It's All in the Detail - A Rake's Progress (Scene 7)

The Prison

In the penultimate scene, Tom Rakewell has been incarcerated in a debtor's prison. He's being scolded by his wife, and harassed for money by the beer boy and the jailer (denoted by the ring of keys and the ledger). Sarah Young is visiting, but is unable to help him this time and faints from the sight of his lament.

It's clear that some time has passed between the fifth scene (the marriage) and this one, from the presence of Tom's wife and Sarah's child. Tom's wife had a more plump figure in her previous appearance, but now she looks scrawny, indicating that they're now both destitute. Meanwhile, Sarah's child was an infant when Tom got married, but now she's slightly older in this scene. She also looks more angry than distressed over her mother fainting. Well, she did witness her grandma get into a scuffle at the wedding.

The scene also shows numerous desperate money-making schemes employed by inmates to pay off their debts:

• The man helping Sarah has dropped a pamphlet he's writing on how to solve national debt. The front page also establishes that the scene takes place in Fleet Prison.
• Another inmate is performing an alchemy experiment, hoping to convert base metals into gold.
• Someone else has tried to invent a means to fly (similar to the myth of Daedalus). A prototype lies on top of the bed
• Tom has tried writing a play. The bulky script lies on the table beside him, along with the rejection letter

All in all, the scene is an exploration of the grim prospects faced by those in debt.