William Hogarth

"The Reward of Cruelty" Plate 4 from (The Four Stages of Cruelty), is one of William Hogarth's most famous and clearly unforgettable engravings. Convicted and executed, Tom Nero's body has been delivered to the Royal College of Surgeons for an anatomy lesson. With the corpse's head screwed to a grotesque crane the performing surgeons appear to be relishing their dissections as much as the boys enjoyed their tortures in Plate One. The doctor gouging the eye of Nero, in fact, draws a telling comparison to the boys torturing the bird in the premier engraving. As well, the dog eating Nero's heart in the foreground exacts revenge upon his boyish cruelty to animals.

The entire scene is presided over by a very expressionless, chief physician. He sits in an elaborate chair in which a hand taking the pulse of a patient is carved. Such a caring image provides a direct contrast to the activity below. Doctors in the foreground read, joke or talk together. Those in the background pay no attention to the anatomy lesson whatsoever.

Hogarth's attitude to the practice of eighteenth century medicine was anything but flattering. In 1736 he created his most telling commentary upon doctors which he entitled, The Company of Undertakers. Not without justification, Hogarth described instances throughout his art where doctors -- particularly of the 'quack' variety -- did much more harm than good. Here in The Reward of Cruelty we see medical practitioners performing gougings, scrapings, and other acts akin to Jack the Ripper without purpose. As there is no benefit the examination is as senseless and thus as cruel as the previous incidents. 'Cruelty' comes in many forms, including those at professional and official functions.

The four engravings which comprise The Four Stages of Cruelty were created by Hogarth to achieve the same effects on the same audience as Gin Lane and Beer Street. He wrote,

" The four stages of cruelty were done in the hopes of preventing in some degree that cruel treatment of poor animals which makes the streets of London more disagreeable to the human mind, than anything what ever, the very describing of which gives pain. But it could not be done in too strong a manner, as the most stony hearts were meant to be affected by them. ... *.

The Four Stages of Cruelty thus graphically illustrates the escalating affects of violent behavior from childhood to adulthood in the person of one character named Tom Nero.

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