhile, the Earl's completely clean sword indicates that he didn't so much as scratch Silvertongue). As the noise has caused the landlord of the Turk's Head to summon the night watch, Silvertongue flees through the window as the fatally wounded Earl sinks to the floor while his wife begs his forgiveness.

* ImpoverishedPatrician: The Earl of Squanderfield may be the head of an aristocratic family, but he has fallen on hard times financially (interpreted by some commentators to be a result of the architectural atrocity seen through the window in "The Marriage Settlement", on which work has ground to a halt), which is why he is arranging the marriage of his son to the daughter of a wealthy alderman.
* TheLoinsSleepTonight: One interpretation of the Viscount's broken sword in "The Tête à Tête" is as a symbol of sexual impotence; while the lace nightcap being sniffed by one of the family dogs indicates that he has just returned from a brothel, it appears he was unable to perform, probably as a result of his case of syphilis. (The damp patch on the front of his wife's skirt and her contented expression suggest that her own extramarital tryst had a more satisfactory ending.)

** The old Earl of "Squander" field has done exactly that with his family fortune. Even before he dies, his son and daughter-in-law are living up to the family name with chronic financial irresponsibility; the Viscount gambles and spends money on women, while the Viscountess buys a wide assortment of truly ugly ornaments.
** The lawyer drawing up the paperwork for the marriage who has a long-term affair with the bride is seen in "The Marriage Settlement" whispering into her ear, his words evidently having a powerful enough effect to attract and keep her attention until their deaths. Silvertongue by name, silver tongue by nature.
** The French barber-surgeon whom the Viscount visits in "The Inspection" is identified on the documents next to the mechanical contraptions he has invented as Monsieur de la Pillule, which approximately translates as "Mr. Pill". Aptly, he is treating the Viscount and one or both of the ladies for syphilis with mercury pills (the standard treatment for the disease in the 18th century).

** In "The Bagnio", the Countess is on her knees next to her dying husband, begging his forgiveness with tears in her eyes for the adulterous affair that has led to his death. The fact that the bed is unmade, the clothes and masks from the masquerade are on the floor, and the door lock has been broken make it clear that the Earl surprised his wife and Silvertongue ''in flagrante delicto'' while Silvertongue's genitals are just visible as he flees through the window, all contributing to a sense of the Countess' pleas for forgiveness being intended to assuage her conscience rather than motivated by genuine remorse.
** But with the blood of two men on her hands, the Countess commits suicide in "The Lady's Death", and now it is the dull-witted manservant who wears an expression of horror at the results of his actions, having been the one who bought the fatal dose of laudanum at his mistress' request.

* NouveauRiche: The alderman made his fortune as a merchant rather than inheriting it. However, though rich, he is sloppy and ill-mannered, as seen by his lackadaisical posture in "The Marriage Settlement", and Hogarth gave him tastes in art that he personally loathed, such as the Dutch genre paintings including a man urinating, a woman lighting a pipe from a drunk man's red nose, and a sink full of dirty dishes that adorn the wall in "The Lady's Death". His daughter shares his appalling taste in home decoration, as seen by the dreadful array of ornaments crowding the mantelpiece (especially the mock Roman bust in the centre; the head is clearly not original to the stand, and the nose has been carelessly repaired or replaced) and the clock in a misconceived mishmash of Chinoiserie and Rococo styles with a cat, two fish, and a Buddha in a tree in "'The Tête à Tête", and the absurd parade of equally ugly souvenirs (accompanied by a book identifying them as having been purchased at the estate sale of the late Sir Timothy Babyhouse) in "The Toilette".
* OutlivingOnesOffspring: In "The Lady's Death", the alderman is still alive after his daughter has been DrivenToSuicide, although he seems more interested in recovering what he can of the dowry by removing and selling her wedding ring than he does in mourning the fact that he has outlived his child.
* PoseOfSilence: In "The Marriage Settlement", the soon-to-be-married couple is sitting on the same, rather small couch on the far left. The bride is sighing unhappily as she is courted by an AmoralAttorney. Both are leaning toward each other while the groom is cheerfully, obliviously chatting with someone not shown on screen and with his back turned to the bride.

** [[ImpoverishedPatrician The old Earl's problem with this]] is the reason he has had to [[NobilityMarriesMoney marry off his son]] to the daughter of the NouveauRiche alderman. He had money once, but he has spent it on a sumptuous and, by all appearances, unnecessary new house that violates every common sense principle of architecture imaginable, and in "The Marriage Settlement", the workmen can be seen lounging about in front of the house, waiting for the money to start flowing again before they will pick up their tools.

** In "The Toilette", the notes on the floor (written on the backs of playing cards, a common practice among 18th-century aristocrats) next to the castrato singer include a sterling piece of evidence of just how poorly educated most of the aristocracy were. The card in question reads, "Count Basset begs to no how Lade Squander sleapt last nite."[[note]] Although the English language has evolved since 1745, the use of "no" instead of "know" and the spellings of "Lady" as "Lade", "slept" as "sleapt", and "night" as "nite" were incorrect even then.[[/note]]

** Hogarth routinely used overturned furniture to symbolise disagreement or disharmony, and three paintings in the series feature examples of this. In "The Tête à Tête", a chair lies on its back to emphasise the newlyweds' lack of interest in each other or in their finances (a steward leaves with an expression of disgust and a stack of bills, only one of which has been paid). In "The Bagnio", a table has been knocked over during the duel that has left the Earl mortally wounded and Silvertongue fleeing for his life. And in "The Lady's Death", one of the chairs at the table has fallen over backwards in the aftermath of the Countess' suicide.
** In "The Marriage Settlement", there are two candlesticks below a {{sculpture|s}} of a Gorgon's face twisted around each other, but the candles are unlit, while the two dogs in the lower left are chained together, and look thoroughly miserable. Below the candles and above the dogs we see the Viscount and the alderman's daughter, with nary a flicker of affection or passion between them.
** The art gallery on the old Earl's walls in "The Marriage Settlement" is a parade of {{foreshadowing}} of disaster, every one depicting Biblical or mythological violence. Among them are [[Literature/BooksOfSamuel David killing Goliath]], [[Literature/BookOfGenesis Cain killing Abel]], St. Lawrence's martyrdom, St. Sebastian's martyrdom, [[Literature/TheFourGospels the Massacre of the Innocents]], Judith's decapitation of Holofernes, Prometheus being attacked by a vulture, and [[Literature/BookOfExodus the Red Sea engulfing the Pharaoh's armies]].
** "The Toilette" features paintings of Lot and his daughters, Jupiter and Io, and the abduction of Ganymede -- all stories about seduction of a rather sordid sort -- while a chuckling African page boy holding a statue of Actaeon points to its horns, a symbol of cuckoldry; meanwhile, Silvertongue lives up to his name as the Countess hangs on his every word.
* TheScrooge: "The Lady's Death" reveals that for all the money his family brought to the marriage, the alderman lives a very frugal existence, though this may also be a result of his daughter having spent and/or lost access to the money from her dowry after the Earl's murder. His house is in an unfashionable part of London Bridge (the houses seen through the window look to be one stiff breeze from falling over into the Thames), his furniture is shabby, he eats pig's head, and his dog is desperately underfed. He seems more interested in getting the Countess' wedding ring off her finger before rigor mortis sets in so that he can sell it than in the fact that his daughter has just poisoned herself.

** The castrato singer in "The Toilette" is believed to be either Giovanni Carestini or Farinelli, both regulars in the operas of Hogarth's good friend Music/GeorgeFredericHandel, while the flautist is believed to be either Karl Friedrich Wiedemann (music teacher to the future King George III) or King Frederick II of Prussia. (However, as Hogarth never mastered flattery in portraiture, their physical appearances suggest that the music the duo are performing is as horrible as the Countess' taste in art!)
** Among the Countess' guests in "The Toilette", the woman in the white dress leaning appreciatively toward the two musicians is Mrs. Elizabeth Fox Lane, later Lady Bingley after the death of her husband. Said husband is also one of the guests at the Countess' levée; he is the man in the background with the riding crop who has dozed off (being far more interested in fox hunting than music).
* StealthInsult: This is one interpretation of the portrait of the old Earl hanging on the wall in "The Marriage Settlement", a portrait packed with incongruities. The Earl is portrayed as a young Jupiter, the god of oaths and treaties, and yet is surrounded by symbols of warfare. He holds symbols of paganism and Christianity in either hand, wears the sash of the French Order of the Holy Spirit and the neck ribbon of the Spanish Order of the Golden Fleece (neither of which, at the time, had ever been awarded to an Englishman), and sits on a cannon firing grapeshot, while the wind is somehow blowing his clothes and his hair in opposite directions. If the artist knew what he was doing, then he correctly assumed that the Earl's ignorance and vanity would prevent him from seeing past his depiction as Jupiter and thus noticing how ridiculous the portrait really is.
* TakeThat: Monsieur de la Pillule, the French quack barber-surgeon whom the Viscount visits in "The Inspection" to discuss the case of syphilis for which the young girl he has brought along is being treated, is a dual attack on contemporary doctor Richard Rock and Hogarth's perception that French medical knowledge left a lot to be desired.[[note]] Both of these were also skewered in the fifth painting of "A Harlot's Progress", with caricatures of the German-born Rock and his French-born rival, Jean Misaubin (whose museum inspired the decoration of M. de la Pillule's surgery), too busy arguing over the best way to treat Moll Hackabout (Rock suggests bleeding, Misaubin favours cupping; both treatments would be equally valueless to the syphilitic Moll) to notice that she is fading fast.[[/note]] The bizarre contraptions on the right-hand side of the painting are M. de la Pillule's own inventions and are intended to re-set dislocated shoulders and remove corks from wine bottles, and the documents next to them identify them as having been inspected and approved by the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris.

* BlueBlood: As seen in "The Marriage Settlement", the old Earl is very proud of his lineage, to the point of putting coronets on everything from the crutches necessitated by his gout to one of the two dogs who are chained together. He is pointing proudly to his family tree, which literally sprouts from William the Conqueror.[[note]] Statistically, there's a good chance the alderman was also descended from William, but not in a way that could be documented.[[/note]] The possibility of marrying into a very remote branch of the Royal family is part of the appeal of the contract to the alderman. Neither he nor the Earl notices the severed branch with a royal coronet on just one of the two circles, representing a similarly doomed cross-class marriage higher up the family tree.

** In "The Bagnio"the Countess is on her knees next to her dying husband, begging his forgiveness with tears in her eyes for the adulterous affair that has led to his death. The fact that the bed is unmade, the clothes and masks from the masquerade are on the floor, and the door lock has been broken make it clear that the Earl surprised his wife and Silvertongue ''in flagrante delicto'' while Silvertongue's genitals are just visible as he flees through the window, all contributing to a sense of the Countess' pleas for forgiveness being intended to assuage her conscience rather than motivated by genuine remorse.

[[caption-width-right:350:The first {{painting|s}}, "The Marriage Settlement". The "happy" couple is on the far left.]]

* AntiRoleModel: The series as a whole is a critique of upper-class people who marry for money. The many petty conflicts and irresponsible behaviors the Countess and the Earl engage in --specifically, the former's adultery and the latter's recklessly challenging someone to a duel-- culminate in the Earl being murdered and the Countess killing herself.

** In "The Bagnio"the Countess is on her knees next to her dying husband, begging his forgiveness with tears in her eyes for the adulterous affair that has led to his death. The fact that the bed is unmade, the clothes and masks from the masquerade are on the floor, and the door lock has been broken make it clear that the Earl surprised his wife and Silvertongue "in flagrante delicto" while Silvertongue's genitals are just visible as he flees through the window, all contributing to a sense of the Countess' pleas for forgiveness being intended to assuage her conscience rather than motivated by genuine remorse.

* NouveauRiche: The alderman made his fortune as a merchant rather than inheriting it. However, though rich, he is sloppy and ill-mannered, as seen by his lackadaisical posture in "The Marriage Settlement", and Hogarth gave him tastes in art that he personally loathed, such as the Dutch genre paintings including a man urinating, a woman lighting a pipe from a drunk man's red nose, and a sink full of dirty dishes that adorn the wall in "The Lady's Death". His daughter shares his appalling taste in home decoration, as seen by the dreadful array of ornaments crowding the mantelpiece (especially the mock Roman bust in the centre; the head is clearly not original to the stand, and the nose has been carelessly repaired or replaced) and the clock in a misconceived mishmash of Chinoiserie and Rococo styles with a cat, two fish, and a Buddha in a tree in"'The Tête à Tête", and the absurd parade of equally ugly souvenirs (accompanied by a book identifying them as having been purchased at the estate sale of the late Sir Timothy Babyhouse) in "The Toilette".

* BlueBlood: As seen in "The Marriage Settlement" the old Earl is very proud of his lineage, to the point of putting coronets on everything from the crutches necessitated by his gout to one of the two dogs who are chained together. He is pointing proudly to his family tree, which literally sprouts from William the Conqueror.[[note]] Statistically, there's a good chance the alderman was also descended from William, but not in a way that could be documented.[[/note]] The possibility of marrying into a very remote branch of the Royal family is part of the appeal of the contract to the alderman. Neither he nor the Earl notices the severed branch with a royal coronet on just one of the two circles, representing a similarly doomed cross-class marriage higher up the family tree.

* PoseOfSilence: In "The Marriage Settlement", the soon-to-be-married couple is sitting on the same, rather small couch on the far right. The bride is sighing unhappily as she is courted by an AmoralAttorney. Both are leaning toward each other while the groom is cheerfully, obliviously chatting with someone not shown on screen and with his back turned to the bride.

** In "The Tête à Tête", there are two candlesticks below a {{sculpture|s}} of a Gorgon's face twisted around each other, but the candles are unlit, while the two dogs in the lower left are chained together, and look thoroughly miserable. Below the candles and above the dogs we see the Viscount and the alderman's daughter, with nary a flicker of affection or passion between them.

** In "The Marriage Settlement", there are two candlesticks below a sculpture of a Gorgon's face twisted around each other, but the candles are unlit, while the two dogs in the lower left are chained together and look thoroughly miserable. Below the candles and above the dogs we see the Viscount and the alderman's daughter, with nary a flicker of affection or passion between them.

* SequentialArt: It's a collection of seven paintings that tell the story of how a loveless, arranged marriage culminates in tragedy. The titles of the paintings provide some extra information as well.

# "[[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Marriage_A-la-Mode_2,_The_Tête_à_Tête_-_William_Hogarth.jpg The Tête à Tête]]"
%% "[[https://mydailyartdisplay.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/marriage-a-la-mode-tete-a-tete-by-william-hogarth.jpg The Tête à Tête]]" in case other link goes blooey

%%# "[[https://mydailyartdisplay.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/marriage-a-la-mode-tete-a-tete-by-william-hogarth.jpg The Tête à Tête]]" in case other link goes blooey

[[caption-width-right:350:The first {{painting|s}}, ''The Marriage Settlement''. The "happy" couple are on the far left.]]

* ''[[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Marriage_A-la-Mode_1%2C_The_Marriage_Settlement_-_William_Hogarth.jpg The Marriage Settlement]]''
* ''[[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Marriage_A-la-Mode_2,_The_Tête_à_Tête_-_William_Hogarth.jpg The Tête à Tête]]''
%%* ''[[https://mydailyartdisplay.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/marriage-a-la-mode-tete-a-tete-by-william-hogarth.jpg The Tête à Tête]]'' in case other link goes blooey
* ''[[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Marriage_A-la-Mode_3%2C_The_Inspection_-_William_Hogarth.jpg The Inspection]]''
* ''[[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Marriage_A-la-Mode_4%2C_The_Toilette_-_William_Hogarth.jpg The Toilette]]''
* ''[[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Marriage_A-la-Mode_5%2C_The_Bagnio_-_William_Hogarth.jpg The Bagnio]]''
* ''[[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Marriage_A-la-Mode_6%2C_The_Lady%27s_Death_-_William_Hogarth.jpg The Lady's Death]]''

* AmoralAttorney: In ''The Marriage Settlement'', Silvertongue, one of the legal counsellors drawing up the paperwork for the marriage contract, shows as much regard for the sanctity of marriage as the simultaneously engaged and unengaged couple. As he sharpens his quill, he begins romancing the bride-to-be, clearly sensing that he could be on to a good thing by getting into the bed of a rich yet unhappily married woman and thus living a life of luxury at her and especially her husband's expense. (She, meanwhile, is happy to have a sexual partner who is not a vain, syphilitic fop.)
* ApothecaryAlligator: Among the many oddities crammed into Monsieur de la Pillule's office in ''The Inspection'' is the obligatory stuffed alligator hanging from the ceiling... with an incongruous ostrich egg suspended from its stomach, which deliberately makes no sense in context to emphasise that the doctor is an unqualified charlatan.

* AuthorTract: As with most of his satirical paintings, Hogarth fills every square inch of his canvas with details that in some way reflect his aesthetic and personal philosophies. As well as the attack on ArrangedMarriage that dominates the series, Hogarth also took aim at artistic and architectural styles he found repugnant. For example, in ''The Marriage Settlement'', the Viscount's effeminate foppishness is emphasised by the black bow on his wig and the raised red heels on his shoes, high fashion in the courts of Paris and thus detested by the French-hating Hogarth. Meanwhile, the Earl's opulent new house seen through the window is a hideous parody of the neo-Palladian style (the two colonnades feature different numbers and styles of columns, while the basement windows are triangular and the coach house door is barely tall enough to accommodate a coach, never mind a coachman), which Hogarth despised.
* AwfulWeddedLife: ''The Marriage Settlement'' sets the tone for the Viscount's marriage to the alderman's daughter; they aren't even looking at each other (the Viscount is gazing adoringly at his own reflection while the bored alderman's daughter is having her attentions courted by Silvertongue), and the two dogs chained together in the lower left represent the misery their marriage will bring both of them. They both have adulterous affairs, spend money irresponsibly on gambling and garishly ugly home decoration, and are generally completely miserable with each other.
* BackAlleyDoctor: ''The Inspection'' sees the Viscount paying a visit to Monsieur de la Pillule, a French doctor, to discuss the case of a young girl whom he has infected with syphilis. Hogarth thought all French doctors were quacks, and de la Pillule is no exception; the narwhal tusk and comb on his wall suggest that, like many disreputable doctors of the 1700s, he trained as a barber rather than a doctor, and the gallows-shaped tripod on the top of his cabinet implies that he has had brushes with the law. This has not stopped him from inventing mechanical contraptions that look more likely to kill patients than heal them, as evidenced by the device intended to re-set dislocated shoulders on the right of the painting (the other is used as a corkscrew). The Viscount presumably values discretion over qualifications when it comes to seeking treatment for venereal disease.
* BlueBlood: As seen in ''The Marriage Settlement'', the old Earl is very proud of his lineage, to the point of putting coronets on everything from the crutches necessitated by his gout to one of the two dogs who are chained together. He is pointing proudly to his family tree, which literally sprouts from William the Conqueror.[[note]] Statistically, there's a good chance the alderman was also descended from William, but not in a way that could be documented.[[/note]] The possibility of marrying into a very remote branch of the Royal family is part of the appeal of the contract to the alderman. Neither he nor the Earl notice the severed branch with a royal coronet on just one of the two circles, representing a similarly doomed cross-class marriage higher up the family tree.
* CuckoldHorns: In ''The Toilette'', a young page boy cheekily points at the horns on a statue of Actaeon, implying he knows that Silvertongue is sleeping with the Countess behind her husband's back.

* DrivenToSuicide: In ''The Lady's Death'', already ashamed of having brought about her husband's death in a duel, the Countess is completely broken by the news that Silvertongue has been hanged at Tyburn for the crime. She poisons herself with laudanum which she has bribed a dim-witted manservant (the man in the loose-fitting, incorrectly-buttoned coat) to buy for her. Since this makes what remains of the Earl's money forfeit to the state, the only money her father can get back from her dowry is from selling her wedding ring, which he is busy removing.
* DuelToTheDeath: Despite being weak and sickly, the Viscount - later Earl - is prone to getting in swordfights on matters of honour (in ''The Tête à Tête'', his sword lies broken at his feet after he returns home from a night of carousing). When he finds his wife in bed with Silvertongue at the Turk's Head (a real bagnio near Covent Garden), he challenges him to a duel, and in ''The Bagnio'', we see the aftermath of the duel; the positions of the characters suggest that, as well as being a poor swordsman to begin with, the Earl had the light from the fire in his eyes, allowing Silvertongue to run him through twice (meanwhile, the Earl's completely clean sword indicates that he didn't so much as scratch Silvertongue). As the noise has caused the landlord of the Turk's Head to summon the night watch, Silvertongue flees through the window as the fatally wounded Earl sinks to the floor while his wife begs his forgiveness.

* ImpoverishedPatrician: The Earl of Squanderfield may be the head of an aristocratic family, but he has fallen on hard times financially (interpreted by some commentators to be a result of the architectural atrocity seen through the window in ''The Marriage Settlement'', on which work has ground to a halt), which is why he is arranging the marriage of his son to the daughter of a wealthy alderman.
* TheLoinsSleepTonight: One interpretation of the Viscount's broken sword in ''The Tête à Tête'' is as a symbol of sexual impotence; while the lace nightcap being sniffed by one of the family dogs indicates that he has just returned from a brothel, it appears he was unable to perform, probably as a result of his case of syphilis. (The damp patch on the front of his wife's skirt and her contented expression suggest that her own extramarital tryst had a more satisfactory ending.)

** The old Earl of ''Squander''field has done exactly that with his family fortune. Even before he dies, his son and daughter-in-law are living up to the family name with chronic financial irresponsibility; the Viscount gambles and spends money on women, while the Viscountess buys a wide assortment of truly ugly ornaments.
** The lawyer drawing up the paperwork for the marriage who has a long-term affair with the bride is seen in ''The Marriage Settlement'' whispering into her ear, his words evidently having a powerful enough effect to attract and keep her attention until their deaths. Silvertongue by name, silver tongue by nature.
** The French barber-surgeon whom the Viscount visits in ''The Inspection'' is identified on the documents next to the mechanical contraptions he has invented as Monsieur de la Pillule, which approximately translates as "Mr. Pill". Aptly, he is treating the Viscount and one or both of the ladies for syphilis with mercury pills (the standard treatment for the disease in the 18th century).

** In ''The Bagnio'', the Countess is on her knees next to her dying husband, begging his forgiveness with tears in her eyes for the adulterous affair that has led to his death. The fact that the bed is unmade, the clothes and masks from the masquerade are on the floor, and the door lock has been broken make it clear that the Earl surprised his wife and Silvertongue ''in flagrante delicto'', while Silvertongue's genitals are just visible as he flees through the window, all contributing to a sense of the Countess' pleas for forgiveness being intended to assuage her conscience rather than motivated by genuine remorse.
** But with the blood of two men on her hands, the Countess commits suicide in ''The Lady's Death'', and now it is the dull-witted manservant who wears an expression of horror at the results of his actions, having been the one who bought the fatal dose of laudanum at his mistress' request.

* NouveauRiche: The alderman made his fortune as a merchant rather than inheriting it. However, though rich, he is sloppy and ill-mannered, as seen by his lackadaisical posture in ''The Marriage Settlement'', and Hogarth gave him tastes in art that he personally loathed, such as the Dutch genre paintings including a man urinating, a woman lighting a pipe from a drunk man's red nose, and a sink full of dirty dishes that adorn the wall in ''The Lady's Death''. His daughter shares his appalling taste in home decoration, as seen by the dreadful array of ornaments crowding the mantelpiece (especially the mock Roman bust in the centre; the head is clearly not original to the stand, and the nose has been carelessly repaired or replaced) and the clock in a misconceived mishmash of Chinoiserie and Rococo styles with a cat, two fish, and a Buddha in a tree in ''The Tête à Tête'', and the absurd parade of equally ugly souvenirs (accompanied by a book identifying them as having been purchased at the estate sale of the late Sir Timothy Babyhouse) in ''The Toilette''.
* OutlivingOnesOffspring: In ''The Lady's Death'', the alderman is still alive after his daughter has been DrivenToSuicide, although he seems more interested in recovering what he can of the dowry by removing and selling her wedding ring than he does in mourning the fact that he has outlived his child.

** [[ImpoverishedPatrician The old Earl's problem with this]] is the reason he has had to [[NobilityMarriesMoney marry off his son]] to the daughter of the NouveauRiche alderman. He had money once, but he has spent it on a sumptuous and, by all appearances, unnecessary new house that violates every common sense principle of architecture imaginable, and in ''The Marriage Settlement'', the workmen can be seen lounging about in front of the house, waiting for the money to start flowing again before they will pick up their tools.

** In ''The Toilette'', the notes on the floor (written on the backs of playing cards, a common practice among 18th century aristocrats) next to the castrato singer include a sterling piece of evidence of just how poorly educated most of the aristocracy were. The card in question reads, "Count Basset begs to no how Lade Squander sleapt last nite."[[note]] Although the English language has evolved since 1745, the use of "no" instead of "know" and the spellings of "Lady" as "Lade", "slept" as "sleapt", and "night" as "nite" were incorrect even then.[[/note]]

** Hogarth routinely used overturned furniture to symbolise disagreement or disharmony, and three paintings in the series feature examples of this. In ''The Tête à Tête'', a chair lies on its back to emphasise the newlyweds' lack of interest in each other or in their finances (a steward leaves with an expression of disgust and a stack of bills, only one of which has been paid). In ''The Bagnio'', a table has been knocked over during the duel that has left the Earl mortally wounded and Silvertongue fleeing for his life. And in ''The Lady's Death'', one of the chairs at the table has fallen over backwards in the aftermath of the Countess' suicide.
** In ''The Marriage Settlement'', there are two candlesticks below a sculpture of a Gorgon's face twisted around each other, but the candles are unlit, while the two dogs in the lower left are chained together and look thoroughly miserable. Below the candles and above the dogs we see the Viscount and the alderman's daughter, with nary a flicker of affection or passion between them.
** The art gallery on the old Earl's walls in ''The Marriage Settlement'' is a parade of {{foreshadowing}} of disaster, every one depicting Biblical or mythological violence. Among them are [[Literature/BooksOfSamuel David killing Goliath]], [[Literature/BookOfGenesis Cain killing Abel]], St. Lawrence's martyrdom, St. Sebastian's martyrdom, [[Literature/TheFourGospels the Massacre of the Innocents]], Judith's decapitation of Holofernes, Prometheus being attacked by a vulture, and [[Literature/BookOfExodus the Red Sea engulfing the Pharaoh's armies]].
** ''The Toilette'' features paintings of Lot and his daughters, Jupiter and Io, and the abduction of Ganymede -- all stories about seduction of a rather sordid sort -- while a chuckling African page boy holding a statue of Actaeon points to its horns, a symbol of cuckoldry; meanwhile, Silvertongue lives up to his name as the Countess hangs on his every word.
* TheScrooge: ''The Lady's Death'' reveals that for all the money his family brought to the marriage, the alderman lives a very frugal existence, though this may also be a result of his daughter having spent and/or lost access to the money from her dowry after the Earl's murder. His house is in an unfashionable part of London Bridge (the houses seen through the window look to be one stiff breeze from falling over into the Thames), his furniture is shabby, he eats pig's head, and his dog is desperately underfed. He seems more interested in getting the Countess' wedding ring off her finger before rigor mortis sets in so that he can sell it than in the fact that his ''daughter'' has just poisoned herself.

** The castrato singer in ''The Toilette'' is believed to be either Giovanni Carestini or Farinelli, both regulars in the operas of Hogarth's good friend Music/GeorgeFredericHandel, while the flautist is believed to be either Karl Friedrich Wiedemann (music teacher to the future King George III) or King Frederick II of Prussia. (However, as Hogarth never mastered flattery in portraiture, their physical appearances suggest that the music the duo are performing is as horrible as the Countess' taste in art!)
** Among the Countess' guests in ''The Toilette'', the woman in the white dress leaning appreciatively toward the two musicians is Mrs. Elizabeth Fox Lane, later Lady Bingley after the death of her husband. Said husband is also one of the guests at the Countess' levée; he is the man in the background with the riding crop who has dozed off (being far more interested in fox hunting than music).
* StealthInsult: This is one interpretation of the portrait of the old Earl hanging on the wall in ''The Marriage Settlement'', a portrait packed with incongruities. The Earl is portrayed as a young Jupiter, god of oaths and treaties, and yet is surrounded by symbols of warfare. He holds symbols of paganism and Christianity in either hand, wears the sash of the French Order of the Holy Spirit and the neck ribbon of the Spanish Order of the Golden Fleece (neither of which, at the time, had ever been awarded to an Englishman), and sits on a cannon firing grapeshot, while the wind is somehow blowing his clothes and his hair in opposite directions. If the artist knew what he was doing, then he correctly assumed that the Earl's ignorance and vanity would prevent him from seeing past his depiction as Jupiter and thus noticing how ridiculous the portrait really is.
* TakeThat: Monsieur de la Pillule, the French quack barber-surgeon whom the Viscount visits in ''The Inspection'' to discuss the case of syphilis for which the young girl he has brought along is being treated, is a dual attack on contemporary doctor Richard Rock and Hogarth's perception that French medical knowledge left a lot to be desired.[[note]] Both of these were also skewered in the fifth painting of ''A Harlot's Progress'', with caricatures of the German-born Rock and his French-born rival, Jean Misaubin (whose museum inspired the decoration of M. de la Pillule's surgery), too busy arguing over the best way to treat Moll Hackabout (Rock suggests bleeding, Misaubin favours cupping; both treatments would be equally valueless to the syphilitic Moll) to notice that she is fading fast.[[/note]] The bizarre contraptions on the right hand side of the painting are M. de la Pillule's own inventions and are intended to re-set dislocated shoulders and remove corks from wine bottles, and the documents next to them identify them as having been inspected and approved by the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris.

''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_A-la-Mode_(Hogarth) Marriage A-la-Mode]]'' is a series of paintings by the English artist William Hogarth, originally painted from 1743-45. In the paintings, Hogarth skewered the idea that the wealthy lived virtuous lives by depicting a disastrous ArrangedMarriage between [[ImpoverishedPatrician the son of the bankrupt Earl of Squanderfield]] and [[NouveauRiche the daughter of a rich but corrupt merchant and city alderman.]] There are six paintings in all (titles as given on the frames):

[[caption-width-right:350:The first painting, ''The Marriage Settlement''. The "happy" couple are on the far left.]]

** The art gallery on the old Earl's walls in ''The Marriage Settlement'' is a parade of {{Foreshadowing}} of disaster, every one depicting Biblical or mythological violence. Among them are [[Literature/BooksOfSamuel David killing Goliath]], [[Literature/BookOfGenesis Cain killing Abel]], St. Lawrence's martyrdom, St. Sebastian's martyrdom, [[Literature/TheFourGospels the Massacre of the Innocents]], Judith's decapitation of Holofernes, Prometheus being attacked by a vulture, and [[Literature/BookOfExodus the Red Sea engulfing the Pharaoh's armies]].