The Rake's Progress

Good day to all. I hope you are enjoying your break of an autumnish nature. Before I embark upon another blogging escapade, I would like to call attention to the recent renovations my blog has undergone: I've added PICTURES to many of my entries! Please peruse through my blog and feast your eyes upon newly-added, utterly delightful rectangles of pixelated pleasure... whatever the heck that means.

For those of you that know me, I doubt you'll find it surprising that, when asked to describe an example of a contemporary rake, the "fashionable or stylish [men] of dissolute or promiscuous habits" (Special thanks to the OED for this superb definition of a rake) that first came to mind were those from previous centuries. (Oh, the woes of those whose minds dwell on days of yore...) Though I was able to come up with an example of a modern-day rake, I thought it a shame to not mention the other "antiquated" examples I had come up with. Thus, I've decided to dedicate this blog entry to briefly analyzing the progression of the image of the rake since the 18th century.

I feel it's only fair for me to begin with a discussion of one of William Hogarth's series of paintings, The Rake's Progress, seeing as this work was the inspiration for my blog title. For those of you that are unfamiliar with Hogarth, he was an 18th century English painter, who, among other things, was well-known for satiric depiction of the aristocracy. In The Rake's Progress, Hogarth tells the story of a man who inherits his father's fortune and uses it to fund a superfluous and ostentatious lifestyle, which, of course, included habits of a promiscuous nature. The rake's reckless ways eventually cause him to end up in Bedlam, a mental institution in London. The image I've provide below is the third painting in the series, "The Orgy." Eh-hem... I'm assuming there's no explanation needed here...

Moving right along... George Gordon Byron, a.k.a. Lord Byron, also seems to fit the OED's definition of a rake. Byron was an English Romantic poet, whose "reputation" extend beyond things of a literary nature (One of his most famous poems is "She Walks in Beauty, which you can read here: http://www.bartleby.com/101/600.html.). Because of his poetic prowess and handsome appearance, he was often an object of sexual desire for many women of his day--the 19th century Clive Owen, if you will. With a vast array of women at his beckon call, it's no wonder he led such a lewd lifestyle. (However, considering Byron's notoriously pleasure-seeking personality, it's likely that he would have found other ways to appease his sexual appetite had there been a lack of willing women.) Below is a picture of Lord Byron... quite the Don Juan if you ask me. (Ironically enough, the term "Don Juan," among other things, refers to a semi-autobiographical poem written by Byron, which tells the story of a sexually promiscuous male.)


The next rake on my list is also from the 19th century. However, unlike the above rakes, he is a fictional character from the 1939 film, Gone With The Wind, adapted from the novel by Margaret Mitchell. His name is Rhett Butler. For those of you that haven't seen this movie (By the way... you SHOULD! It's EXCELLENT! Definitely one of my favorites.), Rhett is exceptionally wealthy, but has "the most terrible reputation," to quote a gossiping woman from the film. Although throughout the course of the movie, Rhett is wooing (or at least attempting to woo) one woman, the heroine, Scarlett, he frequents the local house of ill-repute where his good "friend" Belle Watling is the "madam." Here's a funny video clip from YouTube that contains many of the scenes from the film in which Rhett exhibits sexually promiscuous behavior. The song "Tough Lover" is playing in the background: how appropriate.



At long last, we arrive at the present day: The contemporary rake is... drum roll please... Joey from the film 10 Things I Hate About You. Joey, like our other rakes, is wealthy, takes pride in his appearance, and, of course, harbors a wanton lust for a fleshy love; he's a horny high-school boy, who, to use a colloquialism, "gets around." Like some of the rakes from the readings, Joey takes pride in "conquering the virtuous." His object of desire, Bianca Stratford, is not only one of the most beautiful, popular girls in school, but a virgin. Here's the movie trailer, in which Joey makes a brief cameo with Bianca at the tail end of the clip.



The character of the rake doesn't seem to have changed much over the course of the 18th, 19th, and 20th/21st centuries. All harbor similar personality traits, and certainly fit the description of the seducers Early-American advice texts urged women to be on the watch for. Though they may appear mannerly and suave, their ultimate goal is to fornicate with females.